Feeds

5499 items (5499 unread) in 66 feeds

• 20sAvVy (68 unread)
• Accra books and things Weblog (33 unread)
• Accra by Day & Night (185 unread)
• Accra Conscious Forever (97 unread)
• Accra Lady musings (28 unread)
• Adventures from the bedrooms of African women (61 unread)
• Altius Tendo (20 unread)
• ANTI-RHYTHM (424 unread)
• Ato Kwamena Dadzie Latest Blog Articles (173 unread)
• AWDF (53 unread)
• Baring Testament (26 unread)
• Boakyewaa Glover (43 unread)
• Border Crossings (48 unread)
• Christ for Creative People (9 unread)
• Circumspect (117 unread)
• Colleen's Ghanaian Adventure (42 unread)
• dotFAF.com (76 unread)
• Ethelcofie’s Thought-osphere (15 unread)
• Expression Poesy (49 unread)
• Expressions in Words (102 unread)
• From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS (35 unread)
• GHANA HYPE (109 unread)
• ghana photojournalist nana kofi acquah (32 unread)
• Holli's ramblings (131 unread)
• Home Sweet Home (29 unread)
• I HEART ACCRA (51 unread)
• ICTlog.net (12 unread)
• In My Eyes (132 unread)
• Kaleidoscope (8 unread)
• Life...and living it (70 unread)
• Like a naughty girl pulling her skirt up in public (87 unread)
• MAKOLA LAW (6 unread)
• Maya's earth (175 unread)
• Mobile Africa (70 unread)
• Moonlight expressions (20 unread)
• Musings: Ben Hinson's blog (34 unread)
• Mustaphamid.net (48 unread)
• my funny little frog (179 unread)
• My World (41 unread)
• Nana Kofi Acquah - Ghana Photographer (165 unread)
• novisi (99 unread)
• Nubian Cheetah (165 unread)
• Obroni Observations - An American Mom in Ghana (51 unread)
• Oluniyi David Ajao (184 unread)
• One Ghana, One Voice (173 unread)
• Perspectives (29 unread)
• Prince of Adovoria - The Voice of a Ghanaian Progressive (26 unread)
• Rain in Africa (213 unread)
• Ramblings of a Procrastinator in Accra (119 unread)
• Ramblings of an African Geek (14 unread)
• Rose among Thorns (95 unread)
• Sarpong Obed-ready to chew (96 unread)
• SavingGhana (27 unread)
• Tagoe Blogger (43 unread)
• The English version of it all (218 unread)
• tHe fLiRt FiLeS (99 unread)
• The Gamelian World (33 unread)
• The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana (114 unread)
• This is Ghana (114 unread)
• UNEXPECTED (14 unread)
• WEB4AFRICA.INFO (7 unread)
• Welcome to Inspirare.. (42 unread)
• WELCOME TO KUMASI, THE GARDEN CITY OF AFRICA (29 unread)
• Wherever I Lay My Hat... (101 unread)
• Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African (175 unread)
• Wo se Ekyir... (116 unread)

Maya's earth (100 unread)

• March 08, 2010
• 13:57

  Who Wants to be Rich?

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S5QxFM1dsAI/AAAAAAAAAlk/1manFLOmtY4/s1600-h/whowants+to+be.png"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 176px; height: 172px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S5QxFM1dsAI/AAAAAAAAAlk/1manFLOmtY4/s320/whowants+to+be.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446031814812348418" //abr /span style="font-style:italic;"(Picture from a href="http://whowantstoberichghana.com/origin.html"Who wants to be rich Ghana/a)/spanbr /br /…I just remembered what I actually wanted to write about yesterday. A TV moment that had me laughing really hard. On Who Wants to be Rich (we can’t afford to make people millionaires quite yet) this question pops up:br /span style="font-style:italic;"Which two primary colours make the colour green:br /A. Red and yellowbr /B. Blue and yellowbr /C. Red and bluebr /D. Purple and redbr //span(ok, I admit I don’t exactly remember the four options, but continue reading and you’ll see it doesn’t really matter). The TEACHER and UNIVERSITY STUDENT who is asked the question doesn’t know the answer. Hm, let me not even pass judgement but leave you to make your own comments. So instead he chooses to phone a friend. He calls his friend and this is how the conversation goes:br /br /span style="font-weight:bold;"“Which two primary colours make the colour green:br /A. Red and yellow”br //spanspan style="font-style:italic;"“YES!”/spanbr /span style="font-weight:bold;""B. Blue and yellow"br //spanspan style="font-style:italic;"“Yes!”br //spanspan style="font-weight:bold;""C. Red and blue"/spanbr /span style="font-style:italic;"“Yes!”/spanbr /span style="font-weight:bold;""D. Purple and red"/spanbr /span style="font-style:italic;"“Yes!”/spanbr /Ok, I’m guessing the friend doesn’t get the format of the game, but watching it and seeing the contestant get more and more confused made my Sunday night! That is…a href="http://mayasearth.blogspot.com/2010/03/laptop-abuse.html"until my laptop made me cry…/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-8387213691437373954?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• March 07, 2010
• 22:24

  Laptop abuse

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  This evening my laptop made me cry. Yes, you read right, my LAPTOP made me cry. After trying to send of a work report for about an hour, somewhere between the internet connection flashing on and off and my laptop freezing for the fourth time, I slammed my hands on to the dining table in despair and when Virgo asked what was wrong, I suddenly felt tears running down my face as I tried to explain my frustration. Granted, I know it is a complete overreaction to a ridiculously temperamental internet connection and a failing laptop (which has otherwise worked wonderfully for its whole first year of life, although sorry Acer, I’m a Toshiba girl and they usually work well for two or three years before slowing down.), probably caused by lack of sleep, stress of all the wahala that’s been going on lately and the pressure of trying to get this report sent in by the end of 7th March.br /br /It just made me realise the power technology has on us these days, I’ve felt completely powerless all evening and that has certainly not been helped by the fact that I now know my computer has the power to make me cry!br /(Of course all this was written in Word as the network timed out about three times whilst I tried to write.) Anyhoo, the report finally got sent and thankfully tomorrow we have an extra weekend day to continue what has otherwise been a lovely Independence Day weekend.br /br /How have you spent the weekend?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-693487127257457691?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• March 04, 2010
• 16:13

  Just another day in Ghana

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  When I decided I was moving to Ghana, some 4,5 years ago, my mum, though very happy about my decision, asked me:br /Why are you moving to Ghana when you hate heat, loathe and fear insects and get really irritated when people are not punctual?br /I couldn't really answer her, but somehow thought, maybe everything else about Ghana will make it worth the cons.br /br /Tuesday, and I'm in a 5 hour meeting, which of course started late because span style="font-style:italic;"people/span did not show up on time. I can't put Em in her high chair as some hundreds of ants are feasting on leftover foodcrumbs in there (left the chair out on the porch, oops!).br /br /Towards the end of the meeting I step out to call Vodafone, who still haven't fixed our broadband (oh yes,a href="http://mayasearth.blogspot.com/2010/01/dear-vodafone.html" it is the same problem/a). After dilly dallying me for a bit and realising I am not going to give in until I get someone over to sort out the problem, the technician says, "Madam, someone can come over...if you don't mind coming to pick them up."br /I know, unbelievable. However at that point, it is so darn hot, with sweat running down my face and I am so desperate to get back online that I agree. br /br /Whilst driving to Vodafone, I am reminded of my mum's question. At times it is pretty frustrating living here. Still, as I drive back home chatting happily with the technician in the car, AC and radio on, and reminded of the sweet fresh mango waiting for me at home, I realise my optimistic thought is still the same: despite the heat, the tardiness and the awful insect and geckos, life in Ghana is so sweet, at the end of the day you still manage to go to bed with a smile on your face. br /br /Of course, functioning AC and broadband make the experience that little bit easier!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-9036647037304309386?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 22, 2010
• 21:58

  Breathe and Stop

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Sometimes it feels as if life is running ahead of you, as if you can't quite catch up with what's going on around you. It reminds me of childhood, when you'd cycle down a hill and suddenly be going faster than you could really control. All you do at such a time is hope that your feet will somehow reach the ground to slow down the motion that you're unable to manage.br /br /That's how I felt about two weeks ago. And what to do at such a moment in life? Though it seems impossible at the time, the best thing to do is to stop and breathe, breathe and stop. That's exactly what I did. In the midst of too much going on, I took my favourite gals (my mother and daughter) out for lunch at Tribe, Afia Beach Hotel. The lunch was great, but the best part was the walk on the beach that followed:br /span style="font-style:italic;"br /The Beach (aren't we lucky to have this in the centre of Accra?)/spanbr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S4MAOZKV4NI/AAAAAAAAAlc/RfTL-1ZqGNo/s1600-h/SANY1044.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S4MAOZKV4NI/AAAAAAAAAlc/RfTL-1ZqGNo/s320/SANY1044.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441193022066122962" //abr /span style="font-style:italic;"br /The Daughter/spanbr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S4MAODTZUjI/AAAAAAAAAlU/ZEUWbA-B1PQ/s1600-h/SANY1046.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S4MAODTZUjI/AAAAAAAAAlU/ZEUWbA-B1PQ/s320/SANY1046.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441193016198517298" //abr /span style="font-style:italic;"The Chalets, neatly hidden by palmtrees/spanbr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S4MANzVyLHI/AAAAAAAAAlM/26LdfNYed7Q/s1600-h/SANY1045.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S4MANzVyLHI/AAAAAAAAAlM/26LdfNYed7Q/s320/SANY1045.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441193011913567346" //abr /And suddenly, after inhaling the beautiful sea air, I could smile again and life was back to being good.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-774654257581680448?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 18, 2010
• 21:30

  Rawlings drama... as usual.

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Here's another nasty surprise. A a href="http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201002/42308.asp"man, Nana Darkwa, who in a radio interview /a claimed that a href="http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201002/42044.asp"Rawlings set his own house on fire/a has been remanded in custody, denied bail and will spend the next two weeks at Nsawam prison (Nsawam = a horrid, horrid prison just outside Accra). At the moment I am too tired to even go into detail and lay out what a disgusting breach of human rights and freedom of speech this is. For me, the past two weeks have been exhausting, emotional, tiring and scary, but it looks like things are turning around and there will be a brighter future, fingers crossed.br /br /So instead of me trying to make sense of my sleep-deprived thoughts, please do let me know what you think, is there any way of justifying the imprisonment of Nana Darkwa?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-8187482738395308919?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 10, 2010
• 19:48

  Nasty surprises

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  I'm having a bit of a rough week. Too many things are happening at once and I could really use a moment of peace to enjoy the fresh sea air around me, but no such luck. Please excuse me for already failing to uphold my new year's resolutions.br /br /In the mean time, I'll leave you with two horrid experiences I had this weekend in my beloved Tema. I went with my mum and Em to Usave (a Shoprite affiliate) in Community 1. On the way there I kept raving that this is the life - a nice breezy drive, good music blasting and Tema's organised (but potholed) roads. As we went through what was my local supermarket when Evergreen was to pricey and before Maxmart made it to Tema, I suddenly heard my mum yelp, then scream: a rat! Since I have a severe rat phobia, I lost all calm and started running through the shop, wheezing "excuse me, excuse me!" as I tried to make my way out as soon as possible, suddenly feeling very hot with a racing heart.br /br /Once out and able to breathe again, my mum informed me it was actually a mouse, running over some tins just where she was about to reach out and take something. (Imagine that, reaching out for a tin of sweetcorn and landing a mouse in your hand. *shudder*).br /br /It took a while to recover but by the next morning, I was better and started to prepare my lovely scrambled egg Sunday breakfast. As I cracked a second egg into a bowl, a smell filled our kitchen, and as I looked down I saw flaky, runny egg white and, wait for it, a b-l-a-c-k egg yolk!!! (I really do wish I had taken a picture but I was too shocked, instead, I'm thinking happy thoughts and give you a picture of sunset over East Legon).br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S3MRZOt3C4I/AAAAAAAAAlE/gSClKOr-dYg/s1600-h/SANY0977+-+Copy.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S3MRZOt3C4I/AAAAAAAAAlE/gSClKOr-dYg/s320/SANY0977+-+Copy.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436708300311169922" //abr /br /Lesson learnt, be observant of where you shop and what you eat. Have a wonderful week, keep me in your happy thoughts.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-1049292824480453373?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 03, 2010
• 20:41

  Ramblings of a Procrastinator (yes, I stole your title, Abena!).

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  span style="font-style:italic;"Procrastination is the thief of time/span they say. If you ask me, procrastination is the thief of everything. Let me tell you why:br /br /Early last year, I felt a slight chill in one of my teeth. Every now and then it'd hurt but I'd ignore it. Then I left for Sweden and things happened very quickly. Suddenly I had a daughter who needed my care almost all the time. One day when she was about three weeks old, I couldn't ignore the pain anymore. Because of the pain, I could barely see, think, sleep and I stopped producing milk. I left my little one at the hospital and went off to the emergency dental clinic (which charged me double as I put off going there until a Friday evening and was as such charged the weekend rate).br /br /The dentist put in a temporary filling and sternly told me to have it permanently sorted out within a month, which I promised I'd do, knowing I'd most certainly not. Three weeks later, whilst having breakfast, the filling and one third of the tooth came out. Did I go to the dentist? Nope. Instead, for the past nine months, I've gotten used to eating on the left side of my mouth and after each meal, taking a toothpick to dig out any food which may have ended up in my little grotto! br /br /Yesterday, I finally had the first step of my root canal done. This took three hours, cost me countless cedis (although I know it was cheaper than if I'd done it abroad) and left me with a jaw so sore, I couldn't open it for more than to insert a straw, which means I spent 24 hours living on smoothies (thank goodness for Smoothy's! Goodbye BoneShaker, my new favourite is Piccolo Mondo).br /br /So let's see what procrastinating dental care in general and fixing this cavity in particular has cost me:br /Money, lots of money (emergency care, follow up care, transport, smoothies,it all adds up). br /Enjoyment of life before Christmas when the pain was at its worst.br /Loss of sight (well, only temporarily but still)br /Eating in a sane and reasonable manner (what normal person needs to dig for food in her teeth after each meal?)br /Milk Production - for about a day, my darling daughter did not get much in her.br /Use of the teeth on the right side of my mouth.br /And of course, TIME! br /br /So do you agree with me that procrastinating thieves a lot more than time???div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-9150843973860578127?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 02, 2010
• 11:27

  Ghana Loves Haiti concert.

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  I did promise to update you on how to help the Haiti victims from Ghana. A concert was held about ten days ago at Alliance Francaise with a fantastic lineup. Unfortunately I missed it because someone decided 21:00 was a more fun bedtime than 19:30, but read about Kajsa's rather exciting experience a href="http://nonjeneregretterien.blogspot.com/2010/01/did-i-dance-with-kojo-antwi.html"here/a.br /br /The Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund Ghana informs me that there's a Ghana Loves Haiti relief concert being held this Saturday at the International Conference Centre from 19:30. For further information check their a href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=278733049890ref=mf"facebook page/a where there is also information on how to donate money by texting.br /br /Of course after hearing how long it is taking to get help to the victims and after reading a href="http://hollisramblings.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-rant-2.html"Holli's criticisms/a of the corruption that goes on where disaster strikes, some of my inital enthusiasm at giving money to those in need is now lost.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-231500756300695368?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 01, 2010
• 22:54

  Happy New...February!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Around the 20th of January I realised that this year had started waaaay too quickly for me to keep up: I hadn't even posted my New Year's resolutions and suddenly we were heading for February? Well, as someone who likes to make life easy, my 2010 is starting from today! br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S2dg9yV-nZI/AAAAAAAAAk8/Y1MRWGJQRds/s1600-h/fireworks.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 273px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S2dg9yV-nZI/AAAAAAAAAk8/Y1MRWGJQRds/s320/fireworks.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433418090048036242" //a span style="font-style:italic;"(picture borrowed from a href="http://z.about.com/d/chemistry/1/0/_/_/fireworks.jpg"here)/span/abr /For the first time in a looong time I actually have proper new year's resoultions, and quite a few. Well, I always have proper resolutions, it's just that since I like to enjoy life (how do you translate "livsnjutare") and live by the notion that "man måste unna sig" (one must treat oneself), my resolutions usually consist of things like "this year I must have more fun than last year". In a similar manner, for lent I usually give up cigarettes, coffee and beer, i.e. things I don't usually touch anyway.br /br /span style="font-weight:bold;"Anyway, I digress, here are my resolutions for this year:br //span1. To read at least 10 books (I think I should make it 15, 10 is being a bit kind to myself and I've already gotten through 1.5).br /2. To pick up French again and learn it to conversational level. After all, what's the point of learning French for 6 years if I can barely make a sentence now.br /3. To learn Ga. My husband, in-laws, mother, relatives and soon my daughter, all speak it, so I better start learning soon. (I find my understanding of Twi is sufficient to get by, no need for lessons quite yet.br /4. To get fit. It's amazing (and not in a good way) how the body changes after pregnancy and how little time one can find for exercise when you're sleep-deprived and taking care of a baby.br /5. To cut sugar and all white starches out of my diet (gradually). My motto for 2010 is SUGAR IS THE DEVIL!!! So far the devil has had quite a firm hold on my life since March last year.br /6. To follow up and make one of my own business ideas come through. I really, really hopw I manage to do this.br /7. To blog at least 5 times a week. I am really nervous about this, well mostly nervous about actually telling the people who can check me about this. (After all, I could lie to you about the progress on all the other points, but not this one). Also, to work on my other blog which I'll hopefully present soon.br /8. To explore Ghana. I lived here for 4.5 years and visited countless times before that, and so far been to Accra, Tema, Takoradi, Cape Coast, Kakum, Oda, Prampram, Akosombo, Aburi and Kumasi. There is so much more to see. Places of interest include Bonwire, Axim, Volta Region and maybe the North (but I don't like flying in small planes, or travelling by road for more than 4 hours and sleeping in villages, hm...), etc. My litte brother, Mr. T will hopefully visit at the end of the year and the plan is to have some sort of a travel plan in order for him.br /br /Here's hoping Em (who decided the best Christmas present for her parents was to throw all sleep training out the window) has one resolution: to sleep through the night, all night every night.br /br /On that note, goodnight!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-6614561526710303846?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• January 28, 2010
• 21:10

  Ghana going for gold!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  I've spent the past ten days complaining about how I'm not feeling any of the fun, football-loving spirit we felt two years ago when Ghana hosted the African Cup of Nations (for those of you not in Africa, the African Nations Cup is on at the moment in Angola). After catching the last few minutes of the Ghana game against Angola, I finally felt some excitement. And today, after our 1-0 win against the green giant, Nigeria, the whole country is excited, there's jubilation in offices, rejoicing in the streets of Accra and even from my sitting room I hear the cars honking all the way down the road. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S2H9Qv0GicI/AAAAAAAAAk0/M7q44riZ2qs/s1600-h/P1010052.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 295px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S2H9Qv0GicI/AAAAAAAAAk0/M7q44riZ2qs/s320/P1010052.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431901089740261826" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S2H9QbTjmWI/AAAAAAAAAks/XsMQWA3mG4I/s1600-h/P1010076+(2).JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S2H9QbTjmWI/AAAAAAAAAks/XsMQWA3mG4I/s320/P1010076+(2).JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431901084235045218" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S2H9QH4t8nI/AAAAAAAAAkk/HSuh-9E5WYU/s1600-h/P1010083.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/S2H9QH4t8nI/AAAAAAAAAkk/HSuh-9E5WYU/s320/P1010083.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431901079022203506" //abr /span style="font-style:italic;"(Pictures from the Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra, during CAN2008)/spanbr /br /On facebook, it's fun to read the comments from both before and after the game of predictions and cocky retaliations by Ghanaians. To think of it, the Nigerians have been ever so quiet since we booted them out of the final...There's nothing like the rivlary between neighbouring countries, and in our case I'm happy to always show big brother Naija that despite them being about 100 million more in population than us, we will continue to beat them when they least expect it. I'll repeat the funny old-school saying that I was taught after our win against Nigeria two years ago:br /br /God is not a Lagosian!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-8158777596820544419?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• January 20, 2010
• 20:12

  The Angry Pedestrian

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  I had heard of him before. Actually once when I was in Naa's car she pointed him out to me and that's how I was later able to recognise him. And today, as I turned into Labone Junction, I saw him in front of me, tall, shabby with a wild, determined look on his face. Just as I said to my mother: span style="font-style:italic;""That's the man who..."/span, we suddenly locked eyes.br /br /And of course I knew that eye contact meant I had made myself his next victim. As he flung his hand towards the car with force, I thankfully reacted quickly, swerved him and started speeding off. As I laughed at my lucky escape, I caught him in my rear view mirror - he had turned around and seemed to be following me, but at his pace I could relax, he'd never catch up. br /br /Oh and by the way, the end of the sentence I started to my mother was span style="font-style:italic;""attacks people's cars!"/span.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7757850885424058462?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• January 18, 2010
• 10:33

  Earthquake scare hits Ghana!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Did you receive this text last night:br /span style="font-style:italic;""Today's night 12.30 to 3.30 am COSMIC RAYS entering earth from Mars. Switch off ur mobiles today's night. NASA BBC NEWS. Plz pass to all ur friends."br //spanbr /I got it around 21.00 and looked at it a bit confused. What was going to be the effect of cosmic rays passing earth if my phone was on? I thought about it for a while, then thought, well, it doesn't hurt me to turn off my phone so after passing on the message to my mum, I did just that.br /br /It seems I was one of few who acted reasonably. Somehow, this text has spread round the country and turned into an a href="http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201001/40678.asp"earthquake scare/a (cosmic rays - earthquake, I don't get it?!), with many people spending last night sleeping outdoors as they were too afraid be indoors when the earthqake would shake Ghana.br /br /I'm guessing today is going to be a loooong day for those who got the wrong message. Instead of getting scared in the wake of the Haiti earthquake, let's do what we can to help:br /br /Google has a good page listing a few ways to donate, click a href="http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/"here/a for more info. For those in Sweden, a href="http://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/sa-kan-du-hjalpa-de-nodstallda-pa-haiti-1.1026882"DN/a also lists mosts of the charities that are receiving donations for Haiti. There are quite a number of Facebook groups that claim to donate an amount per member, I'm not sure of how true this is, but sticking to my 'it doesn't hurt to join' mantra, I've joined this a href="http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?dropref=mb#/group.php?gid=243968684541ref=mf"Swedish one/a and seen a href="http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?dropref=mb#/group.php?gid=290862327714ref=searchsid=746755146.3569471062..1"this one/a. Other than that, do check out this a href="http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?dropref=mb#/group.php?gid=252988675717ref=searchsid=746755146.3569471062..1"Facebook group/a and a href="http://www.yele.org/"Yele Haiti/a for more ways to help. Once I hear of any ways that we in Ghana can help locally, I will let you know.br /br /Let's have a happy Monday!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-752324560678504760?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• January 12, 2010
• 21:31

  Dear Vodafone...

