Monday, 28 January 2013

You won't believe this!


Either you overload your bike or you use two for the price of one!


Gundi is an inquisitive little thing and found my glass of water very interesting!  She is growing up and has progressed from a plastic lid to a glass!  Hee hee!











You won't believe this but its true!  During the day, Gundi often asks me to take her to my bed so that she can sleep.  I know this because she follows me and if I turn to the kitchen instead of the bedroom, she turns to the bedroom, stands still, looks at me and screeches!  Well, what does that mean to YOU?  If I take her and put her on the bed during the day she is quite happy to sleep there and then calls me again when she has had her nap.
We had visitors again the other night and she started getting agitated at about 8pm as she was exhausted and wanted to go to sleep!   So I took her and put her on the bed and she waited a minute and then screeched for me to fetch her, so I did.  We eventually said goodbye to the visitors and I took her to the bedroom and put her on the bed.  Normally she would curl up and go to sleep next to my pillow.  Well, I still had to brush my teeth and get into my jarmies and fiddle around in the bathroom and she screeched and screeched! So I went to her and pretended to get into bed. When she was quiet I got up again to continue my ablutions but she realised that I had left her and started crying again while staring at the bathroom door.  When I did get into bed, she immediately wriggled to the bottom of the bed, curled up and went to sleep.  She is JUST like a child and didn't want to go to bed on her own! How's that for a spoiled little Gundi?  I catch myself smiling so much at the antics of this little creature!


Just when I thought we were being forgotten here, we received a lovely pineapple from Chesty, the white guinea-fowl wing cutter, and a paw paw from Tony's 81 yr old mother.  (He doesn't know exactly how old she is because she didn't keep a record of when she was born, but he guesses that she is that old.)


The next day Chesty (actually Emmanuel) arrived with a yam.  "This is not for my father" he said to me while pointing at Porky, "this is for YOU!"










My dear South African friend Haylee, who now resides in Washington DC sent me a recipe "koisan doya" which is grated deep fried yam.  I made starters for the visitors and they were a hit!  Porks loves them, but anything deep fried he finds delicious!
How's that?  An American sending a Ghanaian, a Ghanaian recipe!



Benji went to Kumasi the other day and brought us a few things back, potatoes being one of them  We miss potatoes so much so it was such a treat until we cut them open!
I managed to selvage the outside of a few of them and made a potato bake for supper for the visitors instead of the roast potatoes we had planned on having!

The guy Jose` Paulo who bought me the wine and Arno came for supper last Friday night.










Benji was also here.

So was a very young looking Porkles!  Can you believe he turns 60 years old this year? (Me sticking my finger down my throat!!)

Gundi doesn't get very many opportunities to go scratching in the grass and bushes, so we try and take her as often as we can.  When we hide from her and she realises we are gone, she screeches for us.........com'on, its our only entertainment here!










It has got drier and drier here and the doors have all shrunk, so cannot close most of them in the house anymore.  Now that the "harmattan" winds have started, everything bangs and wobbles and the dust is pouring in through every little space.....and there are many of them!


One cannot really see this properly but this door to the  room (above) and the one to the verandah (below) are locked but the hinges do not reach the connecting panel, so we have had to jam mats in between, to stop the doors from banging!



I had to get up in the middle of the night to secure these metal gates as they were banging.  There are no latches to hold them in place, so I found a grass broom and stuck it through both handles.  We have since bought a lock so that it doesn't happen again.  










Two South African (I think) men are here in Bantama for a few days so we have invited them for supper tonight!  So, although you must be very bored by this information, we are thrilled and I'll have some more news to tell you in my next blog! Big smile!

Tuesday, 22 January 2013

Catch-22


We have a Catch-22 situation here.  Porks really doesn't want to talk about his work when he gets home. He is more interested in my day. (Well, he probably doesn't want to talk at all, I suppose!) I want to discuss his day as that is the only change in my routine.  So its difficult as I am starved for conversation and he just wants to chill! (Literally and figuratively)  Sigh!  What to do?  So much of problems an'all!

