GhanaBlogging.com » February 15, 2010

The English version of it all: LoveLoveLove

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:32:00 -0500

Lalalalalalalallalalalaaaaa....
Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day. In Norway it was also Mother's day yesterday, + fattening Sunday, meaning the day before you start the fasting. The tradition left behind from this biblical happening, is baking a type of sweet bread, small round balls of wheat and sugar and milk and stuff. Then you split them in half and put whipped cream in between.
We didn't celebrate that. Or Mother's day, since my mother lives far away. But before Hubby went to church yesterday morning, he dropped a bar of chocolate on my pillow. I took it as a Valentine's day gift. :-) I'm not really a fan of Valentine, cos it's just another tradition adopted from the U.S. in the recent decade. Like Halloween. I think it's really stupid, but now Norwegian kids also go trick or treating.

Well, I'm getting myself lost here. You need a song. On L.
So, I give you another of my favorite singing ladies, Pink. And her Love Song. In the spirit of Valentine's Day and all the other 364 days of the year you should tell your darling you love him/her.

Critical Point: Stable or stagnant?

Graham Knight — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:10:52 -0500

Ghana’s society seems quite cohesive because things are done as they have always been done. In one respect history has finished: the ancestors have already done, made, and said everything there is to be done, made and said. As a result of this, there is respect for elders as the repositories of knowledge gained through [...]

Circumspect: The Untold Stories of Ghana's Kayayo (Market Girls)

Jemila — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:59:00 -0500

Thought I was done blogging for the day -- until I came across this BBC photo feature on Ghana's market girls or "kayayo". When I was back in Ghana, I would occasionally go to the Madina market in Accra with my mum and I remember seeing them every time. I often wondered why they weren't in school, why they were doing what they do and why they didn't bargain how much money was paid them. My mum would lament about their situations and each time she patronized their service she would ask them how come they were doing what they did. Unlike my mum, most patrons of the Kayayo's services are not as considerate and don't think twice about having them carry things twice their weight! This is a very sensitive topic to me, because the way I see it, a twist of fate, and I could have been one. I've been meaning to blog on this issue, but somehow it escaped me. Not about to let that opportunity slip by again. Alors, voila.

Here's a youtube slideshow (by the same photographer - Peter DiCampo (a Pullitzer Grant Winner) - as in the BBC feature) depicting the life of Kayayo:

Who exactly are the Kayayo?
Typically, kayayo are young girls and women - generally from the Northern section of Ghana - who migrate to the southern part of Ghana to work in cities like Accra and Kumasi. They tend to work in major markets where they help carry produce or shopping done by market patrons. These loads are usually very heavy - imagine shopping for a family of five or six for an entire week. Include stuff like heavy yams, bottles of palm oil, I guess you get the picture - and when it comes down to age dynamics, some of these girls are barely teenagers.

Why this trade?
Most of these women and girls do not move south just because they feel like it, but rather because of dire economic situations up north. Given the fact that most of Northern Ghana is focused on subsistence farming and agriculture, issues like climate change and the ever impending Sahara have limited the economic and financial base of most northern families, who still face costs of living. Factor in the fact that government pays relatively little attention to Northern Ghana, and the prospects for future economic opportunities are slim. As in most African countries, families pull together when it comes to finances. In order to help out, some families might elect that their young women and girls go south in search of better work opportunities. In other cases, these young women and girls choose to do so themselves; partly in order to earn their keep, but also because of notions of "greener pastures" down south.

There's also the element of societal pressure. For instance, if one Kayayo woman in Accra succeeds in sending some items or money back home, other women and girls living with their families might be regarded as "selfish" or "lazy" for not going south to do the same. Many women also want to start preparing for marriage by buying necessities like kitchen equipment, cloths, etc, while others need things to start businesses in hairdressing, retail, dressmaking and so on. In order to do so, they need the money. There have been instances where some Kayayo have been "tricked" into the trade, by unscrupulous individuals who promise gifts, wealth and what-not. In other cases, some women and girls run away from their villages and homes in order to participate in the trade.

What's the danger?
Women and girls are generally vulnerable in "ordinary" situations. In comparison to their male counterparts, most women lack the physical strength or endurance necessary for escaping dangerous situations. Add the fact that some men think it amusing to exploit women sexually, and you have that entire conundrum as well. But let's not even get into all that complex stuff. Let's look at the basics.

