Must See Outer Bolgatanga, Upper East Region, Ghana

If you come to the Upper East Region of Ghana for a couple of days, you may wish to visit SWOPA: Sirigu Women's Organisation of Pottery and Art. The Sirigu story (the situation is very similar to that of the villages G-lish works with), courtesy of the SWOPA site:

Sirigu’s story is typical of farming villages in Northern Ghana; several years of intensive farming and poor rainfall has degraded the land to the extent that even subsistence farming is threatened. This is where the similarities end though; Sirigu village is also well known for its traditional architecture, basketry, pottery and wall designing. Faced with declining yields from farming, it became not only important to revive the traditional arts of the women of Sirigu but also to leverage it as an important source of income for the women for the upkeep of their families. Many children owe their education and healthcare to income generated from the handicrafts and traditional arts produced by the women of Sirigu.

A shot of design of external walls of hut in Sirigu. Image by Familia Bonnardeaux

At SWOPA you taste village life in the far northern Upper East Region and learn something of the culture, arts and crafts of the village and surrounding areas. And, for the budget-conscious, their prices are great. You can see the accommodation huts here. The Harmattan is in full swing here in the Upper East Region already so if you visit anytime from now until February you will appreciate the cool interior of the huts into which you can escape from the dust and heat during the day.

The peace and quiet at night is, well, a bit deafening; all you will hear is a chorus of electronic sounding insects and the odd lost goat.

We were accompanied by two foreign friends from overseas as well as three Ghanaians from the Eastern Region visiting this region for the first time on a big trip up north. They all said that the trip to Sirigu was the highlight of their entire trip, which is saying something! Something good, I believe. The Ghanaians were fascinated with the life of the village as well as how those of us living in this area can withstand the harsh, dry heat compared with the humid jungle climate of their region. Our Canadian friends echoed similar sentiments. Visiting Sirigu gives you a first-hand opportunity to feel that reality and know another Ghana altogether.

Costs: 15 GHC per night for a traditional, round hut painted in the SWOPA style with 2 single beds and inhouse bath and toilet. An entrance fee of 1.50 GHC is payable. If you tour the village, the price is 4.00 for non-Ghanaians and 2.00 for Ghanaians. There is a dorm with five single beds for 30 GHC total. The dorm is constructed in the traditional style of the area with steps leading up to a wide, flat, low-walled roof from which guests can gaze at the stars at night and sleep during the very hot season, if they like.

The major crafts produced in Sirigu for sale at very reasonable prices in the gallery at the centre include pottery, baskets and acrylics on canvas in traditional designs and style from the area.

A clay, glazed dish about the size of half a PC keyboard costs around 6 GHC. A short piece about the pottery here.

The colours of the pots are black with a geometrical design. The colour is made by putting the hot pots in a mixture of millet grass. These pots have round or flat bottoms and some have lids. The colour of the pot is earthen red with geometrical designs in black.

A typical mud home with roof designed to be slept on in hot season. A basket maker holding a basket typical of that area. Image by Baptiste Delbos.

Awesome chop bar. Image by Baptiste Delbos.

SWOPA is located about 40 minutes drive north-east from Bolgatanga: turn right at the Kandiga junction when heading north to Burkina on the highway from Bolga, SWOPA is another 17 kms along the dirt road from the junction. A bit tricky in the wet season, but not impossible, and easy in the dry season. You could also hire motorbikes from Tanga Tours for 20 GHC a day in Bolgatanga.

Meals are huge, delicious and prepared that day and cost 5 GHC per person. Call ahead and be sure to order drinks in advance as they need to order them from the local market.

A 40 minute taxi ride there (and 40 minutes return, same day, same driver) will cost around 35 GHC from Bolgatanga. Click here for a more extensive view of Sirigu-related images including the village, architecture, design and arts and crafts.

I also referenced another blogger's writing on Sirigu here in Two Excellent Ghana Blogs.

Ghanaian Poet's Blog + Foreigners' Ghana Blogs

Writers and generally curious folks may be interested to discover a wonderful blog focused on poetry called Poetry Soundbites by Kodjo Deynoo. Please click through and check it out.

I also came across a few interesting blogs written by foreigners living in Ghana. The more perspectives the better for potential travelers.

A Tiger in Ghana is one such blog.

"Through Princeton's Bridge Year Program, I am excited to be one of five students living for nine months in Ghana. The first half will be in Accra, Ghana's capital, living with a homestay family, working in NGOs, and learning to speak Twi. For the second half we will move to the small village of Oguaa, to serve as tutors in local middle schools."

And this was an interesting view of Accra by someone who popped in for 14 hours. What would you capture if you had 14 hours in Ghana? Sometimes I wish I could have "fresh" eyes to see Ghana anew, but knowing everything I know now. Failing that, I'm curious to see what others' "fresh" eyes pick up when they fly in and out for a short time.

Travels in Ghana Ebook

Back to the heart of this blog: Travel in Ghana. I'm writing about an ebook developed by a passionate traveler to Ghana called Marie McCarthy. You may have followed her blog as she was traveling. I did a few posts linking to her travels at the time and the original blog link is still here on this blog.

However, for those who like to get all their Ghana travel posts in one place, and for anyone interested in publishing their travels in digital form, you may like to check out Travels in Ghana. A simple digital download you can read on your e-reader too.

On a completely separate note, you might also want to check out Holli's post on Voodoo and Juju. These are a big deal here across the country and the entire region. Voodoo originated in Benin so that's not really news, but you can see some interesting images when you read Holli's post. Whether you believe in it or not, most Ghanaians do, even those who claim to follow one of the main religions. Even some football teams have been known to believe they'll win or lose a match based on the feedback from those who practice Juju.