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  You're like a love interest playing hard to get. Just when I've spent the days before Christmas, praising you to the skies with Miami, you cut me off in a "treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen" kind of way. After weeks of span style="font-style:italic;""who needs iBurst"/span comments, I suddenly had to come crawling back to a href="http://www.iburstafrica.com/"iBurst/a, resembling a girl who drunkenly calls her ex on a particularly lonely night. Then, I finally decide to confront you, span style="font-style:italic;""what the %#¤ is going on?"/span and you softly convince me that it's nothing, just work overload, you'll be back to your best as soon as possible. The exact terms being that somebody will come by the next day to check out the connection.br /br /Already that evening, of course, the network is back on, oh it's like being sent flowers the day before a reconciliation date and I'm happy, oh so happy again. As I start my span style="font-style:italic;""Dear Vodafone"/span love letter the next day, you predictably disappoint me, but now I'm already hooked. span style="font-style:italic;""Surely the connection will be back on again soon"/span I think, although by now I should know better, I should know that you've found someone else to woo, not caring the least about how I am going to connect with the rest of the world.br /br /I try to get back with you for several days, but I'm left disappointed and longing for you more and more. Today I finally gave up and now I'm digging up the ex-files, reaching for the iBurst modem. But as I'm about to stick the cable into the laptop, what do I see? We're back on!br /br /As I am writing this, I see you flickering, on and off, on and off, as if to remind me that you're not mine for keeps, just for as long as you're enjoying it. So now a href="http://www.vodafone.com.gh/"Vodafone/a, I'm practically begging you, stay with me baby, I need you, I need you there when I wake up and before I go to bed. But if this is the way you're going to continue, I'll have to break it off and find someone else. I don't want to because I really like you, your customer service and your closeness to me, but hey, I'm only human and nothing, nothing will come between me and my love and need for the internet.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-3633448664590278727?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• January 07, 2010
• 21:24

  Crappy new year?

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Sorry, I don't mean to dampen your happy new year's spirits, I was (as always) extremely happy about entering a new year, and especially 2010, after a fantastic decade like the Noughties. However, ever since Vodafone, on the second to last day of the year, decided to cut off my broadband (and most of Accra's it seems), I kind of lost my positive attitude (I'm on iBurst now, my ever 'reliable' substitute). I wasn't able to post my roundup of 2009, which even included a challenge for a href="http://amabroni.blogspot.com/"Yngvild/a. I couldn't give you a detailed account of my very typically Ghanaian New Year's Eve (see a href="http://nonjeneregretterien.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-years-eve-ghana-style-does-not.html"Kajsa's blog/a for a hint of what it involved).br /br /And already a week into the new year, I haven't posted my New year's resolutions yet. Hm, could that be the reason why I'm already failing? Hey, the year is young, the still lots of time for me to redeem myself! Don't worry, after a bit of rest, and assuming iBurst doesn't fail me, I shall put my resolutions in print and hopefully fulfil them.br /br /Happy New Decade!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7234399367994563647?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• December 28, 2009
• 9:46

  Merry Christmas!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  We've had a lovely Christmas, I hope you have too. This year's Christmas Eve julbord (christmas table) managed to be more Swedish than ever before, with all the necessary goodies present. A perfect fusion first Christmas for Em, who got the traditional Swedish Christmas table in a traditionally hot, hot, hot Ghana!br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Szi5DX-2UCI/AAAAAAAAAkM/z5mFzSll9Co/s1600-h/julbord+after.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 216px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Szi5DX-2UCI/AAAAAAAAAkM/z5mFzSll9Co/s320/julbord+after.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5420285619168759842" //abr /After eating well, we continued the stuff-fest with mulled wine and the accompanying snacks:br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Szi5DiMBdfI/AAAAAAAAAkU/ZIM8Xt9sI38/s1600-h/julfika.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Szi5DiMBdfI/AAAAAAAAAkU/ZIM8Xt9sI38/s320/julfika.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5420285621908370930" //abr /Since then, we've all been completely knocked out. So exhausted we postponed our Christmas Day turkey dinner til New Year's Day, after all, who says it has to be done a certain way.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Szi5DzSnUJI/AAAAAAAAAkc/dElLYmMHCVw/s1600-h/tired+xmas+girl.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Szi5DzSnUJI/AAAAAAAAAkc/dElLYmMHCVw/s320/tired+xmas+girl.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5420285626499420306" //abr /Happy holidays!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-8738679199533770658?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• December 21, 2009
• 15:40

  Carols, cooking and camera shots.

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Hello. There's no one reason for my almost two week long absence from the blogosphere, there just has not been any time to blog. For the past two weeks I've been in and out of cold and flu states, it seems as soon as I am about to recover, I get busy and fall sick again. Somehow though, I've still managed quite a few appointments, both social and business ones. br /br /So far there's been two Carols nights, a lovely a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy%27s_Day"Lucia celebration/a, the opening of a bar/deli/(soon) restaurant and a mini-launch, or rather introductory session for one of our company's products. In between that I've managed to draft some agreements, handle a few meetings and negotiations and baked, sewn and cooked for Christmas. Any wonder I'm not finding time to recover?br /br /As it is now, after a scrumptious lunch at a href="http://www.yellowpages.gh/home/companydetails.asp?tlink=homecatname=3ec1=lc=54ec2=CN=61688Name=Captain+Hooks+RestaurantCD=com"Captain Hooks/a with a few of my lovely girls, I feel another bout of flu coming on, so I'll leave you with a few pictures and hope to find more time to blog in the coming holiday season.br /span style="font-style:italic;"Business meeting on an Osu rooftop? Not too shabby for me!/spanbr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sy-dytzo1sI/AAAAAAAAAjU/5ze3rBzqQJE/s1600-h/SANY0885.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sy-dytzo1sI/AAAAAAAAAjU/5ze3rBzqQJE/s320/SANY0885.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417722371365197506" //abr /span style="font-style:italic;"View over Labone.../spanbr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sy-dy649pnI/AAAAAAAAAjc/TzXlfwM9Qkk/s1600-h/SANY0886.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sy-dy649pnI/AAAAAAAAAjc/TzXlfwM9Qkk/s320/SANY0886.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417722374877193842" //abr /span style="font-style:italic;"...and Oxford Street/spanbr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sy-h-W1e4gI/AAAAAAAAAkE/MpVoRyWPWOI/s1600-h/SANY0888+(2).JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 182px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sy-h-W1e4gI/AAAAAAAAAkE/MpVoRyWPWOI/s320/SANY0888+(2).JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417726969403859458" //abr /span style="font-style:italic;"Bella Roma, deli and bar, found on the side road between Frankies and Standard Cartered:/spanbr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sy-dzVHGpTI/AAAAAAAAAjs/ErTkzs6xhl8/s1600-h/SANY0893.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sy-dzVHGpTI/AAAAAAAAAjs/ErTkzs6xhl8/s320/SANY0893.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417722381915825458" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sy-dzl6hO-I/AAAAAAAAAj0/krCjQm4k8jQ/s1600-h/SANY0895.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sy-dzl6hO-I/AAAAAAAAAj0/krCjQm4k8jQ/s320/SANY0895.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417722386426444770" //abr /span style="font-style:italic;"Omanye Energy Drink, available in a shop near you, soon./spanbr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sy-grJp3K3I/AAAAAAAAAj8/9EpcEKbl9lY/s1600-h/SANY0902.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 262px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sy-grJp3K3I/AAAAAAAAAj8/9EpcEKbl9lY/s320/SANY0902.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417725539936316274" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-4852097719956888411?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• December 09, 2009
• 20:41

  Ouch!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Yes, pain is the best way to describe how I've been feeling since Friday. It started with a toothache, I'm ashamed to admit the reason for the toothache, let's just say I ought to have gone to the dentist a loooong time ago. Then on Sunday night I started feeling nauseous, having clearly eaten something I don't agree with. Monday evening, and suddenly my head was feeling very heavy, continued by swollen glands, sore throat and a runny nose.br /br /Have these 'pains' released each other? No, of course they've been overlapping! So since Tuesday I've had severe toothache, flu-like symptoms (don't even mention the pig word, I can't afford to catch span style="font-style:italic;"that/span flu at the moment) and an upset stomach, which thankfully has cleared now. What am I doing to cure myself? Since I'm car-less at the moment and feeling a bit too fluey to sit in a dental clinic or any clinic for that matter, I've been curing myself in the most natural way: lots of teeth brushing, gargling and flossing, fresh orange juice and munching on garlic and ginger and of course staying off any spicy or too risqué foods. Don't worry, I'm sure by Friday I'll sort myself out with proper medical care.br /br /For now Em, the internet and funny anecdotes keep me in good spirits. My mum just called me after her ride to Tema in a taxi this evening. As they got on the motorway they were hit by heavy rain and then the most powerful lightning she's ever experienced. As the lightning struck near them, she threw herself forward and clutched the seat in front of her, then once it cleared she asked the driver: br /span style="font-style:italic;""Did you feel that?!"br //spanHe answered: span style="font-style:italic;"" Yes madam, it was so powerful I even closed my eyes and bent down to hold my knees!".br //spanbr /Erm... who was driving (on the motorway!!!)???br /span style="font-style:italic;"br /(If you're out there, please have a safe ride home.)/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-5259584178377595358?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• December 04, 2009
• 10:45

  'Tis the season...

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  We're now firmly in December and you know what that means: Christmas! Last year, the election was the grinch that unexpectedly stole Christmas when instead of being over and done with on December 7th, we had to wait till early this year to have all the results in.br /br /Well this year, nothing will stop me from preparing for the coming holiday. Em and I (poor child, whether she likes it or not, she'll be brainwashed with christmas delights) are getting in the mood by hook or by crook. We already got the necessary Swedsih treats from London. We started with minor decorations around the house on Monday, but soon realised it's going to take a lot more before we can ignore the heat and really get a feel of the holiday spirit.br /br /So I realised the best way to do that is with a href="http://julradio.se/"music/a. First, with Swedish nostalgia courtesy of a href="http://www.pernillawahlgren.se/"Pernilla Wahlgren/a (a musical artist from a well known entertainment family who's been around for about 25 years):br /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/O9lODlf6MbQhl=en_GBfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/O9lODlf6MbQhl=en_GBfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /and Sissel Kyrkjebö (who's actually Norwegian), with the purest of voices for this song, O Holy Night.br /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zIRrpU-qFswhl=en_GBfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zIRrpU-qFswhl=en_GBfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objecta href="http://www.pernillawahlgren.se/"/abr /Then, last year's favourite, a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqqmELNcr0w"Alexandra Burke singing Halleluja/a. Now if only I could get a clip of Six pence None the Richer singing It came upon a Midnight clear, I'd be very very happy.br /br /All this serves as a perfect prelude to the Carols Nights I intend to go to. After all, there really is no better way to get into the mood of the season. I believe a href="http://www.alliancefrancaiseghana.com/events.html"Alliance Francaise/a and a href="http://www.goethe.de/mmo/priv/5208606-STANDARD.pdf"Goethe Institute/a will be putting on some Christmas concerts, if I could be bothered with the drive, I'd aim to see Ghana School of Law's carols night, as it is the one place you'll hear a few Ghanaian carols (I suspect theirs is on next Thursday). br /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5tlgf5a_woYhl=en_GBfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5tlgf5a_woYhl=en_GBfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /Last year I cut a lonely figure at Ridge Church's carols night (Virgo was of course politicking at the time), I didn't consider myself lonely, but my aunties who I bumped into thought it looked so sad seeing a pregnant woman all alone in the corner, lol! I hope this year I'll make it to Ridge Church again and maybe one of the others I've mentioned. Perhaps I'll see you there?br /br /The best thing about Christmas? It is the season of giving. Do your bit by clicking the button below. a href="http://www.pampers.com/en_US/unicef/"For every click/a, Pampers will, through UNICEF, donate tetanus vaccin to a child or pregnant woman in a developing country.br /br /object width="425" height="125"param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/param name="movie" value="http://1klick1donation.se/blogbanner.swf"/paramparam name="flashVars" value="unit=isabelle" /embed src="http://1klick1donation.se/blogbanner.swf" flashVars="unit=isabelle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="120" allowScriptAccess="always"/embed/objectdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-47205850511879007?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• November 30, 2009
• 16:14

  Three Zero

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  It’s getting to the end of my birthday week, yes, I choose to consider the whole week a celebration of my existence! This year I enter a new decade, the thirties! Although I’ve displayed only mock horror at this fact, I have had some panicky moments in the past week. My birthday was last Tuesday and I woke up feeling extremely old and tired. Could this be because all sleep training went out the window once we got to London and Em kept me up all night? Probably.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SxPzSUexd7I/AAAAAAAAAjM/gKxpyFBP1rQ/s1600/SANY0801.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 179px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SxPzSUexd7I/AAAAAAAAAjM/gKxpyFBP1rQ/s320/SANY0801.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409935073463072690" //abr /Wednesday, and my joints were feeling a bit stiff and achy, a symptom many geriatrics complain of. Could this be, because I was still adjusting to UK temperatures and again hadn’t slept well? Possibly, but in that moment it felt like my youth truly was gone, forreva!br /br /Saturday night, as I was threading a sewing machine for the first time in two years (why is another looong story), suddenly my 20/20 vision failed me and it took five blurry attempts before the thread made it through the eye. At this point I was really close to breakdown: is this what being thirty means? A few minutes later I remembered that I had been awake for twenty hours and hadn’t eaten for the past twelve of them. Here’s hoping that was the reason, as my perfect vision is extremely precious to me.br /br /Some people get depressed about turning thirty, but I guess I’ve hit most of the milestones that can cause anxiety. Profession, yes, job, yes, home, yes, marriage, yes, children, one. So far, so good. And yet on Friday I felt a slight panic that the fun and wild twenties were over forever, had I made sure I had enough fun? Then I remembered, my twenties have been a blast!br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SxPzSKxHJHI/AAAAAAAAAjE/KLFzYlzuq8w/s1600/SANY0784.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SxPzSKxHJHI/AAAAAAAAAjE/KLFzYlzuq8w/s320/SANY0784.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409935070855636082" //abr /br /span style="font-style:italic;"(Pictures from my low key birthday party at Prampram yesterday.)br //spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-3156075702422149902?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• November 21, 2009
• 15:03

  Timeout Accra

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  No, I'm not talking about the magazine, a href="http://www.timeoutaccra.com/"Timeout Accra/a (which I haven't had an opportunity to peek through but hear is quite good), rather I have taken a timeout from Accra and with me, I have my favourite accessory, Em. We're currently chillaxin in Kent (England) at my dad's place. The last few weeks have been extremely hectic and thanks to several months of sleep deprivation I'm completely fatigued so when the chance of spending a week in London came up, I was nowhere close to saying no. br /br /Whilst Em gets a dose of Grandpa, I'm going to enjoy some much needed, a break from household and work responsibilities and of course, a bit of shopping. I think we all at some point feel time running faster than we can keep up with, and when we do, it is important, if possible, to catch our breaths and slow down for a bit. If you can't (or don't want to) make it to London for a week, I'd recommend a weekend break outside Accra, perhaps at a href="http://www.greenturtlelodge.com/"Green Turtle Lodge/a, a href="http://www.stonelodge.biz/"Stone Lodge/a or even a night or two at the serene a href="http://www.afiavillage.com/"Afia African Village/a, right in the centre of Accra (Ministries).br /br /And of course if either budget or time is tight, try my old favourite, head to your mama, papa or anyone you know who'll be happy to take you in for some days and relieve you of your daily chores for some days. Mentally, after two days I am already ready to go back, but physically I still need some more sleep and as such, am happy for the days we have left.br /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SwgHRg0rL-I/AAAAAAAAAik/w6GC8rvCQEg/s1600/SANY0762.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SwgHRg0rL-I/AAAAAAAAAik/w6GC8rvCQEg/s320/SANY0762.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406579350108319714" //abr /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SwgHufjgNPI/AAAAAAAAAi8/WPGkuGPSwxs/s1600/SANY0768.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SwgHufjgNPI/AAAAAAAAAi8/WPGkuGPSwxs/s320/SANY0768.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406579847984067826" //abr /In between shopping, resting and relaxing (possibly the most inactive verb!), we're all getting in to the mood for Christmas and thanks to IKEA, it looks like there's a pretty good Swedish Christmas to be had even in the heat of Accra. See you soon!br /a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SwgHuVU7qpI/AAAAAAAAAi0/YWgNV0VN1x8/s1600/SANY0765.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SwgHuVU7qpI/AAAAAAAAAi0/YWgNV0VN1x8/s320/SANY0765.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406579845238598290" //abr /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SwgHuDVVaSI/AAAAAAAAAis/HaDYZL2-1Zo/s1600/SANY0764.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SwgHuDVVaSI/AAAAAAAAAis/HaDYZL2-1Zo/s320/SANY0764.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406579840408447266" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-3087305622877745611?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• November 16, 2009
• 20:54

  Ashawo!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  I hope the title doesn't offend you (ashawo means whore/prostitute, when one wants to be crude. Originally a Nigerian word, it is the generic term in Ghana now.), but my whole weekend has been tainted by Ashawo. br /br /Firstly I must say it's been a great weekend! After weeks of sleep training, baby finally sleeps through the night and as a result we could get a babysitter (my mama) and go to a friend's birthday dinner at Le Magellan Friday night. When someone after dinner suggested we continue the night at Citizen Kofi, Virgo and I, like the two newly released prisoners we clearly were, screamed in unison "Yay!" (yes,our excitement was rather embarassing). When we got there, just around midnight, we realised that apart from us and a group of girls, there were a few older white men (clearly the target customers) and - you guessed it - span style="font-weight:bold;"ashawo/span.br /br /After dancing for about an hour they played a song I recognised that I'd been hearing in the past few weeks and of course, when it got to the chorus, I heard what it was - yes - span style="font-weight:bold;"Ashawo/span! Interestingly, at this point the two prostitutes who had been putting on a nasty, somewhat disjointed a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapouka"mapouka/a-like show all evening, stood this one out, each suddenly very busy texting away on their phones.br /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aqQxxS1MLKohl=en_GBfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aqQxxS1MLKohl=en_GBfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Yesterday, we headed to Tema to what turned out to be the after party of a funeral and whilst waiting for our friend's requested song, the new Slim Buster/Tinny collaboration to play, what did we hear: span style="font-weight:bold;"Ashawo/span.br /br /The song, an old Nigerian classic from our parents' days, is so catchy in its beat that anybody can end up singing along, if not also dancing. Yesterday, I laughed off a friend's fears that Ashawo might be baby Em's first words the way Virgo continued singing it all day long, however today, I'm slightly concerned. After humming it this afternoon, we got home to hear the same song playing at the drinking spot across the road. Just imagine the reactions of uncles, aunties and the ever present church brigade if at nine months little Em opens her mouth and blurts out:br /br /span style="font-weight:bold;"Ashawo!/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2944528116785966712?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• November 12, 2009
• 20:09

  Wrong number!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  The days are flying by with so much to write but no time to put it down in print. Am I the only one who feels like time is racing to the end of the year?br /br /One thing which has often bothered me is the manners of mistaken callers. Usually they answer the call by screaming: Akos? Akos?! When the response is "sorry, wrong number" the caller hits back by a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=kissing%20teeth"kissing his teeth/a loudly. I've gotten used to these calls over the years and don't let them upset me anymore. However on Sunday, even I was surprised by the reaction. br /br /I received two calls from a woman screaming "Wula? Wula?!" When I as usual alerted her to the fact that she had called the wrong number, she kissed her teeth and slammed the phone down in my ear. Hmmph.br /br /Later that evening, around 21:30, the same woman called again (unfortunately I feel I have to refrain myself from calling her a lady!). Exasperated, I once again told her, "Sorry, wrong number". Her response (screaming):br /br /span style="font-style:italic;"span style="font-weight:bold;"Dabi, m'enka enkyere me se eye wrong number!/span (No, don't tell me it is the wrong number!)br //spanbr /br /At which point I just laughed and hung up. Later on I wish I had stayed on the line and said "OK, sorry it's not the wrong number, I am Wula, yes everything is great, bla bla bla" and wasted her credit til she realised, it was indeed, the wrong person she was talking to.br /br /Well, at least in the end she put a smile on my face. Silly cow.br /br /*span style="font-style:italic;"Special thanks to a href="http://antirhythm.blogspot.com/"the Poet/a for helping me write in Twi/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7733912400337067473?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• November 05, 2009
• 21:06

