Kintampo highway

Kintampo's claim to fame, besides its waterfalls, is its position as the geographical centre of Ghana. But Kintampo it seems more than anything else is a break in a journey to somewhere else, a truck stop for lorries passing from Mali and Burkina Faso heading to the coast, an overnight stop for the occasional volunteer or backpacker heading to Tamale and the national park at Mole, a career move for medical resarchers sticking it out in the hinterland for a step up the academic ladder. Kintampo was an army post during the colonial period and is the site of a rural health training school, training workers in public health. More recently a health research centre has been established conducting research into malaria and mother and infant health with studies funded by DFID, the Gates Foundation and Glaxosmithkline. This has brought an influx of money and employment. Hundreds of local young people compete for jobs as fieldworkers and data entry clerks. The research centre has a generator, satellite internet access and the car park is full of large new four-wheel drives. The rest of the town survive the frequent power outages with candles, paraffin lamps and chargable lamps, and transport is by 'Tico' (the brand name of the small cheap cars which serve as taxis) and 'tro-tro', ramshackle minibuses that ply the potholed roads linking the local villages and towns. There are cyber cafes in town, so called, but whilst they might have a computer, cyberspace remains beyond reach. 'Cyber cafe' it seems remains an aspirational name like the house emblazoned with 'Las Vegas' or the phone card seller with a stand named 'American Boy'.