I like to understand what people believe and how it affects their lives. If you spend quality time with people in any culture over a period of time you come to understand the interplay between various spiritual beliefs and how that affects things like development. They're all connected and it's worth taking the time to understand in order to connect. 

October Winners of Ghana Guide

We give away Ghana guides on a monthly basis to subscribers here at Ghana Guide and Blog. These are the winners for both September and October subscribers who would have just received an email and links informing them of their success!

Congratulations to Gale Lynette and Mike C who joined up in October and September. Emails and links coming your way now.

We've also just announced winners of recycled Bolga baskets this month.Erin Anderson who subscribes to G-lish Global and Nii Ayertey Aryeh who likes G-lish Foundation on Facebook were the winners.

Here are some new screen shots to give you a taste of what to expect in the Ghana guide.
You can read more about the Ghana guide here.

Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana see inside the guide before buying.

Seed Initiative Winners from Ghana

It's with much surprise and delight to post that G-lish Foundation, the organisation founded by my inspiring partner, Godwin Yidana, is one of the winners of this year's SEED Initiative Awards.

"The SEED Awards recognise inspiring social and environmental entrepreneurs whose businesses can help meet sustainable development challenges. By helping entrepreneurs to scale-up their activities, the SEED Initiative, which is hosted by UNEP, aims to boost local economies and tackle poverty, while promoting the sustainable use of resources and ecosystems."

The UNEP's full press release can be read here.

As the press release explains, the award seeks to recognise and support young organisations that focus on sustainable development. 

The winners receive support in the form of tailored workshop training in-country and via distance (remotely) to help them develop their business plans and find solutions to barriers to growth so that the orgs can break through whatever problems they're facing and continue their good work. 

"The prize they will receive from SEED is a package of individually-tailored support for their business. This includes access to relevant expertise and technical assistance, meeting new partners and building networks, developing business plans and identifying sources of finance. SEED will furthermore contribute towards meeting each winner's most immediate needs by contributing to a jointly developed support plan."

You can visit the G-lish facebook page and read more about their activities by clicking the link on the right of this page.  

The winners from Ghana are truly inspiring. The other winners are: 

• Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative
• High Value Syrup from Prekese Fruits
• Biofuel Production in Promoting Sustainable Land Management
• DeCo! Decentralised Composting for Sustainable Farming 
• The Shea Economic Empowerment Program (SEEP)

Some of the winners from African and further afield that caught my eye are:

Kenya: EcoPost - Fencing Posts from Recycled Post-Consumer Waste Plastic

Burkina Faso: Manufacture and Popularization of Biomass Briquettes (when you see how many trees are cut down for charcoal for cooking fires you understand why an alternative source of fuel is so important).

Senegal: Micro Power Economy for Rural Electrification 

"The goal of this enterprise involving local partners from the private and microfinance sector is to set up a profitable rural power provider based on off-grid power system operation and the utilisation of renewable energy sources, such as wind-solar-diesel hybrid power systems."

China: SolSource

 You can check out all the winners at the 2010 Awards link.

What the hell? Warning for Travelers in Ghana

EDIT: It turns out this news story was not real. In other words, it was a hoax that got the whole country talking. The news that it was a hoax hit over the weekend. Sorry for the panic, folks.

The upside of this:
1. My cynicism was proven wrong. Even the President became involved and ordered a full inquiry. It was heartening to see action taken and the issue taken seriously.
2. That it didn't actually happen. That we can still believe that, while highway robberies are common, they're not as ugly and violent as this was reported to be.

A caution: Robberies along the roads in the northern part of Ghana are common and the same precautions apply as noted in this post below.

-----------------
This was the original story for what it's worth Horror: Armed robbers induce mass rape on passenger bus.

As I wrote at the time or posting originally:

The point of introducing this story is to reiterate a message to travelers I've repeated many times before. The safest bet when traveling between Accra and Tamale/Bolga/Wa or any of the three northern regions is to catch the STC--State Transport Company coaches. This is because the STC has an armed guard and robbers are well aware of this and tend to leave them alone.

The road between Kumasi and Kintampo is particularly poor and slow and you should try to avoid having to pass through here in darkness if you're not on the STC coaches. The road between Accra and Kumasi is also poor and you should also avoid that road at night.

In short, simply try to catch the STC for any long distance trip and any trip in which you'll be traveling in the dark. If you have a private vehicle don't stop for anyone. Only stop at police barriers but not at any other temporary road block unless it's clearly road maintenance. If you do see a road block in a location which normally doesn't have one, stop before you get there, turn around and go back.   

Please be careful while traveling in Ghana. It's horrible not to be able to trust people on the road, but do keep your wits about you.

EDIT AGAIN: I received a few odd/threatening emails questioning my motivation for posting this and seeming to make some fairly large assumptions. It seems there is a lot of weird reporting and political stuff going on in the media at the moment. I don't what is underlying all of that. Apparently it's political. I'm not interested in politics.

My motivation was simply others' safety.

This incident, when we thought it was true, was an opportunity to warn people of serious dangers. It would mean I could get across a point about safety without having to some personal and ugly things I've either experienced first-hand or know about first-hand. When this story broke I felt that this story served as a good warning and referring to it would help save others from potentially unsafe situations. The story wasn't true. That is a relief. But the point remains the same.

I choose not to write about the ugly side of life here for the most part; there are enough people doing that already. However, I felt that that story made a strong point about safety that traveler's would do well to heed. This is a blog about travel in Ghana, after all. I do write a guide about travel in Ghana in which we outline dangerous areas in detail too.

