Lazy Easter

Nothing much has happened the last couple of days which I think is good. Sometimes we modern human beings plan too much, live too fast, see more than we can handle and rather feel stressed than fulfilled.

When an equally relaxed friend came to see me yesterday and had a glance through some of my beloved cook books I thought of that I haven’t really cooked much lately – even though I love food and the cooking process.

The day before, I did some planting of seeds in my backyard. Watered my new plantation for almost and hour and with dirty hands and sweat running down my neck I felt really good, almost refreshed.

What do you do when you to-do-list is empty?

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Swedish Nostalgia

I must be missing my native country Sweden, because yesterday I heard myself say this:

“Yes, successful socialism…”

“When I miss home, I read an IKEA catalog”

“From a Swedish perspective, how can you not like Obama’s health care bill?”

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House Cleaning in Ghana

There was a program on TV called Extreme Home Makeover some years back (maybe its still on?), anyways, I sometimes think of that when it is time to clean our house here in Ghana.

The combination of louvre-windows or a house that is not completely sealed and dusty surroundings makes for so – much – dust – EVERYWHERE.

In wardrobes, in drawers, on books, on walls…Then we also have the left-behinds of the involuntary pets – spiderwebs, wall gecko droppings, dead flies, a leg of a cockroach etc. As Ghana is also a humid country certain things get moldy, especially clothing, bags and shoes, but also pillows, table cloths and napkins – that is if you don’t take them out every so often to dry in the sunlight. What I am trying to say is that a house in Ghana can get really, really dirty.

The difference to the TV-version of it is that I do not get to go on a luxurious vacation and only scream MOVE-THAT-BUS before my new house emerges, no, I have to be a part of the SERIOUS dust removal.

Why do I say EXTREME and SERIOUS?

Well, because of the normal cleaning routines in Ghana that seem harsh to me (although now that I am sitting in a clean house I understand the rationale). What about:

– Spreading all my shoes and purses over the lawn in our backyard
– Scrubbing all carpets with Omo
– POURING water on the floor and scrubbing (see small helper in pic)
– Emptying the bookshelf completely to wipe all the books down
– Carrying all “small furniture” i.e. tables, lamps, baskets, vases…outside for a thorough sweeping and finally my personal favorite:
– Hosing the windows/dirty mosquito netting down from the outside (yes, plenty of dirty water in the room)

Sigh, is it obvious that I hate cleaning day?

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Only in Ghana – Twitter in Ghana

I signed up to Twitter some time ago and am still struggling with using it.

First it is the practical stuff. At times, I can upgrade my Twitter status or tweet from my phone – but many times this does not work.

Also, Twitter rarely works at home (Vodafone Broadband). Is it a firewall maybe?

But it has not really mattered, because I just could not see the use for Twitter. It is mostly a lot of noisy small talk.  The only (useful) application I have thought of is that I’d love to get (and contribute to)  updates about traffic for instance on the Tema-Accra motorway. I even invented a hashtag or searchable keyword for writing about traffic in Ghana  #TraGha – but how do one make a hashtag be used?

And OK, OK, Twitter is fun to use at events, with event specific hashtags but then phone updates have to work! (see above discussion).

So currently, I have given up on serious usage and as Twitter today is working from home/through a wordpress application, I found this up-and-coming funny hashtag: “#onlyinGhana”. Here are some of my favorites:

#onlyinGhana a Burger is regarded as ‘high class food’.

Theres a shop at the mall called WHITEley’s that sells only african stuff. #onlyinghana.

some cedi notes look like dey have fell in the gutter #onlyinghana

#onlyinghana where #facebook gurls paint their walls wid azar paint just to clean ya #wallpost

#onlyinghana does the whole parliament go to welcome Obama at the airport

What “only in Ghana” sentence would you add?

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Short Week

Soon I am off to work. I teach Mon-Wed so when Monday is a holiday, my week becomes really short. Also after this short week the mid semester break comes on. Still, I’m sure I’ll make myself busy. One of the things I am doing this week is to finish up an article I am writing for University World News on sexual harassment in universities in Ghana or “sex for grades” as it has been described in media recently (for instance here and here).

If you have opinions or information on that topic, don’t hesitate to comment below.

Now I will start my short week!

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Welcome to My New Blog!

