Thunderstorms and lightning, very very frightening!

It’s is now my third day in Bolga.  I haven’t started work yet.  Maybe tomorrow.  Possibly Friday.  More likely Monday.  Today is Wednesday.  It is a Ghanaian Public holiday and unfortunately it wasn’t announced until late yesterday.  Very strange system.  So what have I been doing?  Monday I phoned the office a few times to try to sort out starting work but unfortunately the man I needed to speak to wasn’t at the office, or answering his mobile.  Well it was Monday.  I spent the day dettox wiping every surface I could and putting away my bits.  I sorted through the things Anthony and Laura had left me (not the school stuff, that will have to wait).  Most of this was done in my knickers.  It was so hot I thought I was going to pass out.  The sweat was pouring off me.  Unfortunately I don’t have any curtains yet, luckily the windows are louvered and the bottom half is obscured glass.  Frankly I couldn’t have cared less who saw me... I felt like I was dressed up in my winter woollies as it was.    I popped round to Helen, Evic and Angel’s (pronounced An-gel.  Not Angel) house for lunch.  They live just around the corner and are all VSO Vols.  Helen and Evic arrived at the same time as me, Angels been here a while.  We spent the afternoon playing cards and scrabble.  To be honest I’ve had a cold, (how does that happen?) so didn’t feel too great on Monday.  Hannah my house mate made me supper; An Accra street food dish; noodles, sardines, and a few veg.  It was lovely.   

Tuesday Angel kindly said she would take us to the market.  If you’ve been to an African market then you’ll know what to expect.  Pigs, goats, children and women carrying things to sell on their heads criss cross in front of you while you dodge the motos and bicycles coming up from behind and the odd old fashioned market cart.  Ghanaians sell their goods in piles, if there is a pile of something it’s that price for the whole pile.  We had pleasant exchanges with the locals as we walked round (as we have had where we live) there has been no hassle at all which is great.  We even tried out a bit of Fra Fra... it was pretty successful.  Angel was taxiing us around and she’s not good with the heat so we didn’t spend long out just enough time to get some material for my curtains and a few bit’s for the food I was making that night for my housemates and Rachel, another VSO Vol who was popping over.  Tuna Pasta.  Never fails.  Unless the pasta is so thin you boil it to death.  Still, we ate it.  In the afternoon I Headed for Hanana’s.  She’s a lovely girl who runs the shop directly opposite our house.  I wondered if she was a bit of a seamstress, or would know someone who was.  I handed over my material and for 10 cedi it will be made into 4 curtains.  My modesty will be intact.  I went home and started to do some more cleaning in the house.  Decided that I really need to go the full hog and resigned myself to buying rubber gloves and other cleaning items next time I was in town.  Not sure what’s gotten into me.  Figure its having lived with super clean mum for the last year, her house that is (not that she isn’t….anyway).  I fear my cleaning spree will very quickly become pointless.  Everything just seems to be covered in a layer of red dust.  It was during the afternoon when the heavens simply opened and dumped the biggest amount of water on my tin roof.  However it was thrown at such an angle that it hit my corer of the house first, I ended up with a puddle on the floor on the inside of my room and a desk covered at the back with water. Luckily, it didn’t drench my laptop, i pod and all those other electrical items I seem to have brought with me. We suffered another huge storm in the early evening which brought the power down.  Not for long though, we watched an episode of ‘How I met your mother’.  This meant bed was 10 past 10 unlike our usual 8pm (that is 8 to bed rather than lights out.  I think it’s to do with the fact it gets dark around 6pm, you just feel tired).  I thank Liam (from moto training) for his insightful suggestion that I copy his movies.  I feel they are going to really help the evenings roll on by.  I’ve suggested we invite all Vols (new and old) over to our house on Saturday night for a movie night.  Unlike me, this sudden move to be super sociable; I just think if you don’t you go stir crazy.  There is plenty of chances to have time to yourself here if you need it.

Today Zar, one of my housemates said she would take Evic to the market.  I tagged along as they were doing a walking tour and wanted to find my bearings in town (especially as I said I’d meet up for lunch with another VSO Vol, Ali, who’s up in Zibila (about an hour north east of Bolga) and show her around.  Zar was great.  She showed us everywhere and the storm yesterday had cleared the air so it wasn’t as hot as yesterday.  We had lunch at a chop bar at the Lorry Park where most of the local buses leave from to Tamale, Zibila and Bongo (there is a rhyming Tongo nearby too!).  A chop bar is the Ghanaian equivalent of a restaurant (like no other you have ever seen – think plastic tables, flies, very local).  Chop because chop means eat, although at this particular chop bar it seemed to mean chopping up a chicken if the sound from the kitchen was anything to go by.  I had a chicken leg and fried rice….. (add your own unwritten text here; believe me I though the same).  On my little trip I brought; Scourer’s, rubber gloves, bleach, Ajax (old skool I know but needs must), toilet rolls, shower gel (I’m an idiot and forgot to bring any – my miniature freebees from the hotel in Accra are running out), Vodka, Tonic (I’ll need it after all that cleaning) and a squeezy antibacterial hand wash (for the bathroom sink which happens to be in the corridor – go figure).  I was so buoyed up about using all my new cleaning products I got right down to it after we got back from shopping.  And you know what?  The shower is white not brown… who’d have guessed?  What is so super annoying about everything in a Ghanaian house is that nothing is finished.  The doors aren’t sanded down properly so they aren’t smooth and pick up all the fine dust and then it’s super hard … no impossible, to get off.  There are masses of blue and white tac on the walls which act like a little dust shelf and the heat has made it so super sticky it’s like gum on the wall. The kitchen and then a few walls got a good going over too.  The floor will have to wait.  I want to find a mop I can use first… a new one.  And then I found the droppings.  Now I know I have a gecko in my room (they eat the bugs so I’m good with that) and today I’ve seen a bigger one in the kitchen/store area.  Thing is I’m not up on the shape and size of gecko droppings.  Suffice to say If I were in England I wouldn’t be calling them mouse droppings if you get my meaning. I’ve saved them for my housemates to inspect.  Imagine if we had, you know, one of thosethingsIdarenotmentionwithahairytail in the house.  I would NOT be happy. Anyway, I’m about ready for a V and T.

The first 3 pictures are of my room, the rest are of the house and the last is Boris the dog!