Trying to settle myself in Bongo
on The Ghana Experience (Ghana), 16/Jul/2010 12:37, 34 days ago
13-15 July 2010Not much has happened in these three days.I have been given an accomodation in the staff quarters in thedistrict assembly and though not luxurious, it has all the basicamenities which are required for a person to live comfortably. Thewater comes every alternate day and I have to stock it in the bigwater storage bin. It is perfectly OK with me. Bongo is a very littletown having population of around 7000 and has little to offer.Although it is called as town, it is just a bigger village if youmeasure with Indian standards. Fortunately there is very goodconnectivity with the mobile phone services and one can also accessinternet using USB modem, though both are expensive.One more specialty of Bongo is its rocks. There are many granite rocksspread all across the area of the village. There is a small hillockwhich has some special rock formations. The colour of the rocks ispink. The scene is somewhat similar to the one which we find in Indianear the border areas of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, which one cansee while travelling by train from Mumbai to Bangalore. The onlydifference is the colour. Here in Bongo, it is pink and there in theDeccan, it is black.The soils are sandy and it is drought prone area receiving rainfallranging between 700-1000mm of rainfall. There is only one rainyseason. The major crop which one can see everywhere nowadays is amillet similar to Bajra (Pennisetum spp.). As the crop is in itsflowering stage, there is huge number of small plant hoppers whichalways struggle to come in the room. On the second day after cominghere, I made the mistake of keeping the door open and found myselfsurrounded by these hoppers. Fortunately there are not many mosquitoesaround as the place is relatively free of stagnant water.I have not yet started socialising in the village much as I know veryfew people and am not really sure about the people who try tounnecessarily come around just by looking at my foreign features. Amajor change has happened in my behaviour and that is with the way Iam approaching people. As opposed to India (especially Maharashtra,),where we don't start speaking with anybody who just comes across andalways very stingy on the greetings, here in Ghana, no conversationstarts without the greetings. Even if a person is dissatisfied withanother, conversation always starts with the usual Good Mornings,Afternoons or Evenings. They have all the greetings in the locallanguage but most of the people around understand those Englishgreetings. An old lady in the office smilingly always makes me answerthe greetings in the local language Gurune (Also known as Frafra), andshe has become a sort of my Gurune teacher.My boss with whom I shall be working had to go to Accra and would notreturn at least till tomorrow. I ended up having nothing to do. I readsome old reports and manuals in the office while seating on thecomfortable sofa set in my boss's office and taking little snoozesduring the reading session.I ate one more local dish which is known as Red Red. It is an all oilypreparation with cowpea cooked and stir fried in a sauce of tomatoesand red chilli. These are served with dip fried ripe banana chips.(शुध्द मराठीत सांगायचं झालं तर तेलाचा तवंग सुटलेली चवळीची उसळज्यामध्ये काही अन्य मांसाहारी पदार्थ असण्याची शक्यता असते आणि त्यासोबततळलेले केळ्यांचे काप.) Both the preparations are tasty on their own,but really could not understand what was the logic in serving thosetwo oily preparations together. Cowpeas could be very well served withrice but traditionally they don't do it like that.I met one man named Peter who is an ex VSO volunteer. He is a teacherfrom Scotland and has lived in Bongo for two years from 2006-2008. Hiswife was also a short term volunteer for some time. Recently she diedof cancer and made a wish to spend some of her money as a charity inBongo. He is organising to promote some water resource developmentwork in Bongo in addition to supporting a blind girl througheducation. From him I heard a strange hilarious story of one personnamed Ian. He is a white person who lived in Bongo a few years back asa volunteer for some NGO. He mixed with local people so well thatwithin a couple of months the chief (traditional village head) ofBongo made him a sub chief. He was supposed to work as a sort ofambassador or leader for all the whites coming to the village. Thevillage had organised some ceremony to mark his becoming a sub chief.Within six months he left the country and nobody has even heard fromhim. Some say that he is somewhere in China.I shall like to tell you one more change which has happened in me. Iget up at 05:00 am in the morning and sleep at 10:00 pm. The way Yogaexpects a man to follow. It is not because I want to change myself butbecause there is simply nothing which I can do about it. No TV, nobody to chat with, it is just me alone during the evenings. Perfectcondition to try transcendental mediation!!