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 (29th
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 (30th 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
- Jenna
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