Tourists for the Day - Navrongo Catholic Mud Cathedral

On Sunday 10^th February Team Sandema took a day trip to Navrongo, the capital of the Kassena-Nankana District to explore the famous Catholic Mud Cathedral. We travelled to our desired destination in our favourite mode of transport, the tro tro*. Known for being overcrowded and uncomfortable, the tro tro journey was surprisingly smooth. Despite Will having half of his derrière hanging out of the window and a few bumped heads due to the never ending pot holes, we arrived in Navrongo in one piece… just about.

Getting cosy on the tro tro

Upon arrival our tro tro was mobbed by a group of eager passengers. As soon as the rusty door was pulled open, men, women, children and babies dove onto the tro tro to claim their seats. Fighting, pushing, screaming and shouting, Team Sandema were helplessly stuck in the back, whilst a grown man scrambled through the back window and a woman threw her baby onto a seat. Bemused and a little frightened (lets be honest), we managed to push our way through the boarding passengers and alight the bus. Will and I managed to escape, whilst Poppy and Tracy were still trapped in tro tro hell.

Noticing a little white hand reach out from the mass of bodies, Will grabbed it and out emerged Poppy, followed by Tracy who angrily voiced her views to the passengers. “These people seriously need to learn how to form a queue!” Once we calmed down from our traumatic travel experience, we walked to a roadside food stall and relaxed with a well-deserved egg sandwich. A bloody big one too, as Poppy’s order of ‘three egg with bread’ resulted in a three-egged sandwich, each. Filled with egg until next week, we then ventured into the town centre and met our rock, Mr. Festus.

Festus has a close friend from Navrongo, Martin, who also joined us and acted as our tour guide for the day. We asked him to take us the Mud Cathedral, which he was happy to do. “Of course!” he said. “It’s not that far, we can walk there”. Note to self; never listen to a Ghanaian when they say ‘it’s not that far’. After an hour or so walking in the sweltering Ghanaian sun, desperately seeking shade and a toilet that wasn’t a hole behind a mud wall, we finally reached the Mud Cathedral. It was an enjoyable walk*, but it reminded me of when I was younger when my family and I would travel to Cornwall in the car, and I could be constantly asking my dad, “Are we theeeeeere yet?”

Taking the scenic route

As we entered the cathedral grounds we were welcomed by angelic choir singing coming from one of the rooms, which was a suitable backing track as we turned the corner and clapped eyes on the beautiful Mud Cathedral towering above us, looking like a perfect sand castle. Feeling very much like tourists we paced the building taking lots of photos and posing for the camera in front of the bell tower.

Tourist photo - me outside the Mud Cathedral

The Mud Cathedral was organised by three missionaries, the ‘White Fathers’, who travelled from Burkina Faso to Navrongo in 1906. The White Fathers, who were French-Canadian, initially desired to settle in Paga, but were moved onto Navrongo as they were thought to be slave traders and were not trusted. They were eventually permitted land in the forest by the people of Navrongo, but were only allowed to stay if they established peace with the animals.

Once this was evident they began their ‘catholic mission’ and built a small chapel in 1907, followed by a slightly larger chapel in 1910. The striking Mud Cathedral was later built and completed in 1920 and is still used for worship today. The interior of the cathedral is very impressive with the walls decorated with catholic symbolisms and animal engravings to represent the animals the three Father’s lived amongst.

Poppy and Will get holy

The long journey to the mud cathedral was worth it in the end and Team Sandema and I had a lovely day. We braced ourselves for the long trek back to Navrongo town centre, only for Martin to take us on a short cut that brought us into town in less than half an hour. Cheers for telling us about that shortcut, Martin. Much appreciated.

*Massive lie

- Jenna 

Coming and Going in Sandema

Sandema is the capital of the Builsa District, in the Upper East Region of Ghana and is our home town until the end of March. When we were on our way to Sandema for the first time we were all very nervous; the road is full of potholes and you can look into the distance for miles and not see any sign of human life. However, when we arrived in Sandema it looked beautiful with the trees lining the high street.

Sandema is a very friendly place and we all feel safe here with a large number of local friends who always greet us in town whenever they see us.  I’m so glad that we were placed in Sandema everyone you walk past says good morning or “Salut-a”. The public transport links to Bolgatanga are good with the metromass running throughout the day and tro tro’s always available. The metro mass leaves Sandema supposedly every 2 hours starting from 6am, it starts off this way but after around 10am it is all luck as to whether you catch a metro mass, or when it might appear. These state owned buses are very similar to UK buses but due to the bad roads and the number of people who use them each day they are now a poor standard.  Seats are often missing, windows are smashed or just missing, and the doors don’t close properly, but as it is such a large bus the journey is still reasonably comfortable.

