Storm alert

Hello there... The last few months have been trying in many ways and in all that, it seems I found no time to blog. Well, one of my favourite sayings is better late than never, so here we go again. After some months in Ghana, I am back in Sweden and enjoying the seasons more than ever. Never before have I really appreciated the beautiful colours of autumn and the slow transition into winter. Of course, as I say it, it is not enjoyable at all: the St Jude storm which hit the UK yesterday, has apparently left and is heading towards the west coast of Sweden! Newsstations are advising us to pick children early from school, I saw this just as I received a call from Em's teacher to pick her before 3pm. I guess we have an interesting day and night ahead of us. Will these trees be standing tomorrow...?

Water water everywhere...

...and it's not even rainy season!

I may be in Gothenburg, but I'm following the current situation in Ghana as best I can. I'd heard there had been heavy rain, very unusual for this time of year, but I didn't realise how bad it had gotten, until I read that five people had died in flood related events. And the full extent of what 'heavy rain' meant wasn't realised until I saw this picture on Joy's webpage:

However, a few moments later I caught this shot on a Fb friend's page. Don't tell me us Ghanaians don't know how to make the most of a bad situation!

Rain, finally!

I've been in a somewhat delirious state all week. Why? Because rain and the cool air that comes with it has finally arrived. Just as I was dropping Virgo off (we've been car-sharing for the past two weeks) I said, "It looks like it's about to rain". Two minutes later, heavy rains poured all over Accra. Of course, it was only at this point I realised that I didn't know how to turn on the wipers of the petite Tata Indica I've been driving for most of this year!

Don't worry, it only took about thirty seconds until I found the wipes. Soon after, I pulled into Shell on Oxford Street as I had just remembered the air pressure in one tyre was low. Immediately, I was reminded of the Ghanaian's fear of rain as the air guys waved me off as if to say they couldn't serve me. Determined not to drive around in the rain with an almost flat tyre, I decided to shame them. I got down, (this was at the heaviest point of rainfall, within five seconds I was completely soaked) walked across the muddy patch slowly and confidently in lovely heels, then exclaimed "You have no air, not even for one tyre?!"

Of course I knew that once they had seen a well-dressed woman walk through the showers there was no way five men would be able to blame the rain for not being able to work, and as expected I left with a nicely pumped up tyre.

Since then, nothing major has happened, but puzzle pieces of both work and private life seem to slowly be falling into place. And it is with a smile that I am now going to bed, because for the first time in two years (note: I wasn't here last summer) I have chosen not to turn on the AC at night (usually ECG makes that choice for me) and I am actually...freezing! Is there any greater luxury in Ghana than that?!

Rain, rain, go away!

Oh dear, should we be worried about the floods that are taking over West Africa? According to BBC News, between 25 and 32 people have already died in Ghana and more in our neighbouring countries. Annoyingly, I got more news from BBC's website than from Joy's. I had hoped to read about the floods in further detail on Joy's website, but it seems theirs rather showed a summary of what I had already read.

I guess as I prepare to make my journey home, I'll have to wait a day or two before I hear more news on these floods. Do feel free to fill me in!

Rain!

Finally some rain. I feel happy every time those wonderful drops of water fall on us. Well, almost every time. At times, when it's pouring down, I begin to feel a bit worried about the damage it may cause. After all, I have been there before...

Last year half of the wall collapsed the day before I was travelling to Sweden. Bad timing to say the least. So what else to do than to postpone the trip by a week, call in the masons and dig out my holiday budget to pay for the new wall (yes, we had forgotten to get home insurance, sometimes both my mum and I forget that I am living here on a permanent basis now). Luckily, the day before my postponed flight, the new wall was up and ready.

What amazes me most about the rain here though, is how afraid people are of it. MJ and I have discussed this on a rainy day in Gothenburg. We came to the conclusion that all people from countries with heavy rain completely freak out when there's rainfall. MJ's father who is from former Yugoslavia, wouldn't dare leave the house without an umbrella even if there's just a sprinkling of water drops. MJ's stories from people running around 'escaping' the rain in Belgrade are so similar to what I see in Ghana, and surely, England (possibly the rainiest place in the world, ;)) has more umbrellas per capita than any other country.

A few weeks ago, as I was about to walk the 20 metres to my car from an office in heavy rain (without an umbrella), a man said "Ey, madam, are you sure you can make it?" as if I were making my way through lions and tigers. Yesterday, a meeting was almost delayed as the guys who were coming to sign an agreement didn't have an umbrella. As I watched them sit in their car for a good 10 minutes before daring the rain under the protection of the car's dusters, I couldn't help but yell "It's only water!!".

This behaviour is so foreign to someone who loves nothing more than walking around Kungssten in the lovely summer rain, enjoying the smell of freshness brought out by the rain and only covering my head with a hoodie, when the heaviest raindrops come falling down.

Blixtar o Dunder

We had some thunder and lightning last night. I quickly got up and pulled out all the plugs from the sockets. Last year when we had a proper thunder storm, the TV was off, but plugged in and was completely messed up after that. it has never been the same again, (bye bye TV3).

The strange thing was that last night the rain never came. I don't like that. The rain feels like the release after all that tension, it's needed to get back to normal. Like the outburst after a conflict in a relationship. The outburst, the rainfall of emotions washes away the conflict and helps us restart in a new, fresh, honest place. I hope we have some rain today, don't want to be stuck with yesterday's natural tension.

Time for Makola now, suddenly it doesn't seem like such an appealing idea, walking around in a hot, overcrowded, loud market. I'm sure the purchases will make up for it. Will try to upload evidence of any purchases but can't make any promises as free wireless tends to have its own will.