  Labone

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  A few years ago I remember complaining about how I missed London's corner shops, the accessibility to everyday products on practically every street corner. What was I talking about?! Clearly, if I had gotten out of my car more often here in Ghana, I would've noticed all our "corner shops".br /br /After getting back to Ghana, and realising that certain things are harder to do with my constant accessory (that's the baby I'm talking about), I've had to give up on some of my regular spots and find other options. For example, for weeks I wondered how I'd coordinate baby and breastfeeding so that I could have my hair braided, something I usually do at Auntie Alice salon. I thought of the long queues there and told myself, surely there's someone in my area who could sort me out with some cornrows.br /br /Then, on my way to a funeral three weeks ago, the zip of my traditional top broke. I panicked for a second before I reassured myself and my mum, that surely, there would be a seamstress somewhere on this or the next road. That day, I asked a girl in the neighbourhood to take the top for me, find a seamstress and bring it back to me once the zip was repaired.br /br /A few days later I finally decided to explore the area myseld, and even I, with my optimistic opinions of our road, was surprised at everything I found. Less than 100 metres from us, there's a seamstress, a hairdresser (who actually agreed to braiding my hair at home, solving all baby related issues), a laundry service, a drinks shop, a newly opened corner store, a fruit veg stand and of course the local drinking spot that keeps us 'entertained' e-v-e-r-y evening til 1 a.m. br /br /Within a 500 metre radius, there's a pharmacy, dentist, clinic, forex, school, day nursery, restaurant, clothes shops, etc! Granted, Labone isn't exactly in the deepest of forests, but our road looks very quietly residential and in all my almost two years of driving on this road, I had never noticed many of these places.br /br /Well, it's good to know that even without a car, most of the weekly errands can be handled in a 2 or 3 minute walk, this knowledge was especially useful to me as I went car-less all of last week. But that's a whole other story...div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-5726191533293770228?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 31, 2009
• 23:54

  All Hallows Eve

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  The twentyone year old man gets home and hears his father calling erratically. Once he follows his father's voice and locates him in the kitchen, it is already too late. His father is heaped on the floor in an unconcious state. The young man runs to call his mother, who's shopping in town, completely unaware of the tragedy that's taking place at home. She drops her would-be purchases and calls a friend to drive her home as she knows she's unable to safely drive herself home, after hearing the news of her husband's collapse. Little does she know her husband is not only unconcious, he's actually dead.br /br /In just a few seconds, a whole family's life changes forever. The two sons are fatherless, the wife suddenly a widow. And it is not only the family that is affected, by Thursday morning, all his work mates will come to realise what happened that eery afternoon dated 090909.br /br /The news reaches us today, on All Hallows Eve: our good family friend, known to us for about 23 years, and in recent years my brother's colleague, died so suddenly, unexpectedly from a brain hemorrhage on his kitchen floor. His wife cries to my mother, wishing my mother were with her in Sweden as she does not know how she will cope another day.br /br /Already before I heard the news I had decided to abandon Halloween celebrations and rather light a candle for those who have passed on. However, the heat and Labone power cut, stopped me from getting my matches out. Well, if I were to light a candle, today it would be burning for you, Åke. Rest in Peace. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SuzU6IScXvI/AAAAAAAAAic/JwMFYmlb8IA/s1600-h/halloween1.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 243px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SuzU6IScXvI/AAAAAAAAAic/JwMFYmlb8IA/s320/halloween1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398924148432723698" //abr /To the rest of you, happy halloween from my own friendly ghost!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-8291673788002033689?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 29, 2009
• 11:09

  WFP Productions: the Poor Ghana Child Show!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  My mid-morning browsing today lands me on a href="http://aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article5996424.ab"an article (Swedish)/a that has made me feel slightly sick. Apparently, at the G8 summit in July, held in Rome, a href="http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread513743/pg1"Ghanaian children were flown in to be fed porridge by the wives of G8 leaders (English)/a!br /br /To show the work the World Food Programme had been doing, they put on this spectacle which also included the children dancing and singing. The whole affair cost approximately (brace yourselves) $500,000! From what I have read so far, these claims are not confirmed by the UN but have been spread by the Swedish development agency, SIDA. Like their own representative says, I too can only hope that it is not completely true.br /br /I don't even want to delve into a discussion on every human's right to dignity, the use of these school children as 'show dogs' for the WFP, etc. but I am now focusing on being annoyed at the fact that so much money was spent on a show of WFP's good work. Talk about defeating your own cause! Imagine the many homes, schools, books, clothes, shoes and food that could have been bought with that money!br /br /Reading a href="http://sarahbrowng8.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/friday-morning-rome/"Sarah Brown's blog/a (that's Gordon's wife) gives a different angle of the story. Here the event is captured more as an opportunity for the Ghanaian children to sing and dance for the G8 leaders' wives and for the wives to see first-hand the work that is being done by the WFP. However, I still do not understand why an organisation that is dealing with poverty and how to help those in need would not see it more fit to simply set up a satellite link, Skype or in any other way communicate with a village where their work is being done and allow these wives to experience it live, rather than 'first hand' at such a cost.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SumXWZoaJ6I/AAAAAAAAAhY/BLfX_CQN0MA/s1600-h/ghana+barn+i+rom.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 164px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SumXWZoaJ6I/AAAAAAAAAhY/BLfX_CQN0MA/s320/ghana+barn+i+rom.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398012039473538978" //abr /span style="font-style:italic;"(Picture borrowed from a href="http://www.sida.se/OmVarlden/Varlden/Briefing/Barn-flogs-fran-Ghana-till-Rom-for-att-matas/"SIDA/a)/spanbr /I would love to hear your thoughts on this. And whilst I hope your morning got off to a better start, I'm still fuming and wondering:br /br /If so much was spent on flying these schoolchildren all the way to Rome, completely out of their natural scenery, why oh why are they still wearing those distinct yellow/brown uniforms?!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2628880052214474882?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 25, 2009
• 10:07

  To pierce or not to pierce...?

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Over a week of hardly any internet access and so much I've missed to write about! The football! The Ghana@50 inquisition! The Ministry of Foreign Affairs fire! Thankfully a href="http://chardonas.blogspot.com/2009/10/no-water-no-electricity-no-ministry-of.html"Abena/a has summed up the week quite well. On a personal note I also managed to squeeze in a 2-night sleep in at my mother's in Tema.br /br /Other than that, we (after all, where I go, baby goes) also made it to a funeral last Friday (sans bébé), a wedding last Saturday and another wedding yesterday. These social outings highlighted an irritating unspoken Ghanaian rule:br /br /A baby can only be a girl here if she wears earrings! I had experienced this before, when everybody and anybody would say "what's his name?" or "what a sweet boy!" even though I'd be holding little M in her girly, often pink or purple dresses. But yesterday's experience was almost laughable.br /br /Walking in to the reception of my Law School mate's wedding, another classmate greets me: br /"Your baby is so cute, what's the name?" br /"It's M". br /"Oh, really? I actually have a client, a lady named M, but tell me is it usual to also call boys that?" br /"No, she's a girl". br /"Oh! I see...But, where are the earrings?!"br /br /And that was just the start of the ridiculous afternoon. Every person who passed or greeted us reacted in the same way. I shouldn't be surprised, I myself don't wear earrings on a day-to-day basis and have received comments about that several times. Older lawyers in court will come up to me and (out of kindness) remind me that I've forgotten to put on earrings today, but I shouldn't worry, the judge will probably not notice that I am naked in the eyes of the court. (Since when are earrings part of a female lawyers court dress code?)br /br /Since M was born, I have considered whether and if so, when to pierce her ears. After a while I settled on doing it around the age of three, and even then, it would be mainly to satisfy Ghanaian society, to make use of the many pretty earrings she has already received as presents and stop her potentially being bullied at school (lol!), as I couldn't care less, whether she goes earringless her whole life or not. But does that mean that I'm going to suffer the next two and a half years hearing these comments? Or the kinder, but equally annoying kind advice on where I can go to have her ears pierced (hospitals, clinics and pharmacies in case you're wondering), in case the problem is that I didnt' know where to find an earpiercer.br /br /I just don't feel comfortable putting tiny earrings in my little girl's ears as she is of the hyper kind, pulls at everything she can hold on too and then puts it all in her mouth (this includes, my own earrings whenever I wear them). Funnily, in Sweden, there wouldn't be a question of her piercing her ears until she might want to do it, probably some time in her teens! What's your take on this strange culture clash?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-3297011253602039934?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 15, 2009
• 22:22

  Blog Action Day: Climate Change

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Every year, and sometimes every season, we notice what is happening to the world, how global warming is changing the climate. Last year I wrote about the delayed Harmattan and this year, arriving in Ghana mid-September, I was surprised by the cool, rainy season-like, Julyish temperatures that were still around.br /br /While the Western world and parts of the East adapt their lives to protect our environment, it seems in Africa we're still too busy talking about other issues: war, famine and corruption to name a few.br /br /When are we too going to make the environment a priority? In our case, changes made for the environment are often beneficial to us in other ways too. Changing our toilets to the water-efficient Half-flush/Full-flush system means we can reduce our water use and as a result combat our severe water shortage. Switching to energy lightbulbs (which has already quite effectively been done), lightens the load of the Akosombo Dam, as does an increased use of solar panels for electricity.br /br /During my stay in Sweden this year, my favourite program was the a href="http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/worlds-greenest-homes/"World's Greenest Homes/a, an inspiring Canadian program that saw the crew visit households across the globe that are using energy efficient means to run their homes. Ghana is a perfect candidate for adopting many of these energy efficient ideas, after all we have enough solar, wind and water energy to power most of our daily household appliances.br /br /While a href="http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Ghana_to_produce_ethanol_for_export_to_Sweden_999.html"Ghana is producing ethanol to provide Sweden/a with one third of its ethanol consumption, one must wonder, when will we produce for ourselves? When will we use more environmentally friendly means of transport to travel within the country, instead of flying from Accra to Kumasi or Tamale to Accra?br /br /When, in a country where thanks to the humidity, my kitchen bin naturally turns its contents into compost after being left to stand for a week, will we sort and recycle our waste and use our compost to plant new trees instead of burning our rubbish in plastic bags at the roadside?br /br /Let's pay it forward, to our children, their children and generations to come. Let's do what we can to prevent further climate changes in the future.br /br /a href="http://www.blogactionday.org"img src="http://www.blogactionday.org/imgs/badges/bad-300-250.jpg" border=0 //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-1456960241274546849?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 09, 2009
• 13:02

  Newcomers

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Following a href="http://nonjeneregretterien.blogspot.com/2009/10/ghana-recommendations-tampico-island.html"Kajsa's lead/a, I too must recommend a new drink. Like with all other things, it's a bit exciting when there's something new in town to taste, try or visit. For me, the latest drink you'll find in my fridge, is Guinness new product: Alvaro. Available in two flavours, Pear and Pineapple, I can tell you that the pear flavour is scrumptious, taste very similar to Swedish Pear cider! The Pineapple flavour I'm sure is lovely too, I'm just not a big fan of pineapple flavoured things (except the fruit itself!).br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/StOJJgq_2EI/AAAAAAAAAhI/L1ww3qviKxU/s1600-h/alvaro.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 178px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/StOJJgq_2EI/AAAAAAAAAhI/L1ww3qviKxU/s320/alvaro.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391803975374723138" //abr /br /Another newcomer in town is Lara Mart, located where Sotrek used to be, opposite Bywel's in Osu. It's nice to have another option to Koala in the area, the shop is well stocked, has nice neat aisles, a good meat counter and even stocks Apple Tango!br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/StOJYA-Q7eI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/lNxdhZVZayc/s1600-h/Picture+0003.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/StOJYA-Q7eI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/lNxdhZVZayc/s320/Picture+0003.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391804224563637730" //abr /br /Customer service in Ghana is a whole topic on its own, but at Laramart I realised the best thing about it: Here, customer service is honest, not falsely friendly or giving well-rehearsed answers. As I drove up to Laramart, just to ask for directions to Sotrek, the security guard happily gave me directions to his employer's competitor and when asked whether Laramart actually had its own meat counter, he said: "yes, but I think Sotrek's is better"! (In my opinion, Laramart's turned out to be better.) br /br /I decided to check out the new supermarket anyway and I was happily surprised. One staffmember approached me, was very helpful without being too forward, but as I made my way to the till, he asked "how do you find our prices, quite expensive isn't it?)! br /br /I love the honesty! However, in both the guard's and the shop attendant's case I think they were wrong. The meat counter was good and the prices, although not cheap, were in the same range as Maxmart, Koala and Shoprite.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7283560988077835820?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 11:01

  That One!!!!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  An hour ago I thought it was just a rumour, but after checking BBC's website, I realise it is true: a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8298580.stm"Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize/a! Can this man do anything but go from strength to strength?? I doubt that anyone, even a hardcore Obama-fan like myself, could have imagined or foreseen this a year ago.br /br /One of the reasons for selecting him? span style="font-style:italic;""Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future"./span br /br /I don't think any further words are needed to describe the uniqueness of Obama. Today I am proud of the world! While Americans (well, about 30% of them) are screaming out against Obama and the proposed healthcare reform, the world is celebrating him for his vision and potential. Isn't it funny that your own people will always be the last to recognise your achievements?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-8711006750770652797?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 04, 2009
• 11:51

  Baby on board

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  I knew my girl-about-town days would change once I got pregnant and had a baby. Maybe I'd only get out a fraction as often as I used to before and for evening outings I'd have to get hold of a reliable babysitter to take the baby for an hour or two. But a few weeks ago, I waas clearly informed that my out and about days are O-V-E-R until further notice from the bosslady herself (read: baby).br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SsiRxd4URCI/AAAAAAAAAhA/5u23UMYulg0/s1600-h/the+black+star.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SsiRxd4URCI/AAAAAAAAAhA/5u23UMYulg0/s320/the+black+star.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388717233169253410" //abr /Heading out to see the Black Star as part of the centenary celebrations, I had gotten the most reliable babysitter of them all - my mum. I'd left some boob juice in the fridge, prepared evening porridge and even set up for her nighttim bath before heading out to relax alone with Virgo for the first time in months. After settling in to watch the play, I got a call, probably 25 minutes into the play. I could hear the little one screaming bloody murder as my mum told me to start making my way home. br /br /The journey from National Theatre to Labone has never felt longer, as I could hear her screaming echoing in my head. Once home I ran to the bedroom...and was met by a baby who started smiling as soon as she saw me! A smile that clearly said: think twice before going out without me again. I guess it'll take some longterm gradual weaning before I try another long outing again.br /br /Another clue to that I've been away and been off the social scene, is that I completely missed the opening of a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Akra-Ghana/Citizen-Kofi/95387005508"Citizen Kofi/a. After looking blank the first few times it was mentioned, it didn't take me long to understand what it was. This is Ghana after all, not too many places will be opening at the same time. Still, I have no idea when I'll be trying it out, when I'll go for sushi next or even head round the corner for a Twist pizza!br /br /For now, my entertainment consists of visiting friends, having them visit me and daytime ventures to the Mall or checking out a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=112265262852"All Pure Nature/a for pampering items for both baby and me.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-557430701284939131?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 27, 2009
• 21:37

  The Man, the cock, the crow.

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  There's a cock that's been living on our wall. Lately, it's been crowing louder than ever for longer than ever. A few weeks ago, it got unbearable. My heart would jump and I'd awaken from its loud crow at 2.30 a.m. After the first shock, I got up, slammed the loovers a bit and the cock moved further down the wall, leaving us with a bit of peace.br /br /The next night, it seemed to come back with more strength, first waking baby, then me, then Virgo. Our whole night was ruined, so as you can imagine we were far from happy when the crowing started on the third night. I woke up to find Virgo getting dressed in the middle of the night. After a while, I heard steps in the grass by our window, a cock's yelp, then the scurried steps of a cock running away (Virgo had thrown pebbles in its direction and it had ran away). The rest of the night we slept undisturbed.br / span style="font-weight:bold;"Man - 1 Cock - 0br //spanbr /The next night,in a genius move, Virgo went outside our bedroom window as early as 9p.m., chased away the cock, and we actually went to bed smiling.br /br / span style="font-weight:bold;"Man - 2 Cock - 0 br //spanbr /We thought we'd found our recipe for success, so Virgo did the same thing the following night, but somehow, by 3a.m. it had forgotten all threats of pebbles being thrown at it and came back crowing louder than ever (after all, it had had a night's rest).br / span style="font-weight:bold;"Man - 2 Cock - 1br //spanbr /Still, we thought we'd give our early night pebble chase another go so that night, same old story, a few pebbles were thrown on to the wall outside our bedroom window to get the cock to move down a bit or jump back into the neighbour's yard, where he belongs. However, a stroke of really, really bad luck hit us. The cock mistakenly jumped/fell into our garden and didn't seem able to fly back up on to the wall. This situation made it crow louder and more frequently than ever, and so begun our night of hell with crowing from 10p.m. onwards, til 6a.m.br / span style="font-weight:bold;" Man - 2 Cock - 1,000,000!br //spanbr /But now it seems, a cool chic, a hen that hangs out in our garden has managed to span style="font-style:italic;"walk/span the crow out of our garden and back to his own land and it hasn't found its way back yet. After those nights of complete hell (after all, do parents of a six-month old really need anything else to keep them up at nights???) we're hoping for a bit of peace.br /br /FIngers crossed!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-105055896615068489?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 19, 2009
• 20:10

  Kwame Nkrumah: his greatest legacy

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  I am half Ga, half Akim. My husband is part Ga and part Akuapim. Among my friends and family, one is part Ewe, part Fanti and part Ga, one is part Akuapim and part Ga and another is part Akim and part Ashanti and there’s a whole mixture of Ga, Krobo, Fanti, Akim, Nzema and Hausa. Speaking to other African nationals I realize that this tribal mixing is very unusual outside Ghana.br /br /So what is Nkrumah’s greatest legacy? In my opinion it is breaking our tribal barriers. In his quest for panafricanism, he had to first break tribal barriers before breaking national distinctions. By transferring civil servants to places in the country that they had no tribal link to, e.g. sending an Ashanti to Accra, a Ga to Koforidua and a Fanti to Tamale, tribal interaction was forced on Ghanaians. A young Fanti who’d been stationed in Tamale for four years would sooner or later look for a spouse and marry out of his tribe. br /br /In addition, the system of boarding schools meant that at an early age, pupils would learn not to discriminate along tribal lines, after all a student at one of Ghana’s boarding schools, e.g. Aburi or Mfanstipim would easily find that at least three other tribes were represented in his class. At reaching university age, most pupils would have a close friend or girlfriend/boyfriend of a different tribe and many would have learnt more than a few phrases in a language other than their own tribe’s.br / br /In a time when Ghana stands happily among few of the African countries that has not experienced a civil war, as so many others have in the past and present, we must be eternally grateful to Osagyefo for this legacy.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SrU8YQtgmcI/AAAAAAAAAg0/Z76_Y2yCkj0/s1600-h/P1010076.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SrU8YQtgmcI/AAAAAAAAAg0/Z76_Y2yCkj0/s320/P1010076.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5383275317091670466" //abr /(Picture from my great-aunt's album. Like a href="http://chardonas.blogspot.com/2009/09/photograph-of-kwame-nkrumah-in-album.html#comments"Abena/a, I have so many questions to ask about it, but now I can't stop wondering, is there a picture of Kwame Nkurmah in every family album?)br /br /And although it seems some insist on trying to re-introduce tribalism, I dare say it’ll be hard to start a tribal conflict here. After all, if there’s a war between Gas and Akans, which side do I stand on? My situation is not unique, look around you and you’ll find that most of those around you belong to more than one tribe.br /br /For that, Kwame Nkrumah, we thank you.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-1217365272662444487?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 16, 2009
• 22:06

  Kwame Nkrumah: Nkrumah never dies!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Yesterday I asked 'what exactly are we celebrating this coming week?' We have our Independence day, Republic day, etc. so how come we’re also celebrating the birthday of a man who’s been dead for 37 years? My conclusion is that that in itself shows the greatness of the man?! br /br /Those alive during Nkrumah’s time tell me of his charisma and popularity. This is a man who was more of a celebrity than a head of State. br /span style="font-style:italic;"span style="font-weight:bold;"“Kwame Nkrumah - show boy”, “I want to see Kwame Nkrumah – show boy!”/span/span the Makola women would chant when they saw him in person, heard his speeches, or at any time they felt like it.br /br /My older family members inform me that when Nkrumah spoke on the radio, people would rush to hear and there would be complete silence whilst he was on air. They often remember getting goosebumps as his eloquence pierced through the airwaves and caught the attention of each person in the listening crowds.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.panafricanperspective.com/images/Nkrumah_oau_opening.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 197px; height: 270px;" src="http://www.panafricanperspective.com/images/Nkrumah_oau_opening.jpg" border="0" alt="" //aspan style="font-style:italic;"br /(picture borrowed from a href="http://www.panafricanperspective.com"panafricanperspective)/span/a br /br /The Young Pioneers, Nkrumah’s youth supporters (see Poet's excellent definition of them a href="http://antirhythm.blogspot.com/2009/09/kwame-nkrumah-give-us-chocolate.html"here/a, would cheer span style="font-style:italic;"span style="font-weight:bold;"“Nkrumah never dies!”/spanspan style="font-weight:bold;"/span/span. This later became an everyday expression and it seems, is still true today, Nkrumah never dies!br / br /As I write, I am surprisingly reminded of this fact. How? Microsoft Word spell-check recognizes Nkrumah in its vocabulary!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-8121866428669763299?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 14, 2009
• 22:26

  Kwame Nkrumah: the celebrations begin

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  span style="font-style:italic;""While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man's humanity to man."br //spanMaya Angeloubr /br /A quote by one of my favourite persons, from her time in Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana. Was she right? Partly yes, as I believe Ghana's legacy today is still the kindness and empathy of its people. However the quote may somewhat take away focus from the many, many other achievements of Kwame Nkrumah as we approach what would have been his 100th birthday.br /br /As we flew in to Accra early Friday morning, I saw my wonderful, well-planned Tema and the Accra-Tema motorway beneath me, both products of Nkrumah's work. All over Accra, we are reminded of this great man's succesful struggle for Ghana's freedom and his vision for the future of Ghana. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sq7Pt4xbqQI/AAAAAAAAAgk/sCBYuxFHVAw/s1600-h/freedom+n+justice.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 188px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sq7Pt4xbqQI/AAAAAAAAAgk/sCBYuxFHVAw/s320/freedom+n+justice.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381466991995103490" //abr /br /Unfortunately, much of the good work has been undone and it'll take us a long way to retrace our steps and get back on track. However, Ghana is still considered a trailblazer, leading the way for other African countries and in the week that he would have turned 100, the fact that we acknowledge and appreciate the positive aspects of Nkrumah's regime, is in itself a step in the right direction.br /br /Are you celebrating and if so, how? I for one am trying to find a babysitter so I can make use of these tickets.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sq7P9Jxg3hI/AAAAAAAAAgs/xklOdaGnzhw/s1600-h/the+black+star.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sq7P9Jxg3hI/AAAAAAAAAgs/xklOdaGnzhw/s320/the+black+star.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381467254256885266" //abr /What can I say, it's good to be back home.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-302244738194031988?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 09, 2009
• 14:10

  Nine

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Today's date will be a one off in our lifetime, just as the previous years' 080808, 070707 (when A LOT of people got married as it was a Saturday as well), etc have been.br /So how to remember this day? Well I for one am hoping to hear from a friend who's expecting, with her calculated due date being, yes, the ninth of the ninth of the ninth.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SqfHsuVbH_I/AAAAAAAAAgc/t8Qe1tGylrQ/s1600-h/nine.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SqfHsuVbH_I/AAAAAAAAAgc/t8Qe1tGylrQ/s320/nine.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379487851083407346" //abr /No matter what, the coming baby will be special, unique and loved but we all think it'd be rather cool if he or she were to arrive today. If anything it makes for an easy date of birth to remember!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-565348722613909669?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 05, 2009
• 23:53

  Rain, rain, go away!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Oh dear, should we be worried about the floods that are taking over West Africa? According toa href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8239552.stm" BBC News/a, between 25 and 32 people have already died in Ghana and more in our neighbouring countries. Annoyingly, I got more news from BBC's website than from a href="http://news.myjoyonline.com/international/200909/34846.asp"Joy's/a. I had hoped to read about the floods in further detail on Joy's website, but it seems theirs rather showed a summary of what I had already read. br /br /I guess as I prepare to make my journey home, I'll have to wait a day or two before I hear more news on these floods. Do feel free to fill me in!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2333795381131771229?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• August 28, 2009
• 18:21

  Job hunting - tips, anyone?