In most cases, prospective kayayo might not know anyone in the city they are migrating to. They might know one girl or another who's supposedly working in that city, but they usually don't have someone who would be willing to put them up, feed and clothe them. So where do they end up? In kiosks, in shacks, in the slums, sometimes in abandoned buildings and cars. At the end of the day, they tend to be homeless or slum dwellers.

Now market places are beehives of activity. And that also means there's a lot of vice. From pickpockets to full-blown thieves, to swindlers, you name it, they are all there. When you have young women and girls living, working, bathing, eating and doing practically everything else in the open market, they tend to fall victim to social vice. Robberies, gender violence, rape etc are some of the things these women have to endure.

Mind you, this is usually after carrying heavy things the entire day without even being certain they have enough money for food - from what I remember, Kayayo didn't have a price they charged for carrying items but would say "give me whatever you can afford". Some people end up not paying them anything!! - and then, not even being guaranteed security at night. Needless to say, many Kayayo turn out pregnant, have the babies (when they can barely feed themselves) and of course, the fathers are nowhere to be found. Let's not forget the obligations they have to their families back home. Aside the strain on their bodies from carrying heavy things, count in malaria (from sleeping in the open air and in the reach of mosquitoes), HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases and it worsens the situation. Some supposedly "well-meaning" families or middle/upper class women might offer a kayayo the opportunity to work as a house help, but all too often, they end up being mistreated. Being a Kayayo is not only a risky venture, but also a life-threatening one!

How to salvage the situation
I believe there is more knowledge about the kayayo situation than there has been in the past. And even the kayayos have formed networks that they use to inform and protect themselves. Some kayayo wisely set the price before carrying items or will decline carrying really heavy things. But the danger is still present. I'm not sure if this exists or not, but some sort of "Kayayo Trade Association" would greatly help improve the situation.

It would also help if some NGOs or non-profits set up a technical/vocational skills training structure for them to ensure that they gradually leave the trade. It would be more appropriate for the government to handle something like this, but I think the government should be more concerned with dealing with the root of the problem: lack of development initiatives in Northern Ghana. Once employment opportunities are made available up north, the tendency for girls and women to move south will be reduced. And even if they do, it would be more out of personal choice or to pursue career and educational opportunities than out of dire need.

Found a feature film via youtube on the issue. Hope it helps you understand the cultural, economic and social dynamics better:

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Photo Credit: Peter DiCampo, Photo Source

Circumspect: Circum-Flash: What To Look Out For

Jemila — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:05:00 -0500

Hi Everyone!

Hope you're all doing well. Can you believe February is just about over?! So far, 2010 is going great for me, hope it's the same with you guys. Anyways, this is a mini update.

Circum-Vlog "How To Blog" Series:
It's been a minute since I posted a new video. And it's not like I want to leave all you new bloggers hanging. Not at all. My computer is having problems and I don't want to risk doing any high-memory stuff (like editing and publishing videos) so for now that is on hiatus. I'm waiting on some accessories which I hope will be here within the next couple of days, and depending on how that affects my laptop's performance, I'll get right back to that. In the meantime keep sending your questions or if you need an immediate response, email me: j.abdulai@circumspecte.com.

The Water Chronicles:So some of you might have seen Part I and Part II of "Calabash Tears". Part III is on it's way, I assure you LOL. I just wanted to explain the concept behind The Water Chronicles. Basically, water access is a huge development problem and many seem to be unaware of the fact. Yes, even those of us who live in Ghana and other African/developing countries and have to go on water searches. Why? Because that's all we know and have been used to. This series is geared at shedding light on some of the challenges around water access. Analysts project that water will be the next oil in the course of a few years. It's becoming scarcer and it's such an important commodity that some mind has to be paid to it. So this is my contribution in that vein. The Water Chronicles will feature a series of short stories around the central team of water access. Hope you enjoy and please, do share your own experiences.