The decision to warn people comes from experience, knowing what I know but choose not to make public most of the time. I try to stay positive and really don't want to scare people. But here is some of that experience that I withhold because, for the most part, Ghana is a good and safe country. But it's not completely safe and certain areas and activities seem to be getting worse.

I know of three foreign women who were raped traveling in different parts of Ghana: Paga area, Cape Coast and the Volta Region. I have friends whose friends were also raped somewhere in the Eastern or Central Region I believe. This is over the course of the years 2005-2010 that I've been living in or connected with Ghana. And by that I don't mean they were having a relationship with someone and resisted their advances, but violent attacks during the day or night where they were sleeping or traveling. Sure, some people shouldn't have been walking dark alleys alone at night, but they were. That's why I keep cautioning.

I was accosted and robbed in a taxi in broad daylight between Elmina and Cape Coast on my way to work one day back in 2007. It was a set up. My possessions were rifled from my backpack. Fortunately, I fought back and got all my stuff back, but that seems to be the exception--the thieves didn't have weapons so, I thought, I'll fight back and it worked.

I met a bunch of foreign travelers in Bolga last year who were in a tro that was stopped by armed robbers between Bolga and Paga and had all their possessions stolen.

A Ghanaian friend was set up and robbed, much like I was, in a share taxi between Kintampo and Wa last year.

On one of our trips south, just as we left Bolga proper and headed out of town, and even though it was the STC and mid-morning, a band of youth with machetes stood across the highway blocking our way. The driver put his foot down and sped up. He had every intention of running down anyone who didn't get out of the way. They jumped aside at the last minute.

Another Ghanaian friend was robbed in a trotro somewhere around Tamale and lost all his money and possessions.

I know of people who were robbed traveling in parts of the Western Region too. And then there are the stories in the news about robbers trailing people from Accra to other parts of the country and robbing them somewhere along the way.

Thieves work in bands. One will be present at the tro station and even board the tro himself, checking out the passengers. He will use his phone to alert his colleagues down the road to get ready. You can figure out the rest. A few weeks ago when we were traveling from Tamale to Bolga early in the morning (5 am), I can tell you I was observing every single person anywhere near our tro. There was one guy continuously on his phone and looking around and I was nervous. I even suggested we wait and get the next one. I shifted all my cash out and hid it. Nothing happened. But it's certainly a nerve-wracking experience on public transport these days.

This is what I know about. I wonder how much more I will never hear about.

Although the story that prompted this post turned out to be a hoax, the point of posting it remains the same: to warn people about the dangers of not taking precautions when traveling. It is unsafe traveling on certain modes of transport in certain parts of the country and certain times of the day. I get emails from travelers saying they caught trotros between Kumasi and Bolga and it was OK. Great. I used to too. But I would caution against it.

I guess that those people who emailed me may not regularly travel the breadth of the country, from north to south and back again, or maybe they don't use public transport very often and wouldn't necessarily understand the dangers involved. It's no joy traveling that far wondering if you're going to be robbed or have an accident, I can tell you, but a lot of us have no choice.

I'm not even going to address the other things in some of the emails. I did, however, once have a very annoying boss whose catchphrase often comes to mind when I read some of the comments and emails I receive. She used to say, "When you 'Assume' it makes an 'ass' of 'u' and 'me'." I hate to admit it, but she had a point.

I also like the line: "When you jump to conclusions, you make bad landings." (from The Interruption of Everything by Terry McMillan).

If this blog is not to your tastes, vote yourself off the island; no one is forcing you to read it.

Please try to keep an open mind when emailing or commenting; it would be much appreciated.

The Amazing Race Ghana

 For those planning to travel to Ghana for the first time, you may like to check out clips from a recent episode of the Amazing Race when it hit Accra, the capital of Ghana. I've just had a chance to see the clips for the first time myself and can vouch that there is nothing unusual in the experiences that the contestants had in Ghana.

That is, this is the Ghana I know and that you will encounter when you arrive. Some Ghanaians are annoyed by a "dirty" representation of Accra but, frankly, that's how Accra is.But we all have to deal with it. As did the racers.

You'll see inside a real market and also check out the famous coffin makers. Of course, you don't need to visit these places when you come to Ghana but you'd be missing out. We do cover how you can visit the coffin makers and markets in our Ghana Guide.

Ghanaweb is hosting the clips here.

The photo of the coffins at Teshie is by Walt Jabsco. A little explanation on the coffins. They're mostly "patronised" by the Ga people of Greater Accra. I say Ga, but I'm sure someone will disagree with me. The deceased may have expressed a desire to be buried in a coffin that represented their occupation in life, but also their vices or hobbies. You will see coffins shaped as cigarettes, bottles of beer, Coca Cola, pens, rockets, lobsters, and the lovely cow you can see in the photo above. Personally, I'd like to be buried in an Egyptian mummy with a bellydance coin motif coffin as well as some Adinkra symbols, kente designs, mud cloth prints and ancient Japanese text. Surely that's not too much to ask?

Excellent Photos of Ghana

Ghana Photos

If you are traveling to Ghana, I am sure you will enjoy this simple and quick way to find great photos of Ghana. Basically, head to Google Images and begin a search.

A search of "Ghana" brings back a colourful array of images.

A search of "Wli", which is in the Volta Region and a popular traveler's stop, brings back lots of waterfall pics as well as some from the hike to the Upper Falls.

"Kumasi" gives you both a view of downtown--especially crazy Kejetia trotro and market area--as well as traditional ceremonies.

