Parenting, Personal, Photo, Sweden

Virtual Outdooring

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On Thursday 21st of July, my child was born.

One week after the birth, a Ghanaian traditional welcoming ceremony or outdooring was performed by my husband here in Sweden to welcome our child and introduce her to the world.

It was a beautiful evening (although, according to custom, it should have been performed in the morning). The significance of the event was told to my family and our child got to experience the difference between truth and lie, through tasting opposites such as salty and sweet, water and whiskey(!).  Finally her name was pronounced.

I have since been thinking about what to put here on my blog, how much to disclose, what to say about the miracle that has happened to me and my family. Finally, I thought, let me just outdoor my daughter virtually as well!

So here, I present Selma Miriam Nana Aba to you with some pics from her outdooring ceremony:

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Ghana, Personal, Places, Sweden

Roosters Prohibited in Residential Areas

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Today when I was reading local newspaper SydSvenskan, I came across this piece of information (not yet on the web) apropos a home for elderly that have dogs and soon will have five chicken to liven up its inhabitants.

I feel this news somehow illustrates one of the differences between life in Ghana and in Sweden (homes for the elderly of course is a difference in itself).


According to Vellinge’s environmental officer Lars Robert Göransson, roosters are forbidden within residential areas (detaljplanerat område in Swedish) because of the risk of their cocoos disturbing.

However, so far there are no close neighbors to the hencoop (at the home for elderly).

– “I do not want to promise anything”, says Göransson. “But if the elderly would appreciate a cocooing rooster as well, then we will have to look into the possibilities of issuing a temporary permit.”

(my translation)

On the one hand, I love that there is legislation on this type of nuisance, but on the other I also feel strange about the whole idea of paperwork being carried out because of a rooster.

Which world would you like to live in? The world where life is planned in detail or where there is room for a rooster?

Photo by Robert Åslund/tupp.se

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Personal, Places, Sweden

Low-Key Celebration of National Day in Sweden

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Today is sixth of June, Sweden’s national day. National day? you say and think of parades, flags and fireworks flying about and families getting together to mark the occasion with foods and festivities.

However, it might be the most low-key celebration of any nation. Ever. Only a few years ago, the sixth became a holiday in Sweden and we Swedes are frankly still not sure what to do with it. We do not have a history of parading, as we are not a military nation and have been lucky (or aloof) enough to avoid wars for more than 200 years. Waiving a Swedish flag in Sweden is not encouraged. We feel it is somehow boastful and much too nationalistic. Fireworks would not work against the light summer skies – remember the midnight sun?

Some Swedes say that our midsummer celebrations at the end of this month is when our Swedishness really shines though: families meet, traditional food and drink are prepared and strange nationalistic behavior like building a flower pole, dancing and singing is proclaimed – so maybe that would be a better national day?

See my earlier five (!) posts about midsummer celebrations here. Typically, I have never written about the national day before.

Pic from last year’s midsummer celebrations with family in friends in Sweden.

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France, Personal, Photo, Places, Positive

Impressions from Marseille

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I had such a lovely time in Marseille, in the south of France!

Top left at a visit in a vineyard in Cassis, a small town outside Marseille, a sign at the vineyard which translates to “a meal without wines is like a day without sunshine“…then the lovely local fish soup Bouillabaisse (not too different from a good light soup with fresh fish, I must say…read all about it in the Bouillabaisse charter here) and last but not least with friend since 10 years, Cris, who lives in Marseille and hosted me.

 

The next collage is showing the time working – which was the lion share of my stay, I promise! Here you see Mary Gentile and symposium/workshop organizer Antony Bueno of Bentley University conversing, the Euromed Management campus, a workshop group session and a presentation by the hilarious Aaron Nurick.

 

I felt like this trip connected me to the wide world of teaching (Australia, Taiwan, Uganda, US), opened my eyes to new academic opportunities and at the same time reminded me of how small the world is…

…like this was not enough, French food was of course great, living in a nice hotel was amazing and getting to also see an old friend was a big plus…

…that is a pretty fabulous week, in my opinion!

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France, Ghana, Personal, Places, Sweden

Update: Nana Konadu, Sweden and Ethics

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So I was planning this great exposé about that Ghana now has a female running for the flagbearer of the ruling political party – aka this is as close as Ghana has been to a female president. On this issue, I have interviewed people, I have thought about it from several angles, but I somehow cannot get a good post out of it!

At the same time, I have now temporarily relocated to Sweden, which meant some serious packing, saying farewell to friends and family and stressing in Ghana! In Sweden, it has meant some serious adjusting, saying many hellos to friends and family and trying to wind down…

Next week, I will go to the city of Marseille in France for this symposium  on ethics. Lets see if I can do some blogging from there…If I can’t, it means another week of no posts here while I am sipping a café crème in the warm winds from the Mediterranean sea attending a symposium!

Pic of Nana Konadu Rawlings from GNA.