The Tro Tro’s are private mini buses which is a very popular form of transport in Ghana. They are often very cramped as they don’t leave the station until they are full with people.  These often break down; Poppy and I once saw one break down driving out of the station! Luckily so far one has not broken down with us in!

Fortunately, for Team Sandema, we have been quite lucky getting public transport and have always made it to our destination in one piece!  Let’s hope this luck continues as we try to get to Mole National park this weekend!

Life is wonderful!

Life is Sandema is hot, relaxing and rewarding. It is one of the friendliest places I’ve ever been; every other person says hello, shakes your hand or waves and every child shouts “smiley, smiley” as you walk past. Sandema is everything I hoped for out of my trip in Ghana, it is basic but has everything you need; water, electricity and Don Simon Sangria!

We live a bit of a way out of town which considering our lack of taxi/bike means we’re doing plenty of exercise; unfortunately this is wasted on the group that have found caramel and chocolate biscuits! Market day, as has been mentioned before, is every 3 days – I thought this would mean rationing out vegetables and sausages however, our collective cooking skills are pretty good and we’re making our food last pretty well with a little help of “tamman jarrah” = give me more for free.

Festus is very patiently teaching us Buli – we are learning mar mar (small small) but slowly getting there! We can now greet people and buy food – the important things. When we first arrived in Sandema we had a talk from Maxwell (our project co-ordinator, a wonderfully funny man) about the troubles with drinking in Sandema, they are pretty much the same as home – don’t get too drunk and sleep with an undesirable. Other than this early warning we have had no reason to worry or be frightened at all while here in Sandem, everyone is friendly and looks out for each other. Jenna and I got stranded in town one evening as our taxi driver was busy doing whatever he was doing but people were falling over themselves to find a way home for us. Our good friend Yaw stayed with us and looked after us until the legend that is Kwame came to save us. 

Kwame is our driver, at first we thought he was a sweet, quiet guy – him and Festus remind me a lot of the Chuckle Brothers.

Kwame getting involved during a meeting with Kadema Disabled People's Organisation

However, Kwame has absolutely no qualms in telling the Chiefs and his elders off for keeping us waiting and often gives Martin Luther Kingesque power speeches to anyone who will listen. Kwame has a dream!

















Kwame has also (very kindly) agreed to marry me before we go home so that we can experience what a Ghanaian wedding is like – what a gent!

Our time here is forever being improved by the wonderful people we meet – we have met two other “smalley smalleys” while being here and our now quite large foreigner group draws a lot of attention and excitement from the local children.

- Poppy

My Sandema Experience

I love Sandema, and I’m not just saying that because we’ve been posted here on our project. I’ll be honest, upon arrival back in January I was a little dubious as to where the hell we were going as the tarmac roads turned to dust. But, after living here for the past four weeks I’ve grown to admire the small Northern town more and more each day.

It’s a friendly, generally quiet place with a small bustling town centre. The two main roads leading to the town are lined with trees setting an idyllic scene. School children scamper the street in their orange and brown school uniform, as motorbikes and tro-tros whizz up and down. When entering the centre you pass a large pond, which is apparently home to a number of hungry crocodiles – we didn’t have to travel all the way to Paga after all! Despite their presence it doesn’t stop some of the locals from taking a dip.

We’ve also discovered a number of watering holes and restaurants in the area hidden in the back streets of Sandema and in the market. Conifeh’s is our favourite spot, as mentioned in a previous post, where you can eat a delicious dinner for £1.00 or chill out and watch the African Nations. Paloma’s, located in the market is a close second, but has recently gone down in our estimations after we waited ages for them to go shopping for our drinks order. Our in-country volunteer Festus introduced us to two more drinking spots; Corner Bar and Quality. We’re looking forward to visiting these soon.

The thing I like most about Sandema is its community feel. Being ‘the only whites in the village’ we’re easily recognised and people often approach us to welcome us to their hometown. Plus, thanks to our project manager, Maxwell, we now have many contacts in the area from the chiefs to members of the District Assembly who always say hello… or ‘salut’, ‘cantwain’, ‘junway’ [sic] depending on the time of day.