A quick click on "Accra" gives you a strong sense of the capital.

The photos of "Bolgatanga" are actually very representative and give a strong sense of how the area feels.

Shoot me if the photos of "Cape Coast" don't make you want to visit! And it's sister, Elmina, is just a 15 minute drive away.

Ghana Videos!

You can do the same thing with Google Videos. Here is the link to view videos relating to "Elmina". And videos for Accra, Cape Coast (President Obama in Cape Coast) and Kumasi. There are even some for Bolgatanga!

So, you get the idea. Hit Google images search and type in the name of the place you're coming to visit in Ghana. You will get a sense of the place before you even leave home.

Elmina Castle and fishing photo at top by chris_wilson.Black and White fishermen in Cape Coast photo by See Wah.

Ghana Bloggers Mature

The blogosphere in Ghana has been growing steadily. You can read a lot of the regular bloggers at www.ghanablogging.com.

I was checking out some of my favourites and found some fun and thought-provoking stuff going on.

Accra Conscious Forever posted a brilliant poster of Adinkra symbols. If you visit Ghana, especially along the coast from Accra to the Ivory Coast and inland to Kumasi, and everywhere in between, you'll see Adinkra symbols on pretty much everything that's not moving, and much that is moving too--especially vehicles. You will certainly see a lot of batiked cloth printed with the more popular symbols. If you want to know what they mean, check out Adinkra Cloth Symbols.

Interestingly, here in the far north of Ghana most people have no idea what Adinkra is. It's simply not part of the culture as it's unique to the Akan culture, those areas described above.

Accra Conscious Forever also did an awesome post on music called Blending Visuals into Music - M3NSA

"No.1 Mango Street – the international debut album by MC, singer and producer M3NSA. The single is a cocktail of eclectic Afro sounds infused with Nu-jazz and High-Life delicately underscored with sweet harmonies of rhythm and blues."

Holli at Holli's Ramblings wrote a thought-proviking post about the issue of witches in Ghana. Both the post and the comments are worth reading. This is one of the things you're unlikely to notice while traveling through Ghana for a short time, but if you happen to pick up a newspaper on most days you'll find a story about witches. I live in the far north and hear about these problems often. It's hard to listen to and accept.

I was teaching a young girl how to use a computer and using a Harry Potter excerpt that was nicely formatted to show how the Indexing works in Word and "document map" button and she happened to flash across the mention of witches. I had to explain the history of witches in western culture and the Harry Potter phenomenon. She couldn't believe people wanted to "be" witches. One word, totally different connotations.

Here is a small excerpt from Holli's story:

"Northern Ghana is home to over 10 massive witch camps – each housing up to 1000 people – the majority of these are young children. Soak that in. THERE ARE STILL WITCHES CAMPS IN GHANA IN 2010. All of these people have been banished from their villages for all sorts of crimes, including allegedly killing people who died from ‘mysterious illnesses’."

And Betumi wrote about culinary entrepreneurship in Ghana. Betumi, by the way, is the BEST place to read about food in Ghana online. I was intrigued by this post detailing Fran's recent trip around Ghana collecting more data and researching food prep in Ghana in all its forms. I'm interested to see if she finds the 17th Century translation!

"Over lunch I challenged a couple of the English faculty to begin looking at the portrayal and symbolism of food in African literature, a shockingly neglected area, and especially to examine any gender differences between men and women writers. My sense is that women are more intimately connected to food preparation and socializing around the cooking pot and hence their memories (especially when exiled from their homelands) may be different. I'm curious to see if Helen and Kari take up the challenge. I also have the exciting promise of receiving a 17th century translation (from German) of a document describing the preparation of kenkey. I'm still trying to track down dokono's origins and history. Suggestions made at the luncheon were that, unlike "dokono," "kenkey" is a Malay word, that Northerners have always fermented millet, so they just used the same technique on corn when it arrived in Ghana. I welcome anyone's comments on his subject."

The Definitive Travel Library Revealed

Greetings to fantastic readers and visitors to Ghana Guide and Blog.

I don't know if you've heard of Wangari Maathai? She is a Kenyan environmentalist and all round bad-ass change-maker. Well, you'd say bad-ass if you were in Government in Kenya in the 90's, but we're using it in a positive sense here. As in, the kind of person you want on your team when you set out to change the world.

What has Wangari Maathai done?

• She set up an organsation that has planted over 4 million trees across Kenya
• She prevented monstrosity skyscrapers from being built in Nairobi's equivalent of Hyde or Central Park
• She helped get political prisoners released
• She helped establish true democracy in Kenya
• She made corrupt leaders listen to Kenyan women
• She wrote an autobiography for which former President, Clinton, gave a front-cover endorsement.

And soooo much more. No wonder she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Since our internet connection is something like 100 BYTES per second (yes, sad little bytes from a time-traveling parallel universe circa 1993 I think) I cannot upload any photos with this post.

This is not from a traveling parallel universe, however. I submitted a guest post for a truly wonderful blog called A Traveler's Library.

At A Traveler's Library writers are invited to share books that inspired them to travel to a place. I came up with a short-list. I even submitted my two book titles. And then I changed my mind (erm, what's new?) and chose Maathai's biography, Unbowed.

It's not that I've been inspired to visit Kenya. It is, however, that her story inspired me to another kind of travel. Some travelers are inspired to seek greener pastures after reading a travel-themed book: check out the blog for some ideas. Reading Unbowed inspired me to help make the "grass" a little greener right here in Ghana.

Read why here.

