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