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17:19
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Maya's earth
I feel a bit uneasy when I hear reports of the recent
Pakistan floods. Something is missing. At first I couldn’t pinpoint what it was then, as I heard the CNN reporter for the third time mention that Ban Ki-moon calls this the worst disaster he has seen, it hit me: there is no sympathy. It is being reported in the same sensationalist way you’d report a concert with a record number of viewers.
Whilst the reporter sent to China is crying (which cold-hearted Virgo and I both found very unprofessional), the reporter in Pakistan is speaking with an excitement that makes me uncomfortable. It seems I am not the only one who has noticed the unsympathetic reactions to this massive disaster, last night I briefly heard another report that was trying to investigate why we global citizens are not really reacting to these floods. One of the reasons mentioned was that the death toll is reasonably low (if I had stayed, it seemed they were to tell us this isn’t even true). Meanwhile in an
article urging us to make donations to Pakistan’s flood victims, the following is stated:
"The U.N. wants to spotlight the enormity of the disaster, which is bigger than the 2004 Asian tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, and this year's Haiti earthquake, yet has attracted far less in donations."
I think you, like me, might be surprised by this statement, especially considering the amount of support, attention, physical and financial donations and empathy that was given during the tsunami and the Haiti earthquake. It is shocking how little is being done to help this time around. From what I hear, 20% of Pakistan is under water. In a cruel twist of fate, the country being flooded has left many in desperate need of clean drinking water (don’t the powers that be have a twisted sense of humour?).
It’s time to push aside all prejudice about Pakistan as a country of terrorists, suicide bombers, or thoughts like ’they’re so used to suffering anyway’, ‘no whites/blacks/Christians are injured’, whatever it is that is blocking the outpouring of sympathy that would usually flow after a natural disaster. If you can, give, possibly to
Save the Children here, or if in Sweden, follow these instructions:
"Barn i Pakistan behöver vatten, medicin och skydd nu! Många dör varje dag. Du kan vara med och rädda liv för en liten slant. Smsa BARN till 72950 och ge 200 kr. Sänd gärna vidare! Mvh Rädda Barnen"
And of course, if cash no dey, a little prayer doesn't cost a thing!
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6:33
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Maya's earth
I've been feeling a bit down for the past few days, so down I haven't been able to write. Why? Since Sunday I've been under house arrest. No, this has nothing to do with my political convictions or profession, but rather I made the mistake of leaving my car key on the sofa. Saturday morning, in the corner of my eye, I caught Em playing with it and when I went to take it from her a few minutes later, it was nowhere to be found. We searched as much as we could that morning, but in order to make it to the Homowo celebrations (more on that later), we gave up. Em's car seat was in my car, but luckily, since one of the doors is a bit shifty, I was able to break my way in, unlock the car doors and get her seat out.
After a lovely Saturday that ended too late for key searching, I went to bed and woke up Sunday morning with new energy to look for the key. Every sofa cushion was turned over, I crawled around the floor looking underneath all the furniture, checked any boxes, bags, pots, ANYTHING, that this 17-month old is tall enough to reach into, including her new favourite toy: the toilet brush (nice). Removed all the shoes from the shoe rack and searched through each shoe, thoroughly. Anywhere I'd pass, I'd think 'could the key be here?'.
This routine (i.e. search the sofa, floor, shoes, boxes, etc.) continued on Monday and Tuesday. By Tuesday afternoon I had opened up and refolded all the laundry, checked unused cassette and VHS compartments, emptied all handbags and changing bag, before I finally gave up.
Then I thought, let me check the night stand one last time. On my way there i glanced at the bed and realised there was a tiny gap between the mattress and the bedframe. Need I say more? Of course, that is where I found the key to my teeny, tiny Tata! I swear, I can't remember the last time I felt so jump-up-and-down, screaming-at-the-top-of-my-voice happy!
Suddenly I could feel the joy I should have felt at noon after completing three agreements long before my deadlines. The key-finding energy lasted all the way til that evening, where I pushed away all tired feelings and headed onto the Tema Motorway for la Baselette's cosy birthday celebrations in Accra.
Although this morning I am still on a slight high, somehow I can't stop myself from looking around, for a key I have already found!
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17:58
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Maya's earth
Yesterday I had lunch at Smollenskys. I hadn't heard of the name until Afua started going on about it a few months ago, but apparently it's a known chain of bar/restaurants in London which has now arrived in our very own Accra. In Accra, you'll find it at the top of the Kosmos/ProCredit building, opposite Silver Star tower.
I went there with the Poetress and had already been told that there was no set menu, you basically request and see whether the kitchen can offer what you want. I had the seafood plate with veg (yes, I have finally banished most carbs so I rejected the potatoes, yam chips and rice that was offered). I got a mix of fish, squid and prawns, unfortunately served in a creamy sauce. Unfortunately, because I think the seafood flavours would have been better presented in a crisp stir fry or grill, but fortunately the creamy sauce was delicious! The Poetress also seemed to enjoy her tuna with half a portion of jollof and half yam chips.
