Missing you

Hello lovelies!

It's been a while, my internet connection is still unstable but I realised that's not the issue. Isabelle Halling (Swedish) put her finger on it; when you're not blogging, you have so much more spare time! Do you know how time-consuming blogging is???

Still, despite being ridiculously busy for the next three weeks (seriously, sleep is a luxury), I realised I miss blogging more than the spare time it gives me.

Speaking of missing, it is nice to be missed! The day after we got back from London about ten days ago, I had to dash to Airport Residential for an errand. Feeling completely battered, sleep deprived and with all kinds of aches from dragging suitcases, prams and an unruly toddler around Heathrow, I really felt down and beat. Then, as I handed over my 50 pesewas to the attendant at the motorway toll booth, the attendant said: "Madam, I've missed you oh! I haven't see you for a month or so, did you travel?".

To which I explained, that yes, I'd just gotten back from London. "Oh, then you are welcome" he said and I thanked him and drove off. Little did he know that he had made my day, nay, week!

After feeling so down, it was uplifting to hear that somebody (who I'd never spoken to before), who sees several thousands of drivers pass through the toll booth each day, had actually noticed little, old me and even realised I'd been gone.

Needless to say, I headed home with a big smile on my face, and for a while, my aches and fatigue were gone.

Under lock & key

I've been feeling a bit down for the past few days, so down I haven't been able to write. Why? Since Sunday I've been under house arrest. No, this has nothing to do with my political convictions or profession, but rather I made the mistake of leaving my car key on the sofa. Saturday morning, in the corner of my eye, I caught Em playing with it and when I went to take it from her a few minutes later, it was nowhere to be found. We searched as much as we could that morning, but in order to make it to the Homowo celebrations (more on that later), we gave up. Em's car seat was in my car, but luckily, since one of the doors is a bit shifty, I was able to break my way in, unlock the car doors and get her seat out.

After a lovely Saturday that ended too late for key searching, I went to bed and woke up Sunday morning with new energy to look for the key. Every sofa cushion was turned over, I crawled around the floor looking underneath all the furniture, checked any boxes, bags, pots, ANYTHING, that this 17-month old is tall enough to reach into, including her new favourite toy: the toilet brush (nice). Removed all the shoes from the shoe rack and searched through each shoe, thoroughly. Anywhere I'd pass, I'd think 'could the key be here?'.

This routine (i.e. search the sofa, floor, shoes, boxes, etc.) continued on Monday and Tuesday. By Tuesday afternoon I had opened up and refolded all the laundry, checked unused cassette and VHS compartments, emptied all handbags and changing bag, before I finally gave up.

Then I thought, let me check the night stand one last time. On my way there i glanced at the bed and realised there was a tiny gap between the mattress and the bedframe. Need I say more? Of course, that is where I found the key to my teeny, tiny Tata! I swear, I can't remember the last time I felt so jump-up-and-down, screaming-at-the-top-of-my-voice happy!

Suddenly I could feel the joy I should have felt at noon after completing three agreements long before my deadlines. The key-finding energy lasted all the way til that evening, where I pushed away all tired feelings and headed onto the Tema Motorway for la Baselette's cosy birthday celebrations in Accra.

Although this morning I am still on a slight high, somehow I can't stop myself from looking around, for a key I have already found!

My Tema

For almost three weeks we've been staying in Tema, and will probably be there for another couple of months whilst some issues are sorted out on our house. Of course the days before we were moving here, I continuously told Virgo of the virtues of living in Tema (as I have told you guys many times in this blog): The lack of traffic, constantly flowing water, good internet access and general organisation of the city.

Naturally, the forces that be decided to mess with me as soon as we got here. On the Sunday, whilst we were packing, I called the caretaker of the house and asked whether there have been power or water shortages since he moved in (six months ago). 'No, nothing' was his answer which I smugly conveyed to Virgo, then ordered for our water tanks and generator to go to storage.

We arrived Monday night around 7pm. I thought the water pressure seemed low and laughed, 'this means that they've turned off the water in some other community, don't worry, this is as bad as it gets'. An hour later the taps were dry. Bone dry. And we didn't have water for another 25 hours!

Friday night, the electricity went out and was off for four hours. In between that, we suffered with traffic sometimes almost half an hour just to get to the Ashiaman interchange toll booth. Needless to say, Virgo was enjoying mocking me, 'My Tema, my Tema' he'd squeak in a falsetto voice (it sounds nothing like me) any time we'd spend more time in traffic here than in Accra.

Still, all that was probably just to put me in my place for being so smug, because for the past week there's been no traffic any time we're heading out, water, internet and electricity are constantly working and this morning the mocker himself turned to me and said:
'You know what? Tema is actually a great place to live in. Once you pass Tetteh Quarshie, you just zoom down the motorway and you're home to everything you need'.

What can I say? Mission accomplished.

Ouch!

Yes, pain is the best way to describe how I've been feeling since Friday. It started with a toothache, I'm ashamed to admit the reason for the toothache, let's just say I ought to have gone to the dentist a loooong time ago. Then on Sunday night I started feeling nauseous, having clearly eaten something I don't agree with. Monday evening, and suddenly my head was feeling very heavy, continued by swollen glands, sore throat and a runny nose.

Have these 'pains' released each other? No, of course they've been overlapping! So since Tuesday I've had severe toothache, flu-like symptoms (don't even mention the pig word, I can't afford to catch that flu at the moment) and an upset stomach, which thankfully has cleared now. What am I doing to cure myself? Since I'm car-less at the moment and feeling a bit too fluey to sit in a dental clinic or any clinic for that matter, I've been curing myself in the most natural way: lots of teeth brushing, gargling and flossing, fresh orange juice and munching on garlic and ginger and of course staying off any spicy or too risqué foods. Don't worry, I'm sure by Friday I'll sort myself out with proper medical care.

For now Em, the internet and funny anecdotes keep me in good spirits. My mum just called me after her ride to Tema in a taxi this evening. As they got on the motorway they were hit by heavy rain and then the most powerful lightning she's ever experienced. As the lightning struck near them, she threw herself forward and clutched the seat in front of her, then once it cleared she asked the driver:
"Did you feel that?!"
He answered: " Yes madam, it was so powerful I even closed my eyes and bent down to hold my knees!".

Erm... who was driving (on the motorway!!!)???

(If you're out there, please have a safe ride home.)