Upcoming Interviews:
As always, people are forever doing exciting things!! Some stuff to look out for:

- Interview with iStandAbove
- Interview with "Rocky" of Bronx Princess
- Interview with DreamOval [For you techy peeps ;)]

We are Africans!
There's a lot going on in the world and so much to share. So, Circumspect is extending the interview series to Africans in general. Alors, if you know about (an) amazing African(s) doing amazing stuff to fuel development, pray do tell. I think I should be able to handle Francophone interviews as well, so send along. We'd be happy to interview + feature them. And in the Circumspect sense, the individuals don't necessarily have to be Africans themselves. Just pro-Africa youth undertaking innovative ventures on the continent. Just thought I'd clarify :)

Look forward to your suggestions, opinions, questions etc and thanks for being part of the Circumspect experience!

Best,
Jemila

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Photo Source

This is Ghana: Sex Dating in Ghana

Gayle Pescud — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:22:00 -0500

div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3VWKbfCNdI/AAAAAAAAArM/XpjVMSNz77Q/s1600-h/Guide-Sex.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="504" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3VWKbfCNdI/AAAAAAAAArM/XpjVMSNz77Q/s640/Guide-Sex.JPG" width="640" //a/divbr / div style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"We took the unconventional step to include a section on sex and dating in the a href="http://gisforghana.blogspot.com/p/insiders-guide-book-to-ghana.html"Insider's Guide to Ghana/a. This is because many visitors have some kind of romantic encounter and, more often than not, depart burnt in some way—emotionally, financially or health-wise. We felt that a dose of frank, honest and sobering advice would not go astray. You can find 5 pages on sex and dating under the section on Culture and Background./span/divdiv style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / /divdiv style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CTERMIN%7E1.EB1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C13%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"/linko:smarttagtype name="country-region" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"/o:smarttagtypestyle !-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /style /divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"When you buy the guide you will receive a zip file which contains both the easy read (colour, 1.5 spaced) version and the easy print (black and white, single spaced) version. You will also have an option to download the Insider's Guide to Volunteering in st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region for free at the same time. You will be directed to a site to purchase the guide using a secure connection. When your payment is accepted you will receive a link to download the guide immediately. It's that simple./divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"You can buy it now by clicking on the payment button here/divdiv class="MsoNormal"meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CTERMIN%7E1.EB1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linkstyle !-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /style /divdiv class="MsoNormal"a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317amp;c=singleamp;cl=103846" target="ejejcsingle"img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" //a/divbr / nbsp; span style="font-size: 11pt;"br / /spanbr / div style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / /divdiv style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"nbsp;/span /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-4385577964518891151?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=QSfnUrT1exE:f_R5hf7YZaU:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=QSfnUrT1exE:f_R5hf7YZaU:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=QSfnUrT1exE:f_R5hf7YZaU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=QSfnUrT1exE:f_R5hf7YZaU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/QSfnUrT1exE" height="1" width="1"/

Accra by Day & Night: An Unnecessary Ghanaian Crowd -- Just to Register National ID?!

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:11:00 -0500

Though it is true that Ghanaians are naturally nosy and like to find out in both discreet and indiscreet ways what someone is doing, you might not believe me if I told you that this crowd has been formed because of the ongoing registration of the national ID card. This scene was taken in one of the Estate neighbourhoods that fall under the deceptively-sounding-prestigious "off Spintex road".

The crowd was rather amorphous on account of the denizens standing in the then-up-and-coming midday heat. Apart from the frustration and fatigue associated with this queue, people could not quite understand the incredibly slow pace of the registration. Sadly, despite media criticisms, the pace has not quickened.

Some might say "all in the name of democracy"!;-)

Better this pace than to be fighting a senseless war that characterised a good number of African countries two decades ago...

