Diare

I have finally moved out of my compound in Gushei and into a Diare, which is about 5 km North. While I have been enjoying the people I have lived with in my compound, they all work for ITFC and I was having a difficult time finding separation from my work. In addition I wanted the experience of living with a Ghanaian family. So I am now half-way through my placement here in Ghana and still have 2 months to get to know Diare and gain another perspective of Ghanaian life.

I am still a little unclear as of the relation of the people in my compound and how they came to live here, but I try my best to explain. There is a woman named Amina who I would say is the head of the household; her husband passed away a while back. I think she has many children, but most have moved out. Her eldest daughter, Kande, works and lives at the Guinnea worm containment center down the road but she is often at the house. Kande is 23 and speaks English so it has been nice for me to be able to get to know a Ghanaian girl around my age. Kande has a 6-year-old that lives with her aunt in Tamale and she sends enough money for school fees each month. She is the first Ghanaian woman I have met who is not married and has a child so I get the feeling that the people in this house are a bit more liberal than most. There are a few men who live here that drive tractors; they leave when the sun goes up and do not return until the sun goes down. There two younger girls and this cute little boy who everyone calls “my senior” even though is his by far the youngest in the family… he is pretty hilarious to say the least.

I ride my bike to and from work so I no longer have time to go running in the mornings before work, but I have managed to go jogging a few times in the afternoons if the sun has not taken too much out of me already. Jogging is my secret to keeping healthy here; that or I have just been incredibly lucky.

I no longer have running water (still no electricity but the village itself has it), but there is a well right outside the house. There is a bucket with a rope tied to it that you use to draw the water. The other day I managed to embarrass myself by accidentally dropping the rope into the well. Luckily, we recovered it pretty fast, and I guess everyone got a good laugh out of it.

Just wanted to give you a brief update on my living situation… I hope to have more stories soon


Loading up a Tro-tro - You know how parents like to joke around with their kids that they will throw them up on the roof of the car if they do not stop mis-behaving? Well here it is no joke, it is not even punishment, people just hang onto the top of the van, sometimes with goats

The sunset one night outside of my compound in Gushei

A woman - with a baby on her back! - getting water in Janga, a village I was in for work

Hanah (compound in Gushei) allowing me to stir the Banku one day - as you can see she is using her hand to scrape the end of the pot. Ive decide that Ghanaian's hands are fireproof

Abdul (Hanah's son) decided to put on his dad's work boots one day