One Year Plus One Day

its been one year and a day since i moved to this country. its been such a learning experience. the people are an enigma. the dark skin color and environment portends a typical african country yet the order and the behaviours are very european. i have been waiting a whole year for the scales to fall off so i can see the real ghanaians but every time i've been surprised day in day out. if the term peace loving could ever be attributed to an african country ghana is the country. well of course they have the usual problems african countries are bound to have like the fights over chieftaincy in the north which involves some body count. somehow they contain it and keep it from being too much of a problem, they do it better than the british handled northern island in the hay days anyway its not about secession.

this piece wont be complete without mention of the ghanaian election. i daresay, i expected it to be peaceful but yet still i was shocked at the level of peace. an african country carrying out elections without any controversy? well there was one, on the news this young man who looked barely out of secondary school was complaining to the news reporter about being disenfranchised. his problem was that the electoral official at the polling booth said he couldn't vote because he carried an outdated voter's card. he said he's been voting for over four years and hadn't been told there was a change. well the electoral official suggested he take his case to her boss. there were complaints by voters that they had to wait too long to vote. well voting was to start at about 7.00am and voters went to wait and queue as early as 3.30am! you should have seen the queues, order in africa! i began to propose the theory that though ghanaians had black skin their dna was probably european.

the election itself was held on a sunday, the turnout was over sixty percent. unlike my home country, voter apathy isn't a problem in ghana, the only problem is voter education. a number (though not sizable) of votes was lost because some voters didn't exactly know what they were supposed to do. a friend put it down to illiteracy comparing it to the home country. i pointed out that in the home country people didn't really vote so we couldn't know, most of the votes were cast for them (assisted voting a.k.a rigging).

talking about free and fair elections. the radio stations and tv stations were collating results as they were counted. it was as close as one could get to the us elections. an interesting point of note was that when the electoral commission finally came out with the official results the radio station i was listening to had missed the mark by 0.8 on one of the candidates. there was no doubt about credibility. although however, the election didn't produce a presidential candidate, the votes were too close so there's to be a run off in a couple of days. however, another interesting fact is that the parties accepted the results, no lawsuits pending.

let's do some statistics, in the year i have spent here i have only been aware of about 19 power outages. i had problems with water during a two week period in january and since then water has been stable. these comforts don't come free though but in comparison power is cheaper yet more available than in home country. fuel moves with the oil market. every two months the price is reviewed in comparison to what crude sells at. so pump prices 'actually' drop. in fact with the recent drop in crude prices, fuel, gas and transportation costs went down. in home country, the excuse for increasing pump price is the rise in crude but when crude falls everywhere is silent. the taxes here are heavy though. well i figure that if they give water and power then its relative. in home country where taxes are lower you have to provide your own generator and dig a borehole if you want similar comforts so in essence you are paying for it anyway.

generally, life is simpler here which brings me to other side of this place. i know i said in previous posts that they are a laid back people. i think they are sometimes too laid back that it can come close to laziness. a friend needed grass cut and it took a whole month to get someone to come and do it. they kept promising to come. the one that showed up looked at the grass and asked my friend to get some other labourer to remove the tough ones first then call him back to come with his machine and mow the lawn. i had an electrician whom i called to come do work for me on a saturday by 8.00am , he came a week later on a saturday by 8.00am apologising for his absence the previous saturday. there's this favourite of mine, a meshai (bread and egg) seller who had an interesting business strategy. when he was broke, he would borrow money buy tea stuff and bread, work feverishly for a week or so , make enough money plus profit to last him another week or so. at the end of the week, he pays back his debts, spends the next week spending the profit and by the upper week he's broke again and goes back into the cycle. that's how laid back they can be sometimes.

yeah and life on a saturday starts from 11.00am. i am yet to figure out if its because of partying till the wee hours of the morning from the previous friday or they just start their day at that time. still on the laid backness. there are taxi drivers who don't work on saturdays and sundays its their rest days. there are traditional saturday businesses in home country that don't operate on saturdays over here. for businesses that open on saturday , the general closing time is 3.00pm

sure while i may not always get the service when i want it but when you do get the service its usually properly done. my plumber studied plumbing as a vocation, my cook went to catering school. i find that here, they still seem to be living in the good old days when standard 6 could get you a job. at junior secondary, students can either decide to continue on to senior secondary with the aim of getting into university or pick a vocation and fly with it. so here you hardly find an electrician who got to be one by becoming an apprentice. i guess that's why their houses are well finished because they go to school for it.

in summary, after a year of living here, though its not like home but its peaceful and relatively safe ( my walls are still low) though a friend living in another area got attacked by armed robbers. the best combination i see would be to work in home country and live here. i do have worries though of how long this calmness will last. the younger generation are a trouser-sagging-mtv-biased generation and there's a high influx of people from the home country like myself. i hope these factors don't change their landscape. and of course there's now oil!