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  span style="font-style:italic;"Becky said...br /br / Hi Maya, I came across a href="http://mayasearth.blogspot.com/2009/01/job-seeking-in-accra.html"your post/a in a search for a part time job to enable me take an IT course. I'm very desperate because the course will be starting soon and I can't join if I have a full-time job but i need to keep doing something to be able to pay my fees. Pls help me if you hear of any part time job.br /br / Thank youbr //spanbr /br /Well, how do we find jobs in Accra? Unfortunately, it still seems easiest to get a job through whom you know. Both employers and employees will tell you that after getting through hundreds of applications they finally got their employee/job through contacts rather than applications. br /br /So how do you get a job without knowing anyone? My best tips? Call or meet the employer before sending in an application, that way your name will ring a bell when the application arrives. Or befriend a staff member who can tip you off when there are vacant positions in the company. If you know anyone on a higher level in your desired field of employment, get them to coach you on how to successfully get a job in that field or get them to use their contacts for you (Ghana is small, for example,the bank manager at e.g. Stanbic will very likely know managers at Fidelity Bank.)br /br /And of course, don't let anything stop you from applying through newspaper ads or web pages, you may just be the lucky one who gets to sign an employment agreement.br /br /Good luck Becky!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7643192755217701030?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• August 22, 2009
• 21:59

  Tottenham, towels and Twi

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Hmmm, the past two days I've made the same mistake and can only come to one conclusion: hungry babies are extremely difficult to bath! Apart from constantly wriggling about, they try to drink the bath water (yuck) and eat their towel.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SpBskjCQA-I/AAAAAAAAAgU/GTIgV8MCAPU/s1600-h/SANY0486.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SpBskjCQA-I/AAAAAAAAAgU/GTIgV8MCAPU/s320/SANY0486.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372913730588771298" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SpBskWF5YNI/AAAAAAAAAgM/J61xD5bXWyo/s1600-h/SANY0487.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 269px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SpBskWF5YNI/AAAAAAAAAgM/J61xD5bXWyo/s320/SANY0487.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372913727114404050" //abr /Our move from Kent into London (well, the outskirts of it) has made me feel like I'm getting closer to Ghana. As a south London gal, I know there are huge Ghanaian communities in Tooting, Streatham, Norbury and most of the Croydon boroughs, but it seems the North is housing even more Ghanaians! Here in Tottenham, a short walk took me past the Golden Stool (restaurant/club/pub) and Yaw's Salon. Wherever I go, if I don't hear Twi being spoken, it's because the people are speaking Ga! And at Tottenham Hale station a ticket attendant actually recognised Virgo and called out one of their party cheers, I tell you, it was strangely surreal!br /br /Either way, it's good to know that if need be, I can most certainly find some abenkwan or kelewele just around the corner.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2241006646956347830?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• August 19, 2009
• 0:46

  Family time

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  The world is warm in red, orange and yellow tones with soft music playing in the background... or is that just my life at the moment? After a very long (unplanned and involuntary) separation, Virgo is finally here in London with us and we're spending some much needed family time. The days are filled with walks, trips to friends and family, cooing over the little one (and me hiding the piles and piles of shopping I happened upon in the days before Virgo arrived).br /br /And London weather couldn't be better, since I arrived almost three weeks ago I don't think it has rained more than twice, light drizzles both times. There's a warmth and sunny glow wherever we go. With the fan humming in the background and light snores heard from both husband and baby, it is time for me to shut down and I can only hope that you too are enjoying this August night.br /br /If I'm not around for a while it's because I'm spending all my time loving my little family.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2742584225148740568?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• August 13, 2009
• 18:54

  Bits of my baby

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Quite a few times I've been asked to show pictures of my darling daughter. I haven't yet. I'd love to show her off to the world as she's the most wonderful thing I've ever seen, but at the same time I am an intensely private person (I know what you're thinking, why keep a blog then?). I don't want to display too much of her and later regret it, but whilst I debate whether or not she'll visually be a part of this blog (and of course, ask Virgo what he thinks), I'll leave you with some of the best bits:br /br /All she got from her mama was her nose (and possibly lips, we're not sure yet).br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SoRjb7h-WcI/AAAAAAAAAfk/6npjMHufdYQ/s1600-h/mun.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 299px; height: 270px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SoRjb7h-WcI/AAAAAAAAAfk/6npjMHufdYQ/s320/mun.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369525987220281794" //abr /br /Eyes that follow me EVERYWHEREbr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SoRjovV_RfI/AAAAAAAAAfs/lef1jd2stHM/s1600-h/ogon.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 275px; height: 230px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SoRjovV_RfI/AAAAAAAAAfs/lef1jd2stHM/s320/ogon.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369526207287084530" //abr /br /I hope I never forget these chubby little hands...br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SoR7aaYTvJI/AAAAAAAAAgE/BeY4wSEyrBI/s1600-h/hander.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 149px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SoR7aaYTvJI/AAAAAAAAAgE/BeY4wSEyrBI/s320/hander.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369552349420567698" //abr /br /...or feetbr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SoRkRbabE_I/AAAAAAAAAf8/7pWmxiu2yag/s1600-h/fot.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 269px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SoRkRbabE_I/AAAAAAAAAf8/7pWmxiu2yag/s320/fot.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369526906311611378" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-1387504077185966693?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• August 11, 2009
• 16:38

  Boss, I'm leaving oh.

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  As my previous post showed, I've been thinking of Ghana a lot. Apart from missing the good stuff, I can't help but think of the practical bits as well. These include possibly looking for a new home in the next few months, finding new househelp and how to settle a baby in Ghana in one of the hottest seasons. br /br /Our previous househelp left without a word to us. After the first two days of absence we thought she may have matters regarding her recently deceased father to deal with and hadn't had time to come to work. After the next few days we began to worry as this sudden absence was very unusual for her. It was only after speaking to one of her acquaintances that we were told she had decided to leave because of medical problems.br /br /Her way of leaving is very typical of staff in Ghana. I am not only speaking of househelp (although the best stories you'll hear are of the many dramatic tales told by home staff on their last day). In the law firm that I previously worked in, the accountant told our boss early Friday that "today will be my last day". A lawyer intern didn't show up on a Friday and the next Monday we were informed she'd headed to London and wouldn't be coming back. Actually, when I think of it, I was one of the only persons during my time there who gave the requested notice before leaving (yes, I've already patted myself on the back for good behaviour).br /br /Why is it so difficult to give notice in Ghana? Could it be the backlash of a family-like setting in our work places? After all we go to the weddings of fellow staff members but are also expected to go to the funerals and memorial services of their relatives. Is it possible that once you've hosted your boss at a family funeral, it is too hard to look him/her in the eye and say "I've found a better paying job."?br /br /Either way something must change as it is so impractical for the employer, so embarassing for the employee who'll have great difficulty facing the employer and other staff members again, but in our case it is also a bit tragic because had she just come to us, we'd have helped her with her medical treatment and we could've stuck to our agreement for her to leave work 1st August to go back to school at our expense.br /br /Now, for the fear of a little embarassment, she'll have to seek treatment without any salary and I can only wonder what will happen to her education and future.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-5548253837996730434?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• August 10, 2009
• 21:19

  Ma fe wo paa!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  I'm missing home paa. So many things have led to this: travelling further south by leaving Sweden for England, hearing Twi all over the place when out and about in London, but most of all, after a fully Ghanaian day yesterday, I've got Ghana and only Ghana on my mind. br /br /The day was spent parading baby to all the relatives. We started off with lunch at the Baba Foundation in Norbury, a Ghanaian Community Centre. My eyes teared up as I looked out over the wakye, jollof, bankutilapia, guinea fowl and red red that I hadn't seen in so long. The feast, which also featured a starter of fried yam and kelewele was topped of with Malt. The only thing that made the day even better than that meal was getting confirmation over and over again, both there and at the cousin's house in South Norwood that we later visited, that my daughter is the most beautiful baby in the world (as if I didn't know!)br /br /Today, I realised that Marks Spencer in Bluewater probably had a 60% Ghanaian customer base as everywhere I turned I could hear twi being spoken. Then, getting home to my dad's place, where traditional highlife was blasted as the scents of kontomire in the making wafted in to the sitting room, my heart began to beat faster and I couldn't help but exclaim:br /br /I MISS GHANA!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-6359834696991390211?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• August 06, 2009
• 18:41

  Last few days of Swedish summer

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  So at the end of my stay in Sweden I did complain a bit much about the state of the country. It may all have been true, but I also had a good time there, with family and friends. Here's a few pics from my last few days in town.br /br /There was a lot of cake-eating, with five birthdays in the last thirteen days it was almost an every-other-day feature. Most cakes prepared by yours truly, here a raspberry gateau.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SnrSB19d2wI/AAAAAAAAAfc/FhYQGSCqw1M/s1600-h/SANY0376.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 217px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SnrSB19d2wI/AAAAAAAAAfc/FhYQGSCqw1M/s320/SANY0376.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366832835071957762" //abr /We spent the last ten days in a family friend's flat, enjoying most of our time in this cosy North African inspired room with a decaf cappuccino...and some leftover cake!br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SnrSBpZzOII/AAAAAAAAAfU/ig7LsE0zu4M/s1600-h/SANY0388.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SnrSBpZzOII/AAAAAAAAAfU/ig7LsE0zu4M/s320/SANY0388.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366832831701137538" //abr /On our way out for a last minute errand on the last night, we saw this:br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SnrSBn-1E4I/AAAAAAAAAfM/J8FhwehdLu8/s1600-h/SANY0393+-+Copy.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SnrSBn-1E4I/AAAAAAAAAfM/J8FhwehdLu8/s320/SANY0393+-+Copy.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366832831319577474" //abr /br /an amazing testament of the power of nature. This tree has been there long before the 23 years I have spent in this neighbourhood and yet a windy night has managed to pull it up from the roots. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SnrSBGJrjNI/AAAAAAAAAfE/hERZ-HkFbww/s1600-h/SANY0393.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 207px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SnrSBGJrjNI/AAAAAAAAAfE/hERZ-HkFbww/s320/SANY0393.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366832822238285010" //abr /br /Not only is nature powerful, but unpredictable, how else do you explain why all the other trees surrounding it remain standing?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2475545540344062315?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 12:30

  Swine flu coming to get us!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Uh oh...So I know I said I didn't believe in the swine flu hype, imposed on us by the pharmaceutical companies, but having a little baby means I don't want to take any risks. This means that here in London I'm avoiding public transport as much as possible. I've been looking forward to getting back to Ghana where I'll cruise around in the comfort of my own, swine flu free car in my swine flu free city. br /br /But now news hits me that a href="http://news.myjoyonline.com/health/200908/33661.asp"swine flu has reached mother Ghana/a! And the idea of the H1N1 virus spreading around in temperatures that bacteria flourish in and can easily be passed on to me through loovers, by hawkers or inconsiderate public sneezers has me a bit concerned.br /br /Please oh please let this virus pass and leave Accra without affecting us too much, preferably as smoothly as bird flu did.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-4378415901093299656?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• August 01, 2009
• 19:29

  Doing the dual lingo.

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  When I was a child us siblings used to speak Swedish at home. It was only when we realised that things were said by our parents beyond our understanding that we each in turn learned how to speak English. Then, out of laziness we developed our own form of Swenglish/svengelska, basically a basa basa mix of Swedish and English, picking a word from either of the two languages, whatever came first. Somehow we even got our parents to speak this Swenglish with us. It's been hard for people outside our family, whether English speaking, Swedish or bilingual, to follow our personalised blend of these languages.br /br /After years of living in England, my Swenglish has tilted more towards English, it's now an 80%/20% mix instead of the former 50/50. English is the language I consider my home language, I think of family, relatives and relaxation when I speak it. Swedish, although that is the language I am more confident in and have a better grasp of, to me is the language I use with friends and associate with life outside the home.br /br /At the beginning of my pregnancy I decided I'd have to speak Swedish with my children in order to carry on the heritage. In real life though, I have put this off further and further as I just can't seem to speak this at home. First I said I'd wait til we got home from hospital, then I said after she turned two months, then three months. In the end, I'd speak Swedish to her when around people I'd speak Swedish with. I finally decided I'd have to start speaking it fully with her once I left Sweden, after all then she'd never hear it from anyone else. br /br /However, yesterday when we left Swedish soil, it just wouldn't come naturally so I told myself that being the end of the month, I could have another day off (logic?) and set my final deadline as Aug 1st, today. Well, so far so good. I guess I made it easier for myself by getting inspiration from IKEA in Purley Way (don't ask me what I was doing there on my first full day in London) and every now and then I'd stop myself from saying something in Englsih and rather say it in Swedish. The poor child will end up completely confused, but hopefully she'll benefit from it later.br /br /Little by little we'll get there and in a few years time I hope to have a daughter who's fluent in English, Swedish, Ga and Twi. Poor kid.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-4828292527026885903?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• July 27, 2009
• 17:24

  Racism lives

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Another event makes one doubt whether it is worth it for foreigners to live in Sweden. a href="http://www.thelocal.se/20910/20090726/"A fire broke out in a block of flats and six people died, a mother and her five daughters.(English link!)/a Heartwrenching, isn't it? What makes it extra sad and scary is that according to witness reports there was an unusual delay before the emergency services arrive, a delay which may have cost the victims their lives. Why, you ask?br /br /The fire occurred in Rinkeby, a Stockholm suburb with a majority immigrant population. This is not the first time something like this happens. When the a href="http://mayasearth.blogspot.com/2008/10/ten-years-on.html"fire of Gothenburg/a broke out almost eleven years ago, emergency service took 15-20 minutes to arrive at the scene even though the closest station was a five minute walk away. Why? They claimed they couldn't understand the distress calls that were made, because of the broken Swedish that was spoken (despite the fact that the numerous calls made were by foreign children born and raised in Sweden (i.e. speaking very coherent Swedish)).br /br /a href="http://www.metrobloggen.se/jsp/public/permalink.jsp?article=19.10809524"Alexandra Pascalidou (Swedish)/a, a blogger, writer and a person who actively speaks out against racism, also adds that when she called the emergency services after her mother was the victim of a break-in in the aforementioned Rinkeby, she was put on hold for half an hour and no rescue ever showed up. What to do? If this is how the emergency services behave, what hope does the average Abdul Mohammed have?br /br /And just this weekend I encountered my first ever verbal racist assault. Is it any wonder I look forward to leaving soon?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-8883006748968407093?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• 11:26

  Motherhood and travelling.

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  My life in Sweden is about to come to an end. Towards the end of the week baby M and I will be leaving our birth country, heading for rainier pastures. As a first time mother, I'm a bit anxious about this. Sweden is an extremely baby friendly country. Because of the fantastic parental leave opportunities (yes, parental rather than maternity, as father's also go on paid leave) the whole country has been adapted for mother, father, baby pushchair. Everywhere you'll find a lift, ramp or side road to be used as an alternative to a staircase. And here in Gothenburg I have not yet seen the rumoured "no pushchairs allowed" signs that apparently have popped up in Stockholm.br /br /So naturally, public breastfeeding is accepted and you'd rather be considered the odd one out if you have anything against it. But as we now head to London for a while, I am bit concerned about how breastfeeding and baby handling will be perceived. From my days at Starbucks, I know it's a baby-friendly place, but I can't remember seeing pushchair on the Underground or experiencing anyone being nice and helpful to a new mother (like me!)br /br /I know that in Ghana I'll be fine. If I feel too embarassed to breastfeed (why would I, considering a href="http://mayasearth.blogspot.com/2008/07/boob-juice.html"my own boob/a juice a href="http://mayasearth.blogspot.com/2008/07/boob-juice-2.html"observations/a) in public, I am never too far away from my car and as long as the AC is working we should be cool in every sense of the word. But for London, I think I'll have to purchase a "privacy" blanket to shield myself with so I'll never have to experience of someone yelling "put ´em away!". For now let me focus on an even more difficult task: how to fit four months of living in my 20kg baggage allowance.br /br /Do you have any advice in life with a baby in London?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2586168241998454385?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• July 25, 2009
• 8:04

  Vegetarian in Ghana?

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Paul McCartney, a known vegetarian has gotten together with other celebs to promote having at least a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/15/paul-mccartney-meat-free-monday"one meat-free day a week/a. Apparently, meat-production amounts to 18% of the world's gas emissions so if we all chose to a href="http://www.supportmfm.org/"stay off meat/a for just one day a week these emissions could be drastically reduced. br /br /I read the article and considered how this could be effectively promoted in Ghana. It wouldn't be a problem for me, I could have a normal breakfast, porridge and fruits, spinach and feta pie for lunch and greek pasta salad for dinner.br /br /But how to do this with our traditional meals? At first it seemed quite difficult, how do I eat my fufu and groundnut soup without chicken, my yam and abenkwan without fish? What is Red Red without fish (just Red?), jollof without chicken and rice without meat/corned beef stew?br /br /But on further thought, we have quite a number of lighter vegetarian dishes/snacks. How about Kofi Brokeman (roasted plantain with groundnuts), kelelwele (fried, spicy plantain) or is anything as good as fried yam with fresh green pepper?! And I guess for one day a week we can all sacrifice and have our Red Red just Red, our Wakye with only Kosya (egg) and Abenkwan with beans instead (try it at Agbamami, it's yummy). Add to the Kontomire without meat, replace the meat/fish in your Garden Egg stew with...more Garden Eggs and swap the corned beef stew for egg stew and voila, you have quite a few dishes to play with. I'll definitely give it a try when I get back.br /br /The Ghanaian Swede obsesses about Swedish foods when in Ghana and writes about Ghanaian dishes whilst in Sweden... why is the grass always greener on the other side?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-3732043397317916904?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• July 23, 2009
• 20:43

  The Ghanaian and the Flu

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  I did say I'd write about being black in Sweden and the ignorance of Swedes when it comes to Africa, but apart from not finding the time to do so or having constant internet connection, it's a topic that leaves me worn out when I think about it too much. br /br /But after hearing the latest, I have to vent. A few days ago I read about a a href="http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/article154897.ab"boy who sat /ain a hospital's AE with clear swine flu symptoms for an hour and a half (sorry, only found a link in Swedish). I quickly commented that, in these times of a "pandemic", a swine flu patient sits in the open with other patients, but when anyone is diagnosed with malaria in Sweden, he/she put in isolation in the Infectious Diseases Department (true story, happened to my father). Please do correct me if I am wrong, but I have never heard of malaria spreading from person to person as infectuous diseases do, in fact a malaria patient is of no harm to other people around.br /br /And as if to prove my point, a friend came to tell me about her father today. After feeling poorly, he was diagnosed with a heart condition and admitted into hospital. But because he had arrived from AFRICA (Ghana), he was put in isolation as a precaution from him spreading any diseases. Have you heard anything like it before?! br /br /I don't even know where to start on this one. In my mind this is a clear case of discrimination and a breach of his human rights, because surely no patient should be exposed to the infectiuous diseases department if not carrying an infection? And I doubt very much that if he were a blond, blue eyed Swede arriving from Africa with any medical condition, he'd be treated the same way. What annoys me even more is that Africa seems to be the continent least affected by this "pandemic". But, like I told my friend, let's look at the bright side and think that in these times of swine flu pandemic, he'll be isolated from that and any other that would be spread by even a sneeze on a normal ward.br /span style="font-style:italic;"br /(If you're wondering why I'm keeping the quotation marks around pandemic, it's because I'm still not believing the hype any more than as a ploy by the media and pharmaceutical companies to cash out on natural human fear. Once you can prove to me that this "pandemic" kills more people than regular flu, then I'll start listening)/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-8936132883592375350?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• July 21, 2009
• 21:16

