Waking up

There is no such thing as a lie-in in Ghana. The nights draw in early – by 6pm it is dark - so many people are in bed early and hence awake early. It is completely normal to get a call at 5.30am from a Ghanaian for a general chat.

Every morning, each of my senses experiences its own awakening. First, the rays of strong sun penetrating my windows, my eyelids and falling in warm patches on the bed. Then the scent of freshly lit coals wafts through the windows as a lady begins cooking breakfast outside at a chop bar behind the house. Its acrid smell makes me wrinkle my nose, and irritates the remnants of the stubborn cough, which is now all but gone. At the same time, a loud sweeping sound reaches my ears, accompanying the charcoal scent, as a girl sweeps the entire compound with the noisiest brush. The culmination of the rude awakening is most certainly a cold shower, and as we enter the dry season, our mains water supply is increasingly erratic, so we have the additional exertion of drawing water from a communal tap in the compound and being on top of storage.