It was refreshing to sit in a quiet, breezy rooftop joint, but of course, as soon as I uttered the words "what do they do when it rains?", it started drizzling!
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7:27
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Maya's earth
The other day I had some errands on the Spintex road. Seeing the traffic heading towards Tetteh Quarshie, I decided to drive all the way down the Spintex home to Tema. I'm glad I did. Not only did I catch that breathtaking view, as you turn the corner at the top of a little hill in Sakumono town, only to see the sea open up in front of you, with sand, palm trees and a bit of Tema harbour featuring on the left side.
I,
of course opened my window to catch a few gasps of fresh sea air; all salt, freshness and fish fused into a perfect blend. The biggest surprise was at the end of the beach stretch. Suddenly the few cars in front of me ground to a halt. Just as I was about to get impatient, it came: out of a tiny tunnel ahead of us was a train!
I could have pinched myself for not having a camera (I left it at home, but since it's gone dead it wouldn't have helped me anyway). I tried taking a mental photo, and if I had had pen and paper I could easily have drawn a picture of it for you, at the 'speed' it choo-chooed past us. Luckily I found one online instead (thank you
Ghana Business News!). Isn't it a beaut in its red, gold and green? And of course, there's a black star between every window!
Now, where does one go for a testride and how on earth do I stop singing
this song every time I think of it?
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13:14
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Maya's earth
In the past few days two things have had me in disgusted shock. First, a
blog post written by
the Poet. That is, before the shock released and I laughed til I cried (poor Em was consoling her mummy, not realising I wasn't actually sad).
Yesterday, however, I heard something even more shocking. As I was driving in Ringway Estates with Joy playing in the background, the news reader suddenly mentioned that
a man had recently found a g-string in his kenkey!
I don't know, my mind is filled with so many questions, how, why, whaaaaat?! But really and truly, I don't think I want an answer to any of my many queries (was the g-string new or old, clean or...worn, why and how were underwear and food so close to each other that they'd get mixed up, etc, etc), because each question just leads me to shudder more than the last.
I just thank my lucky stars most of my food is prepared at home and
kenkey happens to be one of the few Ghanaian dishes I don't eat.
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7:32
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Maya's earth
After three weeks of car-sharing, I finally got a new battery for my car and was off to run some errands. Of course before I'd even driven 200 metres, I realised both the road worthy and insurance had expired. Within three minutes I was stopped by a policeman. In the end he let me go after I, in a very bored voice explained that I was on my way to DVLA and the insurance company, but first of all the bank because I wasn't carrying any money, hint, hint (little did he know I actually had a few hundred cedis on me!).
On my way into Accra I tried calling my usual DVLA contacts but with no luck. See, I have to admit that despite driving a car for almost five years in Ghana, I have never done the road worthy myself. After hearing tales of people waiting for hours to get it done, I just didn't see the point of doing that myself. After several failed calls, it became clear that today, I had no way out. After my morning meeting, I headed towards 37, to the DVLA office.
So inexperienced was I that I drove past all the car inspection points, parked, got down and then asked an officer what I do. He looked quite amused, then probably took pity on me with Em in my arms, just in her nappy (she had poured water in her shorts) so he guided us step by step on how to get it done. Can you believe that within 25 minutes I was done? Then, little did I know, all the major insurance companies have agent offices next door, so within another ten minutes I had sorted out my insurance. Never again will I feel the need to call up my own 'agents' to sort me out!
Now, I can't decide whether to put up my new stickers or play the little trick a friend of mine, S, does: he leaves the expired stickers up, let's a policeman stop him (the policeman juicing at the idea of the hefty bribe he'll be able to take home). Then, just as the police man starts "Good morning, sir...", my friend slides his hand into the glove compartment and flashes him the valid insurance and road worthy! The most entertaining part is that the police officer is so unable to conceal his disappointment, he'll actually kiss his teeth before angrily waving him off!
I think I may have to try that for a few days...
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7:48
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Maya's earth
Days, weeks, months are flying by and I don't know if it's me, old age or 2010 that really is racing by? So many things happening at once but somehow in their own time. Last week started out filled with meetings, work, appointments and crisscrossing all over Accra. Of course the reward for that was getting stuck in the mother of all traffic at the end of the week, just making it in time to the doctor's before closing, only to be diagnosed with a respiratory infection (is that a fancy word for the flu?)
Spent the weekend resting, recovering and socialising. Halfway through recovery I managed another day of work, appointments and meetings yesterday. I was close to completing some very important work when I realised Em had a fever. So that meant pushing aside any feverish, drowsy feelings of my own, working hard last night and this morning, to finally be able to send of the important document by 10am. That way, I've been able to spend all day nursing my little darling who only wants to drink water, be carried by her mama and watch the
Fimbles.
(Image borrowed from
here)As I walk her up and down the corridor, hoping she'll fall asleep and sleep off her flu, I don't know whether it's my own flu or thoughts that are making me dizzy, trying to figure out how we are almost in August.
And when do mothers go on holiday???
