Asamankese - Markets and more !

I know I committed to updating my blog at least once a week and it is heard to imagine that three weeks has slipped by and I only have two weeks left in Ghana.

All is well, the weather continues to be hot, the dry winds blow dirt all around the city and there is still lots of traffic everywhere you go.  This statement is a fact not a complaint! I think I am too Canadian to ever adjust to extremely hot weather every day, and definitely learning some lessons around clothing that works best in hot weather.

This past weekend I travelled to Asamankese with Melissa (university student from Kingston Ontario) and Jo-Ann, a fellow volunteer at ABANTU. Asamankese is the village where Melissa is teaching for 8 weeks as part of her University Program.
  
I left the guest house at 5:30am in the morning to catch a Tro-Tro, I have mentioned before how bad traffic is on Saturday mornings. Evan the young man that looks after the guest house walked me to the Tro Tro as he was so nervous about me embarking on a journey to a place where I could not remember the name. My linguistic skills are not improving in Ghana, Twi is not an easy language to pick up as the sounds are not familar.

It is hard to imagine but it took almost 20 minutes to get a Tro Tro there were so many people out and about, finally got the right one to " Circle" where we agreed to meet. I got off at the Overhead stop at Circle but couldn't find the girls. Thank goodness for cell phones, we started phoning each other to try and figure out where we were. You would think it would be easy to spot three white women in a very large crowd of black people. Finally after 30 minutes we discovered our mutual locations, met up and bought breakfast snacks of fresh rolls, papaya and plantain chips for the long drive.




Melissa and Jo-Ann with FanIce

We need this in Canada - portable icecream sold everywhere, you just tear the corner off the package and suck in the contents! Thank goodness I was only introduced to this refreshing treat recently. It also comes in chocolate or yogurt flavour and a FanDango which is frozen juice.





Although the town is less than 100 km the roads are very bad so travel is slow, we finally arrived in Asamankese at about 10:30.



 Typical building that would include residences, small business and the stand in the front is where you buy top up's for your cell phone.

Vodafone, Tiga, MTN or Airtel, they are sold at small stands everywhere from 1 cedi and up. It is very convenient, cheap and efficient!

View of the street as we are walking to the market.

Need your hair styled, these small shops are also everywhere and open at all hours.













After a short tour, some red red and grilled plantain ( soooooooo good!) we went off to explore the market. It was such a fun experience, less crowded than Accra and all of the vendors and children were so excited to meet us and have their pictures taken that we spent about three hours around the market.

Anything you can imagine needing you can buy at the market; fabric, cosmetics, kitchen and cooking tools, herbs for cooking and medicinal purposes and of course food; fresh and local. I have adapted quite well to buying my vegetables and food on a daily, based on what is available. When electricity and fridgeration are neither  available or  reliable you are commited to purchasing local and fresh or canned.                                                                       

This market woman was so excited to have her picture taken, she was dancing, smiling and laughing; it was so fun!














Different varieties of rice and beans for sale.

These two boys are selling plantain which is used to grill, dried plantain chips or cooked and mixed with cassova for fou fou.

Top right corner, bowls from coconut shells
Bottom left medicinal herbs
Bottom right, straw like materiel used for washing dishes










A variety of dried and smoked fish usually used in making the base broth for soups, stews and bean dishes such as red, red.








I have to stop now; I haven't even talked about our trek up the mountain to visit a couple of families, our football game with kids or church on Sunday morning. It takes a long time to upload pictures and while I am writing and uploading pictures I am not getting my work done.

I hope you are all well and I will finish this story tomorrow.