My vegetables are growing but some of them haven't taken, so I'll have to try again.  What has grown is...........







rocket



                                                             

                                                                 beetroot




carrots






                                                     
                                                            swiss chard





cabbage







......and I had my first rocket leaves on my home-made cottage cheese (and bovril from Kelly).





One of the local farmers has given us permission to help ourselves to his tomatoes as he has abandoned the rest of the crop.  He sent a truck load to Kumasi and didn't get paid, so I think he has given up on them.  We picked some lovely  ones, tiny but firm.




How cute is this little thing?  The men the other night had a discussion about Gundi and they decided she is a BOY!  I still call her "my little girl" as its not important what sex he/she is!  He/she is here and that's all that counts.




Her pupils dilate horizontally not vertically like a cat, quite strange.






We went to  Kwame Danso on Sunday afternoon to pay for tyres that had been fixed and Gundi was exhausted so climbed into Porks' shirt while he was driving and fell asleep!












We went at the same time as Ghana was playing DRC and as we went past the tyre place, we heard shouting and realised Ghana had scored their first goal in the Africa Cup of Nations.  Unfortunately for Ghana the score ended up being 2 all.
Here are the locals watching the game on an outside TV just after the goal.  People are the same all over the world when they support their sporting teams!  The roar from the crowd made us smile and we felt part of the excitement.













This is the receipt from the tyre repair shop.  The unusual shop names in Ghana are fascinating to me. Where on earth would this have come from?






On the way home we saw this junior high school bus!  Hmmm, we didn't have preparation like this where I come from!  I wonder how they check if they've passed?



Then we came home and switched on the TV.  There was a discussion on the new animated movie called "Zambezia" and one of the directors had this T-shirt on!
(You'll have to watch this one, Pips, I think its about Zim!)

Well, (smile) he couldn't have been talking to me because here are the latest audience results:


Pageviews by Countries

Graph of most popular countries among blog viewers
EntryPageviews
South Africa
1637
Australia
611
United States
326
United Kingdom
166
Ghana
118
Zimbabwe
105
New Zealand
103
Botswana
85
Netherlands
29
Germany
24

You DO know that this is all tongue in cheek, hey?



Saturday, 19 January 2013

9 1/2 weeks

I have been in Ghana for 9 1/2 weeks but can't find Mickey Rourke or the food in the fridge!

We went to Atebubu last Sunday afternoon to buy some groceries.  (The truck eventually came back.) We hadn't had dish washer for three days as it had sold out Bantama and we had to wait to have time off to go and find it elsewhere.

 Porks had his first ice-cream!  Frozen milo!  Have I told you that Ghanaians say "meelo"?



Much cheaper than by car and one can still take the whole family!



Robbie, you were in Ghana!  (Not quite right but close enough for me to have a huge smile on my face and joy in my heart!



                                                                          
They are grading the road outside our house. 
By the looks of it, its going to be a highway!  Hopefully, they'll calm the wild sea road to Kwame Danso - the worst road around!













Warren and Martin came around on Monday evening for crumpets and coffee and we invited them back for supper last night (Friday) with some others.

Martin and Arno, both bronys, one a double one though.








Benji Ruck (as in rugby with an "r") from Israel popped across for pudding.  (Not from Israel, from the hotel, man!)
We had spaghetti and mince and then jelly, "fruits" and custard.


Warren loves Gundi and vice versa and took many pictures to send back home.


Tony also visited us for a while, so we had a crowd again.....yay!!!










These two "dinner parties" have been the most exciting things that have happened to me since I have been in Ghana!


                                             Porks sans glasses and a happy Shannie!






P.S. Happy 90th birthday Mom!
Happy birthday special Wendy!







Sunday, 13 January 2013

Visitors

Great excitement!  The chap from South Africa, Hans, came and spent Friday night with us as he had meetings.  He kindly brought a suitcase of things with him to make our lives a little easier.  We should have been at home this weekend, so it was a wonderful second place! Thank you to Kell for running around trying to find all these things for us!  She still has not sent her Christmas presents as this suitcase was 23 kgs without her gifts!



