Ghana

Bats in Ghana

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batSince I was a little girl, I have been interested in bats. I’m not sure exactly why, but it seems they are animals that do everything “the other way” – sleep in the day, fly around at night, snuggle comfortably upside-down, eat either BLOOD or was it fruit? – and that is all interesting, don’t you think?

Fast forward to 2004 when I visited Ghana for the first time and saw something strange in the trees around 37 military hospital, smack in the middle of Accra. Was it not …? I was told about the fruit bat colony that lives there, presumably waiting for a king – with the bat as his symbol – who was rushed to the hospital and never came out again…During the day, trees in the area are clad with what looks like brown fruits, but around sunset those “fruits” come alive and the sky turns grey by all the bats that take to the sky! It is an amazing sight!

A few years back, I met someone working on documenting bats and their life for a tourism project and I though, yes, that would be nice! Bat safari! Learning more about these puzzling creatures! Climbing trees! Hanging upside down with tourists! But alas, nothing has happened and bats are not, as far as I know, contributing to Ghana’s GDP in any significant way.

Last week, bats resurfaced in Ghana’s foremost newspaper the Daily Graphic in a lengthy article by James Agyei-Ohemeng and it was even suggested:  Bats are Ghana’s best-kept wildlife secret! Apparently they are also crucial for the health of Ghana’s forests (and timber, so I take back the GDP comment!) and a research project is currently underway in Sunyani!

Pic borrowed from susano.tripod.com.

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Ghana, People, Promoting

Prof. Mkandawire to University of Ghana

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Every year in March (this year April for some reason), the University of Ghana gives all its students a lavish gift: The Aggrey-Fraser-Guggisberg Memorial Lecture Series. A world known scholar will give a lecture, many times on development or similar, and the community comes together and celebrates the best academia has to offer. This year Professor Thandika Mkandawire from the London School of Economics is the speaker.

Mkandewiret_85x119Earlier speakers have been Dr. Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico (2012), Prof. Wole Soyinka (2007) , but I can’t find a proper list of them all…Anyway, Mkandawire is originally from Malawi, but has lived and worked all over the world, notably for the UN (for its Research Institute on Social Development), CODESRIA (organization for African Universities), and at universities in UK, Zimbabwe and even Sweden! I have come across his work on the past and future of universities in Africa, as it is a topic that interests me. So I am looking forward to this lecture series! As this was not enough, I have gotten interesting reactions to that he is lecturing in Ghana: “he is fun/wild/crazy” is often said, so now my hopes are even higher!

The lectures take place in the Great Hall at the very top of the Legon campus this week and are open to the public:

Wed 17th April, 2013 5 PM ‘From “Recovery” to Development”

Thu 18th April, 2013 5 PM “Bringing Social Equality Back in”

Fri 19th, 2013 2.30 PM “The University and “Catching up”

I believe the last leg will be very interesting for my research and think Prof is referring to a World Bank document “Accelerating Catch-Up: Tertiary Education for Growth in Africa” (2009) where Africa’s universities (should) catch up. I am guessing he thinks “catching up” is not the best image for the process that is ongoing on the continent, maybe it suggests Africa should “follow” the West, maybe he thinks the World Bank should not be trusted when it comes to higher education, maybe he thinks Africa’s leaders should aim higher than just catching up…In addition, I hope he says something about “knowledge societies”, the newest buzz word on the block, but the one who listens will find out!

A funny detail is that Mkandawire was also chosen to be the Distinguished Nyerere Lecturer 2013 in Tanzania and seem to combine the two lectures in one trip!

Photo borrowed from LSU. 

 

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Ghana, Photo, Places, Sweden

Travel Destinations: Greater Accra and Gotland

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I have two homes. One in Ghana and one in Sweden. Having two homes is normal to me, it is my life.

In Ghana my life centers around the Greater Accra area: the capital Accra, my hometown Tema and my workplace roughly an hour north east of Accra. In Sweden, I hail from the island of Gotland, more particularly the village Brissund and then the cosmopolitan city of Malmo in the very south thanks to my siblings who moved there.

This week, I stumbled across tourist information of my two homes provinces and WOW! they look great! I can’t believe how lucky I am to share my time between these two places…

1. Ghana: Greater Accra (as described by Virgin Atlantic)

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2. Sweden: Gotland (as described by the campaign GotlandJordenRunt)Screen Shot 2013-04-11 at 1.55.13 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So when are you coming to visit?

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Ghana, Personal

10 Years Later, Five Years Wiser

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On the eve of an October night back in 2002, I met a young man in a student pub. We locked eyes, danced and changed phone numbers. 10 years later, he is my best friend, the father of my child and the one person on earth who annoys me the most!

Anyways, you are now thinking, why is Kajsa HA wasting my time with this today? Well, today is the day we have been married for five years. We were married in Ghana in 2008, watched the Perfect Picture in 2009, went to a Kojo Antwi concert in 2010, had our daughter in 2011 (with no connection to the aforementioned concert!) and spent most of 2012 worrying about accomodation.  It has not always been easy (see “annoys” above), but for better and worse, we are a team.

