>Looking for a house

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The last week, I have been happliy exploring a new world – the real estate business. My bf and I would like to rent a house in our town, preferrably on the northern side close both to his job and to the motorway to Accra and my job. We would like to have at least three bedrooms (this is how you measure house size in Ghana, number of bedrooms)to accomodate 1. ourselves, 2. a couple of visitors, and 3.a relative that is to live with us and help out in the house alongside his studies which we would be paying for (Ghanaian CSN…). I would like a garden in which I’d grow papaya, banana(!) and maybe mint for Mojitos and he would like a safe spot to park. He would like a kitchen that is clean and a walk-in storeroom, I would like to be close to a main road so that I can catch a taxi and go to town myself.

When shopping for a house one is sadly apt to follow one’s feelings instead of one’s reason. I have seen all kinds of houses: small, huge, dirty, pink, non-completed, attatched, cute, dull, and even one with a tiny indoor pool! We have talked about preferences and budget. Still, what one remembers when trying to make an informed descision is how the light fell into that one livingroom, how that next-neighbor seemed so friendly, the idea of that I could do morning yoga on that rooftop (ok, lets for now disregard from that I am a late sleeper), the nice floor tiles in the master bedroom, and how a table on that verandah could be the perfect place to eat dinner.

Today, we have an appointment to see a house in community 11 (perfect location) with four bedrooms. I’ll keep you posted.

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>Nostalgia

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What is it I really miss from home? The climate, some of the foods, my friends and family and being able to walk down the street and not wanting to capture at least 3 things on camera. Yesterday, I went to the capital with my boyfriend. Apart from one evening in an Accra restaurant this was my first visit in the capital since I came. We shared a taxi there, which took no more than 30 minutes still we ended up in a different world. We found ourselves in the hip Osu district of Accra. A place where big cars and obrunis (white people) are as common as yellow-and-blue taxis and bibinis (black people) in all other corners of Ghana. At the popular spot “Osu Food Court” I had an opportunity to choose not only between goat soup and different types of yam, but also hamburgers, pizza, coffee and cake (!) and other western/American dishes.

So what did I choose to eat? After some two weeks of local specialities I have come to really appriciate like spicy soups and stews, fish and chicken, carbohydrats in sticky balls and fruits new to me I went with…Pepperoni Pizza. Why? I don’t even eat pizza all that often in Sweden. Later that day, I had the opportunity to discuss this phenomenon with a Swedish newfound friend. We agreed that even though we came to experience new things it is just too much novelties at the same time. The heat, the smells, the early mornings, the animals running about, the new sounds, the different ways of buying a fruit/taking a taxi/shaking hands and the fact that it is impossible to blend in…all this make us inclined to once in a while look for the well-known. Even if it is a sad Pepperoni Pizza.

In the picture new friends Annie and Johnny visiting in my mother-in-law’s house.

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>weekend

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So, weekend is coming to Ghana as well. It will probably be a calm time with a trip to the nearby capital, hopefully for some salsa dancing. Or maybe a stop at the beach. I feel good today after getting my hair re-braided and yesterday speaking Swedish with some newfound Swedish friends. It’s something special with Swedes abroad…they so often impress me. So courageous, cool and cosmopolitan.

Next week, I will upload some of my own photos here. Stay tuned!

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>On beauty

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Coming to a new place, there are always things that stand out making you reevaluate your own home. Here in Ghana, there are many such things. Today, I will tell you about one.

Ghanaian women. They are really beautiful and they come in all sizes, I mean ALL sizes, there are the extremely thin ones, the medium sized, the short, the tall – but above all, the voluminous women. They are many, they are everywhere. It is clear they are viewed as very good looking. They sport their selves in nice curve-hugging outfits and do not seem at all self conscious about being too big. In music videos when girls come by the cool rappers’ house, yes, they are all plus sized.

This makes the think of my own country. How has it affected me to constantly be confronted with the message of “thin is beautiful”? In an article on Ghanaweb.com today, the story of how Ghanaian models wanting to make it abroad are turned down because of being “fat” was featured. Is this how we want it?

Since I came here, I have not once held my breath to look thinner. I have not stood on a scale. And I am telling you it feels good.

In the picture Akosia and her baby girl dressed in Swedish colors.

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>Intercultural hurrays!

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This weekend SWEA (Swedish Women’s Educational Association) on their annual meeting decided to award me with the Agneta and Gunnar Nilsson’s Scholarship for studies of Intercultural Relations!

This scholarship permits me to fulfill a dream of mine, start doctoral studies in the important field of migration issues. I plan to attend University of Ghana just 30 minutes away from my current location. My local newspaper on Gotland published an article on this on Saturday. Below SWEA’s motivation letter in Swedish.

AGNETA OCH GUNNAR NILSSONS STIPENDIUM 2007

Juryn för

Agneta och Gunnar Nilssons stipendium för studier av interkulturella

relationer har enhälligt utsett

KAJSA HALLBERG

till arets stipendiat.

Hon har i sin ansökan om stipendium för doktorandstudier vid Institute of African Studies vid University of Ghana för avsikt att skriva en avhandling om hallbar migrationspolitik, en fraga som berör de flesta länder idag pa grund av de olika situationer och villkor som uppstar i samband med att människor flyttar. Hon vill ocksa bland annat belysa problematiken brain-drain och brain-gain samt visa att migration även är en genderfraga, det vill säga innebär en risk för kvinnor genom splittring av familjer och trafficking.

