A Day in My Life – Living in Tamale, Ghana

My days living in Tamale, Ghana are a mix of Western and African life, and this day is a perfect example of that. I visit an import store in a quest for ground coffee as well as a local market to buy sugar, and then it’s time for a local dish for lunch.

This little urban adventure takes place in the heart of Tamale, as you’ll see. It’s the middle of everything in this town.

I hope you enjoy it.

Video Transcript

Hey everyone,

I just have a few errands to run, so I thought I’d bring you along with me and let you see what a day in my life in Tamale, Ghana looks like. Let’s go!

Now, I just need to grab a yellow-yellow, and head into town. Oh, there’s one. Town, town. Okay, that was too easy. That was way too convenient. Haha, thank you. Can you let me out by at the junction? Perfect, yes.

Okay, so we’re here. I had to reset my hat because I took it off ’cause I love my hat. But being a bucket hat, when the wind starts going, it feels like it’s gonna lift up this brim and pull it right off my head.

So, my first stop is I need some coffee, and I’m hoping this little import store over here has some coffee. Oh, crumbs! Oh man, I left with not a lot of, okay, I got a little money in my pockets. Um, I did not leave with the kind of money I should have brought today, uh, I have enough, but the import store is a little more expensive.

Okay, so this is the import store, to give you an idea of the orientation of things. There is a secret back entrance to the Cultural Center right over there. That tall building in the back is the Cultural Center, that’s the bank that I usually use, that Stanbic bank. They’re a very good bank to use when you’re here in town, and that is the main road I just got off of, so I’m just off the corner here. Okay, so let’s go find some coffee.

Oh, I might grab an energy drink too. Do they have a good one? Sorry, trying to do this one-handed. So that’s my energy drink so that I can keep energy so I can do good filming for you.

And I’ll give you the idea of what they have here. We’ve got sardines and corned beef and ham, mayonnaise, household goods, air fresheners, lotions, soaps, some cookies, and crackers.

And let’s see, the coffee is usually up here. Let’s see. So you have no brew coffee. Oh, oh no, I’m gonna do a little, oh no, they only have instant. Oh no, I’m gonna have to figure something else out.

So how can you not have coffee?

Well, finished yesterday. Oh, you missed it by a day.

Finished yesterday? Okay, well, do you know when you’ll get some back? Maybe next month. Next month, like a whole month away? Oh no, oh gosh, okay, I will come back and check, thank you. Okay, that was really nice. If they let me film in their store.

The next stop is the pharmacy, nothing troublesome other than I am almost out of mosquito repellent, and when in doubt, go to the pharmacy for mosquito repellent. I’m gonna see if they are okay with me filming in their shop. If not, I’ll just film up to the doorway.

Okay, so I actually know where this is, and there is the mosquito repellent. Very important. It is the rainy season, so there are mosquitoes aplenty, and malaria seems to be going around pretty big time. So I’m gonna get two. Also, then I can have it, uh, one by my bed and one out in the living room, which is more important than you think. I just take it up front, right?

Yeah, okay. So, um, that was very successful. I’m glad they had it. It was actually, uh, sorry, it was, wanna make sure my mic was where it’s supposed to be. Um, it was actually not my favorite brand. It says “Easy Touch,” and that’s nice ’cause it goes on easy, but it also rubs off a little easy too. It will do. It will get me through because the bottle I was using this morning was like, you know that sound when you’re running out of stuff, and also it’s a lotion and it’s all natural, so I don’t have to worry about a bunch of chemicals. So that’s really nice.

Oh, I’m sorry, in the way of the guy trying to get his bike out, so he very politely asked me to move.

Okay, so I have a problem. The place I go for coffee, wasn’t having coffee, but I also need sugar, and I have an alternate place that might have coffee, not sure, but it’s the other way on the other side of town, and I’m afraid that if I can get coffee there, I might not be able to get sugar there. So I’m gonna go on a quest for both, and I’m gonna take you into, uh, a local supermarket, something that’s not quite so import-oriented, and again, it’s if they let me film, and we’ll see if I can find either coffee or sugar. If not, I will have to go into the main market across the street.

Okay, no luck on either front. They didn’t want me to film inside, but they didn’t have coffee or sugar either.

They had a, haha, I am almost finished with the, um, I’m almost finished with my jar, and I’m gonna bring the jar back in, yeah, but I still have some.

That was a lady who sells groundnuts, peanuts, and I buy a big jar of them from her. I’ve never been one for eating peanuts a whole lot, but since I get them from her and they are tasty, I’ve been buying them, but I eat them very slowly.

