When you go to a drinking spot or local 'restaurant' in Ghana, the best strategy is to first make the relevant 'hissssssss' or 'TSK TSK'-ing noise (of course) the sure fire way to get the 'bartender' (AKA 'small boy') or 'waitress's (AKA 'small girl') attention (...I never never thought I would actually hiss at another huan being at all, never mind as much as I do now!), then, instead of looking at the menu (if there even is one) and chosing what you want (or choosing what you can stomach from what is available), you ask 'what is here?'. Same goes for drinks, meals, snacks, whatever you fancy - always always always , "HSSS" "Tssk!" and when they look around at you like "what you want?!" (customer service has never been Ghana's strog point) that's when you fire it - "Please, What is here?". Looking at the menu is dangerous - it gets you all fired up for somethng you really really fancy, only to be shot down when you ask for it, and all your 5 back-up plans too! You could make your way through the whole menu before you find out what is actualy cooking out back! And time is precious when you know its going to take about 2 hours for lunch to arrive and your tummy is grumbling like an angry Ghanaian Hippo :-/!

One thing that still makes me laugh is their reply.... which usually goes along the lines of "Banku is here", "Okra stew is here", "Fanta is here", "Coke is here" and (deadpan) "Sprite (my fave) is not here". Of course, never fllippng is.

So in true Ghanaian style, I can now announce "Hannah is here!"

This kind of thing (how to find food, and someow eventually eat, in a Ghanaian spot, how to handle the hoards of screaming kids running after you down the street and climbing up your legs and pulling on your hair, how to climb in and out of a tro-tro without getting stuck half way in / out, how to ride the moto and still look cool and classy...well not like a western countryside hiker lost in Africa at least) are things I had got totally and utterly used to, and was pretty oblivious to, until Hannah's arrival prompted me to remember that much of my behaviour would now look to someone from home as quite odd, or actually plain mad.

And so, in order not to loose a good friend, I had to carefully explain why I was talking in such a strange voice (my strange 'Ghanaian English' that I have slowly developed and now use - finally finally on my way to being vaguely understood), making strange noises (TSK!) and acting in odd ways (too many to mention!), and then give some guidance on how Hannah could do the same too - some of which I think she also never expected to do in a lifetime, until she came to Africa, where somehow, everything changes...

Your boundaries shift, your comfort zone skrinks like a tiny frightened little tortoise and then expands again afew times a day depending on what crazy or insnace situations are occuring from one moment to the next, your sense of what is 'normal', 'right', and 'acceptable' becomes blurred like the boundary between one community and the next here, and your idea of what 'makes sense' becomes as wobbly as jelly. In theoretical terms there is a phase of cultural adjustment. In simple terms you go a bit mad.

When I first arrived, Hannah's trip seemed like an absolute age away, something to look forward to past what seemed back then to be long and daunting months ahead and something I wasn't expecting to come around so quickly!! I cannot believe how time is flying, and that she is actually now here! It's so lovely to have her here, and an amazing experience to share some of the crazy ways of life, and quirks of Ghanaian culture that I am sre are impossible to understand until you really come here and sample it for yourself!

We have done all kinds, and the last week has been a blur of colour, culture, food, friends, shouts of 'nasara! nasaraaaaaaaaaa!!!!!', as we have whipped round and introduced Hannah to all different aspects of life in Ghana :-).