Carbon Footprint

i haven't been writing here for long. i dont have an excuse. i guess i've been just lazy or too involved in other stuff. i just had to write today because of certain new developments. my car all of a sudden developed some issues, well not all of a sudden, i guess i've been lucky. funny today of all days it just had to act up majorly...i was going to buy my first bicycle since becoming and adult seems the car didn't like the idea so it did all it could to stop me.but it didn't succeed. tomorrow i'm packaging it off to the mechanic and i'll climb on my brand new bicycle and hit the road. the car helped in transporting the bicycle back home and i thank it for that.


anyway, i get home and i find that i couldn't use the pump i bought. it put in me in a fix though because i wanted to test run the bike within the safety of my environs before hitting main stream. i wasn't sure i was still able to balance on two wheels. i had little choice so i took off rolling the bike to the closest pump station. as i passed the estate gate the guards where like 'ah you are not carrying your car today ?' i grinned at them pushing my brand new ride (its a ride too!).

i got the pump got the tires pumped. the area had a big compound so i decided to do a test run. i shook a little but with every turn of the wheel i got more stable. a little fela on his on bike breezed past me and i cycled to catch up. him on his small bike , me on my big one. then off to a friend's i cycled learning about the bike as i rode along. the biggest lesson i learnt is that the higher gears make the pedals tougher to turn but you make better pace. at lower gears you do so many revolutions and the bike doesn't move an inch.

i think its good enough time to start preparing for london (assuming they get the next olympic hosting rights). i could probably be the first nigerian to win gold in cycling. yes laugh but that's how it usually starts..with a laugh and then the 'wow'!

sorry this narration has been largely about my new bicycle but i am currently doing some research on the interesting names of the 'chop bars' in the tema region. as soon as i am done with that research i shall publish. i can't complete this without discussing customer service here in ghana. my dstv subscription ran out and i went to the bank to make payment. by the next day i got a call from a customer service personell from multichoice. he asked if i was who i am and then said they have seen my payment whether i would like them to activate the subscription immediately. i was stumped. this is not 'bad belle' but in naija when my dstv subscription ran out some one had to go to their office to physically ask them to reconnect even after i had paid online.

aha this will not be complete without telling of my trip to the famous elmina castle in cape coast. there with a group of colleagues we were taken on a tour of the castle that held human cargo ready for export to europe and the americas. we got to see a small gate which despite my build (ok so i'm a little fatter than some of you know me to be) i wouldn't pass through it. it was called the gate of no return. it was really small width wise and could hardly pass me. we got to know that the human cargo was kept for months without adequate food so that they could become slim enough to through the gate. there where a couple of other things in which only the imagination ( how much you can stretch it) that would help one come to terms with what took place. anyway i won't spoil your fun by telling you all about it. you have to visit for yourself and see it. if you want a visual tour go here elmina castle

Egusi Soup II

ever eaten egusi soup cooked with sausage, chicken and beef? i have and it ain't half bad. just that i am not very keen on sausage. i’m not very keen on oyibo food in general, except for rice. well rice isn’t oyibo food. anyway, for all those who can cook (not microwave chefs mind you) , try the combo above , you will certainly like it. a word of advice, avoid having too many ‘obstacles’ in the egusi. it drives away the pleasure of dishing out the soup. its supposed to be a soup ie the obstacles should be the islands not the other way round. enough about egusi , at least now i have justified the heading.

i was at the famous akosombo dam the other weekend. went with four other friends and we had a guided tour of the dam structure. got a bit of history and how the dam was built. for the first time in my life, i got to appreciate and understand the ee lectures on power generation. turbines, emf, shafts , generators, rotors all those things now made practical sense. i pause to wonder how many of my lecturers have actually seen a dam. yeah, those mean people , who made the learning experience miserable for everyone. i know there were some good ones but majority where whack. for the first time , i can voice out this opinion without fear. those men who held our life in a balance and knew it. the should see me now, typing a blog to post on the internet.