  Picture of the print

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Finally, a picture of the previously a href="http://mayasearth.blogspot.com/2009/06/obama-all-over-your-body.html"mentioned Obama cloth/a! Now, I'm not sure there's any way it could not have been tacky but somehow it feels just so OTT with all their pictures on it, surely it could have been done in a more tasteful manner.br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SmYxlcly2nI/AAAAAAAAAes/edfWwc-st1M/s1600-h/obama+print.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 124px; height: 93px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SmYxlcly2nI/AAAAAAAAAes/edfWwc-st1M/s400/obama+print.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361026925830789746" //aspan style="font-style:italic;"br /(pic borrowed from ghananewsagency.org)/spanbr /br /Apparently there are 5 different designs. I have only seen these 2 and find I prefer the one below to the other one. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SmYysNQD4uI/AAAAAAAAAe0/UMXdWZ33BNI/s1600-h/obama+print+2.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 130px; height: 97px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SmYysNQD4uI/AAAAAAAAAe0/UMXdWZ33BNI/s320/obama+print+2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361028141483811554" //aspan style="font-style:italic;"br /(pic borrowed from a friend's facebook page, not sure where from originally)/spanbr /br /What do you think?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-1330700541237145770?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• July 19, 2009
• 16:47

  Little Angels

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Certain people come into our lives and with the smallest of gestures on their part, make a great impact in our lives. Like the woman who like an angel has made it possible for my friend M to get the labour she wants.br /br /In my case the "angel's" name is Pierre. Pierre is no one in particular, he may be a cruel man in his personal life and in his mind all he did was his job. However, for me, he is the man who finally sorted out my internet issues after 20 days of starvation. And the fact that he did it on a Sunday (I had given up all hope and was going to call the company again tomorrow) makes the act all the more heroic.br /br /Gone are the headaches, tense neck and shoulders and the irritated frown I've carried for the past few days after each time I've tried to go online without success. I can now erase my letters of complaint out of my brain, no need to even keep a copy in the recycle bin! Pierre will probably go ahead and call another customer after finishing with me, not realising how much his bit of weekend overtime(?) work makes a difference to us customers out there. br /br /To make life extra sweet, the lovely babygirl decided to take a nap from just as Pierre called, for two hours right until now, leaving me just enough time to do all the necessary and unnecessary browsing I needed to do. And the fact that all this happened after I had devoured some palmnut soup with both fufu and yam (pounaa, of course) here in Gothenburg, after months without Ghana foods, makes my Sunday just about as good as it gets.br /br /Hope you've enjoyed your Sunday as much as I have!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-6102042002144933168?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• July 13, 2009
• 10:57

  Connected!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  No, I have not gone underground, buried in my own envy over not being in Ghana during Obama's visit. I have been deprived of internet connection for the past seven days...and counting! The only reason I am online now is because I have travelled all the way across town to Mr. T's flat to use his broadband. It seems my internet provider can't handle a bit of rain, because since our first proper rainfall last week, they're mast collapsed and there are no set plans for when to restore it. What? Never would I accept such bad service from Broadband4u, Iburst or any other internet provider and yet here in abrokyi, I've had to put up with it because of their extremely long phone queues and the fact that they don't have a physical office. Even GT (Ghana Telecom)'s dial up service back in the day used to work during rainy season, and the rain we've had here is nothing in comparison.br /br /Anyway, now I'm going to catch up with Obama reports, reply emails and blog comments, then, when I am in my best fighter mode, I'll deal with Tele2/Comviq. Sorry guys for not replying comments until now!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-4744331160390537513?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• July 07, 2009
• 18:44

  Ghana is the name!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Like many others, I'm in the middle of watching the Michael Jackson memorial service. As much as I didn't want to contribute further to the media frenzy around his death, I just wanted to inform those of you who are not watching that our very own Ghana was mentioned, possibly twice (didn't Al Sharpton mention it too?). Queen Latifah read a poem written by Maya Angelou for Michael, in which she mentions the Black Star Square of Ghana! br /br /Trust my idol, the ever creative, intelligent and inspiring Maya Angelou to continue her work as an ambassador for Ghana, continously making sure our country is firmly put on the map.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2532174701893003649?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• July 01, 2009
• 19:57

  Yesterday a href="http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20240623_20287948,00.html"Farrah Fawcett was buried/a. Yes, ...

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Yesterday a href="http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20240623_20287948,00.html"Farrah Fawcett was buried/a. Yes, for those who don't know, she died last Thursday, a few hours before Michael Jackson. As soon as the news hit that MJ had died, I thought "Poor Farrah Fawcett, she's gone and done a Mother Theresa". br /br /If you can remember as far back as the summer of 1997, Mother Theresa died five days after Princess Diana and the day before Princess Diana's funeral. SkyNews, after discussing Diana's death for hours and hours spent approximately 30 seconds informing us in a very "by the way" manner that Mother Theresa had passed away. In the same way, as the grotesque media coverage of MJ's death continues, it seems the media networks are struggling to remember to mention Farrah every now and then.br /br /And this does not only happen to celebrities. I remember a classmate's father's funeral that we went to in Takoradi a few years ago (yes, for those of you not living in Ghana, you are quite often expected to attend funerals of classmate's parents). The man in question was a former army man and High Court judge and was buried with all the fanfare attached to the army. 12-gun salute, soldiers carrying coffin and Ghana flag present, not to mention the hords of lawyers and judges that travelled from Accra. Unfortunately for her, Esther Appiah (I promised I'd remember her name to give her some importance, but to be honest I think it was something else) was buried in the same ceremony. The priest spent about 45 minutes talking about the late judge before sparing Esther about 3 minutes. I cringed as I saw her family leave the church from their mid-row seats (because of course, the judge's many guests had taken all the front seats).br /br /Well, it all taught me a lesson I am happy to pass on. Let's make our mark on the world so as to not be buried in oblivion. And no matter what you do, never, never die on or around the same day as someone more important than you, because even in death you can be treated like a 2nd-class citizen.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7765943677941647703?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• June 26, 2009
• 18:46

  Goodbye Michael

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  How cannot I not write about Michael Jackson? Last night I logged onto facebook and was shocked by the news. No matter how we perceived Michael Jackson, there's no disputing his musical genius. As soon as I heard of his death, some of my favourite songs passed through my head, Man in the Mirror, Dirty Diana and The way you make me feel. I always hoped that he'd get the opportunity to wash away the Wacko Jacko tag before he passed, unfortunately he didn't, but hopefully we'll focus on remembering his talent.br /br /After spending a day out of Gothenburg, with lovely weather, friends and food, I got back into town just before the shops were closing. As I walked through the main mall to get to a department store where I could change my daughter's diaper, I realised that almost every shop I passed was playing Michael Jackson's songs.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SkUaCV3d7mI/AAAAAAAAAek/CXnhtDzyrRo/s1600-h/michael+jackson.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 109px; height: 124px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SkUaCV3d7mI/AAAAAAAAAek/CXnhtDzyrRo/s320/michael+jackson.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351712359731555938" //abr /MJ: the whole world mourns you!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-5632540029535204168?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• June 23, 2009
• 15:48

  Crazy sun worship?

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Yesterday I took some sneaky photos. If I were a man I'd probably be called a pervert, but I had to take them as they represent something that perplexes me. Once again, since Sunday, the sun is out and with it, the bodies. The block of flats I stay in probably contains about hundred flats with a green area in the middle that has a playground and a barbecue area. Yesterday when I was getting my breakfast ready, I noticed this outside my window:br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SkD5wJJ446I/AAAAAAAAAec/8bFMmqC1QIg/s1600-h/SANY0297.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SkD5wJJ446I/AAAAAAAAAec/8bFMmqC1QIg/s320/SANY0297.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350550962802582434" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SkD5vy1kNxI/AAAAAAAAAeU/AQ7cMPrmWGI/s1600-h/SANY0297+-+Copy.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 268px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SkD5vy1kNxI/AAAAAAAAAeU/AQ7cMPrmWGI/s320/SANY0297+-+Copy.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350550956811761426" //abr /Then, as I opened the blinds in the sitting room I saw this:br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SkD5vzCgeWI/AAAAAAAAAeM/YPc1txxWT78/s1600-h/SANY0296.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SkD5vzCgeWI/AAAAAAAAAeM/YPc1txxWT78/s320/SANY0296.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350550956866042210" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SkD5vlLKNZI/AAAAAAAAAeE/iiIMeQ2S-Wc/s1600-h/SANY0296+-+Copy.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 218px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SkD5vlLKNZI/AAAAAAAAAeE/iiIMeQ2S-Wc/s320/SANY0296+-+Copy.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350550953144235410" //abr /What amuses, but perplexes me is how these women lose all their inhibitions as soon as there's a bit of sunshine, these are after all women who would probably not change anywhere outside fitting rooms in shops. Sometimes they also lose their sense of moral decency, like when I saw a woman around Clapham Junction tanning on another person's grave! br /br /Two things that entertained me even more was that the woman in the latter two photos was tanning on the green patch behind the flats where most people let their dogs...ease themselves AND when she got up to go in (probably to have lunch because she came out within an hour), she actually put on clothes!br /span style="font-style:italic;"br /(Special thanks to my lovely camera for allowing me to capture these moments, through my blinds and in the comfort of my own home!)/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-4143363078900159373?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• June 20, 2009
• 19:24

  Happy Midsummer!

   » ‎ Maya's earth

  Enclosure: [download]

  I don't know what happened to me. I guess I'm just a sucker for traditions. I had decided that I wasn't doing anything for midsummer as it's one of those holidays that doesn't mean much to me, it's mainly about boozing and eating. Well, I guess the constant brainwashing in adverts and on Good Morning shows finally got to me, because yesterday, midsummer eve, I to a long walk with a good friend, bought herring and sour cream to have with the potatoes I already had at home, then walked back through Slottsskogen where I caught a bit of the celebrations. As you'll see the midsummer pole looked a bit dreary, probably from the rain. Many women had a crown of flowers on their heads and some were even dressed in traditional folkdräkt, see below.br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sj03-g9YnII/AAAAAAAAAd8/AKODbEZ28fM/s1600-h/SANY0269.JPG"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sj03-g9YnII/AAAAAAAAAd8/AKODbEZ28fM/s320/SANY0269.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349493479524834434" border="0"/abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sj03-Qd7DaI/AAAAAAAAAd0/Wu_9PJbaSTU/s1600-h/SANY0274.JPG"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 242px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sj03-Qd7DaI/AAAAAAAAAd0/Wu_9PJbaSTU/s320/SANY0274.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349493475097906594" border="0"/abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sj03-AzhQSI/AAAAAAAAAds/SaFhoQNupJk/s1600-h/SANY0276.JPG"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 289px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sj03-AzhQSI/AAAAAAAAAds/SaFhoQNupJk/s320/SANY0276.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349493470893523234" border="0"/abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sj0396HnBUI/AAAAAAAAAdk/RdXK116vP-Y/s1600-h/SANY0275.JPG"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 102px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sj0396HnBUI/AAAAAAAAAdk/RdXK116vP-Y/s320/SANY0275.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349493469098739010" border="0"/abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sj039riXEMI/AAAAAAAAAdc/DJK2HJ9QaWQ/s1600-h/SANY0280.JPG"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 74px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sj039riXEMI/AAAAAAAAAdc/DJK2HJ9QaWQ/s320/SANY0280.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349493465184407746" border="0"/abr /br /Then of course there was the dancing around the Midsummer pole to the traditional songs and dance moves. br /object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-5feba744194a6690" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"param name="movie" value="http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DqAAAAPEbdexZYqODP9Nt5kZfcH3N5OJsFi081i7LNh05OyeNemgFXSNZGaeTGojZjiL3lOUq65MT1pgouiVuz74AXOCDvWelwJNPyYHGcNSi5fwbpFHoyctgv5OqJO5p4bEedslUZG7eqpKiIW3V3piSsTHOD1SYzTYUwmYcUszqxleBz6fmjnISCgVbX_HvejeIEXUvsaEc_cRL7IgQrwrrRxJJ15_LFf1Knq4PlIBEY8Vd%26sigh%3DkewqLTLteRgvD9ab4G0sOvv7vwU%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26docid%3D0amp;nogvlm=1amp;thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D5feba744194a6690%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3DquAP1u2qBQYP4ZPXcoQeohXzzTEamp;messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den"param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DqAAAAPEbdexZYqODP9Nt5kZfcH3N5OJsFi081i7LNh05OyeNemgFXSNZGaeTGojZjiL3lOUq65MT1pgouiVuz74AXOCDvWelwJNPyYHGcNSi5fwbpFHoyctgv5OqJO5p4bEedslUZG7eqpKiIW3V3piSsTHOD1SYzTYUwmYcUszqxleBz6fmjnISCgVbX_HvejeIEXUvsaEc_cRL7IgQrwrrRxJJ15_LFf1Knq4PlIBEY8Vd%26sigh%3DkewqLTLteRgvD9ab4G0sOvv7vwU%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26docid%3D0amp;nogvlm=1amp;thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D5feba744194a6690%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3DquAP1u2qBQYP4ZPXcoQeohXzzTEamp;messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/embed/objectbr /And today, after a lovely afternoon dessert of strawberries and icecream, my evening snack was a miniversion of a traditional midsummer feast, topped off with a glass of non-alcoholic champagne. Have a good weekend!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-3356724284294355301?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• June 16, 2009
• 20:07

  Obama all over your body?

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  One of the things I miss seeing whilst out of Ghana is the beautiful textile prints. Especially Friday's traditional wear, when staff in most banks and offices wear cloth. Many of them have even had their own print designed, because practically everything has a design, whether it be the church you belong to, the bank you work at or a special occasion. I even own three different Ghana@50 prints! (How many do you own?).br /br /Now I hear there's a new print about to be released: a href="http://news.myjoyonline.com/business/200906/31486.asp"the official Mills/Obama print/a! Can you believe it? There's even going to be a separate "first ladies" cloth featuring photos of Naadu Mills and Michelle Obama! As amusing as it sounds, I can't wait to see the designs as I am so curious. Wish I were there...br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sjf_LDkjXBI/AAAAAAAAAdU/WMloleZOhKI/s1600-h/SANY0117+-+Copy.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 188px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sjf_LDkjXBI/AAAAAAAAAdU/WMloleZOhKI/s320/SANY0117+-+Copy.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348023647928015890" //aspan style="font-style:italic;"br /(The only cloth I can adore whilst here, a beautiful piece a friend lent me for me to carry my baby in)/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-5961736915777707456?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• June 06, 2009
• 9:46

  Swedish National Day

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  On this 6th of June, Sweden's National Day, there's been a lot of discussion in blogs and on TV about integration and rasism. TV4, a television station has been showing a a href="http://www.tv4.se/1.283438?videoId=1.681208"trailer as part of their "nollrasism" (zero racism) campaign/a. The trailer shows a tennis game between a fat, older, white man and a fit, younger, black man. Even though the black guy keeps winning the balls, the referee continuously gives the point to the white one. The white man, Svensson, wins the game and at the end of the scene it is written across the screen "in real life it isn't a game".br /br /I like the trailer, and I think any black or foreign-looking person in Sweden can understand it as it depicts our reality. Most of the time we are judged before we've had the opportunity to achieve, even if the person we are up against is not as competent. However, whilst googling the trailer I found a few people criticising it. I'm always open to hear other's opinions so I read one criticism. To my disappointment, the person criticising it has nothing sensible to say, but rather claims that the only message it gives is that Swedes are fat and useless and always discriminate against foreigners. As mentioned, for anyone who has experienced racism, the message is very clear: it is NOT that all Swedes are incompetent and racist, it is simply showing how foreigners are often discriminated against, even when they are clearly more competent better at the job, as you can assume a fit, young man would be than a fat older man at playing tennis.br /br /After being here a few months it is sad to see that nothing has really changed. I doubt the children growing up today are growing up in a more tolerant, less ignorant society than I did nearly thirty years ago. Clearly, I'm not the only one who feels this way as my friends in inter-racial relationships are looking to move to other countries so that their children won't grow up in the same environment they did.br /br /This is a complete digression from what I wanted to talk about, but it is a more important topic. I have been meaning to write about being black in Sweden, but there's too much to say and it's too exhausting to think about that it's often easier to not think of it. br /br /I wanted to talk about the National Day, but now I've completely lost my track. :)br /In the early nineties, racism and nazism became a fashion with skinheads seen all over the place, foreigners being beaten up and murdered and refugee camps and mosques burnt down. At the time skinheads claimed the Swedish flag and the celebration of being Swedish. As a result for many years it was considered taboo to display the Swedish flag as it meant you were a racist. Sweden has worked hard to reclaim the flag and by making 6th June a National holiday in 2005, the government has tried to encourage national celebrations and pride in being Swedish. But on the news this morning a survey showed that only 40% of Swedes intend to celebrate, with many of those celebrations quite dubious, e.g. "it's my wedding anniversary so we're celebrating" or "I'm preparing a hen night for my best friend".br /br /I didn't have any plans at all and since the weather's been awful (minus 3 in the night!), I think I'll just stay in with a few cups of hot tea. Happy National Day!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-3090243093466790340?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• June 01, 2009
• 20:30

  Last weekend of May

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  ...of course any homesickness I had disappeared when the weather went from ok to great! This whole weekend we've had up to 25 degrees and sunshine, without the humidity of Ghana which usually prevents me from wearing my natural hair straight. The weather is a major issue in Sweden especially as we head towards summer. It can turn from 25 to 12 degrees overnight. When the weather is good, so are people's moods and suddenly everybody is out and about. For us that meant carneval in Hammarkullen (an area mainly inhabited by foreigners), picnic in Slottsskogen, the main city park and walks along the river, Göta Älv.br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT4cWajXSI/AAAAAAAAAcs/EVkZqR1zJZs/s1600-h/SANY0205.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT4cWajXSI/AAAAAAAAAcs/EVkZqR1zJZs/s320/SANY0205.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342668223905226018" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT6aJ0nazI/AAAAAAAAAdE/TP55wD1IUZI/s1600-h/SANY0206.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT6aJ0nazI/AAAAAAAAAdE/TP55wD1IUZI/s320/SANY0206.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342670385188399922" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT4cYsO2qI/AAAAAAAAAck/3rkoRX5BLh4/s1600-h/SANY0207.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT4cYsO2qI/AAAAAAAAAck/3rkoRX5BLh4/s320/SANY0207.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342668224516250274" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT4cCyV4tI/AAAAAAAAAcc/LfiByRMHar4/s1600-h/SANY0209.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT4cCyV4tI/AAAAAAAAAcc/LfiByRMHar4/s320/SANY0209.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342668218636296914" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT4b13PD_I/AAAAAAAAAcU/AhWt2-exftM/s1600-h/SANY0211.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT4b13PD_I/AAAAAAAAAcU/AhWt2-exftM/s320/SANY0211.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342668215167160306" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT4btR7kiI/AAAAAAAAAcM/FTLiOmNd-CU/s1600-h/SANY0224.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT4btR7kiI/AAAAAAAAAcM/FTLiOmNd-CU/s320/SANY0224.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342668212863210018" //abr /Above and below: Röda Sten, where a soldier apparently collapsed and bloodied the rock. Every year the rock is re-painted red to remind us of his blood (and almost as often private persons sabotage this by painting the rock a different colour or adding white dots for a polkadot effect!)br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT5cbMi23I/AAAAAAAAAc8/ER1uFJ3Hca0/s1600-h/SANY0228.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT5cbMi23I/AAAAAAAAAc8/ER1uFJ3Hca0/s320/SANY0228.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342669324700277618" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT5cLDcpuI/AAAAAAAAAc0/mXnJ3WMdq9Q/s1600-h/SANY0226.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT5cLDcpuI/AAAAAAAAAc0/mXnJ3WMdq9Q/s320/SANY0226.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342669320367154914" //abr /br /Leaving us all a bit tired...br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT7l9X9jyI/AAAAAAAAAdM/pwkepcVt0No/s1600-h/SANY0217+-+Copy.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SiT7l9X9jyI/AAAAAAAAAdM/pwkepcVt0No/s320/SANY0217+-+Copy.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342671687517048610" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-3740854424081723557?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• 20:12

  I miss you!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Last Thursday I missed home. As they say, the grass is always greener. For me that means I am always missing home. In Ghana I miss my hometown Gothenburg. When in Gothenburg, I miss my Ghana. I never win! br /br /But last week there was no reason at all for missing home. I was happy, the weather was ok, I had no complaints. But suddenly I just felt a longing, like the ache of when you miss a loved one. I could hear Ofori Amponsah songs playing in my head, and as soon as I imagined the music, I could suddenly smell the beautiful sea breeze that I'd smell when leaving a href="http://mayasearth.blogspot.com/2008/05/breathe-in.html"Tema and heading towards Sakumono/a. I even pictured myself getting out of my car at the Law School car park with the cacaphony of Makola in the background. br /br /Once I woke up out of my longing daydream, reality hit me: if I am daydreaming of driving to the law school and heading into the mayhem of Makola, I must really, REALLY be missing Ghana!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-3707235816817461748?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• May 24, 2009
• 21:53

  Loppis!

