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