Pito bar

Pito is a very popular drink from the North of Ghana. Two pito bars are near to my house which is an area inhabited by many migrant Dagaara and Grumah families from the North who have settled in the area. The migrant groups have their own chiefs and speak their own languages, as well as Twi, the local Akan language, and Hausa, a Nigerian language spoken as a lingua franca by many of the northern groups as well as many Akans in Kintampo. Pito is brewed from millet or guinea corn which is boiled and then mashed and sieved to produce the drink. It is served 'dokodoko' without alcohol, or yeast is added and the drink is left to ferment becoming 'dendenden' - 'very hard' ie alcoholic. It is traditionally drunk from a dried calabash. Pito is a favourite drink on market days when people meet to have a drink at one of the many pito sellers. But the pito bar is a nice place to drop by after work for a calabash of the sweet brew.

Rubbish

What to do with all the rubbish? This is my local dump, a few minutes away, where all my house waste gets thrown. Kintampo has several other such putrid mounds, picked through by children, goats and chickens. Piles of rubbish are often burnt and organic matter quickly rots in the sun, but it is the discarded plastic bags which litter the town, including the plastic water sachets which hold filtered drinking water. At the base of the dump is the public toilet for the many people in town who do not have their own. For a small fee one can 'ease oneself' in private. However for many the easiest option is to 'free range'. Sometimes one sees children squatting on the dump. The hills around the town have also become free public toilets. The attendant health hazards include hook worms which can burrow into the feet.