Brangelina = thieves

So, it seems Brad and Angelina finally had their fifth and sixth babies. I would have been happy for them, had they not stolen one of my own baby names (yes, I know I'm crazy, but I have certain names picked out for the day I have children). It's bad enough that Mr. T has informed me he'll use that name depending on the sex of the baby (which is due any day now!), but now that one of the world's most famous couples has gone and used it, it will become as common as John, Eric/Erik, Anna and Maria are around the world, or in Ghana: Joyce, Mercy, Gladys, Richard or...Wisdom.

I can't help but resent them a little bit. I would say it's my own fault for waiting so(?) long to have children for my names not to be considered copies of others, but would it have been better to pull a Juno or Jaime Lynn? Think not. I guess if I want to stay unique, I'll have to close my eyes, pick up a few Scrabble letters, shake them around, throw them on the floor and see if they make a word. Then again, giving a child such a unique name could surely amount to child abuse.

As you can see I am rambling. From bitterness over the name-stealing, hunger and tiredness. I think it's time to leave work, slightly early but it must be done. Last night, I hardly slept and had the craziest dreams, which I'll let Posekyere analyse superbly another time, for now, I'll just inform you that it involved me and a talking dog/baby.

Have a good evening!

Where the roads have no names

I'm now more than a week into work at my new place and so far, so good. I love the feeling of sky's the limit in terms of how much I can learn here. At times it is overwhelming, but being able to structure and organise the work means hopefully, little by little, I'll get there.

The new office is located in Asylum Down. Until I saw it in writing I always assumed it was a Ghanaian word, maybe something like Asalem Dawen. After writing it out an agreement on Tuesday where I inserted our address, the background to the name suddenly hit me. This area actually slopes down from where the mental hospital is located. In the lovely way of giving directions in Ghana I can imagine that the name originated from someone directing to another person, saying, get to the asylum, then down. Over time this would be simplified to Asylum Down!

I wouldn't have made this connection so easily though if it wasn't for a flyer I once saw, possibly for Asanka locals or Blue Gate where the 'address' on the flyer was *Papaye down, then left'. Ingenious! As much as I often complain about the lack of road names, causing us to have to give very detailed directions (how I wish we could live in an A to Z city like London!), the solutions to these problems are so entertaining! And similiarly, some areas have been named accordingly, e.g. Asylum Down and the horribly named Sodom and Gomorra.

Apparently La Bone (pronounced 'bonni') and La Badi were also named in this way. This is were the bad guys/rogues lived so they were known in Ga as the bonni people, which when the English people came was kindly translated for them to the baddies, i.e. La Badi (this story was told to me by big H so I cannot guarantee its accuracy). Jamestown as well, its full name being Jamestown British Accra, is in Ga known as Ngleshie (pronounce it and its basically 'English)!

What a wonderfully simple way to name a place!