The Rumour Mill

Two weeks ago, I bumped into an old friend, LC, in Gothenburg. After the initial excitement of seeing each other for the first time in 16 years, she told me she had some bad news; somebody we both knew, Mrs G, had passed away.

I, in turn, passed on the news to my mum and my brother (Mr. T). (LC and I knew each other because Mr. T and her little brother were in the same football team for over a decade. Mrs G, was the mother of another teammate). We all mourned together and were trying to work out how Mrs. G, who would be in her early 60s had passed away, especially as I had been informed it was a very sudden, unexpected death.

In the end we decided that, rather than Mr. T trying to approach his friend, which would be too blunt and awful (imagine, "hey, how are you? By the way is it true your mother passed away?"), we'd try searching for info on Facebook, where you can always find a clue to things, one way or another.

Well, as always, Facebook comes to the rescue. Today my mum abruptly interrupted me on the phone to say: " I have to tell you something, Mrs G is still alive!". And how we know? Mr. T search on his friend's Fb page, somehow managed to get onto the friend's brother's girlfriend's page were she had as her status: So happy after spending the Midsummer weekend with my boyfriend and his huge family. Then she goes on to list them and of course the list included Mrs G! And this was posted days after I received her death notice.

See how quickly people can be killed off and some of us spend (unnecessary) time mourning them? Still I guess it's nice to be able to spread the good news, like I did to my father five minutes ago, that, hey: Mrs G has resurrected!

Team work and good old gossip.

This weekend I have the most interesting task so far. So interesting, that I am skipping a funeral I really should go to (biggest Ghanaian faux pas ever, but Virgo will represent me) and missing most of a birthday barbecue, but will probably make it back there for leftovers at least.

A friend who I'm doing some independent legal work for has asked me to run a team building day for his company on Saturday. Learning of my past as a Starbucks employee probably made him think I'm much more of a chirpy cheerleader than I actually am. But not being one to say no to a challenge, I have agreed and just spent the last two hours researching team building exercises. After discarding the ones that seemed too fluffy and cheesily American for a bunch of Ghanaian construction workers, I think I have a handful I can work with. Now, all I have to do is find all the tools and materials I'll need to make it happen...Where's a Woolworths (the UK, not SA version of it) or a Panduro Hobby when you need one?

Meanwhile, a Swedish blogger writes about her heavily pregnant friend who realised that her husband of about 8 months has been cheating with a woman from his office, a woman with a live-in boyfriend. Her revenge? Finding the mistress' Facebook page and sending a message to ALL her friends and her boyfriend with details of the sordid affair and photos to prove it. (She also dumped her husband). As much as I'm impressed by her strength and actions (her baby is due in a week), I can't help but feel her husband is getting away easily with his dignity intact, while the mistress will be shamed forever. After all, the most random people can be our Facebook friends.

Even more interesting, how would such a thing be dealt with in Ghana? The sentiments towards affairs seem...slightly more relaxed, I get the feeling some people would send a message back to the wife going "Ah, but you, why?", leaving her seeming as the one who has overreacted.

But most of all I wish I knew who these people were so I could get hold of that Facebook message and see exactly what she wrote and what the following reactions were. But that's just the scandalous gossip in me talking...