It’s been interesting learning about Sandema and its neighbouring villages in the Builsa area. Without the help of Festus educating us on the local food, drink, shops and language we’d be lost! His full name is Festus Azewie Apiung, ‘Apiung’ meaning rock, by name and nature. Sometimes we wonder what we’d do without him.

Considering cultural exchange is important on this trip, I thought that I’d teach Festus a few Yorkshire words and phrases commonly used at home that he’s quickly picking up on. He now knows the following;

Hiya love = Hello

T’ra = Goodbye

Tar = Thank you

Y’alright? = How are you

He needs to work on his Yorkshire accent but he’s doing better job than I am at learning Buli! He now greets me with, ‘Hiya love, y’alright’, which makes my day every time I hear it. The next lesson will be an episode of Emmerdale.

- Jenna

No photos?!?!

Quick update:

Unfortunately we have a very poor internet connection at the moment which means we cannot upload any photos just yet!  We have lots to add to the posts and hopefully this will be fixed soon.

Please keep reading our blog and feel free to make any comments.....we promise to upload some more photos as soon as we can!!

We will learn from you, and you will learn from us

This week we have been finishing our visits to the local Chiefs and Elders in the various communities in the Builsa district.  The visits have been very interesting, and we learn something different from each Chief.

One of the most interesting visits has been to see the Chief in Siniensi.  As usual we asked him about the history of the Feok, the traditions and the activities that were involved in celebrating the Feok festival and the responses were relatively similar to those from other communities.  However, in Siniensi the conversation turned to the conflict between the Traditional beliefs of the Builsa people, and the prevalence of Christianity.

Beginning in the 15^th Century, Ghana was occupied by European colonisers from Portugal, Holland, Britain and Denmark in order to capitalise on exports of gold and the slave trade, and with these colonisers came Christianity and missionaries, who were instrumental in developing an education system in Ghana in order to facilitate the spreading of the Gospel.  One of the issues we have discovered whilst talking to the many Chiefs is that young people in the Builsa district are disheartened and disinterested with the traditional culture and beliefs.  The Siniensi Chief made an interesting, and probably quite a valid point that the youth of Ghana consider that Western methods and way of life will lead to success rather than the more traditional Ghanaian livelihood methods.  As a result, they are less interested in participating and performing in the traditional Feok festival and, according to the Siniensi Chief, the cultural traditions of the Builsa are slowly dying out.  

The Siniensi Chief strongly linked education with Christianity, and this opinion has been reiterated in several conversations we have had here in Ghana.  It is understandable then, that the cultural traditions of offering sacrifices to the Gods for a good harvest, as is customary during the Feok festival, are not taught or proclaimed in many of the schools in Ghana, where there is reportedly a strong Christian bias.  How true this is, is yet to be confirmed, and hopefully our visits to schools in the coming weeks will confirm or challenge this opinion.  Interestingly, our partner organisation is strongly linked with the Presbyterian Church and our project co-ordinator is an avid Christian who does not practice the traditional beliefs of his people, and yet he is the main instigator behind our project which aims to assist the Builsa people to retain their cultural heritage.  

This conversation started me thinking about the influence of Western ideas on recipients of development and humanitarian aid, and the problem of leaving, or enforcing, a Western footprint in aid and development bugged me throughout my recent degree. I think it is important that, as aid and development workers, we respect the traditions and culture of the country in which we are working, despite whether our own scientific and perhaps secular education disapproves.  I don’t know where the line is that brings development to Ghana without Westernising the country, but throughout my time here I will carry with me a message that has been repeated many times from the Chiefs we have met:

“We will learn from you, and you will learn from us”.  I see development as a mutual investment in the country, and hopefully by helping the region to preserve their cultural history we will also be able to help them move forward in their disability awareness.

- Tracy

Pikworo Slave Camp

 While in Paga we took a slightly more sombre excursion and visited the once-was Pikworo Slave Camp. At 8 cedi’s entry per volunteer it is well worth visiting and learning about if you’re in the area.

Our guide, demonstrating Punishment Rock

During the early 19^th Century several hundred slaves were kept at Pikworo before travelling to Salaga market to be sold by infamous slave raiders Babatu and Samori. We were taken around the ruins of the camp; we saw the watch tower, the graveyard and the punishment rock – our guide demonstrated how each area would have been used. A captured slave on the punishment rock would have had their hands and feet tied and forced to face the sun with no water or food, often being whipped; they were often left there to die if they had argued against being sold. 