GTV's Breakfast Show

Hey all,

Just a very quick note to say to watch GTV on Monday morning at 7 am. You'll see some absolute rubbish on your TV screens :). Of the Trashy kind. This lap top case is made entirely of recycled pure water plastic pages.

Are You Faking It? You Know What I Mean!

Hi Y'all,

I'm not really a Texan, but I do like saying y'all. And, on that note, I would love to let you know about a couple of posts about stuff you might love too.

This is all about being who you are supposed to be and doing what you do because "you can't help it"-- because if you don't you'll go mad!


It comes in two parts (no pun intended, seriously).

Five Years of Faking It: Part 1

When I was a teenager my Dad went off on one of his famous lectures again:

“I don’t care if you want to go and sit on mountains and meditate for the rest of your life, just make sure you’re the best damned mountain meditator in the world.”

Yeah right.

“And I don’t care if you want to be a beach bum, just make sure you’re the best damned beach bum in the world.”

Bet he wouldn’t have said that if I wanted to be a politician or a stripper.

and
Five Years of Faking It: Part 2

When someone asks me why I do what I do, all I can say is: “I can’t help it.”

I can’t help it in the same way you can’t help writing, for those who feel the need to write, or calculating planetary orbits, if that’s what rocks your day, or teaching others how to do something, if that’s your heart starter, or meditating on mountain tops, if you dare.

Different things drive different people. Porches for some. Fame for Miss Hilton. Status for Mrs Becks. Creating for the Coen Brothers. And Danger for the Real Madrid goalie.

It’s the “helping” thing that gets my groove going.

But we need different types of passions. The helping people, the innovating people, the Barry Manilow people, the sensible people, the wordsmiths—and you don’t have to be one or the other, you can be many of these people at once.

Liking + Winning Recycled Bolga Baskets

Hey everyone, if you have just arrived for the first time, or if you're returning to our blog: thanks so much for visiting. I hope you can see the box for the awesome facebook page: G-lish--on the side bar.

This is the place to see those great photos and learn a little more about what G-lish Foundation is doing in the Upper East Region of Ghana.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, simply by "liking" the page when you visit on Facebook (hint: click "G-lish" in the box on the right), you can win baskets! Every month all lovely Facebookers who are liking the G-lish page have a chance to win a recycled Bolga basket delivered anywhere in the world. Woooooo! Yay.

Click it already! :)

The Interview with Expatify for Ghana Expats

I completely forgot about this interview I did with Expatify ages ago. They wrote to tell me it was online in July. We've had so many problems with terrible internet connections here in Bolga that I completely forgot about it. 

The interview is helpful for those planning to move to Ghana for an extended period of time, like expats, workers, volunteers, and so on. If you're planning to visit Ghana for a short stay, you may also get something from it. I added a few tips that will help anyone planning to travel or work in a developing country too.

A short excerpt:

"Unless you’re in Accra or Kumasi, there are no luxuries like coffee shops, cinemas, or large supermarkets. However internet cafes are improving dramatically everywhere. Water supply and electricity are notoriously unreliable, but you learn to cope."

* The Kosa I refer to in the interview is owned by Dutch, not Germans. 


I took that photo in Cape Coast some years ago. It's the fishermen pulling in nets together. It's awesome to watch them work like that in rows all along the beaches, hand over fist, a kind of dance and song to ease the drudgery, I guess.

Win Recycled Bolga Baskets

We’ll be holding recycled Basket giveaways over at G-lish too. If you want a chance to win one of these be-you-T-full baskets, wherever you are in the world, subscribe to G-lish! Winners will be announced at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, if you can’t wait that long, and you’re in Ghana, you can find the baskets at Trashy Bags in Accra. Check out Trashy Bags videos for more info on their brilliant work in the capital of Ghana.

We’ll also be holding competitions along those lines here so look out and be sure to enter this one if you want to win.

Warning: Recycled Baskets Contain Love

WARNING: As a Recycled Bolga Basket I should mention that I’m created from 230 “pure water” plastic bags, and over 2 yards of scrap cloth. Yes—I was once waste, but I’m now rather striking don’t you think? It’s all thanks to the brilliant, basket-weaving communities of Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region of Ghana who will be able to buy medicine and pay school fees when you buy me. That’s because they get paid fairly for creating me. Oh, and for every basket you buy, G-lish plants a tree in Bolgatanga, regenerating the deforested, northern-most region of Ghana—and creating sources of food, shade and shelter in the community.

G-lish’s vision: Thousands of us baskets will find homes across the globe and thousands of trees blossom across the Upper East.

G-lish: solving environmental problems, preserving an age-old handicraft tradition, and providing sustainable incomes for impoverished, rural, Ghanaian craftswomen and men. (They’re not basket cases in Bolga, I can tell you!)

Look out for more at G-lish: www.g-lish.org. Contact: baskets@g-lish.org

The basket-makers asked me to tell you…

“We thank you! Teppohzoe!”

Find the baskets at Trashy Bags in Accra. Click the image at the top of the pagwe for directions.

That's what's on the lable of the baskets!

One Basket = One Tree

Another positive aspect of the recycled Bolga basket project is that for every basket sold the producers plant a tree in the community. Currently they are planting mango trees, the most popularly requested, since mangos provide excellent shade during the extremely hot season and have a natural cooling effect. They are the coolest places to be when outdoors during the hot season.

A basket maker in the cool of dusk. You can see how barren the Upper East is. We need trees! 

Of course, they also provide fruit and nutrition which are much needed in the Upper East where the average diet consists of cornmeal porridge and soup—not at all meeting daily nutrition requirements.