once more i will mention the radio programs here. either i get too bored by the order that i listen to more radio on my way to work, than worry about traffic. well in home country i lived three minutes walk from work, in the same estate as the office and i still worried about traffic. i heard this sad but intriguing tale about a young man who committed suicide under suspicious circumstances. he jumped off a three story building to his death and left a note saying he was depressed by the break up with his ex-girlfriend. the guy from the unfolding story had a history of depression, he had left home declared missing for a while and then show up again in another part of town. he had been on radio talking about the loss of his girlfriend and how it made him feel bad like a year before his death.

the program took investigative journalism to its limits in our african context. the ex girlfriend who was now in the us studying was called up to be asked about the situation. she said though they had broken up over a year ago, they were back as friends and were in constant touch with each other. she had spoken with him three weeks before the incident that seem to have clearly debunked the idea that the suicide was because of her. as it happens the guy had a roommate who was absent as at the time it happened. he was on his way to meet with a lecturer who was particular about timing so that sort of was his alibi. anyway the story unfolds , i hope i get to hear the end of it. here radio presenters call up anyone to get firsthand info. i haven’t heard them calling up the president or vice but ministers, parliamentarians are always called up smack in the middle of the news about them to hear their own side. i am trying to picture calling up a minister to contribute to a radio program in home country. well maybe it happens, didn’t listen to much radio back home, and the few times i did , dan foster was more inclined towards prank calls.

yeah lest i forget there’s this program called sister sister. a bunch of women sit around to discuss ‘what’s on a woman’s mind’. its quite interesting and educative. i recommend it anytime you are on your way back from work around 7 pm. the only condition is that you have to be in ghana.

Egusi Soup

it’s been ages since i was here. i’ve been busy that’s the only explanation i’m willing to give. a lot has happened since i’ve been away. i’ve been asked several times ‘hey you haven’t written on your blog in a while’. so i break the silence. a lot has changed but some things still remain the same. i still don’t have curtains in my bedroom. i now have furniture, you can actually sit in my living room on real chairs. i still use the rug though.

my dstv has been quite useful. i’ve been watching east& south african idols. yeah the program where people go to sing and take singing in shower to a new level. its not beef but i think some mothers have sent their kids on the road to perdition by actually telling them they could sing. i know i cant sing but some of those who sing in the audition make me wonder if i shouldn’t apply for the next west african idol edition. on second thoughts it wont 'werk'.

in previous editions i know i have been all praises about my new home. well i still got praises but then there’s a paradox of two carpenters. (Christ was a carpenter too...hmm) i had one do me a stand for my tv and the other the chairs for my sitting room. the second guy delivered in one week. the first guy took a month and half to bring the stand to my place. i think sometimes the ghanaians are too laid back that they could be slow. mind you i’m not complaining.

this morning on the news there were loud complaints about the power outage. there was even a discussion on the issues of power distribution. one thing about this country, they will talk about any and everything i guess that’s why they are less volatile , ‘jaw-jaw no war-war’ except of course you live in the north. well on the power thing, last weekend and yesterday light went off for some time. so this morning people were sending in text messages complaining how they couldn’t do anything because they didn’t have a generator ( why?).

i and a fellow naija, felt they should take a holiday in the home country and come back and they’d be humbled. i mean if light is taken with the certainty that it will come back the same day what do they have to complain about? its different when light is taken here, you don’t feel that sense of panic. thoughts like ‘when will it come back? today? tomorrow? next month?’ don’t run through your head. you are certain it will come back.

ghanian politicians are particular about their diction as i have come to discover. a radio presenter was put in a rather tricky situation based on his reporting of facts. he claimed a certain guy had ‘demanded’ that a party rethink their presidential candidate because he felt the guy needed to be investigated for corruption. he calls up the man to ask him what further he had to say on the matter. the man told him he had to apologies to listeners for misrepresentation first before the interview continued. he said he had ‘advised’ the party in question and not demanded. he wasn’t a member of the party or the executive so he had no power to ‘demand’.

still on radio programs. another reporter called up an editor who was reported to have been sacked to ask if this really was the case. the man tells him to look at the name on that day’s edition of the paper he was editor of. the reported agreed that it was his name that was there but still wanted to know if he had been sacked. the man now asked him if a man and his wife have children would he still ask the man if he makes love to his wife? i guess the man knows little about the faith and knowledge analogy in marriage. a man knows his children by faith, a woman has 'knowledge' of her children. all in all, the do have interesting radio programs here. their news is interesting , they argue and complain about things we would find funny in my home country. they don’t have water for a few days and they complain that most of the management staff in the water distribution company are not ghanaians so they wont have the interest of the people at heart. water is a paid for service here. in home country , i got a bill from the water board , i never saw the water. here a few days and they complain? the need to visit home country

ok i think i need to explain why i seem to be always blasting the home country. contrary to what the readers may think, i used to be very patriotic , i still am. but patriotism is reciprocal. only God loves unconditionally. if i don’t get any love from my country, i cant have any to give back. e go better, God dey , na poor man prayer. this one is getting too long, i’ll save gist for another day.

i now have egusi soup at home, don't ask me how.

