As everyone with eyes can see, my blog is going through a rough patch.
What Do You Do with a Baby All Day?
Yesterday, I got the question:
– But what do you do with your baby all day?
The short answer is sleep, eat (her mostly, me in the space between) and play.
The long answer is this:
02.00 She wakes up with a wiggle and a yawn. I manage to give her my left breast before she screams or even opens her eyes.
05.30 She wakes up with a smile. I give her my right breast and when she has eaten (drunk?) decide it is time for a diaper change. After playing in the baby gym and saying some nursery rhymes, putting on a new outfit we go back to bed.
08.32 Grandma comes to take her before dashing off to work. I go back to sleep.
09.00 Grandpa brings her back. She is hungry.
11-ish We wake up and do the diaper-thing. I decide to dress her in an outfit that matches mine.
11.30 I have breakfast and read a wonderful blogpost about tossing the hunt for productivity out while grandpa tries to get her to sleep.
15.15 We go out for a walk after she has slept and ate. During the walk she sleeps.
16.12 We enter a café. She wakes up. She looks around the place in amazement. I hurry to order coffee and gulp it down before feeding her again.
17.14 We visit my brother. She screams until I pick her up and then she burps. I need to remember that babies (almost) always cry for a reason.
18.40 Back home. We play for a while. She looks at things, that is I say “What are you looking at? A flower? The sun rays?” Then she is suddenly hungry and after that needs a diaper change. I optimistically put on her pajama. She is all smiles at the changing table.
19.30 Still trying to get her to sleep. As soon as I sit down she cries. I put her in the BabyBjörn and start to sing. When she is asleep, I have dinner.
20.55 She is up again. Can she really be hungry? She sits with my parents and “talks” to them before coming back to me. I feed her to sleep.
23.00 Time to blog!
The second question I got was,
– Is it fun?
Well, it is a different tempo, a changed way of life, an exhausting and at the same time relaxing task, many times it is scary, but also exciting and yes, maybe even fun!
Global Voices on Homosexuality in Ghana
Last week, I posted on homosexuality in Ghana and the burgeoning online debate on the topic. This week the debate on homosexuality in Ghana has been summarized by Global Voices, which is good news for extending the discussion to other parts of the world.
Thanks, Global Voices!
Meeting a Blogger in Accra: Jemila Abdulai
Today, I ran into Jemila Abdulai, a fellow GhanaBlogger who blogs on the blog Circumspecte.
Now, to all of you that might sound regular, even mundane. Why are you telling us this? Meeting a blogger from your own blogging group, c’mon! Well, just hear me out! We have never met before! Jemila has been living in the states and following our meetings and emails from afar, but just moved back to Ghana.
I liked how the whole meeting happened. I was walking back to work after lunch and a student of mine comes towards me with a woman I have not met before. I say hi to my student (turned out she is Jemila’s sister!) and Jemila says:
– Hi, I’m Jemila!
And it was suddenly so obvious.
I wonder if Internet critics (“our kids only sit in front of screens these days”) would change their mind if a stranger on the street turned into a friend, just because of blogging?
Kajsa HA Listed as a Top Blog with Go Overseas!
My blog has been listed as a top blog by Go Overseas!, a site that promotes teaching, studying and volunteering abroad.
So why is this good news?
- I feel good to be present in an environment that promotes learning.
- I like that the blogs they promote – actually, “love” is the word they use – are individually reviewed.
- Through a very nice email conversation with them, only after I discovered I was getting traffic from their site, not from any pressure to link back to them, I feel I have really earned my badge (see badge to the right).
- Also, I judge the quality of the listing by being in such good company.
On the Go Overseas! 10 top blogs from Ghana, GhanaBlogging members Holli and G-lish lead the list, I come in on 7th place. For top blogs from Africa, productive collaborative blog Africa is a Country leads the pack and I discovered some new interesting blogs from other continents from this listing!
LikeLinks of this week: On Learning
Constantly overwhelmed by impressions, links, articles, books and “interesting stuff”, I have tried to organize myself in many ways.
I tried keeping my web influences or links all open at once in different “tabs” in Firefox (“why is my Internet so slow? Oh, no it crashed again!”, I tried Delicious (“Log in again? Oh, what was my password, now? If I save this link, will the whole world be able to see it?”), I tried Google Reader (“Today: 450 unread interesting blog posts”) and frankly none of these methods really worked for me.
Maybe I should just imitate pro-bloggers I admire (now talking about Ethan Zuckerman and Chris Blattman) and post a list of links when the links get to many. Then I have a record of stuff for myself, and I have shared the links I liked with you.
Lets try: THIS WEEK’s LINKS (focus on learning)
Intelligent Life – the Economist spin off magazine I always buy when I travel is very much present online. This issue has an poignant piece on digital Africa.
“I asked my Somali companion what the boys were up to. He wound down the window and summoned his gunmen to go and ask. The answer came back. “They’re updating their Facebook profiles.”
