In Ghana, the concept of time is not quite the same as back in the UK. "I'm coming" can literally mean the person is around the corner, or it can mean they are an hour away. Living in London for the past two years I've readily been part of the crowd that sighs and shakes their heads when the tube is 8 minutes late - "8 minutes?! What a disaster!". So needless to say, I've found the Ghanaian attitude towards time has taken some adjusting to.

But I've managed to use these spare minutes to write my blog. At the moment I'm waiting for a lift from the local election candidate to a PTA (Parent Teacher Association) coalition meeting in Ullo, a far-flung area of the Jirapa district. He has just called to assure me that he is on his way…

I've now been living in Jirapa for nearly three weeks. My daily routine has changed pretty dramatically so I thought I would take the opportunity to describe my new surroundings. Firstly, Jirapa is not exactly an urban hive of activity. I like living here very much, so without meaning to be derogatory, I feel I can be frank and say that Jirapa is in the back-arse of nowhere. Even Ghanaian policemen are known to get upset when they are transferred here. In terms of travelling, it's probably about as far from home as I can get. To reach the UK I would have to travel for an hour on a crowded tro-tro to Wa, then get the 12-hour overnight bus to Accra, then wait for the only flight back to London, which leaves at 8pm and takes several hours.

The main focus of Jirapa is a crossroads, where a roundabout has recently been installed. The word 'roundabout' is a loose explanation; its several tyres stacked on top of each other, painted red and white, with a flag stuck in the middle. I think this might be the most exciting development in Jirapa in the past year. Apart from the juju (witchcraft) murder the other week where the unfortunate man's liver and heart was eaten…

I live a five minute cycle from the centre, in a house which is painted blue inside with blue chairs and tables. (I feel very lucky that blue is my favourite colour). I live with another VSO volunteer called Ellie. She is lovely and has helped me settle into life here. Most mornings I'm woken up around 6.30am by a variety of animals: the neighbouring cockerel, a flock of very noisy guinea fowl, and our three-legged dog Silver and her puppy barking. Occasionally - if I'm really fortunate - a lost goat wanders into the garden causing the dogs to go completely ballistic with excitement.

At night the cicadas are really loud, but I've got used to the sound now. Multitudes of stars shine brightly and when the moon comes up it is big and low and yellowy-pink in the sky. The rainy season has nearly finished which means there is green, lush vegetation everywhere. The roads are sometimes tarmac but mostly red, dusty, dirt-tracks so when the occasional truck rumbles past the dust gets kicked into the air in great clouds. The temperature has been warm and heavy most of the time, except when thunder and rain brings a welcome few hours of coolness. In short, it's a beautiful place to live.

In the UK, my use of water is something I had only fleetingly considered, for example when the media reports a hosepipe ban or when an environmental campaign encourages me to put a brick in the cistern and turn off the tap when brushing my teeth. In contrast, water has now become a major daily concern in my life.

Our water runs from a pipe into a big polytank outside. It only runs for a few hours every couple of days so if the tank is low we have to leave the outside tap on for a while and make sure we turn it off before it overflows. We have several taps in the house; however most of these are nothing more than decorative objects. There are only two working taps inside, one on the wall of each bathroom. The same pipe is also connected to the shower above. I was overjoyed to find I had a flushing toilet and a working (cold) shower; many volunteers don't. But cold showers aren't really a bad thing when the weather is so hot. We regularly fill up the massive blue water bucket in the kitchen from the tap in the bathroom. I also have an emergency bucket of water in my bathroom just in case the water stops running. As a VSO volunteer I'm incredibly fortunate when it comes to water. Many local people collect their water from a borehole; the pumps aren't always nearby and some of the women have to walk a long way. As a westerner I have never appreciated how difficult, time-consuming and exhausting it is to heave buckets of water around until I came here…and I only have to carry buckets from the bathroom to the kitchen.

We also have electricity in our house. Although it will probably come as no surprise that 'lights out' happens fairly often in all towns in the Upper West region. It's always advisable to have your phone fully charged; the last thing you want is low phone battery, no electricity and some emergency on your hands. Having said that, the phone network is regularly down too. Many Ghanaians have a phone (or two) which has space for multiple SIM cards. Ghanaians will often have three or more numbers on different networks. This can be quite confusing when friends ring on a different number and instantly expect you to know who they are! But it quickly gets around the problem of bad phone signal.

In the short time I have been living here, I have come to the conclusion that it is rare to have water, electricity, internet and phone signal all working at the same time. The best you can hope for is that none of them are off long enough to cause more than a minor inconvenience.

I was planning on writing about food and cooking in this blog but that can wait for another time. I'll just say that I'm rapidly becoming an expert in '101 ways to cook with tomatoes'!

Work is going well but the pace is much slower than in the UK. I have been to lots of different meetings, the majority of which include sitting on a wooden bench in the shade of a tree and drinking an obligatory calabash of the local fermented alcohol - pitou. (If you're interested, it tastes a bit like scrumpy cider). I have quickly learnt to eat a solid breakfast of porridge before attending meetings. I imagine the PTA meeting today will be no different…

Alice x