That's Rubbish!

The rainy season makes everything look so nice. The maize is two times taller than you and as green as can be, so you just think fertility, new growth and all these positive nice things. Then comes the dry season. Everything dies and Tamale is all red dust and plastic bags. I didn’t realise how the trees and bush was hiding such a mess!

The rainy season - the maize hides this... until you turn the corner and are standing on it! The pigs do a good job of halving the size of it daily

When you buy something here it comes in a ‘rubber’ or plastic bag. I heard the black bags are used so people can’t see what you have purchased. Because you may get jealous if you can see someone’s egg and bread – better hide it in a black plastic bag. Fine. But then what happens? You chuck it out the window into either a pile of already discarded rubbish, or start a new pile of rubbish yourself. It’s easy!

And often it’s not just one or two plastic bags you get with a small purchase, but my personal favourite is a pack of lollies you get here – guide to opening them;

1.      The lollie is encased in it’s own individual wrapper for each lollie

2.      About 10 of these are encased in a paper wrapper

3.      This paper wrapper is encased in a plastic wrapper

4.      You will be given a plastic bag to carry this small lollie treat home

So there is rubbish everywhere and of course no recycling. If you are lucky enough to find a bin to dispose of things, you watch the men come and collect the bin, and see it just goes to a larger pile somewhere else and burnt. The educated answer here so far is to just burn all the rubbish. Including the plastic. Makes for a lovely aroma, especially on dinner time. The rubbish near my house creates a large pile for the animals to fossick through and get the best parts, but there is no end in sight for the plastic bags. It is interesting how revolutionary the plastic bag has been for people here (making things so accessible and easy to sell/buy) however, the bigger, longer problem of waste collection is a long way coming. I take a stand and collect my bags, and give the re-useable ones to the ladies who run the shop down the street. But Ghana is choked by rubbish and no means to deal with it.

Sheep spotting - is it an animal or rubbish?

A pretty standard/clean sight. The view from my guest house. oh, the guest house didn't have a washroom, so this was also the toilet...