The "bowls" slaves were forced to eat from

While researching the Feok Festival for our project we have heard a lot of stories regarding Babatu’s reign and final defeat but seeing the real life slave camps made the stories and our interest a lot more real. We saw the holes in the ground that were dug by slaves as punishment and then they were forced to eat out of these, often 5 or 6 slaves per hole – they were never given quite enough food to make them strong enough to resist.  

On a lighter note, we also visited their “entertainment centre” where rock drumming, singing and dancing took place – our rendition of “the lion sleeps tonight” seemed to go down quite well with the local children who accompanied us on our tour although, the locals’ music played on these rocks was impressive – different size rocks beat against different sides of the rocks created different sounds.

- Poppy

On the radio.....oh woah oh oh.....

Ibrahim the manager of the local radio station, Radio Builsa, has invited us to speak on his station which is listened to by around a million people within the Builsa District. Poppy and I are in charge of selecting days to speak on the radio and we selected Monday as our first day. We plan to use the radio for mainly research to find out what the people of Builsa think about our project and what they think about people with disabilities being involved in the Feok Festival.

On Monday Poppy, Jenna and I spoke on the radio with DJ Prosper, we told the people of Builsa about why we are in the District and all about the LIFE project. We hope to go on the radio every week to keep the people of Builsa updated with how the project is going and ask their opinion. We are very lucky to have the radio just behind our house and that Ibrahim is such a friendly person and so willing to help us with our project. 

- Will

Oh the people you meet!

We have been living in Sandema for almost one month now, and I have to say I am really enjoying my time here.  We have met some incredible people so I thought I might introduce you to some of them…..

Samankeni 

Samankeni works in the office at CBR.  She is always a friendly face to greet us each morning and helps Festus teach us Buli.  Samankeni lives in town and has offered to take us to the market one day and buy all the ingredients to make some traditional Ghanaian dishes….we haven’t been able to take her up on this wonderful offer just yet but we will be sure to let you know how it all turns out when we do!

Kwame

We LOVE Kwame.  I’m pretty sure that Kwame will be featuring in this blog quite often! Kwame is our driver at CBR, and despite his minimal English, we somehow manage to laugh and joke with him all day (ok, so Festus helps quite a bit with the translation!). Kwame will often drive us around the Builsa district as we go about our research and project work.  As we drive around he will point out people’s houses, identify different trees, and laugh at our (erm…Poppy’s) obsession with goats, pigs, chickens, and monkeys!  Kwame also likes to tease Festus and the two of them will often bicker about whose village is better; Kwame’s Wiaga vs Festus’ Chuchuliga.  Over the past few weeks, Kwame has often got involved in some of our discussions with Chiefs or Disabled People’s Organisations.  We aren’t always too sure of what he is saying, but you can generally get the gist of whether he is angry about something or not!  As an example, we went to Gbedembilisi this week to meet the Chief and his elders, and unfortunately there weren’t many of them available.  After we had finished our interview, Kwame started to chide them for being unprepared for our visit.  Now this involves a lot of arm gesticulating which is fascinating to watch, especially if you have no idea what is being said!  We all want t-shirts made with “I Love Kwame” printed on the front!

Yaw

Yaw is 26 (or sometimes 23 or sometimes 30…it all depends on who he is trying to woo that particular day!).  Regardless of his age, Yow is one of our favourites in Sandema and he is quite an impressive guy!  He lives at Horizons Children’s Centre (an amazing place which looks after up to 40 boys and young men, supporting them for as long as they need them, and provides a scholarship program for girls too).  Yaw is in a wheelchair and has some difficulties with his movement due to cerebral palsy, yet this does not stop him at all.  We often meet him in town where he tells us about his trips to Bolgatanga and his plans to build a kindergarten school in his home village of Kadema.  Currently, Yaw is in the process of gathering building plans and estimates for the school and will soon be working on raising the funds (let us know if you think you might be able to help!).  Yaw supports Liverpool FC (though don’t let that put you off) and I think he was the only Ghanaian who was supporting Burkina Faso in the recent African Cup of Nations semi-final.  This man is truly inspirational and does not let his disability faze him, and in return he has many a friend in Sandema – it is difficult to have a conversation with him in town as every few seconds someone beeps, shouts a greeting, or comes over to say hello.  This week Yaw accompanied us to his home village of Kadema, where we had been invited to attend their community Feok festival – it definitely made the experience all the more fun being there with Yaw!

