Tamale, Ghana

9/10/11 March 2011

TAMALE, Ghana

Mariam

If I thought Bolga was hot, then Tamale is positively roasting – around 45C!! The Catholics come through again with a good guesthouse though and I make contact with the Girl Guides here AND retrieve my big bag back from World Vision without any problems. Mariama is the Region Leader for Tamale and is most appreciative of the bucket of shea butter as the Guides make soap as a fundraiser and the butter is expensive. Mariama puts me in touch with other leaders further south and we happily chat whilst lunching together. She has just returned from Accra and back at her place she waves her hands at piles of ‘Guiding stuff’. I reassure her that we are all the same in having piles of ‘things’ that we keep for Guiding or keep just in case it may be needed.

Nothing much to see here but a nice place to find what’s what here in Ghana – postage is cheap, newspapers and TV are in english and the bread is absolutely terrible – to think I was getting bored with crusty baguettes!! Here the choices of this soft, white spongy pap are tea bread, butter bread and sugar bread. I have no idea what the difference is between tea bread and butter bread, but the sugar bread is oh so sweet. But my new mate, Mariama shows me where I can buy brown bread here in Tamale!!

FACT: Teachers re on strike here because they have not been paid for 2 months after all being transferred to another salary structure. However the media is reporting that they are striking because they want more money. Yes, they want money – what is owed to them…..