Scope Creep and the Nobel Prize for the Washing Machine

i haven’t been here in a while to do some writing. it was due to scope creep. yeah the project scope of work had a constant requirements change and hence ate into the time slot for blogging. that is being remedied. now the project is back on course lets get on with business.

first, the inventor of the washing machine needs a nobel prize. if he didn’t get one, he should get it posthumously, of course the inventor of the microwave should have one too. i have recently considered going into the laundry business. machine wash – sun dried services. as soon as i find an ‘industrial ironing system’ where i can just hang the clothes and it comes out ironed i’m getting into business. sorry yes i got a washing machine the experience is liberating!

i am finally getting the ghanaian number plates for my car. soon all physical traces that i am a nigerian will be erased. i just have to learn twi or ga and i’ll be fully blended in. maybe get a darker shade for my skin and change my name to frempong.

the rain is supposed to cleanse the land but sometimes the flood brings in dirt. enough parables, i witnessed what one could consider the closet i have yet come to ‘area’ boys in ghana. it rained heavily during the day and on the way home from work a couple of days back , on getting to a place a friend nicknamed ‘need for speed underground’ i met with them. the need-for-speed-underground is a tunnel just wide enough for one car that passes under the tema motorway. only one car can pass at a time so often it requires a patient wait for a window of opportunity when few cars are coming from the other side then you dash like mad for the tunnel. once you are in the tunnel you automatically guarantee passage for all those behind you until there’s another lull in traffic.

well on this rainy day, on getting to the tunnel saw this ‘exited’ youngman who picked up a huge stone and stood menacingly in front of the tunnel. i later figured that his excitement was due to the fact that my number plates read nigerian. well he didn’t really have any harmful intents, he just wanted to beg for a little cash. he and a group of his friends were ‘helping’ motorists who’s cars got stuck in the tunnel because is was partially flooded. apparently my car didn’t look like it would get stuck. we chastised the guy for his theatrics and he apologized, just wanted a few pesewas for food (or beer?).

on the 22nd of this month i would have lived 3 months in this country. i’m yet to really find serious issues with them. i lived in lagos for 5 years and i kept wishing i could be somewhere else. i’ve been here three months and i don’t have any nostalgic feelings about lagos. in defense of lagos , i think the major problem is that it’s got too many nigerians living there. if there’s a way one could reduce the number of nigerians living in lagos , it would be a much better city.

people tell me (nigerians of course) that accra is organized because it’s the capital. lagos wasn’t organized even as the capital. abuja is organized ‘relatively’ but for how long? anyway, what do i care about anywhere else, i mean people live in lagos all their lives without going anywhere else in nigeria so if i never visit kumasi i am happy to live in my blissful ignorance.

i paid my first water bill yesterday. i had 2.04 ghana cedis for the month. that’s like 248 naira and the water is relatively constant. i can operate a washing machine with it! it’s been on the news that there is a water crisis. the considered reviewing the contract of the firm who has a management contract to run the water service. there are complaints that they have done a poor job. now i have water running every day safe a few days in a month and they have done a poor job? well the complaint is mainly that they haven’t handled the distribution well so there are many areas with water issues. at least there is water.

So Much More...

this weekend i got dstv installed. so watching tv will take on another dimension. with over 50 channels on offer and only 9 of much use the stress on the thumb is reduced. you only have to flip through nine locations not fifty. i think dstv should have a configuration where you can weed out channels after you must have chosen a bouquet and paid for it. making the decoder yet another piece of furniture. the sitting room is taking shape soon it will have real chairs and sitting room.

last week my landlord installed a pay as you use electrical meter for me. instinctively i started turning off all my lights. i am learning how to conserve power. the rules my dad tried to inculcate in me and my siblings many years ago came very naturally. i guess when you are doing the paying you become more conscious of waste. turning off the lights after leaving a room became the most logical thing to do. i even leave the lights in the sitting room off given that the dining area gives enough illumination and the tv too. in 5 days i have used up only 5 units and i got 133 units worth do the math! i expect a slight increase though when i get the air conditioner installed.