When she first arrived I wasn't sure there would be any 'whipping around' at all for a while though, as she practically melted uner the heat before we had even got to my house (oops!). It's supposed to be rainy season, but it was absolutely scorching at about 35 degrees. Again. I know most people at home are beging for some sun at the moment, but the heat here is enough to make anyone wobbble like a weeble. The minute I saw Hannahs face start to turn a different colour (I'm not talking red sunburn style either, more like the green this-person-is-going-to-pass-out-and-throw-up-soon style) I knew we had some work to do. 1. Find shade. 2. Find woman or 'small girl' selling pure water (AKA 'puaaar waaataa!') sachets (I think I forgot to mention we drink water out of plastic bags here - very bizzare, and very tricky until you know how!). 3. Bat the children away who are crowding Hannah and desperate to know her name / where she is from / if they will give her a ball / pen / money / baby (random) 4. Attempt to tear open puaaar waaataa sachet with teeth without spilling it everywhere and making it look like we have peed ourselves. 5. Down it in one. This part takes real courage - you've gt got to simultaneously ignore the pure pastic taste of the bag and the nice sandy taste of the water (at this stage I think Hannah turned even greener than she was already) whilst squeezing it into your mouth in a way that avoids saying "I can't possibly drink from a bag withot getting it everywhere because I was broughht up in a posh place where we use cups and glasses you know!". 6. Stay firmly in shade, and repeat from step 2. Continue until either you start to need to pee (good sign! It took me about 3 weeks before I started to pee more than once a day), or you find little girls and boys hangng round your neck and dangling off your arms and you decide you need to make an escape getaway

Sound laborious, but it was all these things I had forgotten take a lot of effort to understand when you first arrive! Anyways, we got past Hannah's long 48 hour journey to get here (topped off with my plan to wander aimlessly around Bolga in the mid day heat mid-tro journeys in order to buy some precious yummy potatoes on the way home - the silly things we start to do for things we can't get in Zebilla!), past the insane heat and the sun and the first few blurry days of acclimatisation (when Hannah said it was all she could do to sit in a chair and just physically 'be there', all be it for about 5 minutes before having to go and lie down again) and past the Ghanaian confusion over her vegetarian diet - "you don't eat meat?!!!", "no", "then have some chicken!", "er, no, I dont eat chicken", "then fish, of course fish!", "well actually no sorry I don't...". Let's just say thank god for Red Red, about the only veggie thing Ghanaians cook that tastes better than plain rice and a blob of stew!, and we made it to some fun times in Zebilla!

We wandered the quiet and serene markets and enjoyed the chilled vibe. I'm not being sarcastic, we went on non-market day in the end, which turns out to beequally nice as busy market day just that you can leave with your mind not completely frazzled and you can buy what you came for instead of being completely sidetracked by every Paulena, Ayaago and Hariya (Ghanain Tom d*** and Harry) and coming out with bags full of stuff you've no iea what to do with!). We introduced Hannah to all the friendly, and very curious faces about town who were super surprised and very excited to see a new 'nasara!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' all of whom were super welcoming and full of sweet and smiley "Zanne's!" and "Ken Ken's" ("you are welcome"s and "you are invited"s). I swear when a Ghanain smiles you can really see that they mean it. Its lovely. Through the week, we managed to visit and catch up with a few of my (growing - yippee!) group of Ghanaian friends, where Hannah was swiftly welcomed in, greeted by all members of the family, treated to an insight into their world, and then given lovely gifts of Guinea Fowl eggs and tea bread and other nice things (slightly jealous here...ha, I've been here 4 months and that's never hapened to me!). They all absolutely loved her, and everyone was really happy that finally I have company (Ghanaians do not understand the concept of living, travelling or even walking down the street alone!) which was great. The number of children swarming the house each day ballooned by about 100%, they loved tryingto catch Hannah's attention and get her to talk to them and play wth them, they' run off squeeling afterwards like they had just seen and spoken to a superstar! And we had heaps of visitors the whole week which was really nice too, reminded me of what a fabulous diverse bunch of people have decided to adopt me as their friend!

It was really nice when Hannah came out with me 'to the field'too and got to see a little bit of what I do. As it was, the whole World Vision team had decided to disappear off to Bolga (I swear there is a magic carpet hidden somewhere in the office, one minute they are there and the next minute, 'poof!' they literally disappear for dayss on end! Somethng about budgets, reports and audits, which lucky for me I don' have to get involved in yet, phew), so we had some time to ourselves to explore and enjoy what was going on around and about.

