Fruit Lovin'

Tweet

Where have you been all my life

My tongue unsweetened without you

My adrenalin unpumping without you

My stomach empty without you

Can we stay together for the rest of our lives

Dear shea tree say yes

Say yes and let me share the rest of my life with you

Hiding inside your porous bossom

Ntikumah-2014 AD

Well there goes my sad attempt at ever being a poet. This love poem is dedicated to the shea tree. Which you can find many here in the Upper west region. I have always know shea butter because its quite common in Ghana but i didnt know it was produced from shea fruit . The fruit is delicious now i'm hating on the people living in the north from for hiding such a nice fruit from me but anyway i am happy to have a nice experience eating it.

     

Shea trees are everywhere

A goat stuck on a shea tree guess what it was looking for?

Went fruit picking myself

Kids enjoying the fruit "after school snack"

Woman drying out fruit to make shea butter


The second fruit i'm loving is called the "yellow berry" but i 'm sure is just a convenient name given to it. To me it looks like a ripe golden cocoa pod so i've also christened it "mini cocoa". I love this fruit because all though it tastes a little sour, it has a refreshing after taste.  

"Yellow berry"

Love the rich golden colour 

Do you know the actual name of this fruit?

Hunter Satisfaction or Animal Cruelty...

Tweet
Well this is what led up to it. On a warm day whiles sitting under a shea tree (so many of them here) i was approached by a young man wearing shorts and a shirt with a locally made gun hanging behind him. We exchanged pleasantries as usual and that is where my knowledge of the local dialect ends ( called "birifo" by the way). I therefore called a fellow teacher to explain to me whats he's saying. Apparently he's a hunter who's shot something, would we like to see it and may be buy it? Yeah sure i said, he opened his sack and LO!!!

Sad case of animal cruelty i said. 'not at all' hunter and teacher say in unison. Hunter says 'you don't know how wicked monkeys are they destroy the planted crops during planting season and eat a lot of farm crops during harvesting'
Disclaimer: I didn't buy the monkey though i have heard it is a delicacy...
So question is will you buy a dead monkey?

The Perfect Smock

Tweet Anytime i go to Wa (Wa is the regional capital of the Upper West a post on the town coming soon)  i see a lot of shops which sell smocks of all kinds. Smocks for men, women and children and honestly i have always wanted to get one because it looks good on people especially when we go to church on Sunday. So i went to town to find the perfect smock. A smock is made by weaving threads on a loom to form the cloth then sold to the designers who in turn cut and create them into nice pieces of wearable art.

One of my personal favourites

These are photos of a few shops i visited, most smocks had two-tone colour design.

Weavers weaving the threads to make the cloth

A craftsman busy at work

This is the perfect fit for me...

A Market Day

Tweet
I have previously talked about Wechiaw, the district capital of the Wa west district of the Upper west region. Being the district capital it has quite a vibrant market on market days. Market days are days set aside for various communities and towns to bring their goods to a specific market to trade. The influx of traders from other villages and even some regions especially the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana makes the market day a spectacle.
How do you know today is a market day? Well simple, there is a market day every week but it is not fixed at a specific day say Monday or Saturday but rather it happens in reversing order as in if today say Friday is a market day then the following market day will be next week thursday, therefore Wednesday of the following week is another market day. It reverses backwards till we get to the original day Friday.
Checked out the market

Market overview 

Thatched roof, wooden supported structure serve as shed

The butchers

Pounding 'fufu' the Upper West way

Fufu with meat

                               

Time to eat,. don't be deceived this is not groundnut soup its called 'nneri'

Hippopotamus Affair

Tweet

Have you heard of Wechiaw? no? Ok don't worry because i had not heard of it myself. Well Wechiaw is the capital of Wa west district, located in the Upper west region of Ghana it also the last town in the western part of the district. Wechiaw is famous for having a hippopotamus sanctuary where you can go and see untamed hippopotamus as well as a bird sanctuary which is very pleasurable to view in the morning. I currently live in a village called Lassia where i'm a national service teacher The village i i'm in is not very far from the hippopotamus sanctuary therefore myself together with a group of friends decided visit the place.

On the road with our good old driver

Reception area of the hippopotamus sanctuary where i got to do my crazy pose with a skull of a hippopotamus

My first canoe ride ever

Canoe selfie

Fellow excursionists

Crossing this river takes you to Burkina Faso, Ghana's neighbour to the north

It was a warm day therefore the hippopotamus were swimming in the river and since they were not tame you were not allowed to go close, just watch from a safe distance the camera was not powerful enough to capture them.

There is a bird sanctuary where you can spot varieties of birds early in the morning or evening

Evening super caught in the Volta

BYE!!!

If you enjoyed this blog post and would like to visit this tourist site site click here for all the information you need...

A Traditional Funeral

Tweet

I have been in the Upper west region Wa west district for about 7 months now, i have been to a couple of traditional funerals which i might say for someone who is not used to the culture is quite a spectacle. There is drumming from the time a person passes away till the day he or she is buried. Funerals are usually two day affairs which starts in the afternoon on a scheduled ground where the deceased is laid in state usually under a tree. Immediate family sit near by and receive condolences and welcome sympathisers.

Things i  found interesting at the funeral grounds

1. Everybody comes in normal attire ( except immediate family who usually black smocks)
2. Most people brought their own chair or stool
3. Traders from the village market bring their products like vegetables, food, provisions etc to the funeral grounds to sell 

                     

Guest arriving at funeral grounds

                   

Musical instruments ready

Drumming begins

Traditional three legged stools mourners bring to funerals

                              

Lets dance!!!

There is a lot of drumming and dancing in the later part of the day after most guests have arrived. The call to dance is usually detected by by hitting the high pitch on the xylophone whiles the drummer plays at a fast pace. The dance which starts in the latter part of the afternoon is done by jostling ones body vigorously back and forward whiles stamping the feet on the ground. I tried doing the dance and i must add it's quite intense. The drumming and dancing continue till dark whiles the corpse is buried close to his former residence.