the valentine week had an intriguing but sad story on the news. some guy who had participated in a talent hunt show was in hospital in critical condition from attempted suicide. the story goes that ‘some people’ (parents i presume) didn’t want him to marry his five month pregnant girlfriend. i didn’t know people still thought of dying for love. i thought that concept might have ended with Christ. i wouldn’t want to go into the rationality of his actions but i think suicide was a bit extreme. i mean the girlfriend is pregnant what about the kid?

on saturday i finally got to use an atm. i didn’t quite need the technology prior to now. my ‘money management’ skills are highly advances so i never really needed to own one. i think now that i’m still settling in with the flux in the ‘management’ system i guess the atm is handy as yet. once i’m done with the capital expenditures i will revert to the working system. the atm charges are crazy!

If you are single wear Red, be at the Aphrodisiac on Thursday

this is a valentine's special.

the caption is from something i overhead on the radio. singles were asked to wear red and show up at the aphrodisiac on thursday evening. non-singles were to wear blue. i guess aphrodisiac was a night club and it was happening there. no i wont be there, i have no clue where aphrodisiac is and i usually prefer resting in front of the TV (yes I did get one - one more piece of furniture). besides why couldn't valentine's day land on a friday?

i have given up finding problems or issues with this country. i guess when you come from a place where nothing really works (yeah throw the missiles) and you are faced with a different place where things seem to work, the difference is clearer than seven up! i hear that in the north there is violence. i have overheard news of clashes over chieftaincy titles,corruption amongst politicians, a drugs problem amongst others. but regardless the country has that westernized feel about it. things work despite everything.

this morning i had a lesson 101 on driving. i learnt to wear my c.o.a.t while driving. concentration, observation, anticipation and tolerance. there was an interview on tv with a road safety guru. he was publishing a book on defensive driving. he spent a couple of minutes describing the c.o.a.t process and i came to understand why ghanaians are such good drivers.
there is something about this country that gets into your system. the calmness and the politeness of the people is infectious.

the nation's cup is finally over. i want to now see what the real ghanaians are like without the nations' cup fever. i have a feeling that there wont be much difference. i have watched over six music videos and heard more songs about ghana and the nations' cup over the radio. the people just love being ghanaian i daresay more than i love being nigerian.

i wish you all a happy valentine.

How to get the most out of your microwave...

ingredients
lg (life's good) microwave of high quality with a control for defrosting
the manual for the microwave
a frozen chunk of beef stew
some precooked rice

steps
1.turn on the microwave
2.put the frozen chunk in a plate (preferably the plate the rice will be in)
3.open the manual to the page on defrost ( i cant give the page number here as your microwave may be different)
4.follow the instructions on the manual to begin the defrost process
5.ignore the hissing sound inside the microwave, its just the juices in the stew coming up for air
the microwave depending on the price will beep to tell you its done.
6.if the microwave is high priced it will intermittently beep , if not you will have to manually peep through the window of the machine to confirm
7. take out the plate add the rice and put back in the microwave and set for 1 min
at the end take out the plate, get a fork , your meal is ready

the process takes far less time than trying to defrost by cooking over the fire. you lose valuable liquid if you try using the fire. to counter this, you could add water. though the problem here is that water will dilute the taste slightly. the system above works for frozen soup too. however, you will have to boil water separately to prepare the eba. i wont encourage trying to use the microwave to shorten the time to make the eba. i cant guarantee favorable results

so the eagles did their thing. at the last minute they turned their fortunes. it will be real nice for ghana to trash them on sunday. they should have gone home earlier. anyway, i still support the black stars. i still have my ghanaian flag at full mast.

Six Pairs Of Shoes, Two Pairs Of Slippers, Four Bags……

work! yes that’s what’s been keeping me away from blogging frequently. sadly, i cant write about it here because this place wasn’t for work. i went for my curtains last week. the syrians hadn’t started on it. the fela said they were waiting on my feed back. i was shocked cause i had told them to use their discretion, i had white walls (how can that be difficult?). well the guy now tells me he’ll call on monday with estimates which he did. after the discussion it dawned on me that  we just couldn’t do business. i am going to look for a more affordable curtain option. its for the inner rooms for pete’s sake. ( i often wonder if it was peter the apostle that this reference was made to).

my gas cooker has been set up. i am now primed to do some cooking. i have the pots, pans, the whole works. i can now boil water to take a hot bath. the house didn’t come with bath room heaters. i have been on cold showers since living here.