For the record, the price of the Ghana guide will increase as we also have a campaign to plant one tree for every guide sold—increasing the tree-planting scope so that thousands of trees will begin to grow across deforested parts of Ghana where they are badly needed.

Trees are valued and precious in Bolga because of the need for shade and wish for fruit to supplement the very bland diet. The basket makers and producers are very excited about this.

This is a long term vision, inspired by Wangari Maathai’s Greenbelt movement.

So, when you buy a recycled Bolga basket, you’re not only providing livelihoods to Ghana’s poorest men, women and youth, but also providing shade, shelter and sources of food for many years to come and greening Ghana too.

Saving 7000 Pure Water Bags

Part of the objective of making recycled Bolga baskets is to clean up the environment by directly using materials that would otherwise be discarded; in particular “pure water” plastic bags and scrap cloth. Not only are they discarded, but they’re often burnt, emitting harmful gases and pollutants into the atmosphere.

Recently produced baskets sitting on a sea of pure water plastic bags. Each basket uses about 230 pure water bags on average!

In the month of August alone basket makers have used over 6000 plastic bags to produce their baskets—the very ones selling in Trashy Bags now! They envisage using over 7000 by the 31st. Each basket uses an average of 230 plastic bags each, some more, some less, depending on the final size.

While we recognize that the volume of rubbish is small on a global scale, every bit makes a difference. And it’s not just about the relativity of the global impact, but small changes in behaviour that may lead to widespread changes. And beautiful baskets.

By the way, we'll be givi ng away baskets as prizes over at G-lish to one subscriber a month. If you want a chance to win, go over and subscribe to G-lish: http://www.g-lish.org/

Totally Uncrappy Bolga Baskets

You know when crappy marketers write “Be quick, limited stock available!” and you just don’t believe them anymore?

Here’s a line for you: “Be quick: Hot recycled Bolga baskets sell quickly.”

But this is not crappy marketing, this is just being honest. These baskets go quickly. So quickly that the photos to show from last week’s delivery are redundant because the damned things sold out already.

However, you’re lucky. A new delivery has just arrived at Trashy Bags in Accra. If you want to buy a recycled Bolga basket, you do have to be fast. They are popular—which makes the craftspeople in Bolga happy—more sales more incomes for some of Ghana’s most impoverished communities.

Find the baskets by heading to Trashy’s shop in Accra. Here are the directions.

Recycled Bolga Basket Stars

A glimpse of some of the basket makers working on recycled Bolga baskets. The producers work from their home, usually a mud and thatch room in a large family compound. They work on the baskets as time and commitments allow.

Right now it’s harvest time so everyone is busy on their maize and millet farms. Many have children that they attend to while working on the baskets too.

You can find these truly unique, world-first (we believe…correct us if this is done anywhere else), gorgeous baskets at Trashy Bags in Accra.

Comment and Win: Twitter Users to Follow #Ghana

Twitter is a great way to get updates about what is going on in your niche anywhere in the world. Some of the more interesting and useful twitter people to follow relating to things Ghana include:

@silverbirdghana for movie screening update times from the cinema at Accra Mall.

@modernghanaweb for breaking news relating to Ghana. Very useful.

@macjordan one of Ghana's top tweeters and bloggers

@gaylepesscud The author of this blog. If you would like to follow, head to www.twitter.com/gaylepescud. I write about all things Ghana as well as design, development and "green" issues from around the world. Am also a not-so-secret Barca fan and love getting game updates.

If you have any more suggestions about interesting/useful/bizarre Ghana related Tweeps to follow, or wish to add your own twitter ID and Ghana interest, go for it in the comments below.

Everyone who comments has a chance to win a copy of our Ghana Travel Guide. Yep. As simple as adding your Twitter ID. Add someone else's too if you think readers might be interested: one or two or three...whatever you like. Bonus points if you retweet this post with @gaylepescud in the tweet.

Look forward to giving away a free Ghana travel guide or maybe two or three ;).

And, I look forward to meeting new Tweeps to follow myself. :)

EDIT: 26 August, 2010

Hello and a big thank you to those who commented in the Ghana guide giveaway.
@MacJordan: We should do a long list of twitterers! Let’s start.
We shall see if we can bring a long list to our blog readers.
Twitter: f you’re new to twitter and wondering what all the #(hash) signed words mean, you can look up www.twittonary.com which explains a lot of twitter terminology. Thanks @IndolentFop
If you’re still reading, the @ sign indicates a Twitter users name on twitter.
As for me, I’m plain old @gaylepescud…For our other site G-lish it is @glishnews
I found it very difficult to choose winners since this is, after all, our first competition—but not our last.

Because we feel like being generous, we decided to give a Ghana guide to everyone who made the effort to comment on this post—as per the competition guidelines!
Congrats. We hope you enjoy the guide. Don’t forget to email or comment with feedback.

I shall be contacting you by twitter ID or email today/tomorrow with how to access the guide materials.

We’ll be giving away more prizes here soon, especially fun Bolga basket stuff. “You have to be in it to win it,” as they say. If you want a chance to win prizes yourself please join in.

We’ll also be giving lots of great goodies away at G-lish, the sister site. www.g-lish.org for people all over the world. So go check it out and get ready to win…our popular recycled Bolga baskets among other things.

Change by Volunteer Design

I have been showing a great series of photos taken by a photographer who visited Ghana in 2009 to work on a community building project. I'd like to start showing some of the photos from the project so that you can get a strong picture of the life of a community volunteer in Ghana.

