Malaria, chieftaincy and traffic cops

Hello! I haven’t written for a while now and there’s a few exciting things to report…

Last week I was the third person from the group to be diagnosed with malaria. Don’t worry its not as bad as it sounds, as long as you get the drugs for it within a few days it shouldn’t kill you! All you really get is a headache, tiredness and some aching bones. I went back to the hospital today as Jo wasn’t feeling too great; turns out she has malaria as well, she’s now on the drugs so all should be fine. Having been to the hospitals here, I don’t think I’ll ever complain about the NHS. With long queues, goats wandering round and a toilet not fit for a Northerner out on the piss, its makes you appreciate what we have at home that much more.

The second bit of news (and the biggest) is that I am now a village chief! The village is called Nanton Zuo and is about 15 minutes outside of Tamale. My title is “Saha Na” which directly translates as Luck Chief, this puts me in the role of Youth Chief, where I am responsible for all villagers aged from around 20 to 30. We had a ceremony to “enskin” me; it started with wearing traditional clothing consisting of a smock, hat and towel draped over my shoulder (pictures to follow). We went into one of the sub-chief’s palaces and sitting on the floor among the villagers a few speeches were made. To become a chief here kola nuts have to be exchanged. Kola nuts are about 2 inches across and have an extremely bitter, acidic taste to them. People eat them as they contain nicotine and give you short bursts of energy. They are used in chieftaincy ceremonies as they are shaped like a heart and so the giving of them is a sign of friendship. After giving me a kola nut, eating it and then handing them out to the rest of the men, I was officially a chief. I made an acceptance speech about how honored I was and told a story to explain why one cannot only rely on g-d and must work for themselves. We then left the palace and met the village women, lots of singing, drumming and dancing followed to celebrate the occasion. They’ve offered me land to build my own palace and I’ve also been told they’d chuck in a few wives as well! So from now on my name is either “Saha Na” or “Chief” and it is an offence to call me anything otherwise!

Today, on the way back from the hospital I was dropping Jo off at Barclays Bank to change some traveler’s cheques. The traffic lights next to the bank were red so I took the motorbike onto the pavement and into the bank. On the way into the bank’s courtyard a traffic policeman stopped us and explained to me what I had done wrong. Of course he then said we’d have to go to the police station to pay the fine and I asked if I could pay the “fine” there. He agreed and said it would be 20 cedis, only 10 pounds but an extortionate amount here.
I said ok fine then we’ll go to the police station.
He replied saying “ok you want to pay more, that’ll be 40 cedis”
I thought “oh s**t this is going to be expensive” but said “no let’s go to the police station”
Then another traffic cop came along and the two spoke in Dagbani and decided to let me off, get in!
(It’s just lucky he didn’t see me going through a red light about 5 seconds before I came onto the pavement!!)

That’s enough for one blog, hope you enjoyed it, will try and write one or two more before I come home…
xx