i finally got a flag. a ghanaian one. its interesting to see the curious stares from people i pass on the street. with this very nigerian number plates (lagos: centre of excellence...let's not go there) complete with the flag and then they see green white red and a black star i wonder what goes on in their minds. is he a ghanian working for a nigerian company or just an enthusiastic supporter of the black stars? talking of support for the black stars, i think i’ll make them my team. i can be saved from the bad-for-the-blood-pressure home team. they seem to be slowly but surely working their way towards an early flight home.

i went for a drive round today. drove through the harbour area, discovered (well america was always there inhabited by the red indians but columbus discovered it) some great scenery. when i get a camera i’ll be back there taking pictures. also found a way to the beach from home so at least i know how to get around my area.

about the title of this post. there’s nothing to it. those whom it affects understand.

Of water, the President and flags...

i haven't had time to visit here and write for some time now. work came in through the window and as usual i got immersed in it. i decided i needed to come up for a breather. i was at the beach last weekend. had a great time there. i sat watched the sea and the scenery in the company of a number of colleagues. apparently the fact that we were nigerians stood out as a sore thumb. i will not go into any details i'll just say that nigerian women dress conservatively period!

i got a shocker yesterday. got up early as usual (still feels like i slept too long when i wake up with the day so bright). took a bucket to clean the car (something i've had to do lately, until I get a handy man ). turned on the tap and nothing! i had noticed that my neighbors all had some extra tanks. i once saw a water truck filling a neighbors tank it didn't quite fit until now. luckily i had a contingency plan. i drove to a colleagues place washed the car , took my bath and came back home. on my way to work, i met the lawn guy ( finally he had finished the work, the barbecue parties can begin) and asked about it. he said ah, that it was the only problem they had around the estate, that water didn't run sometime for as long as two weeks. hmm...

well i guess i'll have to get the jerry cans as a temporary measure and get the contingency tank as a more permanent fixture. water not running for two weeks? funny over here there's always a known time line for inconvenience. if power is out, you know when it should come back. if water goes you know when it should come back. the water thing is minor though...been years since i had government water running through any pipes with reasonable consistency so its no problem at all. i'll just get a tank and that's it.

heard an interesting story on the radio yesterday. apparently the president's convoy had been involved in a car crash. a car actually ran into the presidents car (imagine that!). a traffic cop was giving testimony for the state in the matter. he stated that the driver of the other car had been given signs to stop and ignored it hence the crash. the driver's lawyer was refuting this, claiming that his client didn't get any stop sign , that the lights had changed that was why his client moved. also he argued that at the time the president's car was hit that the escort on bike where no where near there which meant there was no way of his client knowing the convoy was official. everyday i get a new level of respect for this country. i can't imagine the case finding its way to court at all in home country. police would probably just bundle the fella to the station and 'deal' with him.anyway there's no way of such an accident happening in home country. an hour before the president's convoy passes the road is blocked. then he flies over it in a 'copter.

i had my first haircut yesterday. here i get the impression that people are trained in whatever they do. the 'barberer' ( the saloons here usually have 'barbering' saloon instead of barbing - sounds scary huh?) wraps this white tape-like stuff round my neck before putting the usual cloth to stop the hair debris. it was in the careful way he did it, you got the impression of 'professionalism'. boy! did he take his time to do the haircut. i kinda miss the nigerian-three-flicks and your hair is done. i guess here you have to plan for a haircut, no dashing in and dashing out.

lest i forget last weekend i got my house cleaning done. with the help of a group of 'professional' the house was cleaned and now spic and span. i set up my first piece of furniture a dining set cum work table . then the second piece - the sound box - no further details. i plan to set up the gas cooker this weekend not that i plan to do any cooking. my microwave does just fine.

this morning i passed a nigerian . well i figured he was nigerian because he had two nigerian flags stuck on either side of his window frame. i guess its because of the nations cup. there's a fever here. i saw a guy who had painted his whole wind shield (screen) with the Ghana 2008 and its colors. i wonder how the guy saw the road and if the police allow that. i'm thinking of getting two flags too. one ghanaian , one nigerian.