This is Ghana: Photos from Ghana: Bolgatanga

Gayle Pescud — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:35:00 -0500

div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lpKINpN2I/AAAAAAAAAsE/8J4id-RHfTE/s1600-h/19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" ct="true" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lpKINpN2I/AAAAAAAAAsE/8J4id-RHfTE/s320/19.jpg" width="298" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"A photo of a sunset near home recently/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br / /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lpTKVwHhI/AAAAAAAAAsU/OvNAZKRof7w/s1600-h/Picture+119.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" ct="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lpTKVwHhI/AAAAAAAAAsU/OvNAZKRof7w/s320/Picture+119.jpg" //a/divdiv style="text-align: center;"A photo of a sunrise near home...6 a.m. in the morning/divdiv style="text-align: center;"br / /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lpO0HqNkI/AAAAAAAAAsM/6D0wwR8ULQU/s1600-h/17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" ct="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lpO0HqNkI/AAAAAAAAAsM/6D0wwR8ULQU/s320/17.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"The boys playing the beautiful game near home recently. You can see the dryness at this time of year. The rainy season will begin again around April or May./divdiv style="text-align: center;"br / /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-5015069508296668170?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eU8imo_Fhlo:L5Q-Qj_JPXU:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eU8imo_Fhlo:L5Q-Qj_JPXU:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eU8imo_Fhlo:L5Q-Qj_JPXU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=eU8imo_Fhlo:L5Q-Qj_JPXU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/eU8imo_Fhlo" height="1" width="1"/

In My Eyes: Thats to be expected.

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 07:00:00 -0500

I love

I love the concept of love

But realize the state of love

I am yet to reach

Total acceptance

Now that is deep

The good in you I try in vain to keep

But somehow every time your reality drowns us

The good in me you try in vain to keep

But somehow every time my reality drowns us

The truth is we all just want to be accepted…

But that is to be expected.

03:13-03:18

Osabutey ANNY: Kwaku Sakyi-Addo unveiled.

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:58:00 -0500

An award-winning Ghanaian journalist can say in all modesty that he has seen it all and more so he is the monarch of all that he has surveyed, and no one can begrudge him.

This fact is incontestable especially when he has been twice awarded the journalist of the year aside many other coveted prizes in his chosen field
Currently he hosts front page on JOY FM and Kwaku one on One on TV3, and has put him in a good stead to interview some of the most prominent news makers from different disciplines. And the beauty of it all is the fact that he keeps re-inventing himself, and this is so important especially when you live in the country like Ghana where people are fetish about the shelf-life of TV and radio personalities.

There is a Ghanaian proverb which states literally that; “if you know how to wash your hands, you eat with elders,” the moral of this saying is not lost on Kwaku at all. He has mastered his craft very well, metamorphosing into a strong brand, to the extent that his equity keeps appreciating anytime he sits behind the JOY FM console or the TV3 lights are beamed on him.

His insightful, intelligent, and straight-to-the-point line of questioning endears him to his endless list of admirers. His nice and boyish looks, could easily deceive one to think that he must be in his 40s, and his solid command over the English language, are some of the qualities that have earned him a place of among his many admirers. And these are qualities that even his bitterest critics as well as his enemies will attest to.

When I pointed out to Kwaku Sakyi-Addo that he’s spoken to some of the prominent people in the world from different background in a head to head interview, he said to me: ‘I have not spoken to Barack Obama.’ That is true but I’ll not be surprised if the next time I hear he’s had the opportunity to interview the US President.
Some of the personalities he’s interviewed include current United Nations boss Ban Ki Moon and his two predecessors: Boutros-Boutros Ghali and Kofi Annan. He has also interviewed not only the current Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf but her predecessor, Charles Taylor-currently answering charges of war crimes at the Hague, Holland.

“Charles Taylor is an interesting subject; he makes good news in quote from a journalistic point of view, the kind of guy who will give you a story anytime. He creates the news,” he said about Mr. Taylor
Then a correspondent for the BBC Focus on Africa programme, Kwaku said his last encounter with the former Liberian president was here in Accra during the summit of African leaders.

Mr. Taylor had been indicted by the UN war crimes. He risked being arrested so he left the summit to get back to Liberia in good time. Before leaving, Kwaku said he waited for him to get an interview on what he thinks about the indictment for his arrest.

He thrust the microphone to Mr. Taylor’ face but “he wouldn’t talk and ‘Focus’ had started and I described what was happening to him.”
Kwaku said he sat in one of the convoys in tow of Taylor’s and described what was happening. Incidentally, Mr. Taylor who was listening to the programme became enraged at Kwaku’s behaviour.
“So when we arrived at the airport, I got out of the car and he also got out of the car and he then came face to face to me wagging his finger saying to me, ‘Kwaku, that was very unprofessional.”

