Hiineteng is over 800 km away from Accra, but from there it is only a few miles to Burkina Faso. On German motorways, without traffic jams, you would cover this distance relatively quickly. Here it’s a little different. In 2019, it took us 22 hours. This time, Ernestina and I will take the night bus to Nandom, where hopefully someone from the family will pick us up. I have never travelled such a long distance by bus here. Three days ago there was an accident, nine dead.

Titus has already left with son Ransford and niece Cynthia, the car packed to the roof. But it was pretty exciting until they left. The tonne of cargo needed for the funeral ceremony – from water, to gas stoves, all the gifts for the mourners, rice sacks and what else – was to be brought north by a hired truck plus driver. Unfortunately, the driver suddenly cancelled. From noon yesterday, we had to find another solution, i.e. a truck and a driver. The tension lasted until 11 o’clock in the evening. I felt so sorry for Titus. What a stress. But all’s well that ends well. A truck plus driver left at 4 a.m., Titus and Co then around 5:30 a.m.

 

 

Yesterday the power was off. This happens almost every day, but not quite as long like more than 8 hours at daytime. So I was glad that I could recharge all my devices overnight. Today I once again draped all my technology that I think I will need as a still life on my bed. Crazy, isn’t it? I am very excited to see how I will use it and if I will use at al . Sometimes I think, oh, better just try to photograph, to film and to record everything. Without much technology … It will be difficult to have access to the internet anyway. To be on the safe side, I got myself a box  with a sim card from Ghana and a bunch of gigabites flatrate, but that won’t help if there’s no connection. So it may well be that I can continue my blog sparsely or even it won’t be possible at all to post anything.

 

 

Ernestina arrived here yesterday – with three fat bags. She is also taking all kinds of stuff for her mother, sister and children and her father. I, on the other hand, have really small luggage.

 

 

She was very happy about the blog. We haven’t got around to discussing our plans yet. The most important thing today, before we get on the bus, will be to check the recording equipment, the interviews and discuss our plans in detail once again.