Keep an eye out for more posts about the people we meet in Sandema!

- Tracy

An update on LIFE

In a world that is cruising to complete its orbit, it really has little time to waste on sluggers. Time as it is said waits for no man, but in our case I think we have kept the pace. Though I have lost the count of the days, weeks and months, I know we are on course. We are almost done with meeting chiefs, with only one more to go. It’s been demanding but my fantastic team has proved to be more than ready for the job. This week we will wrap up our meeting off chiefs, and meet women’s groups and get our questionnaire answered by the general public. I have had a great time working on this project especially its research aspect. The amazement in discovering what is previously unknown to you, the thrills of having to make people understand and cooperate with you and the challenge of coping with different personalities, opinions and ideas. What’s more, my interest for scenery and for sightseeing is gradually developing!

- Festus

Paga Crocodile Park

‘Never smile at a crocodile’

 On Saturday (26^th January) the Ghana volunteers reunited in Paga, in the Upper East Region of Ghana, to celebrate Ben’s 26^th birthday. We met Team Tamale and Team Bolga at Paga Crocodile Pond, a popular tourist attraction that is apparently filled with some of the biggest crocodiles in the world.

There is a myth that the first man to settle in the area had his life saved by one of the crocodiles, by leading the traveller to the pond to quench his thirst after a long journey in the African sun. Filled with gratitude, he then declared the crocodile ponds in the area ‘sacred’ and declared that all crocodiles in Paga were to be treated as royalty.

Alternatively, there is another myth to the famous crocodile pond. The story goes that a hunter was trapped between the pond and a lion. In order to spare his life, he made a deal with a crocodile that he and his decedents would never eat crocodile meat. Imagining that there is a talking crocodile in this story, just for my own amusement, the crocodile agreed to help the hunter cross the pond to escape the lion. At the other side he then found a village and his home where he settled.

(DearGhana.com)

Even today, it is seen as a taboo to hurt or kill a Paga crocodile. According to travel site, UnitedPlanet.org it is also believed that “the soul of every native in the village [in Paga] has a corresponding crocodile in the pond.”  Paga Crocodile Pond is the only place in the world where you can touch and sit on a crocodile due to their – what we may find, unusually - tame behaviour.

When we entered the pond we were directed to a huge crocodile lying still beneath a tree. It didn’t move for a good five minutes, leading us to believe that it wasn’t real until birthday boy, Ben approached it and perched at the end of its tail. Its mouth slowly opened revealing it’s garish teeth. Confirming it was actually alive and kicking, the team slowly shuffled back.

Everyone was pretty brave stepping up to the beast of a reptile. Team Sandema did well; Tracy posed with the tail and Will looked pretty cool straddling the croc. I however wasn’t as keen and lasted long enough for a photo opportunity and jumped off as fast as I could.

Jenna looking a little nervous

Strike a pose, Tracy!

Poppy puckering up with the crocodile

William Stewart, Crocodile Hunter

What was more fascinating to watch was the crocodiles that kept creeping in and out of the water behind us. The guide / crocodile master / guy with the stick lured one of the crocs out of the water with a live guinea fowl. Attracted by the noise the croc slowly crawled out of the water, creeping closer and closer. Looking pretty hungry the guide threw the guinea fowl towards the croc and it was demolished in a matter of minutes.

Going....

....going.....

GONE!

It was an amazing opportunity to come face to face with the crocs, but a subtle reminder of how dangerous these animals are!

It was great to see the other volunteers and we had a fantastic time at Paga Crocodile Park. It’s made us even more excited to visit Mole National Park in a few weeks time to discover more of Ghana’s wildlife.

  

Jenna

References:

http://www.dearghana.com/attractions/paga-crocodile-pond/

http://www.unitedplanet.org/additional-excursions-ghana

Stuff your rucksack!

Stuff your rucksack is a fantastic online forum where charities can register things they need that can be fitted into your bag if you’re heading in their direction. Whether it’s pens, toys, clothing or even car parts – any size or quantity is needed and could make a great difference to a small charity you might be travelling near. As well as this, you may get to meet the charity and the people directly helped by your donations. It’s a no brainer really. Have a look and if you’re planning on going anywhere soon see how you can help all over the world! 

Food! Glorious Food!

Throughout induction week we ate rather well…as we were staying in a guest house we ate in restaurants every evening, and breakfast and lunch was delivered to the IS office.  This arrangement meant the food was pretty good in general!

