Lawra - and Greg's send-off - and return to Walewale
on Michael Cashman (Ghana), 28/May/2010 22:33, 34 days ago
On Friday we talk through Organisational Development next steps with Alison the Teacher Support Officer in Lawra. Our itinerary again owes much to Ghanaian trasnport constraints. We could have gone back to Nadowli last night, and then we would have been half way to Lawra. But being half-way to Lawra and on the tro-tro route is no good if the tro-tros are all full. So we stayed in Wa last night, wheer the tros start, and we take the two-and-a-half hour trip to Lawra this morning. It's tarmac to Nadowli and rougher after that.The K (or C) and S sounds together can come out in strange ways in Ghana. "Ask" is pronounced "aks" among Ghanaians we know, and "Mosque" sounds like "Moks". Here's a "CS" created in spelling.Alison is looking after a friend's dog - the dog neeeds water like the rest of us.After seeing the excellent Teacher Resource Centre (Alison and Charlotte picrtured with a customer who is borrowing a book), we have our main OD discussion at Alison's house over home-made lemonade In the evening it's back to Wa. Wa is further away from tomrrow's destination (Bolga) than Lawra is, but Wa is the trasnport hub; there are buses to Bolga from Wa, but there are none from Lawra.Greg is leaving this weekend, and his Ghanaian friends have organised a party and invited us.Most meetings in Ghana are quite formal, and this occasion is mock-formal, with a Chairman and a Master of Ceremonies who seek to out- manouevre each other and declare each other's interventions invalid. Someheer in all of this we pay tribute to Greg.You may have noticed that Greg is quite tall. Not so his regional VSO rep, Ruby,After the celebrations it's back to the Wa house for some sleep before our 3.30 am alarm call ready to queue for the Saturday bus back to Bolga and onward tro-tro to Walewale.En route, in Tumu, I discover why the Ghana Bradt guide nominates Tumu as the most disgusting toilet stop in Africa. The nomiation is fair, and I would expect it should win that award.Panic as it rains and water streams through the bus windows, sprinkling the passengers, Ghanaians don't like getting wet, e.g I've  heard people explain they didn't come to work becaue it was raining. (In rural areas this could be fair enough of course, becasue the roads may be impassable).We get back to Walewale about 4pm - 12 hours after we set off.