With him came Willem Hattingh (met a "h" op die einde) from Adams Road in Hayfields.  He is the planner for the same company, married to Louisa.
 













Arno, on the left is from Brazil.  The hysterical thing about him is his surname....its Brune.  He must have thought he was famous when he first arrived in Bantama!!!  He works in the nursery and lives at the hotel next door.

Hans Michel is on the right.  I am friends with his wife Marja on facebook.

Warren Heathman, married to Teresa, comes from Hilton.



Warren, and Martin Eweg from Kloof, (right) married to Coral, are staying at the hotel for two weeks.  They are here to check soils for a sugarcane project with the same company.










 So, we invited everyone for supper and it was the most exciting thing that has happened to me since we have been in Ghana!

Even Gundi joined us for a while!

Copious amounts of laughter, naughty comments and company!!!  Gundi was well behaved though!


We had mutton, but now I am in doubt as Willem thought that it might be goat! (But that was before he tasted my delicious meal!!!) (Wink, wink!)

We finished off with bread and butter pudding again, as that is one of the only puddings for which I have most of the ingredients.

....................................................................Thaaaaaat's all folks!

Tuesday, 8 January 2013

A new year

Hello again!  I have been off air for a number of reasons.  The first is because I have had nothing much to tell you as I haven't done anything exciting.  Secondly, I have not had the best week emotionally but am pleased to say that I am back on track.  Thirdly, I have had a trouble downloading my pictures but that seems to have been fixed again, thanks to my personal IT guru, William, who helped me today. I have also noticed that when I "preview" my post before I publish it, some of the photos have moved around on their own mission - I don't always place them like they are viewed!


We celebrated New Year's Eve with tasteless fillet and mushroom sauce. (The mushroom sauce was okay, the fillet was like chewing meat that had been drained of all flavour.) The meat that we have here tastes nothing like our nyama back home.  I was telling a friend that the only thing that is nicer than what we can buy at home is the pepper, called Batia and that's made in USA - Haylee and Ronnie! - (separately)  We made real home made potato chips and sliced tomato. Adequate.

The electricity went off again. (The electricity is very temperamental and we either have power surges that mess up the TV and my computer or it goes off for hours at a time.)  We have a generator but are reluctant to start it as it is a palaver and also sometimes only takes 5 minutes and the electricity is back!  So we decided to have a candle light dinner! Very romantic!




A toast to you all - I put the normal sized wine glass in so that you wouldn't think that this was a large bottle!  (I had a Jager to you Bev, but there was no "bomb" to be added!)



 



We went to the office to check on some things this afternoon (New Year's Day) and I sat on the verandah with Gundi.  I was like a meercat (or a Gundi) - my head jerking up, left, up, right, up, back, right, up, behind, watching this "murder" of crows flying around above us.

We drove into Bantama afterwards to go and see how they celebrate New Year.  Under the closest big tree to us there was the party.  Little children dancing in the middle of the circle.













The little ones do get dressed up like they do for Boxing day but it doesn't seem to be as important.

















See the little girl in the back carrying wood for her family.  She is probably about 7 yrs old.  Ghanaian children all do their bit to help the family.  (The little 4 year old next door to our house sweeps the ground before 6 am and the 3 year old on the other side is often seen piggy-backing her 1 year old sibling.)


It makes no difference what day it is, the little children and the rest of the family still have to collect water no matter what their ages. They have to go to a central borehole and pump their own water. I am so grateful to live where I do (here and there) and just open a tap.
I haven't written for more than a week and every single night until two nights ago, there has been an all night party!  Apparently that's the end of them until next Christmas but boy, they are certainly in credit until then!
Then, not to be disrespectful but the Muslim calling starts at 4 am (and again at 5am) and having just fallen asleep, it is not a welcome sound in the early hours.  I have been stuffing cotton wool in my ears and it just takes the edge off the cacophony!




We made "vetkoek" for a snack but again, not as nice as we make at home as the flour is different.









Oooopsie!  Unfortunately this cannot be "godiva"d and we will either have to wait until we go to Kumasi or send it back to South Africa to get fixed.  Porks has had to borrow my spare pair of reading glasses for his office work! I am so organised! (Eyes rolling!)



