“Isn’t it days like these when you’re grateful you have eyebrows?”

There were two reasons Helen was thinking of her eyebrows on the 6^th of March, Ghana Independence Day.  One; she had just spent the weekend in Burkina Faso where it seems all women (in Ouagadougou the capital at least), appear to shave off their eyebrows and repaint them on much higher with a huge arch which make the women look not only permanently surprised but also with essence of drag queen… two; it was so hot, had our eyebrows had not been there beads of sweat would have continually dripped in our eyes.  So much so it was hard to imagine how anyone could march in such conditions, but march they did.  It was great to see having missed it last year.  I was actually in Accra and in a perfect position to see the National parade but it was one of those rare occasions where despite it being a public holiday I was actually working (on the KG project) so alas, I couldn’t see it.  Helen and I chose to see the Bolga parade this year.  Helen had visited the local Tongo one last year and said it was much better organised than the Tongo one; and I was impressed.  Clearly all the marching practice at the schools which the children had been doing in the month run up to March 6^th had paid off.  

The afternoon was spent in the new hotel pool we’ve managed to use for 5 cedi per session and enabled us to cool off from standing in the sun all morning.  The whole day is best told in pictures – so here’s a few to give you a flavour…