WEEKEND DESPATCH

I’ve taken quite a few pictures this weekend, so will let them do most of the talking, with a few descriptions beneath. Surmise it to say, it’s been an exceptionally humid past few days, & I’ve (somewhat exhaustedly but determinedly) walked the length of the town and back, from my hotel to the markets. I went to Mother’s Inn for supper on Saturday & wasn’t quite sure what to make of the food! I had banku, which I can only describe as something that tastes like sweet & raw bread dough, it’s sticky & wrapped up in clingfilm. This was served with chicken soup – something I thought would be relatively easy to master. Not quite sure what particular piece of chicken was in the soup, possibly a leg? The soup itself was bright red & extremely spicy. All this was served without cutlery, so I did the whole tourist thing & asked for a spoon, alternating hot soup with gulps of bottled water & bites of banku. (When I got back to the hotel, I OD-ed a little on Pringles to fill me up!)

Sunday, I had what I thought was a lie-in, heading out around midday. Like Britain, but more so, Sunday mornings are a no-go: the restaurant & supermarket mall that I aimed to go to were both closed. This being the case, I traipsed back to the hotel & had lunch there. The hotel food is pretty good, it’s about 15 cedis (5 GBP) a meal. My favourite so far is the tilapia with spicy tomato sauce & fried plantain.

After lunch, I let it settle & managed to get the TV in my room working, ending up watching Andy Murray at Queens Club London! (The TV completely confuses me; I haven’t managed to tune it since this occasion!) Later, I headed back out & walked around the town museum which had some great material culture artifacts, batik prints, & oil & chalk paintings. Thunder rumbled in the distance, & a little apprehensive, I power-walked (unheard of in Ghana!), back to the junction & then to the mall to pick up some supplies. I got to the hotel with just a few rain drops on me, phew! The rains haven’t come yet this evening, maybe they’ll come during the night instead.

Picture diary:

The swimming pool at the Bob Hoffie hotel (formerly the Freedom hotel).

The main road that runs through Ho; this has more concrete structures than some of the others, which tend to have rows of huts or brightly coloured wooden kiosks.

I was intrigued by the traditional versus modern motifs used in this advertisement: colourful tribal masks used to sell gloss paint. Ghana comes across as a country proud of its ritual & heritage, keen to embrace modernity alongside history, rather than as an unbreakable contradiction.

The church, part of the grounds within my hotel. When I walk past, sometimes members of the congregation are sitting outside on blue plastic chairs and singing choral music. I regularly wake to the sounds of hymns or jazzy tunes, it’s pretty cool.

A colourful bus stop.

I finally rigged up my mossie net! Good job really, because my Deet spray is running out! Luckily a lot of my clothes have sleeves, & I have 3 pairs of light trousers/leggings, so will just aim to cover up when necessary. I’ve hung my net on the fan from the ceiling & tuck the ends under my pillow when I sleep.

There are so many rainbow-coloured lizards! I followed this little (well, 2 foot) guy around, getting a couple of pictures of him/her.

There are lot of sheep & goats around. Damn you rabies, because the English girl in me wants to go out & pet the little lambs as soon as she hears a baaaa! These three were a little raggedy, but there are some beautiful black & white lambs running around. I’ll try & take some more photos without getting too close!

Lovely wooden hand-carved furniture stacked outside.

In the museum: beads; a musical instrument that reminded me of something Tom & Alara have at home; Batik prints.

More Batik:{left} the Akuaba doll; {right} the traditional symbol of the Sankofa, a bird that looks backwards to remind us to look back to our roots.

The 2^nd painting reminded me of Cezanne (I think I have this correct?), blocks of colour to depict the countryside.

A poster in the museum: top 50 African icons, as voted for by the public. I’ve been lucky enough to have seen 2 in person: Baaba Maal, & the hugely humble & inspirational Kofi Annan.

I have FOUR bottles of water in my room! You don’t know how happy this makes me J

{all photos by me}