Water Bags

In Europe the drinking water is either in bottles or from the tap. Here there are bottles and the tap water as well (but only Africans drink from the tap since it is not safe for us foreigners to drink), but here they have something we don’t have ins Switzerland: water bags! A water bag is a square thick plastic bag that has half a liter of water in it!
So how do you drink it? You bite a small whole into the corner of the bag and then drink the water in the bag. It sounds really easy, but it actually really hard to bite a small whole into the bag with your teeth and not spill any water (we have spill water on ourself (and the floor) dozens of times!). The water bags are really cheap (about 3 rappen a piece) and you can find them everywhere! So you are you can always drink fresh (and usually cold) water where ever you are.
However, there is one major problem with the water bags: if your drop or rip them, you have water everywhere! We have accidentally dropped a water bag on the floor, where it then burst like a water balloon. So you have to be very careful not to drop or squash them! You also have to be careful not to spill your water bag once you have opened it (since you cannot close it) . But in a whole, water bags are a really cool and practical way to keep/drink water! Also they are really fun to drink from :-) . We will miss them when we come back to Switzerland!

Cape Coast

On the 1st of March we headed to the ocean to a place called Cape Coast. Since both of us don’t drive here we had to take a bus. There is a service here in Ghana called Intercity STC (bus company). We drove to the bus terminal with a taxi. After we bought our tickets (which were about 8 Sfr for a 4 hour drive!) we got on to a nice airconditioned bus. We drove for about 4 hours until we reached Cape Cost bus terminal. From the bus terminal we took a taxi to the hotel.
The hotel was located in Elmina which is a small fishing village by the sea. Only 25,000 people live in Elmina, but it is the oldest settlement (a village) in Ghana. Also, Elmina was first area of Ghana which was colonized by the Europeans in the year 1421. It was the center for the trade of gold, ivory and later slaves during that time. Under Portuguese rule in 1482 it became the center for slave trade in Ghana. Elmina Castle was where the slave trade took place. It was also a important supply point for explorations. Bartholomeus Diaz and Christopher Columbus both used the castle to stay at on their journeys and for getting new supplies. You can still see and visit the castle’s museum.
But now Elmina is a fishing village. You can buy everything from fish to lobster to squids on the market. This market was extremely busy! The market was packed with people selling, trading and buying fish (also there was A LOT of fish at the market! It smelt great…). The harbor in the lagoon was full of boats going in and out all day and night.
Elmina is also really close to a rain forest national park called Kankum National Park. We did not go there on our trip to Cape Coast, but we heard it is really nice! There you can see elephants, buffalos, wild pigs, antelopes and other African animals if you’re lucky. This park also has a Canopy Walk which is a bridge that is in the tree tops! So you are walking up in the tree tops looking down through the rainforest! Cool! After staying 3 days in Elmina we travelled back to Kumasi. We took the bus (which was an hour late!) back to Kumasi. We got back to our place exhausted after that very busy and long day!

Washing our Clothes by Hand

Back home in Switzerland it’s rare to find a household without a washing machine. Here in Ghana it’s the opposite: it’s rare to find a household with a washing machine. The reason being the cost of the machine itself; however, more importantly it’s more effective to wash out the dirt when washing by hand. The surrounding we live in has a lot of sand and wind, therefore the sand/dirt tends to stick to the clothes like glue. In order to keep the clothes clean and wash out all the sand/dirt, it’s easier to wash the clothes by hand. It’s not as easy though as it might seem. Ibi’s sister Samira showed us how the wash by hand. When she does it looks really easy since she has been doing it for years! But when we tried we struggled at first. However, after practicing it a couple times we are slowly but truly getting the hang of it.
Here, Asia (Ibi’s niece) does the washing for most of the house. It’s quiet impressive watching her do it. She does it fast and effective. She is 18 years old and still goes to school, however, she washes the clothes every Sunday and cooks for the whole house sometimes. It’s admirable how she manages to do all of this, while still going to school.
It takes us a lot longer than her, but we will continue practicing until we will perfect our washing skills!

Different Regions in Ghana

There are 10 regions in Ghana. Regions are similar to a kantons in Switzerland, but they are a lot bigger!
Here are the different regions:
- Upper West Region
- Upper East Region
- Northern Region
- Brong Ahafo Region
- Ashanti Region (Kumasi)
- Eastern Region
- Western Region
- Central Region
- Greater Accra Region
- Volta Region

Fufu

One traditional food that is served throughout the country is fufu. It is a dough type food served with a soup. It is a food that can be found almost everywhere at every chop bar. It is called a chop bar because the way to properly eat fufu is to “chop” it with the thumb and the two forefingers and then place into the mouth and swallow. How is fufu made? Lets first take a look at the ingredients. In the southern parts of Ghana it is commonly made with cassava (roots from a plant found in Africa and South America) and plantain (large banana) while in the north it is made with yam.
Now lets look at how they prepare it. All of the ingredients are peeled and cut into small pieces and then boiled until fully cooked. After that all ingredients are placed into a huge wooden bowl and then pounded with a huge wooden stick until it forms a starchy ball. Next the soup has to be made.
The soup can be made using many different ingredients. The most common ones are tomatoes, garden eggs (aubergines, egg plant) and onions. Also, every soup contains one type of protein. The choices are: fish (fresh or dried), chicken and in special occasions they add dabodabo (duck), goat, cow or even antelope. So fufu can be made in a variety of ways!

The Central Market: buying clothes

Buying clothes at the central market is very different from buying clothes in Switzerland. There are no clothes shops like H&M, C&A or any shop we have in Switzerland! In the Central Market in Kumasi there is only one street to buy clothes from and there is a junction in the middle. And if you stand on the junctions and walk left, you only find place which sell clothes for boys, but if you turn right, you will only find clothes for girls! Also many of the clothes you buy, are not from stores or shops, but by people how have a stand (usually a table) by the side of the road. So every morning they bring all their clothes to sell to their stand and take home all the clothes they did not sell at the end of the day. There are stores as well, but they are usually really small and filled to the top with clothes! And you can find almost everything on the market if you know where to look.
Also there are not fixed prices! Meaning the seller can charge you any price! But if you’re smart you will argue with the seller until you find a price you both agree on (this can take really long sometimes!). For example, I wanted to buy a soccer shirt. The man selling the shirt wanted to charge me 20 cedi (about 16 Sfr.), but I don’t want to pay so much, so after much talking we agreed on a price of 14 cedis (about 11 Sfr.)! But not all sellers want to drop their prices. With some it is easier to bargain with then others! Buying clothes always takes a long time.

Life in Ghana

Ghana does not have winter, spring, summer or fall. Instead they have rainy season and dry season. Meaning, that for one part of year it rains very very much (rainy season) or they have no rain (dry season). Right now, we are in between dry season and rainy season. However, we have so far experienced a few rain storms!
The rain storms are really fun and cool (well, at least we think so!) When it rains here, it really rains hard! The water comes down in buckets! Everything is soaked within a 1 minute. And the rain is warm; so it is like having a really big warm shower! So Alicia and I sometimes just stand in the rain for fun!
But when we have a rain storm, the electricity sometimes (usually) goes out. That means blackout! So no more lights, no TV and no more refrigerator! This is a problem when we want to cook dinner; since we have no lights, we use candlelight! We can still cook with a stove, because we have a gas stove. Cooking by candlelight can be really fun, but its not easy since you can't see very much…so the food we cook during a blackout is usually not very good (too salty fried eggs, burnt potatoes, and overcooked fish ...)…. But at least we have fun!
Rain storms are really fun, but not great when you want to cook!