I am designing a custom site using the Atahualpa headers on a PHP page and cannot seem to access my variables in side bar.

For example my page is set this way:

BEGIN PHP PAGE

$a=1;

PHP Code:

include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/functions/bfa_get_options.php');
get_header(); 


get_footer();

END PHP PAGE


How do I access $a in the side bar code ?

Thanks

When I do:

global $a; in the side bar, I can access it.

Is that the best way?