Tumu is a sleepy town spread out over a few kilometres. It has a daily market consisting of a few stalls of tomatoes, onions, beans and rice. I have been assured that this is a seasonal thing and soon when the rains come so will more choice of vegetable. There is another market that is held every 6th day and traders come from all over the region to sell their wares. It is bright and chaotic but somehow organised. It was market day the day I arrived so I had a false first impression of town. The streets were crowded and noisy. Returning the following day I found the real Tumu; sleepy, quiet and laidback – apart from weekend nights when sound systems are blasting from every bar and chop stall.
Tumu is a pretty little town compared to others in the surrounding area and well maintained. TUTCO where I am based is about 1km out of town on the road leading to Burkina Faso, on a road that is part tarmac and part dust. The entrance to the college campus is an avenue of mango trees. These mangos are beginning to ripen, however I will be lucky to get any as every child, student and teacher gets great pleasure in grabbing every mango in reach and also those not. Then a vast number of devices are used to retrieve them, from stone and stick throwing to climbing up and also some very developed wooden grabbing contraptions. Its like a drug, the children need to get their daily mango fix!! Most of the mangos aren’t even ripe yet. The local children do come to my house and donate some of their pickings to me, so hopefully I won’t go too short!
My house was described to me by the VSO office in Accra as a cute little house. It is quite cute. It has two bedrooms a living room large kitchen wetroom and toilet and massive hall connecting all rooms. I have a tap and shower in the wetroom, but no running water in the kitchen. The place is somewhat sparse of furniture, but I am going to try and organise some basic things to be made to make it a bit more homely.
There have been a number of things to get used to here, the main one being the water. It started off rather shakily with that. I was told that the water would run for two days and then be off for one so that the tank could be refilled. This was not the case to begin with and was off more than on. I rather overreacted and got a bit too obsessed with it. Now it has calmed down into a routine of being on first thing and during the day and then off most evenings. This I can cope with and feel much more relaxed about it all.
Food has been interesting. I have tried most of the local specialities, some I like and some I think I will have to learn to appreciate I’m sure. Others I am working up to trying such as TZ which is a thick porridge like food. I like Fu Fu and Banku, the soups and stews that accompany them are pretty hot from chilli pepper, also very oily. I can eat them in moderation. They do great plantain and yam chips here, which are a good snack from the chop stalls. Meat is fun – I think the staple diet meat is goat and ‘fowl’ – chicken or guinea fowl, whichever is around. There are many cows so beef is also widely available, I have kept away from the intestine soup… there are some things that I just feel I won’t get around to trying. I haven’t cooked meat at home yet, I think I will stick to the veggie option until I am more aware of what I am buying.
Town itself has lots of little shops most of which sell the same things ‘duck’ soap, plastic containers and tomato purée. The other day I really needed a sugar drink and obsessed about getting a orange fanta only to find that there were none available. Eventually I tracked down some warm overpriced cans – which I promptly bought and savoured a few hours later after they had cooled in my fridge.
There are a few bars and the other VSO’s in town have reintroduced Folie night. Folie means white person in Sisaala and little children take great delight in football chanting folie, folie, folie whenever I cycle past, they only stop when I turn and wave, which, at the moment is no small feat. I am still getting used to cycling again and can just about take one hand off the handlebar, but not long enough for a wave!
I have begun teaching the JSS classes (Junior Secondary School). The children range from about 12 to 16+. I have 5 PC’s and the classes are kept to 10 children, they are all really well behaved and eager to learn. The JSS2 class have been using computers for a little while now and know basic word processing skills. The JSS1 class have only just begun. They are like sponges and can already create a folder and write a few lines in word and save their work. The hardest thing to master has been the mouse, but even that they are beginning to grasp. A few teething problems with remembering left from right, but that’s normal.
As for me I am sure I have offended more than a few people with the left and right thing. It is bad manners and disrespectful to hand anything to another person using the left hand, being a leftie I keep doing so. They also eat with their right hand. I am getting better, but it will be a slow process…
the good and the bad of the college inter-house athletics competition high jump - the sports ground is the football pitch as well. note the lack of training shoes!
