Currently, Tamale, the Northern Regional capital, is experiencing harmattan, a cold dry dusty weather that makes the skin dry and susceptible to crack, particularly on the lips.
It is that time of the year when most people experience cracks on their feet that can tear bed sheets. And it is that time of the year when the shea butter cream made from shea nut becomes the companion of the people, particularly those in rural communities.
That was, indeed, the weather condition before I left Tamale for my sojourn in Freiburg, the serene and beautiful city in Germany. Prior to the onset of the harmattan, there was a very sunny weather, with temperatures of about 40 degrees celsius or more sometimes.
The temperature on my arrival at the Frankfurt Airport was different; less than seven degrees. And not only was the weather very cold, it had also just begun raining.
And did I shiver? Indeed, I fluttered like a wet chicken. My colleague, Mrs Julia Littmann, who had earlier spent some weeks with me in Tamale, finally came to my aid with some warm clothes that she had acquired with her very supportive husband, Andrea.
I had ignore the caution to carry some warm clothes along and I paid the price for my recalcitrance.
Upon arrival at the Frankfurt Airport, my colleague and I were welcomed by her husband and a companion, Ms Lena, with warm concentrated cups of coffee that provided me with some warmth for a short period after spending about eight hours in the air.
We were eventually driven by Andrea to Freiburg, a distance of 260 kilometres, on a four-lane asphalt road within about two hours 30 minutes. It certainly reminded me of the rough dreaded single-lane Kintampo-Accra road that continues to claim the lives of motorists.
When my colleague overheard me murmur to myself that my government should, as a matter of concern, also make sure that the Tamale-Accra road was designed into a dual carriageway, she asked, “Zak, don’t you think that could claim more lives?”
“Maybe,” was all I could say because of the recklessness on the part of some drivers back home. Indeed, Tamale is the opposite of Freiburg.
At lunch time, I tasted my first German food. They call it Spatzle in short. It is made of liquid flour dough mixed with eggs, meat, vegetables, berries and spices. I managed it for the rest of the day after gulping a glass of pineapple juice to wash it down.
And for the entire four-week period of my stay in this serene, well laid out city, I knew I surely would taste various German foods for the first time. And, frankly, I was already missing my favourite Tuo Zaafi (T.Z.) and waatche and hot pepper. Do not pity me. I have simply refused to learn how to cook and so I could not utilise the small kitchen attached to my room, where I spent the rest of the day to warm myself into the unfriendly and strange weather.
My presence in Freiburg formed part of an exchange programme dubbed “Nahaufnahme-Close-Up” meant for practising journalists from some selected countries. Under the programme, editorial journalists from Germany exchange their workplaces with journalists abroad for three to six weeks.
They join the editorial teams of the respective partner offices of daily newspapers and will be involved in the local journalism work. During their stay, the participating journalists produce articles (in their own language) for the medium in their host country, which will regularly publish them (after translation by the Goethe-Institut).
During my stay, I will be working with the editorial team of Badische Zeitung. An editor of the daily paper, Mrs Julia Littmann, is already back home after working in the editorial office of the Daily Graphic in Tamale in November.
The programme is organised by the Goethe-Institut, the German cultural institution operating world-wide. It promotes the study of the German language abroad and also encourages international cultural exchange and relations.
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