Ghanaian food is quite simple, lots of the same ingredients repeated in various ways, yet with different spices and compiled in various ways, you sometimes forget that you are eating the same foods you ate the day before.  Here is a selection of some of the Team Sandema favourites:

Red Red:

Deep fried plaintains with black-eyed beans cooked in a red palm oil and with crushed tomatoes (and a lot of spice!).  I think it is a little bit like the Ghanaian version of sweet potato wedges!  

Groundnut Soup and Rice balls:

Quite a self-explanatory dish, this is soup made from ground-nut paste, and rice made into balls…simple right?  It is absolutely delicious, and often comes with guinea fowl, goat, or chicken in the soup.  After two weeks of cooking for ourselves, we were lucky enough to be invited to our project co-ordinator’s (Maxwell) house for dinner and his lovely wife made us this dish…suffice to say we all went to bed that night feeling stuffed and with a smile on our faces!

Tilapia:

If you go into a restaurant and the menu says “fish” you are most likely going to receive Tilapia…and you will be very happy about this!  Tilapia is a white, river fish, and is usually (like everything else in Ghana) cooked in spices.  This week we had a drink at the local (only) bar in Sandema with Maxwell and one of his very generous friends, Pascal, who surprised us by bringing out a HUGE Tilapia for us to share.  We were all so engrossed in devouring this delicious dish that we unfortunately forgot to take a picture….but you just need to trust me that it was scrumptious!

Whilst we may have been able to sample some delicious Ghanaian food in restaurants, since arriving in Sandema we have mostly been cooking for ourselves.  Although, cooking probably isn’t the right word!

Our first night's dinner attempt... to be fair we had no kitchen at this point!

In our little kitchen in our compound we have a fridge-freezer (height of luxury) and a 2 ring gas stove.  All of our meals have to be cooked on this, and for a Chef or cooking maestro this might not be an issue, but for us, our meals are somewhat limited.  Poppy mentioned in an earlier blog about the market, and in Sandema we are reliant on the fresh fruit and veg that arrive on market day (every 3 days).  In Sandema, our options are limited and each week our meals are combinations of tomatoes, green peppers, cabbage, onions, garlic, and carrots, with either rice or spaghetti.  This week we actually found plaintains so I tonight I attempted to cook Red Red for dinner, and whilst it didn't quite look (or taste) like the picture above, I think it was a fairly decent attempt (if I do say so myself!)!! 

I am so lucky to have the most prepared team in the world, who all came with a selection of stocks, spices, and sauces to make our meals a little bit more interesting.  Here is a taster from the Team Sandema cookbook:

Tomato-based Rice:

Willy is sort of a genius at creating delicious tomato based sauces, which he concocts using fresh tomatoes, tomato puree, green peppers, onions, garlic, and sometimes a little dash of Levi Roots’ sauce (imported from Harrogate).  Mixed with rice, this has become a staple of Team Sandema’s diet.

You can substitute the rice for spaghetti to create Tomato-based Spaghetti (this is considered an entirely meal!)

Bruschetta:     

                                      

Sandema is getting a little posh with our food selection, and have discovered a way to make our own version of Bruschetta, by frying the bread, and creating a tomato and onion and garlic mix to put on top. DELICIOUS and can rival any fancy restaurant back home!

SAUSAGES!!

Since arriving in Sandema we have struggled to find sausages, and it has been one of the only downsides to living in such a small town.  However, on a little shopping adventure this week Will and Jenna stumbled across Sandema’s very own version of Iceland and lo and behold found sausages hanging out in a freezer!  What a discovery!  Now these are not your average pork sausages you might find in a chiller section of Asda, in fact we still aren’t too sure what animal these sausages come from, but they are delicious and made a huge change to eating rice or spaghetti.  We have been quite lucky this week in our grocery shopping as we also found plantains (quite rare in Sandema, ten a penny everywhere else) and so tonight we had a veritable feast of sausages, eggs, plantain and our favourite tomato-green pepper-ratatouille type creation.  Heaven!

Next time you head to the supermarket for your big shop, think about how much harder life would be if you could only buy fresh produce every 3 days, and if you could never know what food would actually be available in the market.  I’m certainly never going to take for granted all the rows upon rows of fresh foods and storecupboard “essentials” again.

As the weeks progress we will update the Sandema cookbook!

