Tamale

If you are new to a place, you not only try to find your way around, but you also make comparisons. In my case, I ascertained that as everything important happens along – or at least near to – the kilometre long Bolgatanga Road, it is relatively easy to find my way around this hugely sprawling city. What still needs work is my sense of distances. The ways are always eternally long, in particular when the temperatures already reach 35 degrees in the morning.

Speaking of comparisons: while winter is at the doorstep now at home in Freiburg, it feels like midsummer here to me. In reality, the north of Ghana is now awaiting Harmatan, the coolest and driest season of the year – although here "cool" corresponds to the summer temperatures in Freiburg. "Our winter is Harmatan," my colleagues tell me wiping sweat from their brows, "we look forward to it every year."

Comparison number two is also similar to the way of life in Freiburg: here, as well, debates over football can heat up. The Champions League match between AC Milan and Real Madrid on Tuesday was a real blockbuster. The streets of Tamale were not deserted, on the contrary, they were packed full, for all around the small shops, counters in corrugated iron huts, in bars and in front of workshops, the people gathered around the televisions. These televisions are special in that they either look extremely luxurious or they look ridiculously rickety. It didn’t matter; the match did not put the Milan and Madrid fans in bad tempers. The penalty kick and goal against it ensured a score of 1:1, which was received here with satisfaction.

It is different for the upcoming league match Manchester against Chelsea. At least in the editorial office of the Daily Graphic the situation is clear. A tie is the last thing that Nurredin Salilu, Francis Npong and Zakaria Alhassan would want to see. Chelsea must win – not merely to assert its lead on the table, but to back the lead up with a win. To win this battle, the three of them – as many of their friends – will be going to the public viewing in nearby Hotel Alhassan.

For an entrance fee of 1 cedi (about 50 eurocents) – and sometimes for half that price, 50 pesewa for less spectacular contests – they show the big, and mostly the European matches. "Until a few years ago they often showed the German league matches," explains Zakaria Alhassan, "but now it is mostly the English teams who gain the most fans here!" Nonetheless, a good match does not necessarily have to involve your favourite team, nor do they need to win it. Zakaria Alhassan also praises the magnanimity of the football audience here: "The most important thing is that we get an exciting match to watch and have fun – then we’re happy!"

For Sunday, I, of course, root for "ManU" – if only to see how very magnanimous my co-workers really will be that evening. But, maybe Chelsea will do its fans in Tamale the favour and outdistance Manchester. Then I will have to stay serene, but that is such a large part of social life here that it stands to reason.