A highlight was going to an inter-schools culture show, where we got to see Ghanaian drama, dancing, drumming and hear some wonderful poetry, all on the theme of "the importance of our culture in today's changing society". There were hundreds of kids there, all clambering up onto each others shoulders and into the trees around and aout so that they could get a good view of the stage (and all taking sneaky peeks at Hannah, giggling and whispering to each other, ripples of 'nasara' echoing back from all over the place). The performances were all really fantastic, from the complete slapstick OTT comedy dramas peppered with lots of America style swearing and Nigerian screaming and shouting, clearly learnt from the rip-off DVD's they get out here and the Nigerian movies grown next door - all very dramatic!! To the colourful and entrancing African drumming and dances, and the carefully spoken poetry through which some children really expressed their feelings and experiences of being an African child. It was wonderful! And Hannah also got an insight into the strange contrasting mix of uber-formality and complete random chaos that generaly accompany all meetings and events out here whetherunder a community Mango Tree or in a posh conference hall in Accra. It was a real treat, and topped off with a trip to the local spot for a beer afterwards (in true GES staff style middle of the day beer and banku), made for a true insight into my daily life in Ghana.

We went to more schools, where Haannah was accosted with singing, clapping, shouting and general hugging, and we saw heaps of kids practising for the sports days that are coming up, running around in the mid-day heat, throwing themselves over structures set up as the high jump or the long jump, but with no matress or sand at the other side! These kids can seriously run and jump though, absolutley fearless. If you showed these set ups to a child from home and told him to run and jump over it he'd probaby run away whimpering!

We went out on my moto (woo hoo, super proud of being able to 'pick' my friend around town!), and Hannah learnt to hang onto the back. A learning curve that increased dramatically when she got on the back of a moto with an actual Ghanain. I may be a bit wobbly, but phewee Ghanaians ride fast! When I arrived at one school and was told Hannah nearly fell off because my colleague went over a ditch in the road (he called it a 'bump' but that translates to totally massive big old ditch' to us!) I just thanked God I wasn't there to see it (see note below on super protective 'senior sister' experience). My colleague, being Ghanaian and super strong and totally capable in any kind of practical falling off a moto crisis (of course), managed to literally catch Hannah and throw her back on! (Really hope her folks aren't reading this - sorry Mr and Mrs Christie if you are, I did attempt to look after Hannah, but you know how independent she can be ;-)!). Actually I wish I had been there, it would have been brilliant to catch on camera ;-).

A strange things has occured since she has been here too...I've become known as 'senior sister' to everyone around and about. Worring thing is, I have actually started taking to my new title too. Not that I like the name at all, anything with 'senior' in it is just plain straight embarassing, especially as I thought they'd never guess my age with me being white and sooo different here (or at least I was hoping!), but that I've somehow started acting like her senior sister too. This especially shows itself when Hannah is fending off the hundred of marriage proposals she has received, whic is a whole other drama in itself!

I mean, I have never known anyone get so man offers of marriage, cows, kids, in one day! iterally as soon as we leave the house the men we pass are falling over themselves to make themselves known to her, and before weve even got past the obligatory "good morning" "fine morning" "Fu duoa wela?" (how are you?) and "la fube" (I'm fine), which takes all of about 3 seconds, they are in there with the "I love you's" and the "will you marry me?"s. They've even hollered it across the fields and down the streets, into the windows of the tro-tro and out the back of lorries passing by! Pure excitement about Hannah. All I could say after a while to help her fend them off was simply "join the queue!!".

So here's to hoping she can make it through the next couple of weeks without fainting from sunstroke, catching malaria (or that her skin doesn't start to peel with all the deet we are sprayng every two minutes!), being mobbed to the ground by children, being ousted for not eating meat (or chicken or fish how dare she?!!), or being sold into marriage for a few cows (Mr & Mrs Christie - I promise I would never! Hannah's friends - how many do you reckon?), and into our holiday down on the coast let's just say hopefully this is all good experience for what is left to come!

With love from a Hannah happy Ghana,

Em

xx