   » ‎ Maya's earth

  Enclosure: [download]

  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/ShnJa-l1tqI/AAAAAAAAAb0/g7zmhlLrma4/s1600-h/SANY0182.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/ShnJa-l1tqI/AAAAAAAAAb0/g7zmhlLrma4/s320/SANY0182.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339520298539923106" //abr /Today my local council had arranged for the whole area to set up loppmarknader (flea markets/yard sales). The purpose is mainly to promote recycling for environmental purposes and the hope is that it will big enough to enter the Guinness book of world records as the biggest neighbourhood yard sale. Anybody could set up in any public area in the whole borough and we were all encouraged to empty our cellars and attics. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/ShnJbLPDRPI/AAAAAAAAAcE/Lr86EkJc0yw/s1600-h/SANY0186.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/ShnJbLPDRPI/AAAAAAAAAcE/Lr86EkJc0yw/s320/SANY0186.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339520301934003442" //abr /br /There's been so many yard sales since I got here and what a perfect way to get rid of junk. It really supports the saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure". It is one idea I wish we'd copy in Ghana. There are so many people who have far too much while others are lacking. I am pretty sure that such an idea would however be looked down and people would be ashamed to admit to buying items there. Here in Gothenburg, such airs are gone and we rather appreciate the quaint finds that can be made. br /br /The best thing about it is that everything is being sold at a fraction of its ordinary price, nobody's looking at making a profit. A handful of children's clothes may be sold off for 20 kronor/GHc3!It is in fact parents that gain the most from these sales; it's an easy way to get rid of old clothes and items that the kids have grown out of and what better way to purchase games, films and clothes that the children will only enjoy for some months.br /object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-28f3260ac6f8c7f7" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"param name="movie" value="http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DqAAAAO3T1daHheEeH3ZcEQIwEb9QYA-Z731feHqWH8mOI-5IYZWlZ8o_1KAi4_NsWGE3ggpHS2gzAhJD9_vCNrPdiLssMdfgV0kLnCczj5NFXzRXTWtsmw301YuBB2uowuvQacRaF1uPeUkzQQ1TlJtCH4Gy_KEuWPpsyMrPlBMnrMXLYpmeoe0muSxap0bDJDQpCFkHvYaS2QaPwRUjI3YYVBKMRqsBHVoxsSSsu4V7Qkrv%26sigh%3Dtg7HqvA1COqYRBAet96tVq6W02U%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26docid%3D0amp;nogvlm=1amp;thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D28f3260ac6f8c7f7%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3Dj0taDIr4b9Xj_sMrwiWHaIdivdwamp;messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den"param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DqAAAAO3T1daHheEeH3ZcEQIwEb9QYA-Z731feHqWH8mOI-5IYZWlZ8o_1KAi4_NsWGE3ggpHS2gzAhJD9_vCNrPdiLssMdfgV0kLnCczj5NFXzRXTWtsmw301YuBB2uowuvQacRaF1uPeUkzQQ1TlJtCH4Gy_KEuWPpsyMrPlBMnrMXLYpmeoe0muSxap0bDJDQpCFkHvYaS2QaPwRUjI3YYVBKMRqsBHVoxsSSsu4V7Qkrv%26sigh%3Dtg7HqvA1COqYRBAet96tVq6W02U%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26docid%3D0amp;nogvlm=1amp;thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D28f3260ac6f8c7f7%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3Dj0taDIr4b9Xj_sMrwiWHaIdivdwamp;messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/embed/objectbr /br /I however went away with nothing (believe me, for a bargain shopper like me, that's an achievement!), it was enough to watch the crowds and enjoy the sun that briefly popped out. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/ShnJbBgQSoI/AAAAAAAAAb8/M84Ko4Vf6k4/s1600-h/SANY0185.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/ShnJbBgQSoI/AAAAAAAAAb8/M84Ko4Vf6k4/s320/SANY0185.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339520299321805442" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-5282186030910165541?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• May 21, 2009
• 22:20

  Ascension Day

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  In Ghana we often complain about the laziness of workers, especially civil servants. I'm always unimpressed when I see Friday traffic starting at noon because staff have decided to cut their day short as the weekend is about to start. Similarly it's always funny to guess how many people will show up at work on a Friday when the Thursday before it is a holiday. Usually, the answer is quite close to 0%.br /br /I don't know if I was away from Sweden for too long, but somehow I thought the work morale here was better. It was only when I was heading into town yesterday around 12:30 that I noticed the tram was a lot more crowded than usual. I said so to my mum and she reminded me that today, Ascension day, was a holiday. I still wasn't sure that was the reason I was seeing so many people...until I bumped into my older brother V outside Nordstan, the main shopping centre.br /br /"Are you on your lunch break?" I asked. "Yeah, but I'm heading home, because there's hardly anybody in the office." br /br /Suddenly I remembered my walk in Slottsskogen, the largest city park, three weeks ago, on our first summery day (24 degrees and sunshine!). It had been around 1p.m. on a Thursday and yet it seemed every person in Gothenburg was picnicking in the park. Why? Because the next day was 1st of May, Labour Day.br /br /And as if taking a half day before Ascension Day is not enough, it seems nobody will show up for work tomorrow either. After all tomorrow is known as a "klämdag", a day squeezed in between a holiday and the weekend, which seems to be a good enough excuse to make that too a holiday.br /br /Now I know you're thinking, what the hell is she complaining about, shouldn't we be happy for more days off??? And really, I'm not complaining, I just find the excuses for more time off funny, but mostly I am amused by how easy it is to complain about Ghana when I'm there...and how similar the working patterns of Swedes and Ghanaians are. The two are closer to each other than we think!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2482395247097426319?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• May 17, 2009
• 21:04

  Unbelievable

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  I can't believe it. First my longlost cousin who I'm getting to know now visits Ghana in April. Then my dear friend from boarding school who I haven't seen since 1993 decides to go to Ghana in May.br /br /And now a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8053983.stm"Obama has decided to come to Ghana/a on the 10th and 11th of July on his foreign tour! When did I choose to be out of Ghana? March to August. What are the odds that I'd be out of the country that I haven't left for more than a couple of weeks at a time since 2005 when this historic event occurs? Granted, even if I were in the country I doubt Barack and Michelle would come over for dinner, but it'd still be nice to be able to say "I was there". At the moment I feel a bit jealous of all of you who will be there to witness the visit. So jealous in fact, I have considered changing my flight, but surely it's not worth it.br /br /Is it?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2006716177969128825?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• May 12, 2009
• 13:27

  Running and Singing

   » ‎ Maya's earth

  Enclosure: [download]

  For almost two weeks I haven't been able to write due to lack of sleep, Virgo constantly using my laptop and, most annoyingly, not having anything to write once I finally get the chance to go online.br /br /A Swedish politician created the expression "gröt i hjärnan", loosely "porridge brain" to explain what happened to her thinking process during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Somehow, I think I'm suffering from porridge brain too! The thoughts and great ideas for writing that I had planned out in my head are now muddled up into one big mess, leaving nothing concrete for me to think about. My thoughts flash to my friend who had a baby last year and went back to work after six weeks. How lucky I am not to be in the same position, as I'd probably find myself making mistakes all the time.br /br /Instead I'm enjoying my maternity leave by doing simple things that the brain can handle, e.g. today, watching Göteborgsvarvet (the Gothenburg Race) in the sunshine. For only the second time since I arrived, I had to take off my thin sweater as I was too hot. What a luxury when outside Ghana! Unfortunately I had put my camera away when Spiderman passed me and when two men ran by in only tarzan Speedos! At least I tried to capture a man in a wig and makeup (didn't get a good picture as you can see).br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sg8ZhB5oyLI/AAAAAAAAAbs/AmWt-yVMvtw/s1600-h/SANY0180.JPG"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 151px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sg8ZhB5oyLI/AAAAAAAAAbs/AmWt-yVMvtw/s320/SANY0180.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336512138693888178" border="0"/abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sg8ZhAMj6YI/AAAAAAAAAbk/c6kes9U3-RE/s1600-h/SANY0176.JPG"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sg8ZhAMj6YI/AAAAAAAAAbk/c6kes9U3-RE/s320/SANY0176.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336512138236389762" border="0"/abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sg8Zg6LMPfI/AAAAAAAAAbc/CIzPIwAqRc8/s1600-h/SANY0173.JPG"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sg8Zg6LMPfI/AAAAAAAAAbc/CIzPIwAqRc8/s320/SANY0173.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336512136620031474" border="0"/abr /br /And now, I'm continuing my lazy Saturday by watching the Eurovision Song Contest. Hey, when are we establishing the African Song Contest? Or are we too sophisticated for that...? ; )br /br /object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-bf44fd6a6425b37b" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"param name="movie" value="http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DqAAAABqQx1oQmSnIaATdhug8I94Q69Y5pcczZpmJhyBrhi-MKHRxAWzUSY1bJ0SKWWQgAECbCycbyzOLs3FZ-9Sl3gmCYo1wqdh0ynSWiIKnC-YSfHvxXgBIU1By5xGi8qf0fBseTbsDtSyVtDa2kWZReAKX8x4VE9v8pjyfVzY-3vRCI-QA5pYvTV7_TRGKdA0hJaFOK-q3uUN3Bhc3f3Kq8QLUkC-J7M4GD4nEIeF5bquP%26sigh%3Dq8bM3AKoiTuUW0o07dKaRBk54cs%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26docid%3D0amp;nogvlm=1amp;thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dbf44fd6a6425b37b%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3DjEv0nnpg3iyjCXsnVh7EtEWkWYUamp;messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den"param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DqAAAABqQx1oQmSnIaATdhug8I94Q69Y5pcczZpmJhyBrhi-MKHRxAWzUSY1bJ0SKWWQgAECbCycbyzOLs3FZ-9Sl3gmCYo1wqdh0ynSWiIKnC-YSfHvxXgBIU1By5xGi8qf0fBseTbsDtSyVtDa2kWZReAKX8x4VE9v8pjyfVzY-3vRCI-QA5pYvTV7_TRGKdA0hJaFOK-q3uUN3Bhc3f3Kq8QLUkC-J7M4GD4nEIeF5bquP%26sigh%3Dq8bM3AKoiTuUW0o07dKaRBk54cs%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26docid%3D0amp;nogvlm=1amp;thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dbf44fd6a6425b37b%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3DjEv0nnpg3iyjCXsnVh7EtEWkWYUamp;messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/embed/objectdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-6638311200789625863?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• May 04, 2009
• 15:58

  A very taxing day

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Today is D-day in Sweden, as in Declaration day. It's the last day to submit all tax declaration papers and then either look forward to getting some money back or having to pay up a bit more. Sensible people like myself had planned to submit the information via the Tax Office's website way ahead of time, but after spending two weeks setting up my "e-identification" on my new laptop, I then spent another week trying to log in to the declaration page without success. It seems so many people were doing the same thing the system probably went down. Finally, last Thursday afternoon, after many attempted entries, I got in! Only to receive the message that I couldn't declare online but must rather visit their office. As I'm sure you know, Friday was Labour day and so ironically, after trying to declare over three weeks ago, I ended up going to the Tax Office on the very last day.br /br /This morning I tried to figure out the best time to go and decided that it'd probably be best to get there just before lunch, when others would try to sneak from work to drop off their papers. I also thought that with all the available options: preprinted forms to be submitted in the offices mailboxes, online and sms declaration, there couldn't be many people that would need to go to the actual office. How wrong I was! br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sf8fhfRwOFI/AAAAAAAAAbU/njP89EGmov0/s1600-h/SANY0126.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sf8fhfRwOFI/AAAAAAAAAbU/njP89EGmov0/s320/SANY0126.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332015144022063186" //abr /Already as I got off the tram I realised there were a lot more people on the road than usual. People seemed to be flooding in both directions. But what to do? I took my queue number and decided to wait outside as the pushchair felt a bit to bulky to squeeze in the crowd indoors. 50 minutes later it was finally my turn and the actual declaration itself took a cool 90 seconds.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sf8fhVa-IdI/AAAAAAAAAbM/EXMKCZwaX4o/s1600-h/SANY0125.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sf8fhVa-IdI/AAAAAAAAAbM/EXMKCZwaX4o/s320/SANY0125.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332015141376369106" //abr /Amazingly I felt so much lighter afterwards that I decided to skip the tram home, braved the 10 degree chill and headed over the cobble stones for a refreshing one-hour walk home.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-6647686011670603485?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• April 30, 2009
• 19:12

  Who got the flu?

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  At the moment I am watching the news, learning all about swine flu and how to avoid it, It's been all over the news for the past few days and I am curious to hear how it's being handled by Ghanaian media. Fill me in pleeeease! I can inform you that the very experienced Swedish reporter did not impress me when she asked the swine flu expert "Will any Swedes die from this flu?". Erm, unless she's also a psychic how can she give a confident answer to that question?br /br /Being a multitasker, I checked my email at the same time and couldn't help but laugh as I (finally) saw evidence of the source of swine flu. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sfn68Qw9o3I/AAAAAAAAAbE/fECFQSYnwgg/s1600-h/swine+flu+cause.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sfn68Qw9o3I/AAAAAAAAAbE/fECFQSYnwgg/s320/swine+flu+cause.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330567547169121138" //abr /Thank you, Poetress for sending it to me! Luckily, there's already a remedy...br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sfn68OdAoyI/AAAAAAAAAa8/ORrXJAiWs2w/s1600-h/swine+flu+remedy.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 274px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/Sfn68OdAoyI/AAAAAAAAAa8/ORrXJAiWs2w/s320/swine+flu+remedy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330567546548560674" //aspan style="font-style:italic;"br /(Pictures not mine, received by email, so I don't know the original owner.)/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7798113639827130434?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• April 29, 2009
• 21:30

  New life

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  As promised, I do have a href="http://mayasearth.blogspot.com/2009/03/message-from-your-blogger.html"a good enough excuse/a for taking a leave of absence from the blog. Here it is:br /br /So I went to Sweden to complete phase 1 and 2 of my latest project. The plan was to get in, slowly get through phase 1 and after a few months attempt phase 2. However, life never turns out as planned and instead I had to complete these phases almost as soon as I got here.br /br /The project: the birth of my first child. Phase 1: pregnancy. Phase 2: labour. Well, after going through both of those some weeks ago and spending A LOT of time in hospital, I can proudly present to the world the most beautiful creature ever, my daughter. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SfjHhTFEc1I/AAAAAAAAAa0/o7XRGJDpoUY/s1600-h/hands.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 274px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SfjHhTFEc1I/AAAAAAAAAa0/o7XRGJDpoUY/s320/hands.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330229533864129362" //abr /We’re now attempting to take on phase 3: life. It’s a slow and steady process and lesson number 1 seems to be: my time is no longer my own. Hours can fly by and all I have managed to do is have a shower, change and feed her and yet I’ll not have had a minute’s rest. Even writing for this blog has been a project on its own as there are so many other things to do when I have some spare time (sacrificed half an hour’s sleep for this post!).br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SfjHhMos66I/AAAAAAAAAas/Lq2ugfnYaJo/s1600-h/babygym+1.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SfjHhMos66I/AAAAAAAAAas/Lq2ugfnYaJo/s320/babygym+1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330229532134534050" //abr /br /My hope is that I’ll manage to prevent this blog from being another “Mummy-blog”, but of course my life from now on will take on a new angle and I may have to delve further into the interesting topic of a href="http://mayasearth.blogspot.com/2008/07/boob-juice.html"Boob Juice/a!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7257343770338522588?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• April 27, 2009
• 19:21

  Long time no see!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  It's been a while, about two months I think? I've been through a life-changing experience which I'll tell you all about later and at the moment my life feels very far from my chillaxin girl-about-town life in Ghana. Oh yes, did I forget to mention I am in Sweden? Have been here for a few weeks and may stay for another month or two. So I guess I cannot call myself a "Ghanablogger" at the moment. For now I can only tell you about life in Sweden, but from a Ghanaian's point of view of course! I will do my best though to keep in touch with life in Ghana, after all it will only make it easier for me to come back swinging when I return to my beloved home.br /br /Getting back to blogging is like getting re-acquainted with a friend you haven't seen in a long time, I feel a bit shy, a bit unsure and will take babysteps getting back into the game. Not sure how often I will write or what about, but it feels good to get back to this world that I've missed quite a bit!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-1380081845312140708?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• April 24, 2009
• 18:11

  Hello...div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' ...

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Hello...div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-4976309176214819208?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• March 08, 2009
• 16:37

  Message from your blogger

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  My sister sends greetings from Gothenburg, where it snowed this morning(!),but she´s unfortunately unable to access her blog for at least another week or two. She promises you that her excuse for not blogging is good enough and she´ll be back with lots of stories soon./ Mr.Tdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-3007277094695302116?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• February 25, 2009
• 10:02

  Out and about

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  This little blogger is currently out of town, country and continent sans laptop and internet. Will get back to you in the next few days. Will leave you with a little thought for now.br /br /What's more worrying, the fact that our Atta Mills relies heavily on Nigerian spiritual leaders and supposed chanting in the castle OR that Gordon Brown bases the state and future of the British economy on the fact that Slumdog Millionaire (absolutely brilliant movie!) and Kate Winslet won at the Oscars?br /br /Just a thought...div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2110265114707891657?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• February 19, 2009
• 13:57

  Crookeries!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SZ0_whhKa9I/AAAAAAAAAak/5rFMLjwsbiw/s1600-h/facebook.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 125px; height: 94px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SZ0_whhKa9I/AAAAAAAAAak/5rFMLjwsbiw/s320/facebook.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304466038976048082" //abr /Facebook has been all over the news since management decided to hold off on its plan to a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_11736943?nclick_check=1"take ownership/a of facebook user's content. Funnily enough this seems to be making more headlines now than at the time they actually changed their terms of use to claim ownership of our photos. I remember hearing about it some time ago, but kind of brushed it aside. It seems other facebook users were more proactive, leading to facebook 'holding off' on the ownership issue. br /br /It only hit me yesterday, the audacity of what they were trying to do. So I go out, carry my camera around, aim to take good photos, upload them onto facebook, using my electricity and internet connection, then suddenly the photos are owned by facebook even after I end my membership?! Kwasiasem!br /br /What a smart way to steal valuable art from innocent users! A quick scour round our pages and I'm sure they've found top notch photos of celebrities, heads of states, historical moments, etc. and without paying a penny facebook can claim these and pass them on as their own.br /br /It then hit me that if they get away with it, what's not to stop blogger, wordpress or other engines from doing the same with their users. Imagine, as a blogger, that one day, everything you've written on your blogger's site is owned by the engine supporting you! I must say it is a very cost-efficient, convenient way of finding works to be published as books, articles and columns. Considering the amount of blogs that have been turned into books, e.g. a href="http://www.petiteanglaise.com/"Petite Anglaise/a, a href="http://girlwithaonetrackmind.blogspot.com/"Girl with a one track mind/a, it would be quite a lucrative idea, indeed.br /br /When I thought of this, and remembered the hours and hours I have spent thinking, working, writing and editing my blog, I felt horrified. Based on that, and the general cheekiness of facebook, I'm glad it looks like they're handing back ownership of our property to us.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-5266713519299620648?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• February 18, 2009
• 21:38

  Good morning Accra!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  The day stars at 5.30 with the sound of the neighbours sweeping the compound (a concept completely lost on me). About twenty minutes later I can hear the family in the boys-quarters screaming conversation at each other (even though they are no more than a few meters from each other, if that).br /br /I manage to slumber back to sleep only to be woken by the sound of a bulldozer next door. I hear the neighbours yell: "Ofaine, ofaine" ("please" in Ga, excuse the spelling) as they scream and run around the bulldozer. From the comfort of my bed it seems the owner of the land is trying get rid of the squatters by bulldozing them away!br /br /A few minutes later there's silence. I think the squatters won this battle. I turn over and fall back to sleep, only to hear "Auntie, good morning" at 6.45. I try to ignore it but it grows louder, "Auntie, good morning. AUNTIE!" Moaning, I have to roll out of bed and open the househelp. I know I've complained of her showing up late for work, but to come an hour early, today, that's just cruel!br /br /After opening her, explaining that I am VERY tired and sorting her out with everything she may need, I go back to bed. Just as I fall back into deep sleep with my pillow covering my head: knock, knock, knock. "Auntie, Mrs. D is here for your meeting". Of course I had forgotten that my Thursday in-house meetings with Mrs D have since last week been moved to Wednesdays.br /br /I get up, go to the bathroom and get ready for a brand new, very exhausting day. What's a girl gotta do to get one, ONE mid-week sleep-in in the city of Accra?!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2159555652752924615?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• February 16, 2009
• 18:27

  Love, trust, deception

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Ok, so I know I was a href="http://amabroni.blogspot.com/2009/01/ghanabloggingcom.html"supposed to write/a about love as part of our a href="http://www.ghanablogging.com"Ghanablogging/a group on Friday, and I know Saturday was Valentine's day and although I had a lovely Saturday (it included a pancake breakfast, fufu groundnut soup lunch, dessert at Melting Moments and dinner at Captain Hooks), I can't help but think of all the stories of infidelity I've been hearing lately. It's enough to make any man or woman scared to trust anybody again.br /br /How about the guy who had a regular girlfriend for over a year. She'd come over with him, spend nights at his house, feel comfortable and free there, chat to his cousin who lived with him. Until one day when she shows up unexpectedly and finds framed photos on the walls that she's never seen before, some, of her boyfriend, clearly on his wedding day! With a little help from his cousin she soon realises that he is married, has a wife who works periodically out of Accra, so that every time the wife is on location, all pictures of her (and the baby the girlfriend thought belonged to his cousin) are taken down, only to be put up when wifey is on her way back in to town.br /br /Or what about my former classmates who started getting it on right around revision time for final exams (could that be why he failed? Ooooh, miaow), even though the girl had a fiance for several years? The only shocking thing about that story is that it seems it is only in the past few weeks that her fiance has found out, almost two years after the sordid affair started!br /br /And just this afternoon, I was told of the most classic one yet. A girl who's been keeping two boyfriends (not that either of them knew about the other), gets out of the one guy's bed in a rush one Saturday morning, saying "Wow, I have to go, it's already ten a.m." The boyfriend innocently asks "Why, where are you off to in such a rush on a Saturday morning?"br /br /Her answer?span style="font-weight:bold;"br /br /"My wedding!"/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7305471481499058237?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• February 11, 2009
• 20:43

