Accomodation Wahala (Story from PHAST Follow-up Trip to Tumu) by Mrs. Rose Afful

On the 28th of June 2006 a three-member team embarked on a trip to Tumu, Upper East Region. The team reached Tumu very late and tried looking for accommodation but to no avail because Plan-Ghana had booked all hotels and guest houses in town for participants in a pending workshop in town.

Cotton Company, which the Caretaker claimed was under renovation was closed to all guest. The team persisted and finally the caretaker considering their plight gave three rooms out to members. The team finally settled down and retired to bed very late.

Very deep into the night, there was irritating knock on team members’ doors. Guess who those people might be? Team members came out, and to their amazement it was some other guests from the District Assembly who hitherto have asked the caretaker to reserve rooms for them and the caretaker himself who was highly drunk forgot. Upon questioning, it became evident that the caretaker had totally forgotten and had given the rooms out to TREND’s team, although he was wise enough to reserve one room, he could not locate the keys to the reserved room. One funny issue was that, the team saw that the man was drunk at the initial stages of the room negotiations but the team ignored that because we were handicapped.

The incident was amusing and annoying simply because I can’t imagine how somebody who has given rooms out to people can forget and think the rooms were empty; isn’t that amazing? That is how far too much alcohol intake can take people.

So folks, be wary of drunken caretakers when you embark on similar field visits to avoid similar experience.