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12:44
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Maya's earth
For almost three weeks we've been staying in Tema, and will probably be there for another couple of months whilst some issues are sorted out on our house. Of course the days before we were moving here, I continuously told Virgo of the virtues of living in Tema (as I have told you guys many times in this blog): The lack of traffic, constantly flowing water, good internet access and general organisation of the city.
Naturally, the forces that be decided to mess with me as soon as we got here. On the Sunday, whilst we were packing, I called the caretaker of the house and asked whether there have been power or water shortages since he moved in (six months ago). 'No, nothing' was his answer which I smugly conveyed to Virgo, then ordered for our water tanks and generator to go to storage.
We arrived Monday night around 7pm. I thought the water pressure seemed low and laughed, 'this means that they've turned off the water in some other community, don't worry, this is as bad as it gets'. An hour later the taps were dry. Bone dry. And we didn't have water for another 25 hours!
Friday night, the electricity went out and was off for four hours. In between that, we suffered with traffic sometimes almost half an hour just to get to the Ashiaman interchange toll booth. Needless to say, Virgo was enjoying mocking me, 'My Tema, my Tema' he'd squeak in a falsetto voice (it sounds nothing like me) any time we'd spend more time in traffic here than in Accra.
Still, all that was probably just to put me in my place for being so smug, because for the past week there's been no traffic any time we're heading out, water, internet and electricity are constantly working and this morning the mocker himself turned to me and said:
'You know what? Tema is actually a great place to live in. Once you pass Tetteh Quarshie, you just zoom down the motorway and you're home to everything you need'.
What can I say? Mission accomplished.
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10:27
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Maya's earth
So after a month of fun and excitement and only one topic of conversation, it seems we're back to reality. Goodbye to this:
And hello work deadlines, temporary move to Tema, cluelessly selecting nurseries for Em (aaahhh, my girl's all grown up already!) and lots of planning and strategising.
Well, at least we can entertain ourselves with the news that a certain celeb is coming to town. Yes, if rumours are to be believed,
Angelina Jolie lands in Accra tomorrow! Want a celebrity spotting? My best bet is to ignore Joy's tips on where she'll go, just hang around
Osu Children's Home long enough, surely she's not planning to leave Africa without another kid, lol!
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19:46
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Maya's earth
So it seems we've been kicked out of the big game. I have to say, I wouldn't have had us lose any other way, we fought til the last second of the game and we all know there's no way of telling which way penalties will go.
Directly afte the game Virgo spoke to an acquaintance who pointed out the only silver lining of losing - the streets will be safe. He'd driven out between extra time and penalties and had seen people standing on the top of moving vehicles ready to party away. If there's one thing Ghanaians are not, it is good winners. When we win, rejoicing (and drinking) takes over completely, cars can stop in the middle of fast moving traffic for the driver and passengers to get out and dance (believe me, I got stuck behind such a car during CAN 2008, and no, it's not as fun as it sounds).
Luckily, unlike our European counterparts, we are excellent losers. We take about thirty minutes to recover from shock and those are the thirty minutes within which we solemly make our way home. Once home, we realise, hey, life is still good, we had a good run and yes, it is good to be Ghanaian, and alas, the party can begin!
That's what I'm reading and hearing now, a facebook wall full of positive messages congratulating our Black Stars for a good tournament and outside the window, the closest drinking spot blasting music on the loudest volume. Usually I'd complain, but today I agree with the DJ as he just said "the party is just beginning!".
THANK YOU BLACK STARS!!!
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7:19
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Maya's earth
Already there's a lot of nailbiting and fidgeting going on before the Uruguay-Ghana game this evening. Luckily, Ghana has not only the whole of Africa backing the Black Stars, Anjali Rau just said "Ghana it is", endorsing CNN's support for Ghana. Everyone wants to see an African side win, right?! I've got my flag ready (I swear, it has magic powers, last time Gyan scored just after I hang it up on the wall), the Ghana decorated vuvuzela has been dusted off and I'll be playing this song (another quality Omanye production) for most of the day.
Gooooo Ghana!!!
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10:56
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Maya's earth
Sorry, it seems grief stole my blogging mojo, otherwise I'd have talked about the
football,
vuvuzelas, crown princess
Victoria's wedding and many other things. It doesn't help that so many things are going on right now, with a lot of uncertainties and no time to rest my head. I just thought I'd share a bit of what I've been working on and am very proud of. Hope you enjoy (and please let me have your comments, whether you like it or not)!
And here's hoping there'll be more time to blog in July.
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8:02
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Maya's earth
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20:50
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Maya's earth
My heart is shocked and saddened by the news that a friend and former colleague has died.
I'll be back soon.
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16:50
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Maya's earth
A few weeks ago, I was dialling my good old friend (well, if you see my phone bill that's what you'd think) ECG when I was informed that instead of dialling 021-611611 I ought to dial 0302-611611. Until then I hadn't heard about the fact that Vodafone was in the process of changing all local dialling codes, apparently to conform with international standards, despite the fact that they claim to have advertised it.
Why am I suddenly thinking of this? Well, this is the eve of the
Vodafone-020-whatever party, which I am reminded of every second by a certain facebook friend/event organiser who keeps bombarding the news feed with updates on the party.