You can read the full history of the program in this article, Giving, By Design, in Mimian Magazine. Here is a short excerpt:

"Ghana Design/Build, the resulting program founded by Della-Piana, remains the longest running summer studio workshop in the department of architecture and interior design. Since 1998, interdisciplinary teams of Miami students have completed nine buildings — including a children’s library, a marketplace, a community center, and in 2008, a computer facility."

The article continues:

"To prepare for their six weeks in the West African country, students attend a series of classes about its culture, language, and politics. Upon arrival, they visit Abrafo-Odumase and are introduced at an “opening ceremony.” Before embarking on a two-week tour of the country, students sketch the future job site. While on the road, they create multiple designs."

I enjoyed the quote beneath the photograph series by Adam Nelson on this project that reads: "100 degree heat, an African sun that feels about 6 in from your face, and not a power tool in sight. ready/set/build!"

The sun does feel about 6 inches from your face here in Ghana. Imagine building by hand! That's how it is for virtually every building I've ever witnessed being built. That's how it was for these students too.

“Once we get the go-ahead from the chiefs, we just start building,” says J.E. Elliott, professor of architecture and interior design, who has served as the faculty sponsor since 2006. “There is no bureaucracy. Our building permit is a pick and a shovel.” Read the full story in Mimian Magazine.

Have a look at the whole building project series here at super.heavy's photostream on Flickr.

Upper East Photo Journey

Now, seeing as though this is now my "home" town, I have few excuses for not showing my own photos. These, however, are not mine. These photos were taken by photographer Adam Nelson. You can check out all his Ghana photos at super.heavy on Flickr.

The first image is of the Bolga "craft village". While it does "somehow" resemble a village, they do not actually demonstrate any art or craft-making here, unfortunately. I feel it's a lost opportunity for Bolga craftspeople, given the huge amount of space available there. If you do want to see weaving of cloth in action, head to the Bolga market, about 800 m from here. You can also ask around to visit basket makers in Bolga if you're interested. 

The photo below is from the Single Mothers Association located here in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region. 

And in the photo below is a demonstration of "winnowing" the rice which basically helps remove rubbish and any unwanted particles from the rice.

You can read more about the Upper East Region of Ghana here. And then, finally, many people do visit Paga crocodile ponds which are on the border with Burkina Faso. Check out this photo. If you ever wanted to get this cosy with a crocodile, then Paga is certainly the place to do it. It's about 45 minutes north of Bolga by taxi or an hour by tro.

Mole National Park Photo Journey

The images here are courtesy of the collection of photos taken by photographer Adam Nelson. You can check out all his Ghana photos at super.heavy on Flickr.

This particular post focuses on Mole National Park in the Northern Region of Ghana. The park is a 4 hour bus ride on public transport (Metro bus) from Tamale. If you have your own 4WD, it's about 7 hours from Kumasi or 2 hours from Tamale, depending on how muddy the roads are.

The next photo shows very much how Mole looks right now, in the wet season. The lake is full and the landscape is bright green. You have a good chance of viewing elephants playing and swimming in the waterhole from ground level. 

 
One of the joys of visiting Mole National Park during the rainy season is this: elephants 10 or 20 feet before you, a mesmerising spectacle.

If you stay at Mole Motel, which is located inside the park environs, this is the view from the escarpment where the hotel and its restaurant and poolside area is located.

Secret to Surviving Ghana

Ghana would flash alongside despots and endangered gorillas on the international media’s Africa radar if peace and friendliness were newsworthy. But Ghana, a nation where followers of all faiths—Christians, Muslims, and Traditionalists, all—work, eat, joke, and vote together, displaying a remarkably high level of mutual acceptance as they enjoy their constitutional right to Freedom of Worship, is still a bit of a secret. If there’s one thing we’re not good at, though, it’s keeping secrets that really ought to be shared, which is why we decided to write this story.

The idea took form during one of many spontaneous trotro journeys. I had been “sweating like a pregnant toad”, as Ghanaians say, in velvet-heavy humidity on the hot side of an old, rusting lorry-bus (trotro), while a lay-preacher shouted a revival-style sermon above my head for three hours before we set off on a four hour journey that unfolded, like a market lady’s wrap skirt, to seven hours, because we broke down. It was while five men were simultaneously shouting at the driver who was banging on a piece of smoking engine, and every other man stood peeing along the road facing the jungle halfway to Kumasi, and one proposed for my hand in marriage, that the three Ghana survival essentials whacked me over the head. It was a perfect Zen-coma-trotro moment, a state you must enter to endure and rationalize the numerous near death experiences and delays that every road journey absolutely guarantees. I thought I best mention these survival essentials now, before we get started; you might want to find another country. Although, this advice applies in varying degrees to travel across all of Africa and most developing nations.

Right. So, when a man (or woman) peeing along the side of the highway proposes marriage to you midstream—the eleventh in two days (granted, the other ten weren’t peeing)—and all you want to do yourself is pee (but you can’t because all eyes are on you), and get where you had to be—three hours ago, you need Patience, with a very, very capital P. You might point out that there is no middle road when it comes to capitalisation, and that’s how it is with this most important of attributes. In fact, since you made it to the end of this paragraph, you might actually have what it takes.

Now, if you’re over thirty you’ll remember waking up early to catch the best cartoons, and how much Boy George wanted to be Madonna, and how much Jon Bon Jovi just wanted their hair, and all the chores you did to save up for those feather hair-clip thingies and stone-washed denim jeans. Well, Whoa-oh! We’re halfway there-ere…Whoa-oh!...because the second most important survival attribute is (not an ability to spout useless 80s pop trivia but, rather) a Scooby-Doo-like, Dogged Determination. (By the way, if you’re under thirty, you’re probably not still singing “whoah-oh, living on a prayer-er…” Anyway, whatever age, you’ll be saying your prayers in Ghana—especially on the road.)

