By: Peter Agengre
On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, Comfort Sapak was spotted along the commercial street in Bolgatanga carrying a box of ice cream for sale. She looked to the left and right side before crossing the road to meet a customer who was waiting to buy some of her dairy products. She was afraid that the busy road would make her lose the customer.
Finally, she was able to maneuver her way out to the other side of the road but, the customer, relaxing on his apsonic motorbike, refused to buy because he had changed his mind.
“It is sometimes frustrating but the customer is always right. He said because part of the icecream had melted, he wouldn’t buy again.” Madam Comfort told GBC’s Peter Agengre
Comfort hails from Shia-Tindongo in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region. She decided to move to Bolgatanga to look for a job that would fetch her some money to cater for her daughter who is sitting for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). According to Comfort, she has no option than to sell ice cream.
“I had a job in a chop bar but I was paid GHc12.00 without feeding. That’s why I left that place. But here, the more I sell, the more I make profit. When I sell one piece, I make 30 pesewas. So sometimes I make GHc15.00 to GHc16.00 daily. Then I save GHc50.00 every week and send to the house at the village.”
With a pair of worn-out sandals and a two-year-old child strapped to her back, she hawks from one shop to the other announcing her ice cream to attract customers.
Her lips are often but she tries to moisturize them and also sustain her breath with the almost empty sachet water she keeps. She says she has to go through all this because of her daughter who is preparing for her exams and also cater for her four other children.
“My husband has no job. And my children also need school uniforms and books. Even my daughter is writing her BECE this year. So I have to come and do this to help them until another farming season comes then I will go back home” Comfort said softly