- Tracy

Spare time in Sandema

Although Sandema is not a bustling metropolis,  we've discovered a few things to do to see on a sunny afternoon. The market, which is held every three days in the town centre is a busy little place, filled with all sorts of smells and sounds; mostly of fish and kids shouting “smiley smiley!” meaning ‘white person’.

It’s always an entertaining trip and each visit we've managed to find something new; kola nuts, plantain, flip flops for Poppy, CHOCOLATE! It took some finding but this week (29^th Jan) we discovered chocolate for the first time in Sandema. I say chocolate, the one and only box in the market cost 18 Ghana cedis and the chocolate we bought is like cocoa OXO cubes. It’s not Cadbury’s, that’s for sure.

To get to the market we sometimes take a short cut and walk across a dry riverbed that has a sandy bottom. We call this the beach (as the nearest one to us is miles and miles away). Other things Sandema has to offer is the Resource Centre where you can surf the internet for 1 Ghana cedi an hour.

Once you’re hungry from all that surfing, Conifahs is the place to eat. It serves delicious food at amazing prices. One meal cost only 3 Ghana cedis, which is the equivalent to £1.00. Joyce, the cook, can whip up a mean vegetable sauce to compliment a rice and chicken dish; best served with an ice cold Star (the local beer) or an Alvaro (a soft drink we’re all a little bit obsessed with). Perfect for cooling you down after a long day at work meeting with the many chiefs of the Builsa District!

Jenna, Poppy, Festus, and Tracy having dinner at Conifahs

Back at HQ (Team Sandema’s little bungalow, now called The White House) you can visit the local radio station, Radio Builsa, which is a five-minute walk from our house. Take a personal tour around the studio or go on air to speak to nearly one million listeners of the Builsa District. The manager of the station, Ibrahim is keen for us to go on the radio, so expect to hear DJ Poppy and DJ Willy on the air waves soon!

Everyday we discover something new in Sandema. On Thursday (30^th Jan) Asiemi, our cleaner took us for a tour of the nearby villages and introduced us to some of the locals and showed us where they live. It was a great opportunity to meet new people and to briefly experience a Builsa’s life at home.  

We look forward to discovering more hidden treasures of Sandema. In the meantime we’ll continue to play ‘Skip Bo!’. If it hasn’t been previously mentioned in this blog, it’s a fun card game (the only one that I know the rules to) that goes down well with a glass (or mug, in our case) of Don Simon Sangria.

With two months to go (our time in Ghana has flown so far!), I’m sure that our ‘leisure’ blog posts will become more and more interesting with Team Sandema adventures. Watch this space…

- Jenna

Our lives in Sandema....

This week has been another busy one! Full days and busy nights make us a little tired but we are still all really enjoying ourselves. Follows is a few posts about general life in Sandema.

Our 'home town', Sandema

Sandema is the home of Builsas. Capital of its district – the Builsa district and located in the Northern part of Ghana, specifically the Upper East Region. Builsa people speak Buli and Saab (also known as the Tuo Zaafi in Hausa) with different kind of soups as their traditional food; mostly eaten at supper or dinner. Sandema, apart from Builsas, is also the home for all kinds of people from different backgrounds from Ghana and other parts of the world. Builsas are peace loving people and friendly to all manner of people or persons irrespective of race. The Builsa landscape can be described as a plain interspersed with few high grounds. The vegetation is purely savannah with few scattered trees. The Builsas have a rich cultural heritage which unites them. They celebrate Feok festival to commemorate their victory over the slave raiders and as a thanks giving sacrifice to their ancestors after every harvest. People of Builsa are always in jubilant mood during the Feok festival. It is lovely being in Sandema. 

- Festus

Our house, in the middle of our street?

We’re staying in a small compound on the grounds of FISTRAD, a stone throw away from work which makes the mornings a little easier. We each have a small bungalow/pod with a double bed and an en-suite bathroom – what luxury! We have a little kitchen slap bang in the middle and finally now have a table and chairs! I think it’s fair to say we’re living the life of it up here in Sandema in our little piece of home. The only downside in Poppy and Will’s room is the smell – no it’s not their feet! We are unfortunately placed above the water system and occasionally we get a rather pungent cabbage smell when the water is running through.

Will and Tracy sat on Tracy's porch...yes, her house is really called "Burger Komittee Stain Hagen" 

Working 9-5 

We’re all very passionate and excited about our project, LIFE – the longer we work on it the more involved we become. We’ve been working hard meeting over 10 chiefs, including the paramount chief of the Builsa District, the District Assembly and Disabled Peoples Organisations (DPO). We have been receiving endless positive feedback for the project from everyone involved and it is progressing well already. 