On Sunday, we went on another outing!
(Shhhhh! Whispering.....another double cab arrived and I think its meant for us!)
We drove North to Yeji - another little village on the Volta Dam - to buy more fresh fish with Tony.




On the way we passed a yam market.  All the traders bring their yams to one place and trucks come from as far away as Accra to buy in bulk and then sell in their stalls.


Not a feel-good thing to tell you but it was interesting to us!  At a little village called "Prang" - sadly ironic - there was a huge crowd of people and the fire department.







There were 2 men, 5 women and 2 children in this Renault.

The cement-carrying lorry on the right must have driven over the car and then continued and crashed into the charcoal-carrying lorry on the left, pushing it over.  Everything burst into flames and as expected in Africa, the driver of the lorry ran away.

(By the time we had bought the fish and were on our way back again, the funerals for the 3 recognisable bodies were being held - that's all they could find.  Not only because they were Muslim but also because there are no mortuaries in these villages, the funerals are held on the same day. It was really upsetting and I didn't sleep well (again) last night !



We continued on to Yeji, and Tony directed us to a lady who came with us to buy the fish.  I needed the loo and so he took us to the local guest house for me to go.






Tony was so excited that he had found a good place for me to relieve myself. (Smile.) I was grateful.







We arrived in the middle of Yeji and at the main traffic circle, we found THIS!

Aaaaanndrrreewwww!!!
I think these signs must have been erected by the British.

Right at the dam, there were traders with fresh fish, so we bought 3 tilapia for R100, and some for Tony and his family too.  As soon as they see bronys the price goes up.








Walking towards the edge of the dam.





Tony said that this dam is so big, its "the brother of the sea."




This motor-boat travels with passengers and their goods 14 kilometres to the other side of the dam - you can see the land on the other side.

There is also a ferry that comes at about 12 noon, but we had left before it arrived.  Perhaps next time!
(Not to go on it...but to show you!)





We stayed for a while in one place and watched them loading the boats,


...... collecting water,









.......... washing the motor-bike,

...... washing their clothes,



.....and placing them on the ground to dry. (I thought at first that these clothes were being displayed to be sold.)

And bronys come in and educate the locals on pollution, healthy eating and saving wildlife and wetlands.  These people survive on a day to day basis.  They have to walk, ride bikes, or motor bikes to collect water, wood and food and the daily struggle just to survive must be enormous.

I supposed I could have waited for this!


On our way home, Tony told us of another company that has opened up planting trees to make bio-diesel.





So we thought we would pop in and see how it was going.

Nothing much seemed to be going on but there has been some construction work happening.
Fred, a really friendly Ghanaian (Whaaaat, again?) helped us and explained what they do.  

They plant Jatropha Fruit trees and then use the seed oil to make bio-diesel.



You can see the seeds on the tree.





The husks are used as fertiliser.



Fred opened up a seed for me and squashed the nut inside to show me the oil.








We had visitors last night.  Tony brought us some roasted groundnuts that we had ordered from him.  We put on the wildlife channel for Cynthia and Paul! They were fascinated.  Even Tony who is high up in the community has very little idea about anything other than Ghana. He too was like a little child giggling and pointing!


Gundi sleeps most of the day and night and is awake for only 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Because we had visitors until quite late, she was wary (and weary) and she did not sleep while they were here.  You are not going to believe this but when they left, she got off my lap, shuffled (she battles to walk on the slippery floor) to the door of the lounge, turned around and screeched.  I said to Porks, "She is wanting to go to the bedroom to sleep!"  I promise!  I know I am a proud and biased Mom but she really did this!........  She did!     .............She did!
He then went to shower and as she spends all day with me, I gave her to him to take to the bedroom. (He has to do his bit for the family too, you know!)  She came back into the lounge to fetch me.  I then went to shower and she followed me so I put her on the bed and she curled up next to my pillow and fell fast asleep.


Sigh!  What would I do without my precious little girl? Thanks again Sean!