You know it's winter in Ghana when...

One day you wake up in the morning, and it feels a bit chilly,

The next day you wake up in the morning and think 'I fancy a cup of tea',

The next day you wake up in the morning and dread having a cold bucket shower!

You decide to wear knickers to bed instead of going butt-naked,

You upgrade from your 0.0000001-tog light pink sarong to your 0.000002 blue one,

You wake up in the middle of the night because of the donkeys going EEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAWW rather than because you're having hot sweats (and thinking the house is on fire!)

When you go outside to turn on the water in the morning, there's that cool crispness about the place that reminds you of home,

The trees are turning orange, yellow and brown, and the leaves are all falling off,

You take pleasure in walking on the crispy leaves, just like at home, but in this case instead of wearing willies you are wearing your flip flops!

Your colleagues turn up for work in sweaters and coats,

Men about town look like balloons whizzing down the streets as they wear big bomber jackets that puff up with air as they ride along,

You see little kiddies with warm woolly hats and booties (well, you still see this in the hot season, but you see it even more now!)

You try to figure out who on earth it is that's waving at you from across the street on his bicycle as he cycles along with hood up and toggles pulled tight around his face revealing only his eyes and big smile!

The days get even shorter than before,

The sunrises and sunsets cast light across the fields and towns that reminds you of autumn at home (but then confusingly the days are still like hot summer in the Caribbean!)

You notice people blowing their noses a lot, and complaining of colds,

You start to blow your nose regularly, and your housemate complains of a cold,

A sprinkling of dust settles daily about the place

You feel WIND (not trumpy wind, wind as in weather wind) for the first time in 8 months when you are out running in the morning and think, 'wow I'd forgotten what wind felt like!' (again not trumpy wind!!)

The beautiful hills that you can usually see in the distance are now regularly clouded with a mist of dust.

So the season has changed, and the harmattan is well and truly on its way. When my Ghanaian friends warned me that 'winter is coming', I was like 'what are they on about, this place is like a sauna!'. But it's true, winter is here, and the change in seasons is kind of refreshing, it feels like the year is coming to an end, and the cycle of life is going around. It's still hot as anything of course, but I'd say more like a sauna that's on during the day and off at night, which finally is giving us some respite and reminding us that things don't always stay the same J.

With love from Ghana,

Em

Xx