Ghana going for gold!

I've spent the past ten days complaining about how I'm not feeling any of the fun, football-loving spirit we felt two years ago when Ghana hosted the African Cup of Nations (for those of you not in Africa, the African Nations Cup is on at the moment in Angola). After catching the last few minutes of the Ghana game against Angola, I finally felt some excitement. And today, after our 1-0 win against the green giant, Nigeria, the whole country is excited, there's jubilation in offices, rejoicing in the streets of Accra and even from my sitting room I hear the cars honking all the way down the road.



(Pictures from the Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra, during CAN2008)

On facebook, it's fun to read the comments from both before and after the game of predictions and cocky retaliations by Ghanaians. To think of it, the Nigerians have been ever so quiet since we booted them out of the final...There's nothing like the rivlary between neighbouring countries, and in our case I'm happy to always show big brother Naija that despite them being about 100 million more in population than us, we will continue to beat them when they least expect it. I'll repeat the funny old-school saying that I was taught after our win against Nigeria two years ago:

God is not a Lagosian!

The Angry Pedestrian

I had heard of him before. Actually once when I was in Naa's car she pointed him out to me and that's how I was later able to recognise him. And today, as I turned into Labone Junction, I saw him in front of me, tall, shabby with a wild, determined look on his face. Just as I said to my mother: "That's the man who...", we suddenly locked eyes.

And of course I knew that eye contact meant I had made myself his next victim. As he flung his hand towards the car with force, I thankfully reacted quickly, swerved him and started speeding off. As I laughed at my lucky escape, I caught him in my rear view mirror - he had turned around and seemed to be following me, but at his pace I could relax, he'd never catch up.

Oh and by the way, the end of the sentence I started to my mother was "attacks people's cars!".

Earthquake scare hits Ghana!

Did you receive this text last night:
"Today's night 12.30 to 3.30 am COSMIC RAYS entering earth from Mars. Switch off ur mobiles today's night. NASA BBC NEWS. Plz pass to all ur friends."

I got it around 21.00 and looked at it a bit confused. What was going to be the effect of cosmic rays passing earth if my phone was on? I thought about it for a while, then thought, well, it doesn't hurt me to turn off my phone so after passing on the message to my mum, I did just that.

It seems I was one of few who acted reasonably. Somehow, this text has spread round the country and turned into an earthquake scare (cosmic rays - earthquake, I don't get it?!), with many people spending last night sleeping outdoors as they were too afraid be indoors when the earthqake would shake Ghana.

I'm guessing today is going to be a loooong day for those who got the wrong message. Instead of getting scared in the wake of the Haiti earthquake, let's do what we can to help:

Google has a good page listing a few ways to donate, click here for more info. For those in Sweden, DN also lists mosts of the charities that are receiving donations for Haiti. There are quite a number of Facebook groups that claim to donate an amount per member, I'm not sure of how true this is, but sticking to my 'it doesn't hurt to join' mantra, I've joined this Swedish one and seen this one. Other than that, do check out this Facebook group and Yele Haiti for more ways to help. Once I hear of any ways that we in Ghana can help locally, I will let you know.

Let's have a happy Monday!

Dear Vodafone...

You're like a love interest playing hard to get. Just when I've spent the days before Christmas, praising you to the skies with Miami, you cut me off in a "treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen" kind of way. After weeks of "who needs iBurst" comments, I suddenly had to come crawling back to iBurst, resembling a girl who drunkenly calls her ex on a particularly lonely night. Then, I finally decide to confront you, "what the &%#¤ is going on?" and you softly convince me that it's nothing, just work overload, you'll be back to your best as soon as possible. The exact terms being that somebody will come by the next day to check out the connection.

Already that evening, of course, the network is back on, oh it's like being sent flowers the day before a reconciliation date and I'm happy, oh so happy again. As I start my "Dear Vodafone" love letter the next day, you predictably disappoint me, but now I'm already hooked. "Surely the connection will be back on again soon" I think, although by now I should know better, I should know that you've found someone else to woo, not caring the least about how I am going to connect with the rest of the world.

I try to get back with you for several days, but I'm left disappointed and longing for you more and more. Today I finally gave up and now I'm digging up the ex-files, reaching for the iBurst modem. But as I'm about to stick the cable into the laptop, what do I see? We're back on!

As I am writing this, I see you flickering, on and off, on and off, as if to remind me that you're not mine for keeps, just for as long as you're enjoying it. So now Vodafone, I'm practically begging you, stay with me baby, I need you, I need you there when I wake up and before I go to bed. But if this is the way you're going to continue, I'll have to break it off and find someone else. I don't want to because I really like you, your customer service and your closeness to me, but hey, I'm only human and nothing, nothing will come between me and my love and need for the internet.

Crappy new year?

Sorry, I don't mean to dampen your happy new year's spirits, I was (as always) extremely happy about entering a new year, and especially 2010, after a fantastic decade like the Noughties. However, ever since Vodafone, on the second to last day of the year, decided to cut off my broadband (and most of Accra's it seems), I kind of lost my positive attitude (I'm on iBurst now, my ever 'reliable' substitute). I wasn't able to post my roundup of 2009, which even included a challenge for Yngvild. I couldn't give you a detailed account of my very typically Ghanaian New Year's Eve (see Kajsa's blog for a hint of what it involved).

And already a week into the new year, I haven't posted my New year's resolutions yet. Hm, could that be the reason why I'm already failing? Hey, the year is young, the still lots of time for me to redeem myself! Don't worry, after a bit of rest, and assuming iBurst doesn't fail me, I shall put my resolutions in print and hopefully fulfil them.

Happy New Decade!