His bodyguards nearly ruffled him when he subsequently attempted taking pictures of Mr Taylor entering the aircraft. It took the intervention of former Vice President Aliu Mahama then close to the scene to prevent any further scuffle.
“I got my job done and it was interesting encounter, and that was the last time I’d spoken to him,” he said though he’s spoken to Taylor’s ex-wife Jewel and lawyer Courtney Griffiths.

He has written for The Economist, Newsweek, the Washington Post, the British Guardian, Telegraph and the Mail. He has also reported for CNN.
He worked for the BBC for a period of thirteen years and in between worked for Reuters News Agency for eight years, leaving the two jobs three years ago.

Kwaku said his first interview for the BBC was with fashion designer Oswald Boateng. Oswald was on his way to Ghana with a number of journalists from the UK to do a fashion show. The interview did not turn out as well as he wanted it to go.

“I think we might have talked for four hours and I was recording everything... and I couldn’t edit it....so I completely lost the plot and nothing good came out of the interview. I was clearly told why it could not be used. The sound quality was bad. But I learnt from that experience.”

Kwaku’s journalism career started more than two decades ago.
“I have been in journalism for 25 years since 1984. Initially for about eight years for Ghana News Agency and subsequently acting editor for the Ghanaian chronicle for about a year.”

It was at the Ghanaian Chronicle that his column the “Animal Farm” won the Columnist of the Year prize in 1994. The idea for the column started during his time at the United States, where he had gone to study at the World Press Institute at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.

Kwaku’s host at the institute was the American actor Harry Morgan who incidentally hosted Kofi Annan, during his time at the institute. During a Republican Party’s Convention Kwaku said Mr. Morgan had encouraged him to speak to Condoleezza Rice, then an adviser to George Bush, Snr- because she was somebody to look out for in the future.

Mr. Morgan also hosted Kofi Annan during his stay at the institute.
Upon his return to Ghana, he changed the name ‘the American Postcard’ to ‘Back to Kokokmlemle’ where he was living at the time. He later settled on “Animal Farm” as a platform to addressing the many injustices in the system at the time.
The twenty-five years as a journalist has taken him around almost everywhere in the globe, where he had shared the same platforms with the likes of UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Funnily enough, Kwaku said he wanted to become either a lawyer or diplomat but poor A-Level results helped bury that dream.
“I stumbled upon journalism because I write poetry and at the time I didn’t do well in my A levels, I was distrusted, so when I wasn’t able to go to University and appear to have an interest and some skill in writing, I was advised to try journalism,” he said.

His love for current affairs even at a very tender age was good enough to shape up his writing skills.

“I remember when I was 12, 13, 14 I was reading Newsweek from cover to cover, my father subscribed to Newsweek. So I have always been interested in national affairs, in international issues about Africa so that combined with my writing skill, I was advised to try journalism. “

He said he felt like “fish in water” when he entered journalism school in 1981.
Kwaku said he had never been attacked in his journalism career though an encounter with the then notorious Salifu Amankwah’s guards in 1985 still hangers at the back of his mind.

“There was a boxing match at the holy gardens. And there were people standing on top of the bridge watching the match. And Salifu Amankwah’s guards were ruffling them up, driving them away from the bridge and I intervened. I told them but you can’t stop people from standing on the bridge.”

“These guys attacked me, beat me, ripped my necklace handed to me by my grandma to my mother to me. I was cooked up in the place with two others. We managed to escape because we had to. The thought that the next morning we would be made to crawl on the streets or go and sweep a gutter was too much, so we managed to escape.”
Kwaku said he later met Salifu Amankwah who had just been released from prison and they patched things up.

“I asked him if he knows me and he said of course, and I said ‘how you remember me. He said you were the man who got attacked by my boys, you lost your necklace in the process.”

Kwaku’s life is not all about interrogating guests on his radio or television shows.
“I go to the gym, I lift weight, I have been in body building for almost 17 years,” He is also into Tae Kwondo and holds a senior belt. He said he’ll be taking his examination this month for the Red Belt and later Black Belt.

“I listen to music. I love African music and reggae and Jazz more Malian, Senegalese, southern African, I don’t do r and b, it doesn’t mean anything, it doesn’t do for me, it’s noise, they all sound the same.”
Though he appreciates the creativity in hiplife, he doesn’t think it fits into his life as a 51 year old.