Migration researcher Hein de Haas started his own blog recently. He has written very well on the migration and development discourse and I believe he came to Accra for a conference a few years back. Anyways, I believe it will be interesting to follow his more contemporary day-by-day thoughts.
“The idea is that up to 1.5 million African migrants are waiting in Libya for the first occasion to migrate to Europe. This idea is based on a number of common misunderstandings about North African and Libyan migration.
The most fundamental and persistent misunderstanding is that Libya is a so-called “transit country” – or the assumption that most or all migrants in Libya would be “on their way” to Europe. This totally ignores the basic fact that over the past 40 years, Libya has been as destination country in its own right.”
The Illustrated Professor. A fun and thoughtful blog. Visual rocks. This post from last week that I really liked was called The Learning Embrace.
“I must remember that learning doesn’t necessarily follow from teaching. Or from schools. Or that teachers and schools even control all the learning young people embrace. Learning is owned by humanity not by schools or by states. Learning happens when a person decides to learn. It even happens when a person isn’t aware it’s happening. Nevertheless, I am responsible for my students’ learning–again, learning over which I don’t always have control. How can I promote the kind of “learning embrace” that has the best chance of success?”
Ok, that worked pretty well for me. I also added all of these to my links to the right.
How was it for you?
PS. Also came across Open Study. Not really sure what it is, but it looks like an online study group tool. Isn’t that neat? Wow, there really are a lot of cool things out there…I am overwhelmed again…
Ghana Internet Governance Forum: An Eyewitness Report
This morning, I decided to stop by the Ghana Internet Governance Forum (IGF) at the Kofi Annan Center for Excellence in ICT. It is a local stakeholder forum to discuss issues for Internet governance and it were to start with a session on youth and Internet governance. As one of the panelists was running late, I was called upon to talk. I quickly decided to focus on two issues that I feel are important and inter-related:
- Access to Internet in Ghana – currently only 18% of Ghanaians have access to the net, the bulk of this group on their phones. Internet access is expensive and limited to urban areas. For youth to gain access in their numbers this has to change.
- Production of local content – at the moment, Ghanaians consume the Internet rather than create it. We need to write more articles, upload more photos and videos. Blogging could be one way. How can youth be encouraged to create local content? (here I returned to the issue of affordable access)
With me on the podium was GhanaBlogging members Gameli, Amma and Mac-Jordan along with moderator Godfred Ahuma, coordinator of the Ghana IGF. The discussion was interesting and involved government agencies and their (non-) usage of social media, Sakawa or Internet fraud, Twitter vs. tv-news, if you have a right to be forgotten online/managing your online presence and what we want from the service providers (Philip Sowah of Airtel Ghana was listening when I listed 1) SMS to Twitter, 2) higher speed Internet and 3) cheaper access for a larger customer base).
I left the program early, party because no Internet access was provided in the venue(!), so missed out on deliberations on Internet governance for development and importantly affordable access and diversity.
You can follow the proceedings on Twitter, #GhIGF. Hopefully pictures will come soon.
Update: Read a report from one of the other panelists at Gameli’s World. Photo credit to the same source!
Dust Magazine Does it Again!
A new issue of the Dust Magazine is out! (you might remember I hailed the Dust Magazine last time it came out) And this time, yours truly is a contributor!
Other GhanaBlogging
members contributing to this issue are Esi Cleland/What your momma never told you about business, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah /Adventures from the bedrooms of African women and of course Kobby Graham is the editor of Dust Magazine.
The issue also has a beautiful cover photo of Ghanaian musician Ebo Taylor by Tobias Freytag/FAD and several amazing photo collages by facebook celeb Adisa Abeba (a Tema resident like myself!) – all in all, both pictures and texts well worth your time.
Of course, this time around I am slightly biased…
Global Voices Interview with Kajsa HA
Today, I am interviewed by Linda Annan, editor of American-Ghanaian Obaasema Magazine, in the international online blogging/citizen media community Global Voices.
Global Voices is an amazing site that pulls together stories from blogs all over the world, with a focus on the areas we do not hear from every day. The community is largely volunteer-driven and is co-founded by celebrity blogger “My Heart’s in Accra”/Ethan Zuckerman.
Here is an excerpt from my interview:
How and why did you get into blogging? And why Ghanablogging?
In 2006 I was living in Paris and started blogging to keep in touch with family and friends and write about my impressions of my new life. At the time, some Swedish friends had blogs at home. I have always loved to write and thought it was a brilliant forum, but couldn’t really find my own tone or topic. However, when I knew I was going to move to Paris, I found myself reading blogs, not books, about Parisian life. I think that spurred the decision to start blogging myself.
In Paris, I was invited to a blog meet-up, hosted by blogger Petite Anglais (who later got a book deal out of her blog). It was great to meet with other bloggers and it turned out two of them worked within the same big organization as me at the time!
So in 2007, when I moved to Ghana I continued blogging and was always on the lookout for Ghanaian blogs. When I had found enough of them, I organized the first meet-up with a friend. It was in July 2008, and eight bloggers came. We decided on the name GhanaBlogging as we wanted the action in the name. We are all doers.
