I’m currently staying at the GILLBT guesthouse in Tamale, northern Ghana. My room is pleasant enough with an ensuite bathroom, a fridge, a TV (though to watch this, you’d have to unplug the fridge!), and most importantly, a ceiling fan (temperatures indoors are around the 28C mark this week)! As mentioned previously on my blog (29/6/11), meals are served in the area outside the bedrooms. Breakfast comprise of a flask of hot water left for beverages (I’ve learnt to travel with Kenyan coffee and a travel cafetiere that a friend gave me), and bread and an egg (hardboiled or fried). Generally during breakfast, the matron comes over to ask about lunch orders. There is apparently a menu, but I’ve yet to see any sign of it. The conversation goes something like this:
“What do you want for lunch?”
Having been informed by the director that salads are possible (I’d never have thought of asking for that otherwise in this climate), I’ve requested a salad several times, always to be met with the answer, after a moment’s pause,
“We don’t have salad. What do you want?”
Having already said what I’d actually rather like, it seemed better to change tack at this point.
“What do you have?”
“Rice or spaghetti.”
“Spaghetti please.”
“We don’t have spaghetti.”
“Oh, okay, I’ll go for rice then!”
Pretty much every day, it’s been rice, either plain or cooked in a palm oil and tomato-based sauce, with maybe a few sprinklings of chopped up carrots and cabbage, and a small piece of chicken or guineafowl, which has been fine (and quite tasty). It is interesting though that the need is there to ask what I’d like, when it seems pretty clear, that there really is only one thing on offer. Maybe it’s to demonstrate a desire to please; maybe it’s just to make conversation?! Either way, rather than getting frustrated, it makes me smile - and look forward to the salad that I will have when I get home next week!