Kajsa vill genom sitt arbete bidra till att uppmuntra svenska studenter att söka sig till studiemiljöer i Afrika och fa till stand hallbara samarbetsprogram med Afrika i framtiden.

Imponerade av en ansökan präglad av intellektuell mognad och djupt samhällsansvar vill vi i Juryn gratulera Kajsa Hallberg till stipendiet samt önska henne lycka och framgang inom detta viktiga forskningsomrade.

I am of course very happy to get this chance and I must say I could not have imagined a better start to my stay in Ghana!

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>On books

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I was challenged to answer to this survey by blogger/friend Marta. So here we go:

I. A book that changed my life.
My diary.

II. A book I read more than once.
Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He is making it ALL UP, it is SO obvious that NO love story can EVER unfold like this. At the same time it’s touching and somehow believable.

III. A book I would like to bring to a deserted island.
Probably 100 love sonnets by Pablo Neruda, the pink edition with beautiful and sentimental love poetry in Spanish translated into English on the facing page. Then on my island, I’d learn the Spanish versions daytime by heart, later cry them out into the lonely and very black night and at the same time understand what I was screaming.

IV. A book that made me laugh.
A Rough Guide to Sweden. Jeez, it really gives a person some perspective to read travel books on her own country. This handy guide states that Sweden really just needs two days, one in Stockholm and one in Gothenburg…

V. A book that made me cry.
All the thick ones, ’cos I have separation anxiety (GWTW/Mitchell, Diva/Fagerholm, Anne of Green Gables/Montgomery, A little love song/Magorian)

VI. A book I wish had been written.
A coming of age story taking place in the echoing halls of Uppsala University, some romance at the student clubs called ”nations” and a strong heroine taking her own high road…

VII. A book I wish had not.
Little Birds by Anaïs Nin, a sequel to the wonderful and erotic Delta of Venus that has the quality of a, well, sequel.

VIII. A book I am reading now.
The American Girl by Monika Fagerholm, a Finnish-Swedish writer who makes up a new language for every book she writes, takes some getting used to, but I think the effects of when you just don’t read a persons story, but read their language is powerful (Ett Öga Rött by Hassan Khemiri had a similar effect).

IX. A book I plan to read.
Late in November by Tove Jansson. Aron said it was great and I trust his literary taste.

X. Pass the survey on to other bloggers…
I think that Mamma and Nadja should get it once they start their blogs.

AND SOME EXTRA FOR THE CHEAP SEATS IN THE BACK: A book I give to a friend any day.
The Daughters of Egalia by Gerd Brantenberg. This is how equal rights should be pursued; in a crazy-witty-fantastic literary description of what life would be like if everything was different. I’m just saying – the scene when Rut gives birth in the spotlight on a stage in the Birth Temple before she leaves to go out to celebrate with her friends! I believe in visualizing the absurd. So does Gerd.

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>Back on track

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Yesterday, I sat my foot down on the Uppsala soil and walked the 59 steps to my door (location, location, location!)

Summer is over. It feels kind of nice. Posts from now on will involve job searching and texts on breaking up with student life.

The slight out of focus picture is taken from the information page of Harvard’s summer program 2006 in Uppsala. Had no idea the prestigious US university drag their students to Sweden summertime. Well, their summer is over too.

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>Sunday – a day for rest?

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When a young girl in Sweden, I remember that all stores closed in the early afternoon on Saturdays. Errends had to be taken care of during the week or in the morning hours of that day. Now all that has changed, most stores are open late on Saturdays and on Sundays and with the malls one can do shopping also in the evenings.

Here in France, shops are still closed on Sundays and it has an interesting effect on the French way of life. A sense of tranquility spreads. Sundays are for pure joy and relaxing, going to the park or visiting friends.

Normally, I am not the person advocating for time to be tuned back (nor using biblical headings). But is it really a good idea to have access to shoppning every day? What weekday is for relaxing and going to the park in Sweden?

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>Magnifique!

>I need no more. I’m done, I’m well, je suis contente!

I fell upon the most magic evening. A friend and I went to Belleville to watch the open ateliers – once a year the artists of Belleville open their homes and ateliers for the public. Suddenly, we were in a crowded room, free kir (white wine and flavour, the classic is cassis/blackcurrent), colorful people, kids, paintings and a sound installation with chanting birds. Someone made a “cling-cling” with a glass and wished us welcome to the concert next door. We went into a church room, beautifully decorated in all white with white candles everywhere. Over the stage it said in gold “Dieu est amour” – God is love. A goodlooking guitar player with an even better looking guitar came in, sat down and started to play. A redhaired singer came in, put on her guitar and started singing French chansons lika an angel, the texts were funny (I could understand quite a lot!), I befriended the older man next to me, and when people sang along…

It was a moment which is hard to explain in the blogformat.

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>*******Vive l’Europe!*******

>What is up in rest of Europe? France is in celebration mood after the somber rememberance of the victims of the second world war yesterday…8th of May and 61 years since the war ended. Here in France it is of course a national holiday. That the day following the 8th of May has been named “Fête l’Europe” just seems self-explanatory. First there was a war, then EU was created to never have war again! (The Schuman declaration was signed on the 9th of May 1950 and was the beginning of the coal and steel union) Let’s have a day for Europe!

– How the French celebrate it? They light up the Eiffeltower and the Arch de Triomphe in blue!

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