The determination is because you will encounter many obstacles along your journey. This is a good thing. It may be locating the vehicle (among thousands) to take you where you wish to go (which may not necessarily be where you end up), or finding the office that processes the twenty-third piece of paper you need to legitimize your stay, or finding a copier to copy the twenty-third piece of paper since the office (now you have finally located it) has a photocopier but it’s “finished” (not working), or not giving up when the internet crashes for the fifteenth time in an hour and you still haven’t opened one email.

It’s more a tortoise than a hare kind of determination, if that helps, because nothing gets done fast, except switching channels to the UEFA Championship, or the English Premiere League, or any Blackstars game.

And, finally, the third and final attribute, which is as much about survival as preventing malaria, is this: A-Steve-Martin-meets-Billy-Connelly-meets-Queen-Latifah-who-meets-The-Queen-of-England, royally-bonkers, whacked-out Sense Of Humour; after the fifty-fifth, breaking-down-pee-copier-email incident, you will need it.

In fact, your journey’s sub-theme could be: Learning How to Laugh No Matter What. Because there is the poverty you’re not going to believe when you first encounter it. Poverty is not “funny haha”, but life is, and the ladies selling strings of beads from shiny aluminium bowls balanced on their heads, and the elderly woman selling freshly charred plantains from her smoking brazier by the open sewer, or the children who shout “obruni!” when they spot you every few feet, or the men or women you promise to marry if they agree to be husband/wife number seventeen, will be shaking with laughter.

If you are not naturally blessed with the three attributes, you have two choices:

1. Cultivate them very quickly, or

2. Try Europe instead. Apparently the London underground only keeps you waiting an hour on a bad day. It’s up to you. Look. I don’t know much, but I do know that life in Ghana is nothing if not wildly unpredictable. It is certainly not “neat” or “conventional”: Japan is neat; France is conventional; Ghana is anything but.

Right? Now we can begin. Although, this is not exactly the beginning. And it’s definitely not conventional. Patience, trust me.

And so your journey begins...

This piece is the introduction to our Ghana guide. 

ps. those are palm nuts in the photo. Palm nut oil, pressed from the nuts, forms the basis of almost all roadside cooking in Ghana. You will see palm nuts spread on the sides of highways drying. If you happen to care for an African grey parrot, they love them! Image by by super.heavy. I urge you to check out his Ghana collection of photos.

Helpful Ghana travel info

If you are new here, you might want to jump to some of the pages first.

This page has a list of our top Ghana articles in various categories. You will find a lot of helpful and (hopefully) fun info about travel in Ghana.

This one is all about the guide.

The others are about us and how to contact us. You can see the links at the top right side.

Happy weekend and end of July!

Prizes and Thank Yous

This is a quick note to say thank you for the various emails and messages we've recently received about the baskets that we began to showcase recently, the recycling series, and also the Ghana travel guide too.

Sometimes I think no one reads this blog and then a flood of emails arrives and I realise we have one or two readers :)!

We'll be starting a whole bunch of fun stuff shortly, including inviting guest posts from you, readers, as well as prizes including the baskets you see on here and other prizes.

The guest posts theme will be "My Ghana" and is open to your interpretation. You can write anything you like, with a few limitations. I'll be posting the details very soon. The upside for you is exposure--we get 4000 visitors a month--with links back to your site. I am even creating a new page with each entry listed so new readers can find the posts easily.

So, start thinking about what you may want to write or show in images if you're interested in guest posting here.

And stay tuned for the prizes announcements! Our Ghana travel guide will certainly be one of the prizes.

Read more about the Ghana guide here.

Trashy in Name Only

I referred to an article written by Emily Bowers in the first of this series about the plastic problem in Ghana. I encourage you to read the entire article, Burkina Faso Women Spin Trash Into Exports. While the article refers to Burkina Faso, it could just as easily refer to Ghana. There’s not much difference in the circumstances she describes.


Here’s a little more of what she wrote, in case you don’t read the whole story.


Across Africa, women are becoming more involved in environmental initiatives, spurred on by role models such as Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement, which started in Kenya to encourage women to plant trees and expanded into other African countries.


In 2004, Maathai brought environmental activism in Africa to the forefront, winning the Nobel Prize for Peace and encouraging other women and girls to take the lead in environmental protection. She also created economic opportunity for women as she paid them to reforest Kenya.”


The women began crocheting plastic bags into dolls and they now export the dolls and other products to the USA from their cooperative in Burkina Faso, as well as selling to local tourists.


“Lamizana also showed off a washing board, formed from melted plastic and molded into a typical, if old-fashioned, board. At their booth in the Village Artisanal de Ouagadougou, their main clientele are browsing tourists, who will pay a few dollars for the smaller items and $20 or more for a large bag.”

The same type of activities have been happening here in Ghana for some years now. Trashy Bags in Accra are selling “recycled Bolga baskets” in their store in Accra made from woven, recycled plastic bags and cloth. These baskets use traditional basket making techniques but use recycled materials.

Each basket uses 170 pure water plastic bags on average, and about 1.7 yards of recycled cloth, that would otherwise be burnt along with the plastic.

You can visit their show room in Accra and buy recycled Bolga baskets and Trashy Bag’s products like shoulder bags and purses by catching a taxi to Dzorlu and visiting the showroom. Click our header image or the side bar links for directions to the Trashy Bags showroom in Accra.