Merry Christmas from Paul in Ghana

I finished school for Christmas last Thursday, so for the time being I have a lot of spare time. I will not be teaching again until the 12th January which is quite annoying because I am running out of things to do in Kumasi. On Christmas Eve I have been invited out for a drink by the people at the office, which may or may not involve being given food. I hope so because Joliff rice was mentioned and we do not often get that with our host family. I have no idea what I will be doing on Christmas day. We will stay with the host family I think, but they have made no mention of what they are actually doing on the day. We then aim to go to Busia on the 30th December and spend New Years Eve on a beach. Other than that it is fairly empty.

On Saturday I went Christmas shopping in the market. Before this point I have always stayed on the outskirts, but on this occasion we decided to brave going right into the centre. Kejetia market is the largest in west Africa and very crowded. The narrow passageways do not help and it is always a very slowly process going down each alleyway. They seem to be attempting to sell everything, most of which is completely useless. For example there was one passageway in which everyone was selling random things which they had packaged up in a fancy way. They had ten cans of coke wrapped up, as well as soap and other standard household items. We tried to avoid the foodstalls because of the different smells of meat, spices and fish. However we ended up in one part of the market where there were live chickens in very cramped conditions. The selling of live chickens is not unusual on the streets, but so many in such a small space gave a pretty horrid smell. As for the conditions, it is obvious that animal welfare groups do not have a very loud voice in Ghana. In the end we bought a handbag for the owner of the house, some jewelry for the housekeeper (whether it is tasteful or not we have no idea, we just picked the first lot we could find for less than a cedi) and a toy mobile phone that flashes for the little girl. I think that should probably suffice, especially as we are not expecting anything in return.

On Sunday we went to a hotel where they had a swimming pool. For 5 cedi we were allowed to use the hotel’s swimming pool for as long as we liked. It was refreshing and good to get a break from the hot conditions. I think it is the first time I have ever been sunbathing on the 21st December. I really hope your jealous.

Christmas seems to be a much more low key event in Ghana. I have seen the odd Christmas decoration for sale on the streets and we were even able to buy some wrapping paper to wrap up the presents. But we have asked different people what they do on Christmas day and most people do not seem to know. Whilst they do know it is Christmas time, I think it is most unlikely that it will snow!!

Merry Christmas
From Paul