Rather than feel "oh, I wish I could make it to the party", my thoughts are wandering off to the impact of this number change. (If you haven't heard yet, Accra's dial code is now 030-2 and Tema's is 030-3 instead of the old 021 and 022 respectively, and it seems every code in Ghana has changed except Takoradi's(well, from 031 to 031-20).
Here's the full list of new numbers). Imagine all the million business cards, websites, office stationery, adverts, company-branded vehicles, etc, etc that will have to be changed now that these numbers have been introduced! From what I hear (not confirmed by any authority) this number change is taking place over a three month period! I would have expected at least a year-long transition, especially considering the abovementioned expenses and the time it may take to pass on this news to personal and corporate relations abroad.
So, my
dear Vodafone, I'm seeing right through your 30/30 promotion and fancy party and instead worry more about the enormous cost to Ghanaian businesses if (this is Gh after all) they decide to refresh their contact information.
What's your take on this?
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3:45
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Maya's earth
Have you heard of the newcomer in town? Yes,
Virgin Atlantic will begin to fly between Accra and London (Heathrow) on Monday! I am very excited about this as I've never flown Virgin before but only heard good things about its service. Apparently starting offers were as low as £451 for a return economy flight and later these will cost about £850. Unfortunately I don't seem able to check from Accra on the
Virgin Atlantic website, but I'm sure they're office will be able to handle any queries.
After passing the building (which is kind of opposite the Woolworths/British Airways building) and curiously watching the development it was nice to finally see the sign and realise which company was moving into Airport Residential Area.
(Aren't you impressed by my driving and photographing skills?)
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18:08
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Maya's earth
I've been in a somewhat delirious state all week. Why? Because rain and the cool air that comes with it has finally arrived. Just as I was dropping Virgo off (we've been car-sharing for the past two weeks) I said, "It looks like it's about to rain". Two minutes later, heavy rains poured all over Accra. Of course, it was only at this point I realised that I didn't know how to turn on the wipers of the petite Tata Indica I've been driving for most of this year!
Don't worry, it only took about thirty seconds until I found the wipes. Soon after, I pulled into Shell on Oxford Street as I had just remembered the air pressure in one tyre was low. Immediately, I was reminded of the Ghanaian's fear of rain as the air guys waved me off as if to say they couldn't serve me. Determined not to drive around in the rain with an almost flat tyre, I decided to shame them. I got down, (this was at the heaviest point of rainfall, within five seconds I was completely soaked) walked across the muddy patch slowly and confidently in lovely heels, then exclaimed "You have no air, not even for one tyre?!"
Of course I knew that once they had seen a well-dressed woman walk through the showers there was no way five men would be able to blame the rain for not being able to work, and as expected I left with a nicely pumped up tyre.
Since then, nothing major has happened, but puzzle pieces of both work and private life seem to slowly be falling into place. And it is with a smile that I am now going to bed, because for the first time in two years (note: I wasn't here last summer) I have chosen not to turn on the AC at night (usually ECG makes that choice for me) and I am actually...freezing! Is there any greater luxury in Ghana than that?!
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17:29
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Maya's earth
This whole week I've been extremely tired (as in lose-my-balance-and-almost-fall-over tired) and have had a pressure headache for the past 6 (!) days. Is it because of the change of season? If it means more rain and cooler temperatures, I swear, I'll happily walk around with this headache!
Of course, my fatigue wasn't helped by the fact that I went to see Date Night at
Silverbird Cinemas yesterday (their movie times are not 'mummy friendly'), but I don't regret it one bit. Don't remember the last time I laughed so much and I enjoyed my mixed (sweet & salty) popcorn even more than I usually do, so it was worth it.
Today I was reminded of two things I really enjoy:
Whilst doing some business rounds, I went inside
African Regent for the first time in ages. Suddenly all my great memories of sitting in there a few times a week with Ruby West who worked round the corner at the time, came back. It is still such a cosy environment with great interior, I may have to start hanging out there again.
Also, a blog I'm loving is
Ghana Rising. For many reasons I don't manage to read it very often, but whenever I do I find interesting pieces on there, like now, loads of fantastic pictures capturing
Ghana's history. Otherwise, the blogger, Paulina, usually features Ghanaians who are making their mark on the world. What a great initiative, and a great way for the rest of us, Ghanaians, Ghana lovers or other interested parties, to find out up this talented persons. Have a peek yourself!
With that, I bid you goodnight!
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16:48
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Maya's earth
During my years in London there was one show I always wanted to see and somehow always missed. And now I hear the good news,
it's coming to Ghana! That's right,
Umoja - the spirit of togetherness will be showing at the National Theatre on the 29th and 30th of May at 3pm and 7pm on each day. I have only heard the most passionate reviews from those who've seen the show so I'll be doing my best to find a babysitter on the day (hm, it might be a perfect time for Em and Virgo to have some father/daughter time, don't you think?) so that I'll finally be able to see it.
So now that I've done my humanitarian duty of informing you well ahead of time, let me get back to trying to sort out my hotmail account...