Okay, so the question is, do I go over to the main market just to buy sugar, ’cause I know they’re not gonna have coffee over there? Uh, do I go over to the main market just to buy some sugar on the bet that I am going to get some coffee in the near future? The answer is, yeah, I probably should. I am going to switch cameras, uh, yeah, I’m gonna switch cameras and, uh, we’ll see how it goes.

Good afternoon. Hello.

By the way, if you like market walk-type videos, I have a second channel that has a bunch of these on it, as well as just walking around town. I’ll put a link in the description.

Not today, I have different plans for lunch to show you. Haha, it’s noisy today. I have bought sugar, sorry, they always want to sell me yams, and if I actually tell them that I don’t cook, they look at me like what?!?

Ah, is this sugar? This, uh, sugar, sugar. Ah, okay, I’ll take, uh, how much? What is 40? Okay, this is, that’s full bowl. How much is this, 20? Okay, I’ll take that one.

Okay, that was too easy. Usually I’ve gone, I’ve been deeper in the market when that’s when I found the sugar vendor.

I’m actually gonna show you a good tourist place for lunch in case you’re visiting Tamale. It’s, um, I’ll tell you a secret, the one of the reasons it’s a good tourist place is that, they are also one of the places in the area that has a good bathroom. Um, so they have a nice bathroom. They have a nice sit-down restaurant and, um, you know what?

I think I just turned myself into a dead end. I… I’m going to get it fast, get it back, yeah, yeah, come here. It says it goes really, yeah, you pass, yeah, I know, I’m good. Okay, he’s showing me the way through because I took the wrong turn. Easy to do in a market, even when I know it’s easy to do in a market.

Okay, I know where I am. Thank you very much. And that is Ghana for you, very helpful, very, kind. I’ll get across when I can, okay, see where it says Giddypass Pub, or you might see Crest Restaurant, it’s Giddypass Crest when in doubt.

So let me show you this little hideaway; this is the main road, that’s the pharmacy I went to right down here; you’ll find the entrance to the restaurant. Today is a nice sunny day; it is a perfect day for sitting on the patio, and so let’s go have some lunch.

So I’ve ordered T-Zed with ayoyo, which is a northern specialty. T-Zed is a dish that you’re mostly just gonna find up here in the northern region of Ghana, and so I’m gonna show you that, but I’m gonna give you a little pan around and show you what this nice little patio is like. As I say, they’ve got a nice bathroom inside when you need it, and I mentioned that ’cause it’s hard to find a regular bathroom, a western-style bathroom anywhere else in the central area, and if you come to Tamale, this is where you’re gonna be spending most of your time, so this is a great place to stop and have lunch.

And so this is the nice patio upstairs is the, there’s another terrace up there they only set that up at night, and that’s for the sunset and evening time.

Okay, so this is T Z, it’s Tuo Zufo they just call it T Z or T-Zed but British Colony, so T-Zed. and this is made from maize and this is ayoyo. It’s a stew, and I got beef today and it has a bunch of green leaves in it and what you do is you take a couple finger fulls of this. This is why I wash my hands before, uh, but then you take a handful of that and you scoop it in the stew and I will show you that in just a moment, but that is T-Zed, okay.

So I showed you what it looked like and uh yeah well I’m gonna show you the consistency before I dip in this too, oh wow it’s really hot, but this is the consistency of the T-Zed. It is not as firm as fufu it’s squishier than fufu. Wow that’s really hot. And so I’ve got a nice good bite looks like I’ve got some nice pepe in there along with the green stew.

And just so you know anywhere where you eat with your hands will always have a place for you to wash your hands or they will bring a bowl with soap to your table okay so this is a really nice little piece of beef, simple as that.

Oh by the way when you eat with your hands do not be afraid to get messy just go ahead and get messy and dive in and enjoy it. A really nice piece of meat. Oh nice, a little spicy on that the red sauce that was in the bowl spicy um that’s nice that’s perfect.

Okay, now that I have got a full tummy and I’ve washed my hands again, let’s go upstairs and see what we can see.

That is the market we visited.

Okay so this is kind of the main drag through Tamale one of them if you follow that street straight ahead of me and take it a little bit to the left you end up over at the Central Mosque, but you can just see the tippy top of the minarets from here. And then you come over here you can’t really see into it, but right over there is the Cultural Center, the National Cultural Center and that is a really cool place to go. I have an entire video on that so if you wanna see that go check out the video on the Cultural Center, but yeah the Cultural Center, there you have the market and the main street behind me, all the banks are on the street. This is the place to be.

So the only thing left for me to do is…Oh hey, guess what? I came out to get a cup of coffee from my favorite restaurant down the way after I got home and I found coffee in the little market over here so I’m gonna be getting my coffee today, go with my sugar, make my coffee in the morning, Woohoo!

At this point I hope you’ve enjoyed our day, and I will say see you next time.