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Parenting, Pregnancy

“Happy Mother’s Day in Advance!”

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Yesterday was mother’s day in Ghana and in many other countries (however not in Sweden!). Celebrations here in Ghana are maybe a little more pronounced than in Sweden, but apart for some Mother’s day parties and marches, pretty much the same. This year as every year.

Except for one, important thing. This year, I was included!

“Happy Mother’s Day in Advance!”

I got to hear several times during the day that was spent with mother-in-law, relatives and friends. So, yes, now it is official here on my blog too: I am expecting a baby! I am going to be a mother!

How did you celebrate mother’s day?

By the way, I had to check Wikipedia for the spelling and liked the information on the apostrophe:

In 1912, Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrases “second Sunday in May” and “Mother’s Day”, and created the Mother’s Day International Association.

“She was specific about the location of the apostrophe; it was to be a singular possessive, for each family to honour their mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world.”
By the way 2. I added the categories “Pregnancy” and “Parenting” under “Personal”. More posts on these topics are likely to follow…
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Blogging, Kajsa HA's Social Media, People, Personal

Links of this week: On Learning

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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.

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…

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Kajsa HA's Social Media, People, Personal

Build a Tribe! On Leading Groups

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Recently, I came across marketing guru Seth Godin’s interactive list on how to build a tribe. That is how to create a group or a network or even a MOVEMENT that works and to build community between people. Mr Godin even wrote a book on his concept of Tribes (and at one point was ranked by technocrati as the world’s no 1 blogger), but I think the (free) resource discussed here covers the vitals.

This list (built on social media tool squidoo) is a resource that provides inspiration and ideas and make me think of how to take organizations and networks that I am currently a member of (like GhanaBlogging, IAS Graduate Students Network, FabFem etc.)  forward.

My favorite items on the list are:

Listen Carefully

As well as speaking have a strong ear for what the group is saying. Trust that the tribe knows what it needs to grow.

Invent rituals

Summer camps do it. So does organized religion. Great corporations have their own lingo, their own culture. How you speak and the totems and daily rituals build connection.

Give Peoples’ Lives Meaning

Have tribal goals that enrich peoples’ lives and give them more meaning

Create a manifesto.

Your tribe already exists… it just hasn’t been defined yet.

So create a manifesto. Give voice to the frustrations of your tribe members. If you strike the right tone – if they feel you can relate to them – this manifesto will be the viral tool that gets your tribe members to raise their hands and say “I am.”

How would you build a tribe?

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Personal

Should I Change My Name When I Marry?

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Today, I have been married for three years.

It has been a helluvaride. If my better half read my blog, I’d send him kisses through this post, but he doesn’t (!) so I will just go ahead and say that I am happy I did.

Also, for anyone thinking about getting married, I have this advice on name change (as earlier conveyed to a dear friend in an email):

About last names and marriage. I think the best advice I can give is
do not change your name. Do not even add one, like I did. It is a HAZZLE and also
a weird tradition – why should I change my name just because I marry?
(actually it is not the tradition in Ghana and many other countries).

In hindsight, I do not regret adding Adu, just because that is kind of the only thing that makes me blend in a bit more here in Ghana, “aahh, so you are Ghanaian??”, but I am not sure you need that in [the country where you presently live].
Also many times, people call me “Mrs Adu” without ever having seen my
name in official print and that makes me think “why was it so
important to me to take his name officially?”. Finally, the name laws in Sweden
also prohibits me to give Hallberg as a name to my children now as it is now my “middle name”…
So, read the fineprint or just keep your name and live happily ever
after!

Photo from my wedding day by Kerstin Alm.

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Personal

Weekend Report including Beach and Wanlov

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My weekend, I announced on Twitter on Friday, would be dedicated to sleep, walks on the beach and good food.

It totally was! I slept a lot, walked on the beach BOTH Saturday and Sunday morning (this I believe is a southern Ghanaian luxury everybody that can get up at 6am on a weekend should give in to!) and ate well.

I also went to see Wanlov launch his Brown Card/African Gypsy album. Read Graham’s review here (excerpt below) which I found very insightful and on point!

Working with two Ghanaian musicians and accordion player Jérôme Pierre Soulas and violinist Filippo Bonini Baraldi from Paris, he combined elements of his own quirky Ghanaian style with their ‘gypsy music’. Wanlov’s rather androgynous image and performance style complimented the formality of the Paris musicians.

But did this merging of styles work?

It was Saturday and “everybody” was there.  I even met Wanlov’s mother in the buzz afterwards!

This week it is Mid-Sem “break” aka grading all the way. It is going well, with one or two oxymora drifting by…

Have a good week!

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Blogging, Ghana, Ghanablogging.com, How to start blogging, Kajsa HA's Social Media, Paris, Personal, Published Elsewhere

Global Voices Interview with Kajsa HA

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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!

Read the full Global Voices interview here.

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