Honeymoon over....

i got bad reviews on my last blog. i was told the home country had automated parking lots in the newly built-sparingly-used local terminal. so i stand corrected. when next i visit i shall look out for it. the honeymoon is over. work has started. its so different going to work and coming home to an empty house. opening the fridge, pulling out yesterdays left over and pushing it into the microwave. its so adult. i plan to get a cook/steward but i'll enjoy this first month of freedom. its not everyday you get to live alone.

i finally got hooked with a guy to do my lawn. saw the guy cutting a neighbor's flower so i asked him if he could do mine. he said his boss is around till sunday but he'll squeeze in time to do it. i came back home to find one part of my lawn done. how he got in? my gate is low and i dont have a padlock on it yet. i dont have any security items that need securing (except for a recent piece of furniture , more about that later). the guy came back in the evening and gave me the scare of my life. i was just closing the microwave when i heard a knock on my kitchen door! for a moment i couldn't figure out how that was possible.

rather than open the door i went through the front door and came round back and saw the grass man at the door. he greeted me and started talking about the work. i waited for him to finish and the naija man in me asked him out of curiousity how he got in. he apologised and said he rang the bell but it didn't seem to work so he let himself in. well i figured he had let himself in to cut my grass what harm could he do. besides the neighbour who's flowers he was trimming wasn't his oga so i guess he is well known in the area. he said he'll come finish the work sometime soon, aparently his lawn mower had run out of oil and fuel. i had to give him part payment so he could refuel and come back some other day to complete the work. getting ready for the barbecue parties.

yeah about the piece of furniture. i got something to make the house a little less quiet. i haven't mounted it yet, i need to do some house cleaning, to rid the sitting room of the debris from the curtain hanging experience. i would say i'm settling in nicely. i'll go look up sitting furniture on saturday. now i'm in a bit of dilema. should i get the dstv before the chairs? getting both would maim me where it hurts most. then there's the reading table i have to get. i think i'll just do things gradually, my list is unyeilding, still as long as the first day.

today i saw a shouting match. i was going through a back way i had found to get home by avoiding the tema motorway when i saw this group of 'area' boys arguing heatedly. it looked like a fight was going to errupt. if i wasn't driving i would have waited to watch for the outcome. i haven't seen much public show of anger since i came. even the taxi drivers are so well behaved its so unreal. today i actually listen for car horns and i could count the number of times one went off. unlike lagosians, it seems ghanaians dont drive generally with their horns. they seem to use a series of light signals to say 'i am speeding make way on the speedlane' or 'go on i'll wait' when a motorist from the opposite side of the road wants to turn into a filling station. these are things we often use horns to express in lagos.

oil at $100 a barrel is theivry. those guys at the naija delta , iraq etc need to stop their disturbances. my car does very good fuel conservation but i do more driving here on the average than i did in lagos. i finally found proof that my tank is 40litres. my fuel indicator got to the red light some days back. i drove into a fillig station and i paid about 40Ghana Cedis for fuel. fuel goes for about 1.0 - something Ghana Cedis per litre. for the first time i understand that fuel is really costly. most cars here are diesel engines and diesel is far cheaper. now i know we really enjoy in naija with fuel at less than a dollar per litre.

Hide my identity?

yesterday had an interesting experience. i was coming back from picking a colleague at the airport. meanwhile before i carry on, the park at the airport is automated. i have been living in the dark ages. you drive your car to the park press some button on a yellow box and a card pops out. the barrier goes up and you can pass and park. when you are ready to go you take the card to a little lady behind a teller window and give the card, she swipes it and tells you how much you have to pay. you pay for an hour and some for every other hour. when you've paid she gives you back the card and you have 15 minutes to get out of the parking lot or you pay for another hour. its so simple a contraption i wonder why we haven't implemented it in the home country. i mean i can park fly to here, come back the same day and pick my car and pay just a 100bucks!

anyway back to my experience. on my way out of the airport i ran into the roundabout. here let me digress again. when i was learning driving , i vaguely recall my dad telling me something about giving way to traffic on your left. vaguely because when i actually started driving, no one seemed to obey the rule. when i came to ghana, i noticed that at the round about people always seemed to wait. i figured it was because of this rule but i wasn't sure anymore whether it was right or left. then once i was told that cars on the round about always have right of way. well i took note of this and i took on the 'when-in-rome' attitude until yesterday.

i got to the round about , i waited and waited. the cars kept passing and passing. then right next to me a taxi made a run for it. well i guess instinct (something you develop driving in lagos) just made me follow suit. well i thought i had gotten away scot free then a car overtakes and parks in the red light lane. i was taking a side road which didn't have lights but the car infront was in my way. i didn't horn because i realised early on that in ghana you hardly heard the blaring of horns. well the light turns green and instead of the car to move the door opens and this young lady steps out. she comes over to my window and indicates i should wind down. i'm wondering if she wants to ask a jjc like me for directions. boy was i wrong.

