crocodiles and so on

 see some pictures from tamale, the biggest city around (120 km to the south) and the capital of "northern region" where i live...

in the streets of tamale

at the trotro (colective taxi) station. people sell so much as you can see! and as always most goods are transported on the head

in a big compound in my home village guabuliga

one of our kids "harvesting"  - shaking the shea nut tree

a big insect visiting our kitchen at night

in the morning outside my room - done by ants

we just gave out microcredits. people were asked to idnetify their area of interest for business. unforunately most choose farming - as they say its all they know.

calculating with the farming groups the estimated costs and profit of farming one acre of maize, soya beans or ground nuts

the garden where our orphanage children are learning how to farm - picture taken from the roof top in my compound

last weekend we went to paga, the border city to burkina faso. in paga we went to a small lake where you have to pay a small entry fee - and you have to buy some alive chicken. the reason for the chicken is the appetite of the crocodiles - if they get hungry while you are too close to them they recieve a chicken and are calm again! but see yourself on the following pictures!

on the way to paga

some of the crocodiles were still small...

seeing the toursists (or knowing it will get some chicken?!)

...and some were quite big

we were close...

....very close!!

the front leg...

...and the rear one

it was pretty amazing to be touching a crocodile. and as you can imagine you see that they developed in a different time!

we saw how fast their head is moving when they recieved chicken...wow

we asked how often some one is bitten - and were told NEVER! i am not too sure if i belive that, but at least we all went away with all our legs, arms and so on...!

a baobab

"rainbow" was the best explanation we got - what is this?? it was already twice since i am here. and you see it also with your eyes, its not the fault of the camera

in paga we also visited a slavetrade sight. in the year 1704 three people from ghana, burkina and togo started buying and stealing people, they were kept as slaves and then sold to the south were european slave traders waited to buy them and ship them around the world. the europeans never dared to go as far inland as paga. many of the staves preferred to be dead to a life as a slave. they got killed while tryig to flee or were turtured to death. and even from the ships many decidet to commit suicide by jumping into the open water

th slaves had to create these holes and were using them as bowls to eat their food

some thousand people were kept here at  a time -for about 140 years. the people were chained to the trees in goups of about 5. and many people had to work as guards

today it is a peaceful place

and quite beautiful!

3/4 of the volunteers

truck driver taking a rest at the burkina border

 as you can see i am doing fine!! hope you are also all well!

good night and have a good sunday!

now i will lie down too!

gambaga - village of witches

last weekend we went to gambaga - its a village where witches life!
we went there, and the first step to visit the witches was to see the chief. you have to meet him to get permission to visit this part of the village.
there are witches  from ghana as well as from togo and burkina faso. these women are considered to be witches because maybe there has been a desease in the village, because of the way a chicken died when it was slaughtered,... there are plenty of reasons why women can be considered to be witches. and in a normal village they are abused, tortured or even killed. in gambaga they live under the protection of the chief. and the chief is said to have some medicine which takes away the witch power of these women...

see some pictures of gambaga

kids were welcoming us

thats where the "witches" live

working

a kitchen

in the village

all the waste goes down here

another "witch"

as everywhere we were followed by many children

one old witch

she had a great expression in the face!

 this woman looked so cool! but as you can see on the first picture she was demanding something (money). so i gave her 1 cedi, 50 euro cents (by far too much money for some pictures, but she was so funny)...and i made some pictures with her. but she was always looking so angry that i dont want to put a picture here!

pregnant goats

in gambaga

tired brother

some of the kids that followed us

people we met in the streets

coming home from the field

a girl selling sweet mangos

the "main witch" is on the left

looking outside at the "sulminga"

this is africa...

...too much africa!

collecting firewood

weaver bird

i am too hapy, i have a new camera, and it has a better zoom...its not perfect, but much better than the old one.

all the best, have a nice sunday!!!