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17:35
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Maya's earth
I was going to write about the lovely long weekend and all the things I could have done but chose not to do. Then I was going to entertain you with the drama of my latest househelp who left yesterday. But all that will have to wait because this evening a friend informed me that someone's gotten into my email and is sending the most random mail! I tried to login, but can't access it myself, clearly the password has been changed. Quickly I sought to protect my other email accounts (and of course this blog!) by changing their passwords before I lose them too.
Now I just hope there's someway of getting back into my hotmail account sooner or later, because after fifteen years together, I am kind of emotionally attached to my first ever email account with that funny username that I always have to explain to people. Also, I am really not ready to lose so many wonderful emails that have been sent to me by dear friends over the years, so please if you have any tips on how I can re-access my account, let me know.
All this has worsened the headache I've had today, I think I'm best off going straight to bed. I feel violated.
:(
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7:52
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Maya's earth
A Facebook friend asked us how much of our warderobe is locally produced and linked to this
BBC story about the African cotton industry's decline. After thinking about it, I guess my warderobe contains about 15% Ghanaian made clothes, but it is slowly on the increase. My latest project has been finding a good dressmaker (finally!) and having the traditional materials I received for my engagement sewn into beautiful clothes. In addition it is always fun to brighten up the warderobe with items from exciting lines like
MAKSI clothing,
Renee Q or good old
MKOGH.
Two new additions to my warderobe
I love our traditional wear, the textures, colours and the way it drapes our shapes manage to make every woman look her best even on a regular day. So if we're being asked to invest more in our own textiles, count me in! It sounds like one of the most entertaining ways in which we can help Ghanaian industry and support the growing number of talented designers around.
Every girl needs a MAKSI dress!
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5:57
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Maya's earth
Some time ago a friend and I were discussing how our social activities seemed to have dwindled. We wondered whether this was because our friends suddenly considered us married and with children and as such not able to make it out. Well, if that's the case, friends, ask before you assume! Let me decide whether I'll be heading out or not, being married or a parent does not necessarily make you housebound.
As a result of my friends' unfortunate assumptions, I find myself making new friends and it seems I am slowly beginning to fill out my social calendar and discovering lovely new and old places around town. In the past few weeks, this has meant movie nigths at Silverbird Cinemas, dinner for la Baselette who was about to leave town at
Il Cavaliere Pazzo at the Polo Club, which with it's beautiful interior and delicious food helped make the evening great (along with the fabulous company of course). If you go, do try the pain perdu, scrumptious dessert!
A few days later I was off to the
Ghana Goes 2010 event at
African Regent, arranged by fellow blogger
Nana Darkoa and ended the evening with a light snack at
Rhapsody's.
Dinner at Mama Mia:
In addition there's been trips to
Till's Beach, my beloved Tema and evenings at
Bella Roma and Mama Mia. Hm, could this, rather than Em, be the reason why I'm so tired?
So, my dear friends, it's not me, it's you! Whether you call me to come out or not, I'll make sure I'm having my own fun, one way or another!
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7:02
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Maya's earth
The world really is a twisted place. For example, could any of us have imagined a month ago that a
volcano in Iceland would affect so many people's lives? I am surprised by how many people I know closely, who have been directly affected, either stranded on another continent (like our current house guest who's doing nothing but wishing and hoping he can get back to his daughter in London soon), stuck at home when they were meant to be on holiday, or having to cab it across Europe (you can imagine the cost of that!) to make it home to loved ones.
As I read one of my favourite bloggers',
Alexandra Pascalidou, experience (Swedish), of being stuck in Bali whilst her partner and two-year old daughter are in Sweden, I feel the pain of all those who are being separated from their families. Is there anything more unsettling than not knowing when and how you're going to get home?
It is at times like these that people reach out and show kindness to strangers, whether it be offering a lift as
Yngvild writes about or providing shelter for those stranded without money to pay for accommodation. For a more organised way of getting and providing help, check out
Volcanohelp.
Luckily for me, the only thing twisted in my life at the moment, is my new hairstyle.
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6:32
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Maya's earth
A piture says more than a thousand words, right? Well, have a look at this one (which I snatched from a friend's friend's Facebook album), I'm sure you'll agree with me that indeed it does tell us more about the driving situation in Ghana, than a few sentences would.
The lack of functioning traffic lights, therefore policemen guiding traffic? Check!
Drivers' blatant disrespect of traffic lights/policemen/rules? Check!
A general disregard of policemen's authority (which can often be bought for a few Cedis? Check!
Our kokonsa (gossipy) nature, (look at the men moving in to see what exatly is happening)? Check!
Complete denial and refusal to accept being caught in the act (Because surely it's not me, the guy is atually attempting to reverse, no?)? Check!
However, I do feel we ought to commend the polie officer for his persistence in trying to force the driver to obey the law.
Happy Tuesday!
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19:14
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Maya's earth
The heading may look like jibberish but it is exactly what it says. Last week I got myself a new yummie
Cookie and after I attempted to copy some music onto it from my laptop, the damn thing caused my laptop to crash! Any time I turn it on, after starting up, a small pop up window will tell me "Windows will shut down in less than one minute". This has been rather amusing in the three business meetings we had this weekend where all the designs we were to display were, of course, on my laptop. There's been a lot of "Are you ready? Quick, here's the picture, you have about thirty seconds to watc...oh damn, there it goes again!".