Kweku, I want to thank you for challenging and inspiring me to be a nicer and wiser person. 

Kajsa and Kweku at 10

 

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Blogging, Ghana

#BlogCamp13: Still Overwhelmed

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BlogCamp 13 collageSaturday 23 March 2013, Ghana’s second blogcamp or conference for bloggers took place. In the evening Ghana’s forst Social MEdia awards were held at the same venue. It was amazing and two days later, I am still tired and slightly overwhelmed.

I will not tell you about everything that happened (Kinna did that already very well), neither will I talk about my trip to the venue (far less interesting than Kofi Larbi’s), but just offer some thoughts – as one of the cofounders of BloggingGhana – the organizing body behind the event:

1. Do we really have 400 people plus in Ghana interested in blogging to the point they spend a whole day, and transport costs, learning more? Amazing!

2. BloggingGhana has been about friendships since the very beginning. I have made some of my most important friendships in this group and what made me happy on Saturday was that new friends seemed to be all around. Many people also met their Twitter or Blog friends in person for the first time. I had some experiences like that as well! Kinna wrote:

I wasn’t privy to any such conversation, but I’m sure there were all manners of hooking up going on! Lots of smiling, lots of hugs, some shade and a world of happiness!

That was indeed the feeling!

3. I wasn’t expecting feeling moved by that the US ambassador came by, but his speech contextualized BloggingGhana in ways I haven’t fully before realized. Hearing things like this constituted an aha-moment for me (click on link above for the whole speech):

We applaud Blogging Ghana for its efforts to encourage hundreds of Ghanaians to express themselves on a broad array of topics affecting daily life. …We support events such as this because we know that honing communication and information technology skills will directly be transferable to the expansion of business opportunities between the U.S. and Ghana, one of our highest priorities.  We agree with the visionaries who founded Blogging Ghana:  In the next five years more and more people are going to find employment utilizing their social media expertise.

4. The glamour of the Social Media awards were also surprising (I should have changed my clothes!) and can be credited to aforementioned diplomat, our own Nana Darkoa of Adventures from winning the Best Blog category and the organizers of the award, Fred and Golda for their attention to detail, for instance to the beautiful physical awards! (bottom left in the collage above)

5. We have already started to plan #BlogCamp14! We started around lunch time on Saturday! It will be better, bigger and more intense. We will also think of a way of making the event more sustainable, likely by roping in some of the attendees as contributing members of our organization. Watch out!

Trust me, I have so much more to say about this day and all the people I met/highfived/laughed with/gave my contacts to/directed to the right session, but talking to so many people, both in mics and face to face is tiring. I still feel exhausted. Thankful. Overwhelmed.

And Inspired.

 

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Ghana, Parenting

How to Carry a Baby Ghana Style: Video

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I have written on this topic before, here for YouTube tips and on when I met a Ghanaian mother who carried her baby like a European, in front, but I have fogotten to post the video I made myself about a year ago with my daughter and nanny playing the lead roles.

Of course my clip is better edited, music included, and explains this West African wisdom better than all competitors out there on the web, or what say you?

 

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Ghana

Wednesday in Ghana

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6.01 I wake up, shower and get dressed.

6.20 The lights go off, but I am ok because I had already prepared for work! I make coffee on the gas stove (only crazy folks rely on electricity for cooking!)

7.00 I leave with my coffee cup and some sandwiches in my car which I will eat in the traffic jam I am foreseeing closer to Accra.

8.04 I get stopped at a police barrier to show my licence. As the policeman is holding it, he tells me that he once wanted to marry a white lady. Any white lady – blonde, brown hair, even red! he says and glances above my eyes. Now he is married to a Ghanaian. He asks when I will be back before he waves me off.

8.15 I fill my car with petrol at the regular gas station and is greeted with a smile, “Hi Mrs Adu!”

8.27 I pick up a nurse who is going in the same direction on the gravel road that is the last leg of my trip. She proceeds to tell me her life story.

8.34 I drop the nurse off  (“God bless you!” she says as she steps out onto the dusty road) and arrive at work (yes, my commute is 1,5 hours)

9.25 I still haven’t gotten Internet to work at work and I open the window as the AC also does not work. Light off?

10.00 I go to my first class of the day. We talk about the election case currently in the Supreme Court (can there be any winners?) and discuss President Mahama’s autobiography and we conclude we can learn much from history.

11.45 I have office hours and console some students who did not do well in their recent exam. I also have a short meeting with my new coworker.

12.45 I go for lunch. I have fried rice, chicken and yam balls. The side order of avocado is today twice as expensive as yesterday.

13.30 My next class. ACs still not working, I wipe my forehead many times as a panel presentation and discussions proceed. A wild debate breaks out on weather or not Achimota school is an “elite” school.

16.00 The secondary school girl I sponsor has still not come. She said she’d come an hour ago. I leave some money with the receptionist and take off.

16.25 I stop on the roadside to buy fruits. I buy a bag of sun warm mangoes and a bag of avocados for 10 GHC (5 USD)

17.40 I come home, but immediately leave again to buy “sachet water”, 500ml drinking water in plastic bags packed in bags of 30. I buy four packs at 1.50 GHC each (75 US cents).

