Bolga Walking

There is a peculiar consequence of being a short-term aid worker in Africa. When you have been picked up and dropped off at various places along the way (Accra airport to hotel, hotel to airport, airport to Tamale airport, airport to Bolga office, Bolga office to hotel, Bolga hotel to Sirigu, etc) you really have no idea where you are. You don't know which was the town is, where the market is (if there is a market), if/where there are banks or restaurants or whatever.

If I may say so, I have a highly developed sense of direction, but when I arose on Saturday with no plans in place for someone to take me somewhere, I was in a bit of a bind. I wasn't even sure what to ask the hotel staff. Where is the Barclay's? Is there a supermarket? Where is the MTN store? And the real challenge is that I would have to understand the answer and tell a taxi driver as he slowly rolled past looking for fares.
So I walked to town. I knew, approximately, which way the center of Bolga was from my hotel. It's the rainy season here, but it is still dreadfully hot and humid for a Bay Area resident like me. And I think I must have walked three or four miles, because it was about an hour when I reached an intersection and recognized the ACDI/VOCA office that I had been chauffeured to and from on Tuesday afternoon.

So I bought a few things (cookies, some water), asked the name of the junction ("SSNIT Junction", pronounced "snit"), and hopped in a taxi back to the hotel.

Taxi ridin'

Sunday, I took a taxi to "snit" and then continued the process. I walked another hour, this time along the Tamale road, then circled back through town to "snit" again.

As a result, I'm finally getting a feel for the place where I'm living. The place where I'm working is another story.

Tamale-Navrongo Road

Typical street in Bolga town (though empty for Sunday)

First, Bolga is pretty large. It's a junction town on the main road from central Ghana to Ougadougou, so the main road is quite large (four lanes divided, in most places). There are several large banks, all the main roads are paved, there's a supermarket (no food, they sell tvs and beds and blenders) and at least a half-dozen large mobile phone stores. It's hard to get a feel for the relative prosperity of the place--on the one hand there are lots of stores and business being conducted. But on the other I still haven't seen the prevalence of food that is apparent in Cameroon, for example.

I did finally find some bananas. Five small bananas for one cedi, which is about 50 cents. So, here is a picture of my ten cent banana. It tastes good, sweeter than our Panama bananas (Cavendish?), but pretty dainty. No worries, I'll have a giant plate of rice at the hotel for dinner.

Ten-cent banana