Weirdest thing of all? I seem to have fixed the problem all by myself! I couldn't be prouder, nothing will top this until the day I learn to change a tyre. Anyways, I've got lots to catch up on, you'll hopefully hear from me again tomorrow.
Adios!
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11:24
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Maya's earth
The Easter break has begun. How did I notice that? Traffic hell all day yesterday, of course! Unlike Christmas when everybody comes to Accra, for Easter they all leave the big city for their home villages or to the mountains. Yes, in the mountains about midway between Accra and Kumasi, in the Nkawkaw area, the Kwahus have their massive Easter celebration. To the
Kwahu, Easter is bigger than Christmas, so big that now other tribes and nationals also travel there to take part in the festivities (which now include a paragliding festival!)
So what are the Easter plans for those of us left in Accra? Chilling with a big C! My sample of traffic today tells me what I already knew, it's going to be a smooth weekend, after all half of the cars have left town.
(picture borrowed from
here)I love Easter, ok I probably love all the holidays, but what makes Easter so exquisite is the lack of pressure. After a usually dreary January, February and March (although this year it's rather been hectic), Easter comes as a rewarding break before we head towards brighter and better days. Before, Easter would signify when the year turned brighter, spring and soon summer on the way. Now it is more of a reminder that despite feeling like we're in hell (well it's hot enough, isn't it?), rainy season is on it's way and with it, cooler temperatures!
So as is my general tradition for Easter, no plans are made, we chill, eat whatever comes our way, socialise with whoever comes our way and hopefully catch up on sleep (but that is every new parent's dream, always!). Today that means leftovers, watching movies (I'm hoping to make Virgo watch It's complicated with me even though I saw it about ten days ago) and looking forward to any friend or family member passing by.
Happy Easter!
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16:50
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Maya's earth
Remember about
eighteen months ago when I was all excited about going to Agbobloshie and then never did? Well, today I finally made it there! Went with my 7-month pregnant friend N and headed onto Graphic Road. We were completely excited (tourists as we are) when we got there, and completed the market experience with some wagashi (fried cheese which was quite similar to Asian paneer) and sachet water. All our 'marketing' (shopping (will show pictures tomorrow)), which will probably last for more than two weeks, cost just around GHc50. Quite a difference from what you'd get for GHc50 on a trip to Koala!
(N of course found it very embarassing that I took pictures, but how else would I have captured the occasion?)
Today (now, actually) it is
Earth Hour day, when electricity is turned off for an hour all over the world to remind us to conserve our energy. Like
Kajsa pointed out, in Ghana whether we like it or not, we have are own Earth Hour ever so often. Of course, ECG took care of us today too, switching the lights off at 18:30 but thankfully, they got us back on within 10 minutes.
I do however remember last year's Earth Hour, which occurred whilst Em and I were still in hospital. While she slept, I looked out onto Mölndals town center, only lit up by streetlights, and as I sipped a cup of nyponsoppa (rosehip soup) and a glass of milk, I remember thinking that I'd have to take this picture (below) of the milk carton, to show Maya the unusual milk carton that was in the shops when she was born.
Now, off to bed to get enough rest and find the energy to prepare Bissap and aim to roast a perfect lamb steak tomorrow!
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16:19
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Maya's earth
The saying above pretty much sums up Ghana. With an ocean edging the entire southern border o the country, a
lake so vast it provides us all with electricity (well, sometimes) and
rivers and
waterfalls all over our land, it is amazing that we struggle for water each day.
Any given morning, on our street in Labone, you'll find school children carrying an orange gallon of water back home for the morning's preparations, before heading off to school. Some of us are lucky to have polytanks collecting the water as it runs, because like many water-lacking areas, we only get water about three times a week. Yet on one of those mornings that I catch a small boy walking a looong way for water, I happen to pass the Osu road that leads from Ebeneezer Presbyterian Church to Kingdom Books, and what do I see on my right? Through a crack in a wall, water is gushing, gushing out of a broken pipe into nowhere and everywhere.
(This beautiful picture borrowed from
Anderson Cooper's blog)
The unfair, unnecessary waste hits my stomach with pain. What are we doing? How is it that this most precious item that we cannot live without is allowed to escape freely, when just around the corner there are people in dire need of it? With so many water efficient ways of living, it is time this issue moves up on the list of our land's priorities and we see a change in the water situation in Ghana today. I hope to mention a few water efficient ways later in the week if ECG and Vodafone permit me to.
Today is
World Water Day. (As if on cue, the water in our bathroom decided to stop running despite the fact that it is running everywhere else and the tanks are full!). Appreciate every drop of water that passes your way. There are those who don't have that privilege.
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10:49
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Maya's earth
The hairstyle? Of course I had it done at
Auntie Alice Salon and these days there seems to be less of a queue. I waited about 10-15 minutes before they started on my hair. Got there at 11:15 and was out by 14:20.