Kwaku is married to Georgette Barnes and, they have three children; Akua Ofeibea, Ohene Kofi and Nine months old Abena Oforiwa Baawa.
He is the second of six siblings. He comes from Akropong in the Eastern Region. His father turns 86 next month.

He was educated at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, School of Communications Studies, and University of Ghana, Legon, University of Wales in Cardiff, the International Institute for Journalism in Berlin, Germany.
He has just completed an MBA in ‘Leadership and Governance’ from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration-GIMPA.

This is Ghana: Ghana travel budget planning

Gayle Pescud — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:00:00 -0500

meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CTERMIN%7E1.EB1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C10%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linko:smarttagtype name="country-region" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypestyle !-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Arial Narrow"; panose-1:2 11 6 6 2 2 2 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 2048 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:none; mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /style br / div class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"I have created an average budget of the costs in your trip to st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region. You could spend a lot more than this, but this is the minimum. You can read this outline of the Insider’s Guide to st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place (link to post above) for more details or buy it here (link).o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divtable border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse;"tbody tr style="height: 16.5pt;" td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"ITEMo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"DESCRIPTIONo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"COST IN US$o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"% of total costo:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 16.5pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Airfare return to US/UKo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Estimate—change as needed.o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"1100o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"24.89%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext red; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Ghana/span/st1:place/st1:country-regionspan style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;" tourist visao:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext red -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Approximation (depends on country) o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext red -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"50o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext red -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"1.13%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color red red; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"bspan style="color: red; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Insider’s Guide to Ghanao:p/o:p/span/b/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color red red -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"bspan style="color: red; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Guide booko:p/o:p/span/b/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color red red -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"bspan style="color: red; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"15o:p/o:p/span/b/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color red red -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"bspan style="color: red; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"0.34%o:p/o:p/span/b/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Travel Insurance 2 monthso:p/o:p/span/divdiv align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"br / /div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"nbsp;Estimateo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"200o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"4.53%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Tropical medical doctoro:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Follow your doctor’s advice on which shots to have before leaving. Yellow Fever is compulsory for travel to sub-Saharan st1:place w:st="on"Africa/st1:place.o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"350o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"7.92%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"3 months worth of anti-malarialso:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Depends on the brand, but $7 a week is a good averageo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"84o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"1.90%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Clothes and gearo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"For st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region’s climateo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"300o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"6.79%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 16.5pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Extra medicines and vitaminso:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Standardo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"100o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"2.26%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 79.5pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 79.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Meals and snacks daily for 2 months.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 79.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Average 10 GHC/day x 60 days = 600 (x 0.70 = US$420). You could do it for as little as 5 GHC but that’s pushing it now.o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 79.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"420o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 79.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"9.50%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Extended journey around st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-regiono:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Covering north and southo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"1200o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"27.16%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Entertainment: dancing and drinkingo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Spots, bars and pubso:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"250o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"5.66%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Souvenirs, cloth, beads, dress-makingo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Various shopso:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"200o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"4.53%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 16.5pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Miscellaneouso:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Extras (medicines, clothes, snacks.)o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"150o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"3.39%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 16.5pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"br / /div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"bspan style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"TOTALo:p/o:p/span/b/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"bspan style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"$4,419.00 o:p/o:p/span/b/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"br / /div/td /tr /tbody/tablediv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"o:pnbsp;/o:pspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"The Insider's Guide to Ghana will save you quite a few percentage points in dollars as well as a lot more in time and stress.nbsp;/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"When you buy the guide you will receive a zip file which contains both the easy read (colour, 1.5 spaced) version and the easy print (black and white, single spaced) version. You will also have an option to download the Insider's Guide to Volunteering in Ghana for free at the same time. /span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;" /span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;" /span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"You can buy it immediately at /spana href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317amp;c=singleamp;cl=103846" target="ejejcsingle"img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" //abr / br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"Thanks for reading and if you have any comments, please click the window below!/span/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-729791671294362384?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ES7POmFL5bE:6CfPXgiwjQ0:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ES7POmFL5bE:6CfPXgiwjQ0:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ES7POmFL5bE:6CfPXgiwjQ0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ES7POmFL5bE:6CfPXgiwjQ0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/ES7POmFL5bE" height="1" width="1"/