What are you referring to when you say you love the shift from online presence to real life meetings?
When people think of blogging, they think about a lonely person in front of a computer, when in reality it really is a network! Blogging comes with belonging somewhere, blogging is an activity that has strengthened my relationship to Ghana. So yes, my blog is online, but many real life meetings have come out of it!
Next GhanaBlogging Meet-Up
The February GhanaBlogging meet-up is happening on Saturday the 19th at Cafe dez Amiz in Accra (close to Flagstaff House).
If you blog about Ghana, you are welcome! (then you should also sign up at the Ghanablogging website here)
Contact me for any questions: kajsahallberg (at) gmail . com
My 500th Blog Post
After celebrating turning 30 last week, I thought life couldn’t be more festive, but here I am celebrating again! This is my 500th blog post! Woo hoo!
So how did it all start?
Well, I kept a diary since I learned how to write (or from just before, scribble, scribble) and always loved the act of writing. In 2006 some Swedish friends had blogs, and though I thought blogging was a brilliant forum, I couldn’t really find my own tone or topic. When I got the opportunity to move to Paris, I found myself reading blogs, not books, about Parisian life. I think that spurred the decision to start blogging myself. And then the topic was clear: “Non, je ne regrette rien!”
When moving to Ghana in 2007, the blogging really took off. I wanted to write positively about Ghana and Africa, as I thought most reports from this part of the world was negative and chose the reverse image of a dry desert as my blog name: “Rain in Africa”.
In this post, I thought I’d chronicle my blogging experience with looking back at some of my blog posts.
1st Post: First Let’s Have A Song
Jan 9th 2006.
As an Edith Piaf lover on my way to Paris, I started by blogging with the lyrics to her hit Mon Grand Paris.
The post has one link, for the student hostel where I had just gotten a room.
“Paris, je m’ennuie de toi, mon vieux.
On se retrouvera tous les deux,
Mon grand Paris.”
Dec 18th 2007
I had moved to Ghana and just enrolled at the driving school. Some months later I had my licence, still one of my proudest achievements, and I rarely omit telling anyone who wants to hear that “I learned to drive in Ghana!”
“My goal is to sometime next year be able to navigate between goats and Mercedes-Benzes, yellow taxicabs and banana sellers.”
Jan 29th 2009
I was now working in the corporate sector in Ghana and decided to tell this funny story about a stray comment during a meeting with suits.
It is in the “only in Ghana”-category…
“Bored, I glance out the window and see some green leaves. To be a bit funny, I turn to one of the guys in the room and ask:
– Are you the one growing plantain out there?”
300th Post: Developing Blogging, Leaving Blogger for WordPress
Oct 18th 2009
Here I took the first step into professionalizing my blogging. Its a post of the advantages of “going WordPress” and also an interactive piece where I am asking my readers for help. From the header you can also see that I now, thanks to fellow Ghanablogger David Ajao, understand how the title of the post should be filled with keywords, rather than just being witty.
“What do you think? Does the name of a blog matter? How it looks? How its posts are categorized? What topics it presents? What URL it has?”
400th Post: Minor Field Study (MFS) in Ghana
May 18th 2010
At this time, I had migrated my blog to wordpress and the domain kajsaha.com. When the blog looked as I wanted, I was motivated to write more.
This post reflects that I have added a topic to my blog: academically related texts. This particular one, outlines the Swedish MFS program and my current role within it.
“Back to yesterday afternoon. I first took Emma and Ebba to eat some fufu and drink some bissap at Buka. We talked about everything from clinics to corruption, from surveys to soup, from PhD to perfect beaches.”
A bit more than 5 years of blogging in three countries and 500 posts.
Thanks to all of you who read this blog, thanks for your insightful comments and for stubbornly coming back for more.
Out of my 500, which was your favorite post?
Ghana’s Happiness Culture
Ghanaians are often described as a “happy people” and just the other day in a group of Ghanaian young adults I was thinking to myself, somewhat grumpily: “what on earth are they laughing about?”
So it is roaring with laughter that I read my GhanaBlogging colleague Graham‘s grumpy, but on-point, observation about the “enforced happiness” (Graham’s words) or “happiness culture” (mine) of Ghana. He takes us through everyday life cheer, party fun, church enjoyment and with an eye for detail he notes that Ghana’s most popular radio stations are called Happy FM and Joy FM! Graham continues his rant:
Even the music coming from the radio is happy! Hip-Life, High-Life, Happy, Happy, Happy. The music’s light and fluffy drum beats and the synthesised sounds have far too much sugar in them – give me vinegar any day!
Almost in a reply, Anti-Rhythm argues that the play in learning was taken away by the colonial influences on Ghanaian education.
In these our lands, many years ago, we used to learn by playing. Through song and dance and theatrics, we learnt what was relevant for our circumstances then.
When the colonialists came to inflict their cut of formal education on Africa, we left the fun behind.
Does that mean that Ghanaians were even more happy in ancient times?