Street Hustle Accra: A day in the life of a bar owner selling drinks and cat meat soup to cater for family

Morning

My usual wake up time is 5 am. When I wake up I do my normal routine like sweeping, bathing, brushing and getting ready for the day.

At about 7am, I prepare breakfast for my children and then I bath the younger one and make sure the other does the same too. Then we eat.

After eating, I accompany my children to a special classes teacher I found for them since the Covid-19 took over so that they learn a little while they are home. I give them enough money so that they can take care of themselves till about 4pm that they will return.

Then I check if I have any other thing to do then I do them.

At 9am, I prepare my hot cat soup and bush meat soup and then take them to my bar where I sell my alcohol and soft drink.

I begin selling from about 11am. During this time, sales are quite slow because most people had gone to work.

Afternoon

Sales begin to rise a little at this time, mostly construction workers and other workers in the neighbourhood come to drink something to each lunch (they usually call it appetizers).

I sell till about 3pm then I prepare dinner for the family before my children return from their classes.

Then I also eat some for lunch. From there sales continue.

Evening

Active sales begin at 4pm. A lot of customers and fresh customers come from this time. They basically come to take dinner. They love the hot pepper soup and take it with the drinks as dinner mostly.

So I do active sales from 4pm to about 10pm. Within this same time, my children would have returned from their classes. While I sell, I still make sure they are taken care of. So I make sure they do their homework, eat and then take their bath. My eldest child is 12 years and he is able to take care of his younger siblings while I work.

So by 7pm, they go in the room to either watch television or learn. I train them in a way that by 9pm, they would have already gone to bed.

Then I continue to sell till 10pm or 10:30pm depending on how the day goes.

So by 11pm, I close the bar, take my bath and then go to bed.

Best moment

This work is good for me. I stay in the same place so I don’t go out of my house a lot unless I want to buy some things.

I get to know a lot of people too and sometimes they help me with some money that I use in taking care of my kids.

One other thing is that the work fetches a lot of income for me I don’t have a husband but I am able to provide everything my children need. And it is not as if I do any other business aside from this.

Challenges

My biggest challenge is my children, sometimes the music disturbs them so they are unable to sleep early.

Also, they sometimes drink some of the alcohol when I am not around. I just fear for them because they are minors and might grow to become alcoholics.

Another is the drunkards who come to knock my door very early in the morning to buy some alcohol. Because I don’t sleep early, I make sure I get enough rest before starting the new day, but these people will not let me.

Aside from these, I love the job I do. Being a single parent is not easy and for me to be able to care for my children through this job is enough satisfaction for me.