This time round I missed the morning devotion, but among the hens and dogs getting stuck in clumps of hair extensions, I managed to also catch a goat, aponkye!
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16:28
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Maya's earth
Dear friends, there's so many things I have wanted to write about but I have had a really frustrating week. If it's not Vodafone destroying my online social life, it's ECG doing the same to the real life, hospital appointments not coming on on time because they double booked patients (!), meetings being delayed by three hours, business partners taking us back to square one or staff not performing and then getting the company into trouble for it.
I wanted to do a whole countdown to the very special day that my daughter Em turned one (Hooray!) but for now I'll simply leave you with a picture from last Friday's celebrations.
Today has been a very testing day. I got back from the hospital apointment which was postponed (and of course I only found out after two hours of waiting), to find the phone line still cut off, the internet still not working (despite both being paid up), and half an hour later... (oh come on, you know the only thing that could top this off) of course... lights off!
After 36 hours off lights off this weekend, I couldn't take another minute and we quickly headed out to visit an aunty in Airport Residential. This evening, when half of our lights had come on, I decided to have a look at my photos and organise the ones I wanted to print at the Accra Mall. Turns out the last time I went to the photo shop at the mall, they erased my entire memory card, meaning I've lost at least a month of photos! As you can imagine, I am still feeling extremely sad about that and tomorrow I intend to go there, see what can be done and give them a piece of my mind.
Still, as always
trying to be positive, I'm focusing on the delicious dinner I had this evening (prepared by moi) of lobster with garlic butter, potato puree with basil and a dessert of apple cinnamon cake (yes, I baked too, there wasn't much else to do with no electricity) and vanilla ice cream. I bought the lobster from one of those guys on Oxford street, in Koala's yard, and I'm surprised to say it was yummier and cheaper than the ones I usually by at Tema European Market! Now, after a quick shower, I'm going to watch some new episodes of Gossip Girl or Desperate Housewives, also bought in Koala's car park and hopefully by tomorrow, the loss of my photos will be a faded memory.
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8:57
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Maya's earth
(Picture from
Who wants to be rich Ghana)
…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:
Which two primary colours make the colour green:
A. Red and yellow
B. Blue and yellow
C. Red and blue
D. Purple and red
(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:
“Which two primary colours make the colour green:
A. Red and yellow”
“YES!”
"B. Blue and yellow"
“Yes!”
"C. Red and blue"
“Yes!”
"D. Purple and red"
“Yes!”
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…
until my laptop made me cry…
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17:24
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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.
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!
(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.
How have you spent the weekend?
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11:13
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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:
Why are you moving to Ghana when you hate heat, loathe and fear insects and get really irritated when people are not punctual?
I couldn't really answer her, but somehow thought, maybe everything else about Ghana will make it worth the cons.
Tuesday, and I'm in a 5 hour meeting, which of course started late because people 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!).
Towards the end of the meeting I step out to call Vodafone, who still haven't fixed our broadband (oh yes,
it is the same problem). 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."
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.
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.
Of course, functioning AC and broadband make the experience that little bit easier!
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16:58
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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.
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:
The Beach (aren't we lucky to have this in the centre of Accra?)
The Daughter
The Chalets, neatly hidden by palmtrees
And suddenly, after inhaling the beautiful sea air, I could smile again and life was back to being good.
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16:30
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Maya's earth
Here's another nasty surprise. A
man, Nana Darkwa, who in a radio interview claimed that
Rawlings set his own house on fire 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.
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?
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14:48
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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.
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.
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*).
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).
Lesson learnt, be observant of where you shop and what you eat. Have a wonderful week, keep me in your happy thoughts.
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15:41
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Maya's earth
Procrastination is the thief of time they say. If you ask me, procrastination is the thief of everything. Let me tell you why:
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).
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!
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).
So let's see what procrastinating dental care in general and fixing this cavity in particular has cost me:
Money, lots of money (emergency care, follow up care, transport, smoothies,it all adds up).
Enjoyment of life before Christmas when the pain was at its worst.
Loss of sight (well, only temporarily but still)
Eating in a sane and reasonable manner (what normal person needs to dig for food in her teeth after each meal?)
Milk Production - for about a day, my darling daughter did not get much in her.
Use of the teeth on the right side of my mouth.
And of course, TIME!
So do you agree with me that procrastinating thieves a lot more than time???
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6:27
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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
here.
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
facebook page where there is also information on how to donate money by texting.
Of course after hearing how long it is taking to get help to the victims and after reading
Holli's criticisms of the corruption that goes on where disaster strikes, some of my inital enthusiasm at giving money to those in need is now lost.
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17:54
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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!
(picture borrowed from
here)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.
Anyway, I digress, here are my resolutions for this year:
1. 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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
6. To follow up and make one of my own business ideas come through. I really, really hopw I manage to do this.
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.
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.
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.
On that note, goodnight!
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16:10
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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.
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(Pictures from the Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra, during CAN2008)
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:
God is not a Lagosian!
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15:12
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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: "That's the man who...", we suddenly locked eyes.
