Ghanain visitors to our house

Our first visitors were the Board and staff of VOLPHIG. They were all curious about this house which is really different from other houses in Ghana. The main difference is the roof terrace - most houses here have corrugated tin roof so you can imagine how hot they must be. Rich people have roof tiles. Our house is usually cool. Which is great! MP even managed to get to the roof - as he is building his own house and wanted to see whether he should have a roof terrace too!

The our old neighbour Kennedy who is also a tailor visited us after church on Sunday but he did not stay long.

Mawuko, the teenager from next door came over becasue he had been given a message that we wanted to see him. Our message was "Tell Mawuko he should visit us". He was so uncomfortable that after having some paw paw he asked for permission to leave - this is a common practice here. When we visit chiefs we have to ask permission to leave.

During the Yam festival we met Mama Atrato, Queen Mother of Ho Dome. She used to work for the Police and in her role has been to Europe for peacekeeping duties. In the picture she is the one in green cloth. Her visit was interesting because we found out about her role in the community and we told her about our travels to Mali and Burkina Faso. She was very interested to hear about the museum in Bamako as she wants to improve the museum in Ho. She wants every school in Ho to make it compulsory for students to visit the museum and so she feels that the museum should be accessible to them. None of us have been to see the museum! We tried to tell her that making anything compulsory does not work but maybe it works in Ghana? Now that we have new Government there is a lot of hope that things will change in Volta Region which has always supported NDC. So Mama Atrato feels that her museum project and others like that will get a look in. Actually even Michael feels that he may be able to make better links with the new Chief Executive of Ho Municipal Assembly who are his employers. So far they really have not shown much interest in what he can do for them. So maybe Mama Atrato may have a point there. One of the first things she said to us when we showed her around the house was that we should have barbed wire all around!! We both thought hope that this is the police woman talking about safety. We do not really want to have barbed wire, takes us back to how things are in Kenya - high walls, barbed wire and Guards.

Ricky, who owns Caravansarai came over for dinner once and really enjoyed Indian food - this is such a rarity because our experience so far has been that Ghanains will not eat or even try foods from other nations. Ricky used to work in Malawi and said that on every trip there and back he stopped over in Nairobi and he always visited Handi Restaurant in Nairobi. Both of us have been there too and can vouch for its great food.

Last year, one of our postings was about our neighbourhood and we had told you about Esther who has a shop at the corner of the main street near our old house. She still keeps in touch and one day last month she visited us after church on Sunday. It was great to have her there. She had arranged the visit the day before so I made sure I had cooked for them. Unfortunately, the vegetable soup did not go down well!! She was quite frank in saying, "Us Ghanians only like Fufu and Banku with Ghanain soup and the soup has to have meat or fish!"

Sedem enjoyed plaintain chips which he had spied on one of the shelves and pineapple as afters. Felicity had bread and my home made paw paw jam which she shared with Sedem. Pineapple was the only thing that worked for all three of them.

All this while we have been thinking none of the Ghanains have invited us back - is it due to them feeling their houses are not good enough? Or is it because it is not in their culture? We don't feel it is the house issue as some of the people we have got to know are rich. Maybe it takes time so for now it is good to have people around to our house.

Surprise meeting with Diane in Segou, Mali

First of all thank you to all the friends and family who emailed me to ask about my monkey attack. I am back to normal and not bald anymore (so Michael tells me and I will believe him this time).

On our way from Bamako to Timbuktu, we were in the last car, an hour behind the rest due to my having to see a surgeon. So the driver, Amadou, was trying to make time and was going to drive past Segou to catch up with the rest. Segou is a beautiful riverside town well known for the River Niger festival that takes place in February every year.

I wanted to go to the toilet so asked him to stop for a few minutes at Segou. So he took us to a hotel in town. As I was going through the doorway into the toilet I saw Diane waiting on the other side letteing me pass through! I just could not believe my eyes and for a few moments both of us just stared at each other! We were surprised into silence.

Then "Oh my God it's you" and hugs and more hugs. Unfortunately, Diane was on her way to Bamako to catch a plane back home, so we could not spend long sharing our stories. She had been traveling overland from Morocco and had had the time of her life plus a life changing experience. Diane was not aware that I was now living in Ghana and volunteering with VSO. I am sure she must remember me talking about doing it for years.

We were both so overcome by this surprise meeting that we did not think of taking any photos!

What are the chances of meeting someone you know in Segou and being at the same place at the same time? I have known Diane for nearly 20 years and we met while working in Islington. We went our separate ways and the last few years we always caught up with each other at WOMAD. We would exchange telephone numbers and agree to keep in touch but somehow we never managed it until the next WOMAD.

Something tells me Diane that all these chance meetings must mean we are meant to keep in touch. So let us start again via our emails.