Another very nice weekend here in paradise. I was up in Nandom for the first time for the Kokoban festival and I got to meet some other volunteers.
I set off with Mel at around 2pm on Friday; it was a Muslim holiday, so the city and office were shut down. We took our bikes, it was the first long ride on my bike (who I have called Betty, not sure why), and the first major dirt road riding I have done. The ride was good, and we did it in about two and a half hours, we hit a bit of sand and fish tailed a bit, but we made it through.
I got to meet Meredith (Mel, yet another Aussie Mel) in Nandom; she is an Aussie woman in her 30s who has been working in a school for about 2 years. She is a lot of fun and has embraced the culture wholeheartedly, so she is very integrated. I also met two Dutch guys (Lukas and Sanders) in the late teens that are on short term placements with a different NGO in the same school as Mel. We all spent the first night having a few drinks and then headed to a favorite Pito spot. Nandom Pito is renowned as the best in Ghana and it was quite good.
Saturday was great, Mel was giving a rooster and she had it killed by one of the students. They pounded Fufu and made groundnut soup. Linda and H took the bus up and joined us and a few of Mel’s Ghanaian friends as well. We had a great meal, it was delicious, but I still use a spoon, I haven’t started to eat everything with my figures yet, maybe one day. After lunch we went to town and relaxed in a spot until evening and then headed home, you generally go to bed early here since it gets dark early and you get up early.
The next day the festival started, and we went into town to watch the dancing and look in the market. The dancing was very rhythmic, and the beats were strong, like the dancing in Lawra. Xylophones are featured heavily for all the music in the upper west. There were many schools, each has their own dance and varied heavily. They are very talented and the movements all done in unison are quite a skeptical. They wear costumes which can consist of scraped together shirts (one team was all sporting old Real Madrid FC t-shirts) to bespoke clothes for the day (these are the schools with money and are very much the minority).
I had lunch and then I had to head back to my bike. I needed to get to Tumu which is a town very close to the border of Burkina Faso about three-four hours east of Nandom. I was on my way to Bolga for motorcycle training, of course I didn’t feel like I needed this, but it was a formality I had to do. I got to Tumu in just over three hours and before the sunsets, the road was bad, and I had a few close calls due to sand but all in all I got there. I stayed with Pete for the night and had a few drinks at his local spot.
In the Morning I left Betty with Pete and headed off to Bolga on the bus. I met up with Aaron, Cath and Rachael for training. I have just completed the second day of training, it’s been very easy, and I am not really learning much but it is nice to stay in a hotel and hang out with my friends. It’s also nice to be back in Bolga for a bit to catch up with everyone. Well I think that’s it for now.
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