life in Asigbekope

The village of Asigbekope is less than two hours away from Accra but life here has a completely different pace than in the city. The soil in the area is very fertile so most households grow watermelon, cassava, maize or tomatoes. The family that I stayed with is doing very well so they rent their tractors to other farmers so they can plough the land before the rains come and it is time to plant.

One of the houses in the compound

The family keeps the tomato seedlings in a garden beside their house and plants them individually in the field after three weeks. Most of the tomatoes go to markets in Accra or Kumasi so the farmers depend on the prices that the middle men decide for them. In years when too many farmers grow tomatoes, some of their work goes to waste because they don’t have a facility to store them and the tomatoes get spoiled before they can find someone to buy them.

the road from Asigbekope to the closest town, Kasseh


Other people in the area also mine salt from a neighboring lake. I didn’t get a chance to see the process because they have stopped mining now that the rainy season has begun. The successful miners work in collaboration with others and store the salt until the price gets higher and they can make more profit. Those who can’t afford to wait have to sell it at half the price that they would if they waited for one or two months; and they have to find other sources of income once the rainy season starts.

Electricity is just being installed in Asigbekope


Joshua was one of my first friends at the village. At fourteen he is already taking care of his family’s pigs and goes to the farm everyday to plant tomatoes and cassava. When I asked him if he liked to play Oware (a board game) he told me that with school and the farm he doesn’t have time for this sort of thing. Joshua loves math and he is hoping that his grades will be good enough to continue in school and get a diploma in business. I hope he will too because I don’t know of many young boys with such a determination and this way he can fulfill his promise of calling me when he gets his first phone!

Joshua and his little brother at the family’s garden

Apart from riding a bike on my way to the centre and waving goodbye to everyone on the way, what I enjoyed the most was spending time with the kids in the compound. There were so many of them and they all looked busy carrying buckets of water or feeding the goats. But since I think they found me very amusing (just as I found them) they came by often to show me games and ask me questions. It was very humbling to see how much joy they find in the simplest games; there is so much to learn from these little ones!

little Nancy showing me how to dance

The biggest building in the village is the primary school. One morning when I passed by I noticed that all the girls were sitting outside in their nice looking uniforms and it was already 9 in the morning. They told me that they were waiting for their teachers to come back from farming – I guess the teacher’s pay is not enough to make a living here. Other kids looked very busy too carrying big piles of dirt on their heads. As they told me, someone hired them to build a room, and with the money, the teachers were hoping to do something for the school.

Ceasar, Perry, Absalom and Danibo taught me words in Dagnme every morning before they went to school or to the farm

Even those who do manage to complete their schooling are not guaranteed an easier lifestyle. The employee at the internet café who I became good friends with told me that even with his accounting diploma he is finding it hard to find a good job. He moved to Accra hoping to find more opportunities than in Kasseh but he had to come back because living in the city was too expensive and he knew very few people there. Now he is waiting for a reply from all the letter he has sent but he thinks that it will be luck more than anything that will help him find a good job.


Young girls selling things near the tro-tro station

It was very frustrating to have to leave after just one week when I had finally convinced my host sister to let me carry water and other women in the compound were a little more comfortable talking to me. I had so many questions to ask: What makes them happy? What are their hopes for their children? How do they manage to balance those big loads on their heads and make it look so simple?! But they all looked very busy washing, cooking and taking care of the babies; and most of them didn’t even speak English so it was hard to do more than observing.


Oforiwa has the nicest smile of them all

On the day I was leaving, one of the old women in the compound gave me some of her beautiful beads as a gift although I had only talked to her twice. The girls that were sitting with her were all very curious of whether women wore beads around their waste in my place too and what type of “butter” we use on our skin. At that moment it was very clear to me that deep inside we all care about the same things: securing a decent lifestyle, being the best we can be and enjoying the little things in life that make us laugh and feel beautiful and proud. Whether we can do it or not is the real question.