  To whom it may concern

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  This letter is long overdue:br /br /span style="font-style:italic;"Dear a href="http://www.ecobank.com/english/others/home.aspx"Ecobank/a,br /br /I feel I have so much to write to you and I wonder how I'll fit it all in one letter. What has finally prompted me to write was my experience last week when I needed to cash a dollar cheque. I went into the Oxford Street branch and went to the foreign transactions counter. There, I met a sign that said foreign transactions will be handled upstairs. I went upstairs and waited in line for a few minutes. When it got to my turn, the usual foreign transaction lady shook her head and said "our system is down, oh". Since I had been waiting, I assumed it had just gone down and asked how long I'd have to wait. I was informed it had been down all morning (this was at 11:30) and she hadn't been able to handle any transactions. So why had I been made to wait. In fact, why had I been made to walk up the stairs in the first place???br /br /In the end I had to drive to the Head Office branch at Ridge (as usual) to get the cheque cashed. Then on Saturday, I needed to cash a cedi cheque. Thinking I was being smart, I drove straight to Ridge which of course was closed. Drove back to Oxford Street and stood in a line of approximately 9 people. When the person who was two ahead of me was about to be served, a man came out of the blue and jumped in front and got served before her. Admittedly, she could have said something, but so could your staff member who agreed to serve the rude man. (At my own bank, HFC, the staff will always inform queue jumpers of where the queue actually starts).br /br /By the time I was being attended to, I had waited 37 minutes. Do you consider that a reasonable waiting period? (to be honest, I was impressed as I have waited even longer in the past). This week, my husband was informed that the Letters of Credit he went to establish last week had not been processed, for no reason whatsoever. These L/Cs are based on his own money, not from any credit from your bank. Do you realise the consequences this has on business when we inform our international suppliers that we've established L/Cs only to find out a week later that it has not been done? Or how unprofessional your bank is perceived when transactions are not put through without any reason given?br /br /I have long considered opening an account with Ecobank, but time and time again your bank and staff remind me of why I should not. The migration on to a new system sometime in the third quarter of last year took approximately two months instead of the one week we were told, and it seems to still be causing problems as the "system is down" at least every other time I visit your bank. I still need to find a bank as my current one is lacking in so many ways and I need a bank that will give me a VISA card, provide me with cash points (ATMs for you American bred folks) and internet banking, but it seems I'll have to consider a href="http://www.standardchartered.com/gh/en/"Standard Chartered/a instead.br /br /Don't get me wrong, you're not the worst bank in town, a href="http://www.hfcbankgh.com/newsite/"HFC/a is no better, but at least when I wait for twenty minutes in a queue there, I am greeted by a smile and a "sorry for keeping you waiting", which I have never heard uttered in any of your banks. I hope you take this letter seriously and use my complaints to improve your services. Why not aim to introduce first class banking services to customers in Ghana, instead of adding to the general frustrations we already face in everyday life.br /br /Kind regards,br /br /A former potential customer./spanbr /br /br /What do you think, should I send it?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7540076123938606352?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• February 10, 2009
• 16:07

  Green, green envy

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Every day I'm hit by a sting of jealousy. This usually happens after watching CNN for a while. First there's joy over hearing my new favourite advertisement: "Talking, talking, we've got people talking" they sing in the ad, which displays the wonders of Glo. I find the whole ad so beautiful. Apart from an extremely catchy tune (or am I the only one who likes it??), the ad manages to capture the beautiful West African life perfectly. The fisherman, out at sea at sunset whilst on his mobile phone? Classic!br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SZGvlS05naI/AAAAAAAAAac/SPTUt6TumkU/s1600-h/naija+flag.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 116px; height: 86px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SZGvlS05naI/AAAAAAAAAac/SPTUt6TumkU/s320/naija+flag.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301211291635522978" //abr /Apart from that ad, other Nigerian ads featured include those for the banks, ETB, UBA and Zenith. I feel a bit of pride as I see that their ads are of no different standard to the western ones, but can't help but feel jealous. When will Ghana get there? Are we even close? As it is now, I have to force myself to watch Ghanaian channels a few times a week to catch up on local news, as the content and ads are dreadfully boring with poor acting/presenting, visual and audio quality. Why are we so far behind our giant green neighbour?br /br /Virgo passed on some wisdom to me which may partly (or fully) explain the situation. Although Nigeria has had several coup d'etats, when these occur, businesses and business men have generally not been attacked, instead they've been allowed to continuously grow and develop. In Ghana however, each coup d'etats has led to businesses being persecuted and businessmen fleeing the country. As a result, we've never had the opportunity of developing a business culture in Ghana over the years. br /br /There are not many businesses that are more than a decade or two old and as such the entrepreneurial mind is still unique. It further explains why, despite our similar colonnial background, Nigerians value businesses more whereas Ghanaians (at least my parents' generation) have always put higher value on the civil servant lifestyle. How many of us have not been told to "go and get a good education" (that means, doctor, lawyer or accountant) and find a good job and stay there. Not many are advised to set up their own business as it's too risky, and looking at our previous history, I guess they're right, it was too risky. Hopefully those days of coups are finally behind us.br /br /I just hope 'our' generation takes the opportunity to learn the good things from the naijas so that we too can establish our businesses and be advertising on international television, as my jealousy is reaching boiling point!br /span style="font-style:italic;"br /(Interestingly as I was looking for links to the ad, I came across a blogpost from my fellow a href="http://ghanablogging.com"ghanablogger/a, a href="http://www.davidajao.com/blog/2006/08/15/mtn-callertunez-and-glo-mobile-blackberry/"David Ajao/a. It's good to know I'm only three years behind you on the topic, David!)/spanbr /br /Now I can't leave without today's Weakest Link moment:br /OK, I may be obsessed but sometimes I can't help but wonder whether it is simply nerves or stupidity that makes players give their answers. Here's some examples:br /br /span style="font-style:italic;"Which D is the correct medical term for indigestion?/spanbr /span style="font-weight:bold;"Diarrhoea.br //spanbr /span style="font-style:italic;"Which vertebrae has a name that actually means hundred feet?br //spanspan style="font-weight:bold;"Giraffe.br //spanspan style="font-style:italic;"br /In the sentence "Joe washes his car", which word is the verb?/spanbr /span style="font-weight:bold;"I don't know.br //spanbr /Oh, chale!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-96265302441452587?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• February 03, 2009
• 22:00

  If the shoe fits

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  There's been a whole lot of political shoe talk in the past months. First, and notoriously, George Bush was attacked twice by a a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7782422.stm"journalist's shoes/a whilst visiting Iraq in December. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SYjDGVbpHfI/AAAAAAAAAaE/GNRiiFswHtc/s1600-h/bush+ducks.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 124px; height: 95px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SYjDGVbpHfI/AAAAAAAAAaE/GNRiiFswHtc/s320/bush+ducks.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298699475201105394" //abr /Then the guy who threw the shoe is a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/01/29/2009-01-29_saddams_hometown_unveils_statue_dedicate.html"honoured with...a statue of a shoe/a! br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SYjDGduRu4I/AAAAAAAAAaM/WP_MDydrV2I/s1600-h/bush+shoe.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SYjDGduRu4I/AAAAAAAAAaM/WP_MDydrV2I/s320/bush+shoe.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298699477426748290" //abr /But only a few days later, the honorary shoe is a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_iraq_shoe_sculpture"removed/a as it is considered offensive by the Iraqi government. Now you didn't think that was the last time I'd mention 'shoe' today? Nooo, the latest news is that the shoe throwing trend has flown all the way to Europe!br /br /A protester threw a a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/4437385/Shoe-thrown-at-Chinese-Prime-Minister.html"shoe at the Chinese Prime Minister/a whilst he visited Cambridge University yesterday. Fortunately/unfortunately he was not as precise a thrower as the Iraqi journalist. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SYjDGt2koAI/AAAAAAAAAaU/OE0GLjG3484/s1600-h/chinese+pms+shoe.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 120px; height: 91px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SYjDGt2koAI/AAAAAAAAAaU/OE0GLjG3484/s320/chinese+pms+shoe.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298699481756508162" //abr /I watched the news and couldn't help but wonder and dread, how long before we'll have to take off our shoes EVERYWHERE we go as they clearly are the most potent political weapon, the next public enemy number 1, just as 'communists', 'terrorists', and 'weapons of mass destruction' have been in the past?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-329599648536612708?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• January 30, 2009
• 18:38

  Feeling hot, hot, hot!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Today I vex, paa (translation: today I am very, very angry). Well actually since last night. I know I should be used to it by now, but there is no way I'll get used to life without electricity. All day yesterday, the lights went on and off, then just before midnight, they went off and didn't come back until 18:00 today! I don't even want to think of all the food I'll have to throw out as it's spoilt by now. And let's just put it this way: I never really, erm, span style="font-style:italic;"appreciated/span just how hot Labone is compared to Tema, until I tried spending a night here without AC or a fan. (In Tema I always slept with the natural breeze coming from the windows, only once in a while with the assistance of a desk fan at the lowest speed).br /br /It is that heat I can thank for my all-day migraine, which shows no signs of leaving me. I would blame it all on the ECG, but I have to say I am slightly impressed by the staff at ECG. At first I was just mad at them as I couldn't get through on their phone line (this is always the case when they cause a power-cut), but when I did get through, both yesterday and today, they gave me very accurate and truthful answers so I knew exactly what to expect.br /br /Either way, I'm about to turn off the laptop, turn off the lights and try to sleep off this migraine. Hope your weekend is off to a better start!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7313137351736358184?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• January 28, 2009
• 22:09

  Job seeking in Accra?

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Look no further! It seems in the past 36 hours I've managed to turn myself into a recruitment consultant, and quite a succesful one as well! It started with my cousin needing a person with very specific qualifications for a part-time job, the details of which almost exactly fitted what a friend had said she was looking for in a job. So I set the two of them up for a fruitful meeting yesterday.br /br /Earlier today, another cousin (I have many, many!) needed someone for a project and of course there was a friend I knew would be available and competent to do the job. A few minutes later, a friend needed to help his friend cover a legal position I'd had to turn down a few months ago as it would get in the way of my biggest project. I made two calls and voila! I sorted out my classmate with a potential dream job in a field he wanted more expertise in. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SYDauDxMq3I/AAAAAAAAAZ8/eKwqtdl1qEU/s1600-h/recruitment.gif"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 230px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SYDauDxMq3I/AAAAAAAAAZ8/eKwqtdl1qEU/s320/recruitment.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296473646608198514" //abr /span style="font-style:italic;"Cartoon borrowed from a href="http://www.24hourtrading.co.uk/blog/is-university-a-cop-out-221/"Gordon Institute of Business Studies/a/spanbr /br /OK, so no papers have been signed, no employment agreements finalised but I have made three employers and three potential employees very happy. It feels a bit like being Santa Claus, only getting good jobs and good workers is probably more rewarding to the people than using the crap we're sometimes given as presents at Christmas!br /br /Oh no. I take back the last statement. After all I don't want to be present-less next Christmas...div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2642301177695657479?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• January 27, 2009
• 23:05

  Obama vs. AL Jazeera

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Isn't it funny that just after writing about Al Jazeera, the station is under speculation as CNN ponders over a href="http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/27/obama-showcased-and-snubbed/"Obama snubbing them by choosing Al Arabyia/a for his first interview, and Al Jazeera snubbing Obama back by not reporting his statement at all! From the reports, it seems Al Jazeera is perceived differently here (or by me?) than by the U.S. (or CNN?). After all, after watching Al Jazeera for the past few years on Metro and DSTV, I find it as westernised a station as BBC and CNN. But CNN speaks of the station as still seen as radical, or possibly just the leading station from that region.br /br /Today I said a sad goodbye. For a few days each year we have a lovely reunion. It's all cool, straight and shining glory. I enjoy it so much, I forget to capture the brief moments by taking pictures, forgetting these days will soon be over. Then this morning I woke up, felt a bit of volume on my head. As I tried straightening my hair before my morning meeting and watched it curl up a few minutes later, I knew our time in 2009 was already over. Those first few dry, un-humid days as Harmattan enters Accra, have come to an end, and we look ahead to another 360 days of humidity before it comes again. For me this means a trip to Auntie Alice hair salon in the next few days, to cornrow my head of unruly hair. I am just so glad I managed to flash my sleek, straight, shiny hair at Captain Hooks on Saturday!br /br /Having natural hair in Ghana? Enye easy koraa!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-3678117713992079864?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• January 25, 2009
• 19:09

  The cheap African life?

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Al Jazeera features a report on Zimbabwe about the “Zimdollar” and how ever since shops were allowed to accept foreign currency, nobody is willing to receive the local currency. However, because they’re accepting foreign currency, at least the shops that were empty a few months ago are now busy again. Then the reporter, Haru Mutasa suddenly looks grim. “It’s not all good news though” she says. Even though people are shopping again, you now have to pay $10 for a kilo of meat, $6 for a crate of eggs and as much as $1 for a loaf of bread! In other words people are paying two to three times more what would be paid in the US.br /br /Eeeeh? Suddenly I feel very stupid paying a good $6-7 dollars/kilo for meat at Koala, about $5 for a crate of eggs and $2 for a loaf of bread! Is it time we also start making noise about the cost of food in supermarkets in Ghana? I can’t help but wonder if we in Ghana are complacently accepting the prices imposed on us by the supermarkets, as they’re not far off the “result of the economical crisis” in Zimbabwe. br /br /Or is this simply (more likely) just another example of people in the West not realising how expensive life in Africa can be (I purposely say “can be” as I’d probably get the eggs cheaper at Agbobloshie market, but the report featured a supermarket, not a market so I feel the comparison is just)? After all, many ex-pats, friends and family do come to Ghana with the notion that £10 will last ten times longer than in England. They soon get a shocking reality check when their tenner just about covers their entrance fee at Rhapsody’s or buys the basic goods at Shoprite! Either way I feel like letting Haru Mutasa come to Ghana and see for herself, so that she’ll understand if her report doesn’t get such a sensational reaction in Africa as it does elsewhere.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7266752506980678764?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• January 24, 2009
• 8:12

  Radioactive woman

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  For the past few weeks, or month I have had a recurring headache. It comes with a bang and lasts just a few minutes and it's always localised, just at the entrance of my right ear, just above the earlobe. I've been wondering what could have caused it and just this morning I thought of the fact that I always speak on the phone on that ear (and no, I don't have fancy bluetooth, nor the patience to untangle my handsfree every time there is a call).br /br /Suddenly I was reminded of all the radiation we expose ourselves to without knowing the damage. Because really, how much can scientists tell us? Some claim using the mobile phone at an angle reduces the radiation to a fraction, some say Bluetooth and handsfree are safe while others say it's actually worse as the radiation is going straight into our ears. I say it's too early to trust anyone. After all, we've only been using these electronics for a few decades. br /br /Take a quick trip down memory lane and you'll realise that back in the eighties, the only digital sunlight we received in our homes was from our digital clockradio. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SXrSzm_Q-nI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/wudriELRLRU/s1600-h/clockradio.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 100px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SXrSzm_Q-nI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/wudriELRLRU/s320/clockradio.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294776096008501874" //abr /I remember in 1988 when Annika and I were the first in our class to get microwave ovens. How many of us didn't stand in front of them watching the microwaves cook our food in seconds? Even remotes weren't in full use until the late eighties/early nineties (I know this as I bitterly remember it being the duty of the youngest person present to change the channel from Kanal 1 to TV2 on our big, white Torn TV).br /br /Today we surround ourselves with wonders of the digital, wireless world. We cook in our microwaves, talk on our cordless phones and mobiles, work (read blog and stay on Facebok) on our laptops and browse oaway on our wireless networks without considering for a second how that wireless network surrounding our homes is affecting our health. (Although, living close to the area known as La Wireless Area and hearing of the many cases of cancer that occurred there ahs made me a bit more aware of the dangers.)br /br /Could it be time to get back to basics for a bit? Plug the cord-led phone back in, turn off the wireless and start using the broadband cord, cook on the stove, put on a vinyl record and wonder if life was actually half-bad just two decades ago.br /br /On that note of "gloom and doom, we're all gonna die!", have a good weekend!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-1451400764763452226?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• January 22, 2009
• 11:25

  This time...

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Ages ago I planned to chronicle the year that just passed but never got the chance to do it. Besides, if I did, it would probably end up being a ten page account as so many things happened in 2008. However, I feel something must be documented in cyberform after Virgo reminded me two days ago that the African Cup of Nations had started exactly a year earlier. I was immediately struck by the conflicting thoughts of "how can it already be a year?" and "but it seems soooo long ago!".br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SXhhx_esk5I/AAAAAAAAAZc/51emi-d-Ogo/s1600-h/can2008.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SXhhx_esk5I/AAAAAAAAAZc/51emi-d-Ogo/s320/can2008.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294088873455686546" //abr /br /This time last year, between drafting agreements and other stuff at the lawfirm, my fellow colleagues and I (including a certain a href="http://antirhythm.blogspot.com"Poet/a) would be texting any possible contacts for tickets to the next game, rushing to finish up work by 2.30 to be able to start walking to the Ohene Djan Stadium along with a whole load of other people in our business district.br /br /This time last year, I had one niece who had just turned four years old. My now five year and one day old niece now has a little brother and a little cousin, with another cousin joining them in a few months time.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SXhhxpqOWJI/AAAAAAAAAZU/QA-fyKNXmkU/s1600-h/bebisar.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 166px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SXhhxpqOWJI/AAAAAAAAAZU/QA-fyKNXmkU/s320/bebisar.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294088867598456978" //abr /br /This time last year, I was, as mentioned, working for the law firm, still doing my pupillage. Now, I work for what will hopefully one day be a major corporation, managing and structuring the business, often working from home in my own time and finding time to do independent legal work on the side.br /br /This time last year, there was hardly any political buzz in Ghana, and yet now we have a new president and a new party in power. Rather, at the law firm, we'd frequently discuss how the hotshot Obama was actually faring quite well against Hillary and may give her serious competition. Could any of us have imagined that a year later we'd be witnessing the inauguration of President Barack Obama?br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SXhhxxY8HyI/AAAAAAAAAZk/Md34qJeioWw/s1600-h/obama.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 135px; height: 76px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SXhhxxY8HyI/AAAAAAAAAZk/Md34qJeioWw/s320/obama.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294088869673443106" //abr /br /This time last year I was in a relationship but living with my lovely mother at the centre of the world (that's Tema of course!). Now I am a "newly" married woman living in the heart of Accra, somewhat missing the fresh breeze and cooler air of Tema, but definitely not the commute!br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SXhhyA8oB3I/AAAAAAAAAZs/JKoiKTcEND0/s1600-h/ringbyte.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 133px; height: 127px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SXhhyA8oB3I/AAAAAAAAAZs/JKoiKTcEND0/s320/ringbyte.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294088873849653106" //abr /br /Friends' babies have been born, beautiful, important people have passed, there have been marriages and career changes all around me. What a year it's been!br /br /And you know what? It seems life will only get better in 2009!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7240162641828269160?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• January 13, 2009
• 22:12

  Lights Out!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  No, I am not bed-ridden as a result of my candy overdose, I just haven't blogged for various reasons. br /br /It started with me focusing on work and, erm, social commitments. Then span style="font-style:italic;"somebody/span ( I won't mention any names, as all fingers point at me, myself and I!) forgot to put credit on our prepaid electricity card, which ran out...on Saturday, early evening. After our only re-chargeable lamp, which the same span style="font-style:italic;"somebody/span has been using as a beside lamp since span style="font-style:italic;"somebody/span dropped and broke the original bedside lamp (damn, I hate not having anyone to blame!), died out after 40 minutes, I had to force myself to try and sleep as there was nothing else to do and I was too hot to even consider lighting candles.br /br /Since Virgo had appointments all of Sunday and knowing we could only load the electricity card on Monday morning, I escaped to my dear Tema, land of constantly flowing water and electricity (well in my community anyway), prepared with my laptop, rechargeable lamp, mobile phone charger, etc. After basking in the glow from the TV, the wind from the fan, the sound of the microwave, I tell you, it's amazing what 12 hours without electricity can do to you, my joy suddenly came to a halt when: LIGHTS OUT! br /br /My mum claims I brought bad luck with me, to my objections that "lights out is not contagious!", although even I was surprised as Community 10 has a good track record usually. Still managed to have a lovely day of reading, napping and a long walk in Community 10, 11 and 6 before heading to the Mall to watch Yes Man with Virgo. We had both decided to stay away from our dark home as long as possible. br /br /Monday morning, I rushed to charge the ECG (Electricity Corporation of Ghana) card, blasted the AC, turned on the laptop, and the TV, but after an hour it was all taken away from me again, lights out! This seemed to mess up the internet (or was it just Broadband4u misbehaving?) a bit as well as it was slow and disfunctional all day.br /br /Anyway, making a very short story really, really long, what I wanted to say was, lights out and internet problems are the reasons I haven't blogged for almost a week, but now I am actually beginning to enjoy it. Most bloggers took a break over Christmas and elections, I didn't, but I think the break may be necessary to enable us come back with fresh minds and more stories to tell. So I may be away for a few more days. In the meantime take the opportunity to go see Australia, it is such a beautiful movie and a must for any Baz Luhrman fan (think Moulin Rouge).br /br /Peace out!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-5259370211379393118?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• January 07, 2009
• 18:37

  You are the weakest link. Goodbye!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Mae West once said: Too much of a good thing can be wonderful. This is a quote I have often lived by, but today I've seen the bad side of it. After scoffing my face with sweets that my dear fellow Ghana Swede brought me from the cold land up north, I now feel quite nauseous and at the same time astonished that as human beings we never learn. How could I not realise after the third handful that I ought to stop? So now, before I head to Monsoon for Sushi, I'll have to jump about a bit to digest the gelatin, colourings and other additives that are rolling around in my tummy.br /br /In the mean time I'll leave you with some of the wickedness Ann Robinson spouts out on the Weakest Link, which has become a favourite of mine when I manage to watch. Apart from reminding me of my London days and keeping me up to date on my general knowledge it provides me with laugh-out-loud moments, as I squeal (and sometimes bury my head in shame) over Ann Robinson's remarks. Here's two examples:br /br /-So you're a housewife? Too lazy to get a job? br /br /- Paul, what do you do?br /- I'm a charity fundraiser.br /- Oh, a professional beggar!br /span style="font-style:italic;"br /(Of course it soooo much funnier when you see it in the moment!)/spanbr /br /I can only wonder how Ann and the show would manage in Ghana. I can imagine the response many times being: "Kweh, what do you mean by that?! As for you you are too known!"div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-4704041223858086157?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• January 05, 2009
• 20:06

  Boobs, fat and fuel

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  It's amazing what you find when looking for links on the internet. I was looking for more links to celebrities who've lost their children. After all, John Travolta lost his son last week and Mia Farrow lost her adult daughter. Here in Ghana, a known member of society lost his 3.5 year old daughter after she tragically died in La Palm's swimming pool. (Apparently she somehow got into the adult pool which is not monitored by lifeguards). Could there be anything worse than experiencing the death of your child? I think not.br /br /Any way, whilst browsing the world wide web for more details I first came across a story of outrage against facebook for banning pictures of babies being breastfed. Naturally, as a woman, and someone who sees nothing wrong in breastfeeding in public (despite whatever a href="http://mayasearth.blogspot.com/2008/07/boob-juice.html"I may have written before/a!), I understand the upset people are feeling over these pictures being likened to pornography. However, after taking a peek at the facebook group "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!(Official petition to Facebook)", my only question is why you would take, no, publish a picture of your baby being fed? Is it a matter of that being the only moment you catch him/her awake, or simply wanting to catch the moment and share it with friends and family? Only asking as most mothers I know feel a bit exposed whilst breastfeeding and I can't imagine them wanting to have their picture shared on facebook.br /br /HOWEVER, what really intrigued me was the story of the a href="http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24847783-5013016,00.html"doctor who took the fat from patients he had performed liposuction on and turned it into biodiesel/a for his and his girlfriend's cars! Surely this man is an ecological genius, no? Rather he has fled to South America as his practices were against California law. At first I thought, 'what a shame' as I am all for recycling, but after learning that his girlfriend performed some surgeries (without a medical licence!) and took out too much fat, I can see why it would be risky for him to gain from what he was taking out of the patients. After all, the way petrol prices used to go up, we'd all be tempted to steal a bit more fat from our would-be patients to keep our expenses down! Still, the avid recycler in me feels he was really on to something. br /br /What do you think?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-499199050845309237?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• January 04, 2009
• 22:53

  Underneath our beautifully peaceful veil...