she was making what i'd call a citizens arrest ( well i couldn't move my car). she asked if i didn't know that at the roundabout i had to wait for cars? that what i did didn't give a good impression about nigeria ( my car has nigerian plates). she said she was nigerian too. blah blah blah. well i was amused so i apologised and told her i was just new in town. she went back into her car and drove off ( she had actually caused a little snag in free flowing traffic).

as she drove off it got me thinking. her major problem was that i had nigerian plates and i drove like 'a nigerian'. why do i have to come to another country and put up a pretense? lagos is the lousiest place to drive. people don't obey traffic rules that's why they need lastma to help them. there's nothing like right of way. right is might. if a trailer comes bounding by your left let's see where your right of way comes in. so why do nigerians expect to behave differently in another country and put up a 'good' image when at home they behave in a crappy manner. you want to launder your image when your underpants are dirty and stinking? its a pity the lady in question isn't reading this blog, i certainly would have wanted her comments.

today i got one item off the long list. i hung up the curtains for the palour with the aid of a 'professional'. it remains putting furniture and the sitting room is set. well almost, there's the home theatre etc. i'm contemplating laying mats japanese style. after all its my home, you sit on whatever furniture i present to you. and if its a mat so be it.

Finally...

"finally, finally dem don show demsef" as the area boys in home country would say. after 13 days of constant electricity supply at about 1.00 AM GMT the lights went out. for a moment i wasn't sure what was happening. i went to peep at my window perchance that is was only in my apartment but i saw the whole neighborhood in pitch blackness. i waited for the tell tale sounds of generators blaring off and heard none. either my neighbors where exceedingly confident about the power situation or they were too much into serenity so they avoided noisy generators. i dozed off, i was woken about two hours later when the light returned. so far its been stable.

when i told a more seasoned 'immigrant' about the light situation. i was assured that it was a normal occurrence but that the light always came back. mentioned something about them just being back from an 'energy crisis' the famous energy crisis. well atleast its good to know that there some flaws in the energy system afterall. from lessons learnt in home country , if light is on for too long there must be a problem!

yesterday i confirmed the theory that all policemen given the same conditions will act in the same manner irrespective of the country they are in. on my way to renew my permit to drive around with naija number plates ( a small act of patriotism - the ima ndi anyi bu principle) i encountered the blue cloth fella's ( they wear navy blue here). the driver of my car was a ghanaian , he knew the way to the border i was a jjc. the police stopped us about 30 mins to be border asked for the car papers which i presented. he now asked the driver for his international driving license. now you only need such a license if you are a foreigner driving in another country. we were asked to park. though i'll say here the policemen are more polite when asking for egunje.

on parking i and the driver came out of the car. the driver was wearing leather sandal-like footwear with no buckles. the policeman asked him why he was improperly dressed for driving. that he needed to wear something that held his legs well in case of braking. so the driver was booked for driving with wrong credentials and not wearing the correct foot wear. we were asked to show up in the district court by 9.am the following morning and meanwhile they held onto the car papers. so the guy tells us we had to bring GH15 (roughly equivalent to $15). the driver insists we cant afford that. after wasting our time a bit they accepted GH8. in the trip to the border we encountered about 4 checkpoints in total and only one 'obtained' us. the one closest to the border.

just before we left there. the inspector called the driver aside and told him that he shouldn't say anything to anyone about letting us go after collecting money. that he is only trying to help us out, knowing the court delays and all. in essence the man was begging that it be not known that they took bribe. i was puzzled why the guy should be so worried then the driver later explained that the charges were trumped up. and that if we had to go to court he'd would have said we were brought after we couldn't give the money demanded. the way he spoke with confidence gave me the impression that such allegations would get the policemen in trouble and besides i was witness.

the experience with the customs i cant write about here. i have to protect the identity of some very helpful people should i need their services in future. the bottom line is that to get the renewal , i had to stamp my passport four times. i left ghana (one stamp) entered togo(another stamp) spent some hours by the beach, left togo ( yet another stamp) entered ghana ( the final stamp). with these i could ask for an extension of my driving permit by 30 more days.

i went to get more domestic stuff today. i got pots and a rug which has replaced the mattress. i'm seriously considering japanese like furnishing . have mats place on the floor that guests can sit on.

i heard some news which made me proud to be associated with home country. the central bank of ghana is pursuing soludo's ideas about banking. they raised the stakes for capital base to $50 million. from all indications the smaller banks will have to merge. so naija still leads in some things after all.