Meeting the Sandema Naab (in the salmon outfit inbetween Will and Tracy) and his sub-chiefs and elders

The team with members of the District Assembly (the gentleman inbetween Poppy and Jenna was rather forward in his desire to make one of them his wife!)

The team with the President, Gilbert, of the Sandema Disabled People's Organisation

Since meeting with us, the Kadema Chief has already met with his DPO and has promised them that they can be involved in the local Feok on the 9^th of February – result! What incredible news that was, I (Poppy) think I speak for everyone when I say we really do feel a part of something special here, something that could really improve the lives of many people with disabilities – and we’re only just getting started!! 

- Poppy

 Meeting Kadema chief was the highlight for me last week. We had already met him quickly at the District Assembly and he had already called us his brother and sisters and was looking forward to seeing us. When visiting he greeted us with a smile again and invited the women to come and sit in the meeting, which only a few chiefs did last week. He was very open to the idea of people with disabilities being involved in the Feok. His community had not yet had its local Feok but he invited us to attend on the 9^th February and said he would look into including people with disabilities. It was clear people living with disabilities were included in this community as there was a lady at the meeting with a disability and he invited her to show us her skills of basket weaving and dancing. On Sunday Maxwell our project coordinator said that the Kadema chief had called him and said he had been to see the local disabled people’s organisation. He spoke to them asking how they would like to be involved in the festival and what the problems would be for them being involved. This is excellent news as he is making the steps towards getting disabled people involved. He said that he had simply not thought to include them before but now that we have brought it to his attention he said he would make an active effort to include those with disabilities.   We shall be visiting the Kadema group and Chief again soon to see what happens!

 

- Will

Week One: Willy's Best Bits

Meeting with the District Assembly was my highlight of the week.  We visited a large number of council representatives who all thought the idea of our project was worthwhile and they were all willing to support. This was our first meeting linked with the project and it gave us confidence that this project is achievable. This was the highlight of the week for me as it was unexpected to have full support from all of the Assembly members that we met. 

Week One: Tracy & Jenna's Best Bits

Week one has been filled with so many wonderful things; we have met so many people and had so many interesting experiences it is hard to pinpoint just one.  Bringing home a live chicken from the market certainly needs a mention, but I think our focus group session with the Disabled Persons’ Organisation (DPO) in Fumbisi might just top it.

As part of our project we are researching how people with disabilities might be able to be included into the Feok festival in December, and so we held a focus group in Fumbisi where we met so many wonderful people.  Unfortunately, many of these people are discriminated against by society; hidden away, ignored, and prevented from accessing local services, cultural activities, or playing a contributive role in society.  We asked them questions about their skills, and ways they could participate in the Feok festival, we talked to them about the issues they face as a disabled person, and what benefits they might receive by taking part in the festival.  

There was overwhelming support for our project, and although I left feeling they had extraordinarily, and perhaps unrealistically high expectations of us, I also felt that this project was more than helping them participate in a song and dance; this project is about giving them a voice and allowing them to be valuable members of society.  At times I felt incredibly emotional as members of the group told stories about being treated in the hospital car park because of the poor access facilities, or how feel they may as well be dead, but mainly from their spirit and determination to fight back.  I was holding back tears when the group burst into song, women ululated their appreciation, and as men and women of all ages and abilities clapped and danced to the music.  It is a memory that will stay with me for a long time.

Week One: Poppy's Best Bits

My favourite part of week one (other than being promised a goat by our landlord) was our first visit to the market. We went with Festus to make sure we paid reasonable prices, although it turns out Tracy is a good haggler and was asking everyone for “taymon jarrah” which means a few freebies. We came home with extra tomatoes, onion, oranges and bread, buying all this fruit and veg was an absolute luxury as Ghanaians are big on carbs and meat! Will and Tracy also plucked up the courage to buy a live chicken while Jenna and I hid in a nearby shop. There are animals all over the place at the market; men holding 5 chickens at once, young boys with goats strapped to their bicycles and the odd guinea fowl fluttering around. All in all it was an experience and as Tracy walked away with a live chicken in a plastic bag I think we all knew we’d reached Sandema and real-life starts now. The poor chicken was sweating in the taxi on the way home but can someone please check if this is physically possible as we’re certain it is but Festus thinks not.