17.45 I return a call to a colleague, she is standing there with  a school girl who is looking for me…?

18.00 Electricity is still not back.

18.20 Electricity comes back! I make dinner and eat.

19.00 I play with my daughter and call my parents in Sweden on Skype. We discuss the upcoming summer holiday.

20.30 After having tried to write this blog post two times, my daughter finally is tired enough to let me.

20.52 I watch the latest episode of Girls with our nanny.

21.20 I go to bed. I might read a few minutes before I fall a sleep.

This is a very ordinary day for me. It has electricity, water and infrastructure challenges, but also human warmth (sometimes a tad too much for my taste), good food and surprises. Always surprises.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ghana, People, Promoting

Blogs I Read: Book Blogs

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I love book blogs. For someone who loves reading they are icing on the cake in the best possible way.  They are at times like substitute book clubs, discussing every possible aspect of a piece of literature and at other times, like beautiful notice boards, helping you navigate the depths of information out there.

In Ghana there are two book blogs to “write home” about.

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1. Accra Books and Things – All Ghanaian literary releases, events and personalities get featured on this blog which also covers library issues and other things you did not know you were interested in!

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2. Kinna reads

Kinna reads and writes about her readings. She has also introduced me to high tech reading lists, challenges and a host of international, especially African, book blogs.

I am proud to say that both originators are friends of mine and active members of BloggingGhana. Below I caught them at a book event last year, Kinna to the left, Nina slightly further away from the camera.

Ghana book bloggers Kinna and Nina

 

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Ghana

Chewing Stars – This is how I celebrated Ghana @56

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Independence day and so many ideas on what to do. Parties, beach visits or marches abound or the popular version of sitting in the shade with a drink and complaining….Well this is how my day went.

In the morning, I tried to not do this:

I mean,we do still have issues with water,healthcare and electricity while a country like Malaysia born in the same year as we were is almost totally free of such issues but who’s comparing?

(Yvonne did it for me).

At lunch, I refrained from discussing the Hope City launch featuring a certain Chris Brown.

Why rlg will spend $1M on CB whose popularity and clout has been as mixed and inconsistent as that of his relationship with Rihanna. Again, there have been questions about why a supposedly middle income state on paper but lower income on the ground will dole out a million bucks to a 23 year old who already has too much money for his age. But hey, you and I have no say in what Roland Agambire chooses to use his monies…

(Kwame did it for me)

In the hot afternoon, I wanted to remind myself I wasn’t required to go to work, like Maya maame:

I hope that those in Ghana and around the world have found a way of celebrating today, as unfortunately a very hectic work day has stopped me from trying to celebrate. The only thing I managed to do was check out Google Ghana’s picture of the day:

 

So, I ended up doing a BBQ with family and chewing some Carambole or starfruit to celebrate the star of Africa, Ghana at 56!

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Ghana, People

Nana Oye Lithur Vetted as Minister

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In the news, ministerial vettings are ongoing with interesting turns around the new Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, a lawyer (im)famous for her activism around homosexuality and human rights generally.

During her parliamentary hearing, she had to use some “double speak” to be able to go through and still not alienate her fanbase. My favorite careful wording from the vetting was when she said she has “not said any word that I will promote homosexuality”. Luckily, noone asked her if she will “promote heterosexuality”! See clips from the vetting below, my favorite quote starts at 1.27.

I have met her once, at the Humanist conference late last year, and took this photo of when Nana Oye Lithur told us about a front page of (Ghana’s largest newspaper) the Daily Graphic that was a “worst case scenario” for an activist as it zeroed in on her as a supporter of something that is more than controversial in Ghana. However, as an encouragement for others with views against the norm she concluded “it wasn’t all that bad, no real bad things happened after this” and indeed she was right, it even didn’t stop her from a ministerial position just a few years later!

Lithur

Although there were people against the nomination and much conspicuous debate, others also supported her and in the end she sailed through the vetting process and has now worked her first day. I am happy for Ghana. Oye Lithur is a clever woman and this is – even if no homosexual promotion will be carried out – a clear break with the homophobic past of Ghanaian political leadership.

 

 

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Ghana

Back in Ghana and NIA’s Registration of Foreigners

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I’m finally back in the warm weather! Although vacation in Sweden was great, I felt a deep contentment spread through my body already when entering the “Ghanaian gate” at Shiphol Airport. Again I was surrounded by Ghanaians, babies on backs and loud CHALE, LOOONG TIME’s. I was happy. But not for long.

I had barely gotten off the plane, when I was informed that the National Identification Authority, NIA, is registering foreigners staying longer than 3 months in Ghana (ok, fine) for the fee of $ 120 (what? Foreigners in Ghana make money in GHC too!) to be renewed yearly ( heh! Ad3n?!)

In addition to yearly Visas, work permits ( yes, for spouses and children of Ghanaians too despite what is written in the law) and other fees it is really expensive to be a foreigner in Ghana.

Why, Mother Ghana, do you treat me like an unwanted child? Medo wo!

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