Up on the roof

We have a very large roof terrace which is accessible from the outside of the house via a spiral iron staircase.  It’s directly over our veranda and is therefore the same size; I’m guessing 10ft x 20ft. I took to cleaning it; dousing it with buckets of water and sweeping, removing the mud that had accumulated, cleaning the drainage holes, removing the grass which had taken root and generally making it a more pleasant place to sit with the intention of using it more.  Well, it is a huge space with a great view.  Friday night has become ‘Up on the roof’ time which starts sometime soon after 4pm.  Helen a VSO vol who lives just down the road from me is my constant partner in crime for this, what is now deemed, ‘tradition’.  Others have joined us, my housemates, vols visiting from other regions on VSO or other NGO business. Sometimes Ali comes from Zabilla to make the Friday night ‘up on the roof’ tradition.  So what do we do?  Chat, drink, and listen to music, sometimes we even eat up there. We people watch and wave to the neighbours while it’s still light and watch the sun set and the moon rise.  Invariably we will take it in turns in sharing our ‘having a moment’ moment, where we soak up and savour the atmosphere and remind ourselves how lucky we are to have the opportunity to be there, at that moment, on a roof top, in Bolga; about as far north in Ghana as you can get (and still able to have some small sense of something other than utter isolation), in Africa.  When the sun has gone down we star gaze, spot shooting stars and search for sputnicks and fireflies.  Inevitably we’ve made it so cosy and enjoyable that Friday ‘up on the roof’ tradition now extends to any day we can get up there just before it gets dark, for whoever fancies the jaunt up the spiral stairs.  The much talked about ‘sleep over on the rooftop’ will happen too.  We made it to midnight last weekend but even with blankets it was just a little too cold to stay later… well it is the harmattan season and a chilly 20-25 degrees at night.  Compared to the close to 40 degree daytime temperatures it does really feel cold.  We’ll probably wait for the hot season when no doubt sleeping naked will be the only option…

A view from the roof

A view from the front of our compound... you can see Hananah's compound and the shop just across the road behind the two children and behind the two story buildings are Zamstechs Girls dorms.  This was taken in the rainy season.  It is MUCH drier now!