Finally! Today I am moving (or should I say “launching”?) my new blog on wordpress and introducing you, my dear reader, to a new blogging concept. You will recognize much from Rain in Africa (I have imported all the posts, the headings of imported posts are marked “>”), but in this space I’d like to expand and give you

-More personal stories (on Me , myself and I)
-More work related stories (teaching and PhD/ migration research)
-More critical stories
-More international stories
-More of my favorite reads, links and resources.

To underline that the new blog is more personal, I’ve decided to “do an AtoKD” and simply give my new blog my name plus initials = Kajsa H.A. resulting in the web address https://kajsaha.com (please bookmark it and change eventual links!)

Thanks for reading my blog and I’d love to read your comments on my new blog!

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>PhD News

>Last Friday I got a phone call. It was late in the afternoon and I was in the Accra Mall stocking up for the weekend with a friend. I had to run into a quiet place because I thought I heard something like:

…Graduate…University…Ghana….

I was right. It was my first call back from the university. The message was short.

Please bring your birth certificate on Monday.

Here I have been waiting since March last year, or at least since November when I did my presentation, to hear back, and now they are giving me a weekend’s notice to produce my birth certificate. BIRTH CERTIFICATE.

Well, thanks to Sweden’s excellent governmental ICT services, I was there Monday morning with my certificate. Now it looks like I might be a PhD student very, very soon.

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>Busy Everyday Life

>This week was also not a good blogging week – what is happening to me?
Well, let me tell you and at least that gives me a few days respite!

These days I teach Monday through Wednesday. It is a lot of preparation work, since I am teaching two classes that are new to me. It means all lectures, assignments, readings and handouts have to be prepared from scratch. I knew this semester was going to be heavy and truly, even though I love my work I have been very busy.

As you all know, I am also hoping to soon start my PhD at University of Ghana. The update is that my department in January arranged for supervisors and now it is up to the School of Research and Graduate Studies to officially admit me to the program. Yesterday, I was tired of waiting and wrote a letter of inquiry into the application process to involved parties. And I think that was a good thing to do, because all the three recipients were not in their offices when I came around.

Outside of work and study, I am engaging in civil society. I am a part of the Fabulous Feminists (FabFem), the Accra Book Club (ABC), the Accragio choir (but that’s a different blog post, Sppp) and the Ghanaian bloggers’ group Ghanablogging.com.

The FabFem met yesterday, a fun meeting as usual with young, female, fabulous, professionals with one or two things to say about feminism. Especially interesting for this meeting was that we talked about what we as a group can do for our community. I’ll keep you posted. (also, a new member of the group recognized me from my blog! celebrity life, here I come!)

The ABC last month read Swedish (!) writer Stieg Larsson’s book from the Millenium triology. I missed that meeting, so I look forward to saying a thing or two on Lisbeth Salander’s impact on Swedish society at the ABC meeting next week. This month we are reading Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes (and hey, there’s another blog post).

Ghanablogging.com
is meeting the week after that, but as I am the anchor of the group, every week there are things to take into consideration. People who want to join our network, have meetings with us etc. Last week my colleague Edward and I spoke about blogging at Radio Universe, University of Ghana’s student run radio. At this point in time we want to spread the blogging habit or citizen media to others and are planning an event around that.

Tonight there is a performance with a female flamenco group with the scariest and best name, Mala Sangre, at the Alliance Francaise. 8.30 pm!

And that is my busy everyday life!

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>Involuntary Absense

>
So some of you might think I decided to check out completely just because I turned 29 on Sunday.

But that is not the case. I mean, Yes, I was a bit shocked (“29, already? Wow, that means I am soon to be 30, iiiiaaaah”). Yes, I went to the beach to unwind. Yes, I had a glass of good, red wine (or two).

But my absence here has nothing to do with that and all to do with an Internet Service Provider that has painted the town red.

Literally.

Update: And I’m not the only one noticing, see Nyani‘s very similar post here!

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>Did I Dance with Kojo Antwi? Part III or Photo Evidence

>Finally, courtesy of pro-photographer Nyani Quarmyne there is photographic evidence of that

YES, I DANCED WITH KOJO ANTWI*!



This is for you my loyal readers! 🙂

Read Part I and Part II of this story here and here.

*a legend according to Esi, see for yourselves here.

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