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.
Oh and by the way, the end of the sentence I started to my mother was "attacks people's cars!".
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5:33
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Maya's earth
Did you receive this text last night:
"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."
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.
It seems I was one of few who acted reasonably. Somehow, this text has spread round the country and turned into an
earthquake scare (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.
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:
Google has a good page listing a few ways to donate, click
here for more info. For those in Sweden,
DN 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
Swedish one and seen
this one. Other than that, do check out this
Facebook group and
Yele Haiti for more ways to help. Once I hear of any ways that we in Ghana can help locally, I will let you know.
Let's have a happy Monday!
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16:31
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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 "who needs iBurst" comments, I suddenly had to come crawling back to
iBurst, resembling a girl who drunkenly calls her ex on a particularly lonely night. Then, I finally decide to confront you, "what the &%#¤ is going on?" 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.
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 "Dear Vodafone" love letter the next day, you predictably disappoint me, but now I'm already hooked. "Surely the connection will be back on again soon" 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.
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!
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
Vodafone, 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.
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16:24
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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
Yngvild. I couldn't give you a detailed account of my very typically Ghanaian New Year's Eve (see
Kajsa's blog for a hint of what it involved).
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.
Happy New Decade!
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4:46
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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!
After eating well, we continued the stuff-fest with mulled wine and the accompanying snacks:
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.
Happy holidays!
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10:40
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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.
So far there's been two Carols nights, a lovely
Lucia celebration, 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?
As it is now, after a scrumptious lunch at
Captain Hooks 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.
Business meeting on an Osu rooftop? Not too shabby for me!
View over Labone...
...and Oxford Street
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Bella Roma, deli and bar, found on the side road between Frankies and Standard Cartered:
Omanye Energy Drink, available in a shop near you, soon.
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15:41
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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.
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 that 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.
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:
"Did you feel that?!"
He answered: " Yes madam, it was so powerful I even closed my eyes and bent down to hold my knees!".
Erm... who was driving (on the motorway!!!)???
(If you're out there, please have a safe ride home.)
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5:45
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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.
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.
So I realised the best way to do that is with
music. First, with Swedish nostalgia courtesy of
Pernilla Wahlgren (a musical artist from a well known entertainment family who's been around for about 25 years):
and Sissel Kyrkjebö (who's actually Norwegian), with the purest of voices for this song, O Holy Night.
Then, last year's favourite,
Alexandra Burke singing Halleluja. 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.
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
Alliance Francaise and
Goethe Institute 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).
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?
The best thing about Christmas? It is the season of giving. Do your bit by clicking the button below.
For every click, Pampers will, through UNICEF, donate tetanus vaccin to a child or pregnant woman in a developing country.
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11:14
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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.
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!
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.
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!
(Pictures from my low key birthday party at Prampram yesterday.)
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10:03
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Maya's earth
No, I'm not talking about the magazine,
Timeout Accra (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.
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
Green Turtle Lodge,
Stone Lodge or even a night or two at the serene
Afia African Village, right in the centre of Accra (Ministries).
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.
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!
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15:54
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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.
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 - ashawo.
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 - Ashawo! Interestingly, at this point the two prostitutes who had been putting on a nasty, somewhat disjointed
mapouka-like show all evening, stood this one out, each suddenly very busy texting away on their phones.
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: Ashawo.
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:
Ashawo!
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15:09
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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?
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
kissing his teeth 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.
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.
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):
Dabi, m'enka enkyere me se eye wrong number! (No, don't tell me it is the wrong number!)
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.
Well, at least in the end she put a smile on my face. Silly cow.
*Special thanks to
the Poet for helping me write in Twi
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16:06
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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".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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19:54
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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.
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.
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.
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.
To the rest of you, happy halloween from my own friendly ghost!
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7:09
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Maya's earth
My mid-morning browsing today lands me on
an article (Swedish) that has made me feel slightly sick. Apparently, at the G8 summit in July, held in Rome,
Ghanaian children were flown in to be fed porridge by the wives of G8 leaders (English)!
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.
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!
Reading
Sarah Brown's blog (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.
(Picture borrowed from
SIDA)
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:
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?!
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6:07
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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
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18:22
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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
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9:02
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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
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7:01
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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
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7:51
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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
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17:37
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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
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16:10
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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
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18:06
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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
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18:26
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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
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10:10
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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
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19:53
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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
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14:21
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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
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17:59
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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
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20:46
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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
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14:54
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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
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12:38
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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
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17:19
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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
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14:41
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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
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8:30
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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
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15:29
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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
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13:24
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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
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7:26
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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
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4:04
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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
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16:43
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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
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17:16
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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
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12:47
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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
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6:57
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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
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14:44
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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
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15:57
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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
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14:46
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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
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11:48
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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
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15:24
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Maya's earth
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
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16:07
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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
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5:46
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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
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16:30
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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
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16:12
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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
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17:53
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Maya's earth
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
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18:20
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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
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17:04
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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
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9:27
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Maya's earth
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
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11:58
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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
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15:12
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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
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17:30
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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
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15:21
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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
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14:11
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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
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