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  I write with mixed emotions. Had a wonderful afternoon, spent it watching "Unhappy wives Confused husbands" at the National Theatre. It's a comedy play by James Ebo Whyte, about relationships and we all had several good laughs. It's so nice to find cultural Ghanaian activities, I hope we get more of that in 2009! Our only regret was that we made it a girl's outing as we all agreed our partners could have learnt quite a bit about relationships from the play.br /br /Came home and as I was preparing for the first proper working week of the year, Virgo got a call informing him that an NPP supporter has been murdered by NDC supporters today. How tragic! Where the need for members of the winning party to impose violence and death on those of us who lost?br /br /I have thought long and hard about covering this issue in the blog, but decided not to, especially after seeing the seemingly peaceful celebrations in town yesterday. But I feel it must be mentioned: the fact that we are somewhat held hostage by the fear of potential violence by NDC members. I am not in any way claiming that this is violence condoned by the NDC party itself, but it is well-known that had NPP won, it would not have been 'accepted' by their members, whatever the implications of not 'accepting' are. IN fact, the majority of NPP supporters were relieved when we heard the results yesterday as we knew the only way we'd have peace in Ghana would be if we lost.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SWH_9XivDBI/AAAAAAAAAZM/fF5MiPEmBA0/s1600-h/dr_ohene.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 280px; height: 273px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SWH_9XivDBI/AAAAAAAAAZM/fF5MiPEmBA0/s320/dr_ohene.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287788867266481170" //abr /span style="font-style:italic;"Dr. Ohene, who was a polling agent in the Volta Region, is still alive, with one eye almost ripped out./spanbr /Since run-off last Sunday I have found it very sad that we have been unable to see a single NPP flag or sticker on a car, while NDC flags and stickers are displayed all over vehicles, everywhere. Among friends, we've laughed at the fact that we deciphred the code of the Ghana flag. If you look around I can assure you that every car you see with a Ghana flag is hiding an NPP supporter who knows that were he to display his party associations, he is putting himself at risk of having his windows smashed in. Meanwhile NDC flags are riding high on their supporters' cars, as it should be!br /br /I hope I don't regret writing about this, as I like to keep politics out of the blog, especially when written from a partisan angle, but with the very fresh memory of three NPP polling agents murdered in the Volta Region last Sunday and what happened today, I felt the issue could not be ignored. Hopefully nothing of this nature will happen again and we can continue seeing happy celebrations from the NDC and good 'losership' from the NPP.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-1195781457317481540?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• January 03, 2009
• 13:34

  We have a winner!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SV9sksMW0eI/AAAAAAAAAZE/FDhsGM6CtzE/s1600-h/mills.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 76px; height: 117px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SV9sksMW0eI/AAAAAAAAAZE/FDhsGM6CtzE/s320/mills.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287063865150329314" //abr /Never say die, they say. Atta Mills has proven it's true. After contending the presidency over and over again, against all odds, with rumours of near-death illness, he is now Ghana's president elect and will be sworn in on Wednesday, 7th January. I look forward to seeing a smooth handing over from Kuffour's government to Atta Mills. Let us hope we can continue to proudly hold our heads high as Ghanaians, as leading the way for political peace in Africa.br /br /Meanwhile, here in Labone, the roar of joy as the Electoral Commission announced Atta Mills the president elect, was so loud that even those of us who were nowhere near a phone, radio or TV (I was in the kitchen washing dishes) knew the exact moment this ocurred. I hear NDC supporters have taken to the streets all over the country, rejoicing their victory. For now it has been reported as peaceful celebrations throughout. Sources tell me that in the Central Region, NDC supporters have dressed up in NPP's colours (red, white and blue) and are marching throught the streets weeping, some holding coffins draped in NPP colours with Akufo-Addo written on them. I had to laugh at this fantastically theatrical manner in which they are celebrating (although the coffins are a bit creepy)!br /br /Well, for me the best way to admit defeat is to celebrate in denial. Still recovering from sleep deprivation after a party at Headlines yesterday, I'm about to head out of Accra for my first 2009 barbecue, before heading to an all weekend birthday party in Roman Ridge this evening.br /br /Enjoy your Saturday, after all, it marks the official end to the ridiculously long 2008/2009 elections!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2395554712110104716?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• December 30, 2008
• 20:52

  Third time lucky?

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Well, who would have thought? Firstly, that the 7th December elections wouldn't result in a clear winner, but more surprisingly secondly, that the 28th December elections wouldn't result in a winner! Surely the 2nd January elections in the Tain constituency ought to give us a new president of Ghana, right? After all they say third time's a charm.br /br /And by the looks of it, it will be third time lucky for Atta Mills as well, after all it will take more than the extraordinary for my dear party to turn things around now. Then again, I think we're beginning to realise that the 2008 Ghana elections are all about surprises...div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-699426297934829158?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• December 29, 2008
• 8:30

  Counting, collating, waiting...

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Another busy Sunday, to think we've had to go through two national elections in three weeks! br /br /After hearing news yesterday of fights, riots, beatings of NDC officials in Ashanti region, beatings of NPP officials in Volta region and even an ear slashed off in Tamale, I began to wonder whether we are as peaceful a nation as we claim. Over all though, it seems we've had a peaceful election day.br /br /And now, once again, we are counting and calculating, trying to figure out the final result. As it is now, it looks like we can already tell who the winner is. Will be very interesting to see how this will affect the country, in the next few days, and the four years to come.br /br /I just hope they found the slashed off part of the Tamale man's ear, which they were still looking for yesterday evening!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-1372864603972282809?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• December 27, 2008
• 19:17

  One year anniversary

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  Is it one year already?br /br /It seems so long ago and yet time has passed so quickly since the beautiful lady of politics with her head loosely wrapped in a white scarf was a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2228796.stm"assasinated a year ago/a. I remember how my heart leapt when I heard the news, only to be followed by the fascination that I'd reacted so strongly to the death of a person I had never met, nor envisioned meeting. But of course, there are not many fierce, headstrong and persistent women that we have as role models, especially as political leaders of countries of political instability, like Pakistan, so this unique woman was bound to affect us.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SVaDNnHafyI/AAAAAAAAAY8/gDMe2y9xR5Y/s1600-h/benazir.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 94px; height: 128px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SVaDNnHafyI/AAAAAAAAAY8/gDMe2y9xR5Y/s320/benazir.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284555482627473186" //abr /Even as a child, in another part of the world, I remember recognising the strength of Benazir Bhutto and I hope her memory lives on to encourage the children of today, especially those to become women, all over the world to continue bravely fighting injustices.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-2838688489063165340?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• 17:25

  So this is Christmas

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  It's been a nice quiet Christmas and I have achieved my Christmas present to myself - not getting stuck in any of the traffic! In the past three days I have only driven between Labone, Osu and Cantonments and I wouldn't wish to have it any other way!br /br /Our Christmas Eve dinner was a complete success! With an uncle, cousin a few friends, my mum and Virgo present, we managed to devour a julbord likened to any one found in Sweden. We had meatballs, prinskorvar (sausages), mustard roasted ham, Janssons frestelse (traditional Christmas potato gratin), pickled herring in different sauces, egghalves with a seafood mayo mix on top, smoked salmon, beetroot salad and some bread and Swedish cheese on the side. br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SVZpwmypC9I/AAAAAAAAAY0/1qsM5uHHGLI/s1600-h/julbord.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SVZpwmypC9I/AAAAAAAAAY0/1qsM5uHHGLI/s320/julbord.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284527496533445586" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SVZpwuVxWyI/AAAAAAAAAYs/UweiPB257Ms/s1600-h/janssons.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 94px; height: 150px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SVZpwuVxWyI/AAAAAAAAAYs/UweiPB257Ms/s320/janssons.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284527498559839010" //abr /This was of course followed by mulled wine with saffron rolls, gingerbread, soft ginger cake and sweets. In the evening my mum and I sat down to watch a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083922/"Fanny Alexander/a, a Swedish Christmas classic, but as the movie is several hours long, we only managed to watch about half of it and will probably watch the second half tomorrow.br /br /Christmas Day was a continued food fest from a full breakfast of varieties, lunch at my cousin's house and a late, late (midnight!) dinner of roast potato chicken and stuffing prepared by moi.br /br /Unfortunately, turning on the TV yesterday brought me back to the realisation that we are about to go into another election, meaning it was all campaigning, campaigning, campaigning. I hope in a week's time we'll be in an equally peaceful Ghana as now, having selected a new president in a fair electon and counting process.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-7790271676283419989?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• December 24, 2008
• 23:07

  From me to you

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  As I sit up, waiting for Virgo to get back from a political meeting (yes, at this hour on Christmas Eve, then again, he made it for lunch so I can't blame him), I'm loving the sounds of the a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsuXbkrA_AQ"UK Christmas number one/a and thought I'd be generous enough to give you a Christmas recipe as my Credit Crunch savvy gift to you all.br /span style="font-weight:bold;"br /Mulled Wine/span (a jug full)br /br /2 liters red winebr /20-30 clovesbr /1-2 tablespoons cinnamonbr /heaped tablespoon of grated gingerbr /100 ml sugarbr /br /Put the wine in a pan to boil. Grind/crush the whole cloves as fine as possible using a pestle and mortar (note: NOT what is used to pound fufu!).br /Add the cloves, cinnamon, ginger and sugar to the wine and bring to boil.br /Leave to simmer for at least ten minutes. Add any extra spices as necessary to create what you consider the best tasting mulled wine.br /br /Non-alcoholic version: use red grape juice instead of wine. Halve, or completely leave out the sugar. Simmer for at least 20 minutes and add spices as necessary.br /Serve in small cups with raisins or almonds as optional toppings to be sprinkled into the drink to add further flavour.br /br /Bon appetit!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/4913928809714336337-5646457488171169374?l=mayasearth.blogspot.com'//div
• December 23, 2008
• 22:01

  The night before Christmas

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  I made the best decision this weekend: I decided to go to Ridge Church's carols night, even though I had no one to go with. It may sound trivial but I blame my Swedish upbringing, it takes a lot for me to get up and go somewhere without anyone accompanying me, in London I could never understand (but I did admire) my housemate Miss Valentine who'd easily go to the movies by herself.br /br /Anyway, as usual I digress! The reason it was a good decision? It wiped away all my 'the EC/credit crunch stole Christmas' bitterness and re-vitalised my usual Christmas spirit. So yesterday I met my uncle at the airport to pick up the Swedish goodies my dad had sent with him. I've also managed to stock up on gas (for the cooker), water, drinks and food for the holiday season, while still trying to get some work done. This evening has been spent brewing mulled wine and baking lussekatter (saffron rolls) and soft gingerbread cake (and of course tasting them too). br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SVFlDVfI6EI/AAAAAAAAAYk/PketYmjGO80/s1600-h/julbak.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SVFlDVfI6EI/AAAAAAAAAYk/PketYmjGO80/s320/julbak.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283114945864067138" //abr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SVFkOsLfNAI/AAAAAAAAAYc/dYlNcd2Xa8M/s1600-h/dan+fore+dan.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OJ1RbQpOtnE/SVFkOsLfNAI/AAAAAAAAAYc/dYlNcd2Xa8M/s320/dan+fore+dan.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283114041422590978" //abr /Tomorrow morning, we'll start early, rolling meatballs, cooking the ham, etcetera, etcetera. Oh did I forget to mention that in Sweden we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve?br /br /And naturally, growing up in a Ghanaian family, I get the best of both worlds, with Julbord- the Swedish Christmas feast on Christmas Eve, then Turkey, stuffing and all the rest on Christmas day. br /br /Best of all, and unexpectedly, the 28 December elections has created the perfect solemn mood for a simple, quiet family celebration, the way I love spending Christmas. Now I'm just hoping the politicians decide to cool it for a bit so that Virgo manages to join us in our first Christmas in our common home (last year's was spent having delicious dinner at Fiesta Royale, really recommend it, although very expensive).br /br /Merry Christmas to you all!!!br /span style="font-style:italic;"br /P.S. I promise to document our Ghanaian-Swedish julbord...if I remember to take pictures!/span
• December 22, 2008
• 23:29

  Please do not urinate here!

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  One of the most embarassing things about many Ghanaians or Accraians is that they seem to have embraced public urination. Bloggers before me have written about this phenomenon, fascinated at the skilled techniques used to perfect this action. I think we've all been visually abused by seeing people empty their bladders any and everywhere. Please note however that this act tends to be restricted to certain groups of society, it seems for every one person who does it, there are two who disapprove.br /br /As a newcomer in Ghana the signs one reacts to are the 'please do not urinate here' signs, in addition to other common ones like 'no taxis allowed'. But today I heard the best story of what goes around comes around and if we spread this story perhaps the public urination will finally end.br /br /A (Ghanaian) man living in the States started feeling a bit...desperate. He stopped at the roadside and decide to whip it out and have a pee. However, a police car saw him and pulled over to detain him. After a bit of questioning they asked for his papers and lo and behold: he was in the States illegally! So now he is on his way back to Ghana after being deported. Please oh please can we find this man and have him lecture on the fact that charity begins at home. br /br /If you don't stop peeing all over the walls of Accra, you'll end up pissing your way out of the land of opportunity!
• December 20, 2008
• 20:04

  December weekend

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  I just found out a secret and I am so excited. A very near and dear person to me is coming to town in the next few days! The reason it's a surprise is because she's not telling her dad but will rather show up at his doorstep (Dear God, please don't let her shock him too much!). The added advantage for me is I'll be getting my lush Reese's peanut butter cups, American magazines and a few other bits and pieces, which she slyly told me she'd send in a parcel.br /br /Other than this great news, yesterday was spent at Silverbird Cinema in the Accra Mall. We saw The Day the Earth stood Still. Let's just say, it was of the same quality as Keanu Reeves' other movies, excluding the Matrix ones, if you get my drift. After that we stopped for a brief drink at Rhapsody's and if yesterday is anything to go by, they start charging the ridiculous entrance fee at 11pm so we made it just in time at 22:50!br /br /In true Ghana December style, I have spent today at a wedding I wasn't officially invited to (went as my mum's plus one), which started off with a service at Ridge Churc and then reception at Lababdi Beach Hotel. The decor at the reception was lovely, the couple beautiful and I guess it all went as they'd planned, including the ridiulous wedding poses they stood for for photos. Oh dear, it all took me back to some very cheesy photos I saw at a wedding fair in Croyson several years ago.br /br /Now we're off to the National Theatre for a Night of 1007 laughs. Have a good Saturday!
• December 19, 2008
• 9:58

  Two years ago...

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  As we're having breakfast this morning with a TV-movie playing in the background, what happens in the movie suddenly reminds me of what day it is today. Two years ago today, my dear family member, playmate and comforter passed away. Passed away I say, really she was put down, a decision made by the whole family. What a difficult decision to make!br /br /Before owning a pet of my own, I belonged to the group of people who could not understand people crying over their dead pets, after all it's just an animal. But once you own one yourself and watch it become a part of your family, seeing it as "just an animal" becomes a very distant thought. br /br /With us, all bad things happened to F around Christmas and New Year. First there was the car accident, when she was hit after one of the snowballs we were throwing in the garden flew out on to the road and she followed it, at merely four months old. Then there was the hysterectomy a few years later. And two years ago, after being told by the vet that keeping her alive would be considered torture as her internal organs were failing due to old age, she didn't even make it to Christmas.br /br /Making that decision, whilst half of the family was in Ghana was the most difficult. Out of our own selfishness, we wanted to keep her alive til we could go and see her one last time, but realised it would not be fair on her. In the end, Mr. T called us before going in to Bla Stjarnans Animal hospital and once again 30 minutes later when the 'procedure' was over to let us know how it went. Being in Ghana made it all the harder. Who's going to understand when you say "I'm feeling really low because my dog, my family member of thirteen years has just died". Instead we spent the days until Christmas at home, trying to reminisce amongst ourselves of the great times we'd had with her.br /br /Having F in the family for thirteen years has affected my life in so many ways, despite the fact I lived in another country for 6 of those years. To this day I think leftovers will be saved for "the dog" then remind myself I don't have one. Anytime I'm sad or crying, I expect to see F come to me with big sad brown eyes wondering why I'm not happy and putting her head in my lap until I feel better. Or I remember, when we're all very happy (usually after a football game) and rejoicing, how she'd come and jump around in the middle, making sure she didn't miss out on any of the fun. br /br /My beautiful half-labrador/half-golden retriever is gone for good and as far as I am concerned, I'll never have a pet again. It is such a wonderful experience but the sadness once it's gone is too much, and the need to supress that sadness makes the mourning so much worse. br /br /span style="font-style:italic;"For the joys of having a dog, read this a href="http://decla.blogspot.com/2008/11/ten-things-i-have-learnt-from-my-dog.html"lovely post/a by a href="http://decla.blogspot.com/"Denise/a./span
• December 18, 2008
• 21:37

  Family Values

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  It seems the Christmas traffic is definitely in town. How could I really imagine that the credit crunch would keep the (Ghanaian) tourists away? Ah well, I guess it's only fun to have some fresh blood in town. Alhough many of us actually wince as we hear them squeal to each other "HI! Are you here?! Which flight were you on? I came with BA!", (often whilst wearing boots, inappropriate for December in Ghana), it does provide a bit of entertainment and variation to every day life in Ghana. Us returnees listen to them and turn to each other saying "Please tell me I didn't behave like that a few years ago?". Funny how quickly you become a local, isn't it!br /br /I'm avoiding the whole rush this year as it's tinted with the slight tension of the elections. Instead, I'm catching up with friends one-on-one in the comfort of my own home. After a veeeeery long appointment at the Rent Office this morning (I'm talking hours and hours) a dear friend came over for what turned into an equally long lunch/dinner. She left me with a cute story of her daughter's reaction to a bedtime story. br /br /As she told the story of a little Ghanaian girl who grew up to be a judge and lived happily ever after, her daughter replied: "But what about a husband and a family, mummy? Did she span style="font-style:italic;"only/span become a judge?br /br /Sweet huh? A six-year old who'll not only understand the importance of a career, but already sees the value of family in addition to it.
• December 15, 2008
• 18:00

  Christmas: View out of Ghana

   » ‎ Maya's earth
  In Sweden, as the year draws closer to Christmas, it gets darker and colder by the day. Naturally, the social life adapts as well. From being out and about in the summer, come Christmas time we mostly hang out at home, with a few candles lit in a cosy atmosphere. This is spiced up with occasional outings to julbord i.e. Chrismas smorgasbord (did you know smorgasbord is a Swedish word?), Lucia celebration and a movie premiere on Christmas Day. br /br /In Ghana, Christmas is very much the holiday season in every sense of the word. This is the time when Ghanaians living abroad come to visit, friends from other countries pass by, and most people get a few days off work. When better to be hanging out at bars around town, clubbing at Cinderellas or Monte Carlo and spending days at the beach, Bojo beach, Kokrobite or Labadi if you want to stay in town.br /br /For me, the best part of Christmas in Ghana is the lack of materialism. Nobody really talks about presents or expects them, except maybe those of us who beg for magazines, Mac products and Ferrero Rocher in exchange for guiding those who come to visit! However this year, I realised I will have to find presents for a few people: our house-help and the two kids who live with their father in the boys quarters. span style="font-style:italic;"(*Boys quarters = smaller house found on most compounds, built for housing house-help and in many modern cases turned into guest houses)/span. Isn’t it funny that the ones I’ll be buying gifts for fall quite low on the list of people I care for, but they’ll probably appreciate the gifts more than most of my nearest and dearest.br /br /Apart from the clubbing, beach-bumming and hotel-breakfasts, at Christmas time there’s always at least one super-duper expensive wedding to go to (usually a couple living “outside” who’ve come to Ghana to have the Hollywood wedding they could never afford abroad) and barbecues all over the place. I think on my busiest barbecue day I managed to make it to one in Nyaniba Estates, one in Legon and then quickly drive up to Aburi to make it to the end of the third one. Hard work, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!br /br /Is it me or do less people die around this time? Just don’t remember going to funerals at Christmas, they seem to have their own peak season around April (how morbid!). Either way, it suits me just fine as the season remains cheerful even though Christmas is hardly mentioned at all. The outsiders have come in with a cheery mood and pound sterling or green Franklins and us living here are just happy about our days off and a bit of extra action, together we blend to make one happy, social, partying crowd!br /br /Of course as mentioned earlier, thanks to the Grinch known as EC-CC (Electoral Commission-Credit Crunch), none of that will happen this year. Bitter? Me? Noooo!