Happy Midsummer!

I don't know what happened to me. I guess I'm just a sucker for traditions. I had decided that I wasn't doing anything for midsummer as it's one of those holidays that doesn't mean much to me, it's mainly about boozing and eating. Well, I guess the constant brainwashing in adverts and on Good Morning shows finally got to me, because yesterday, midsummer eve, I to a long walk with a good friend, bought herring and sour cream to have with the potatoes I already had at home, then walked back through Slottsskogen where I caught a bit of the celebrations. As you'll see the midsummer pole looked a bit dreary, probably from the rain. Many women had a crown of flowers on their heads and some were even dressed in traditional folkdräkt, see below.







Then of course there was the dancing around the Midsummer pole to the traditional songs and dance moves.

And today, after a lovely afternoon dessert of strawberries and icecream, my evening snack was a miniversion of a traditional midsummer feast, topped off with a glass of non-alcoholic champagne. Have a good weekend!

Obama all over your body?

One of the things I miss seeing whilst out of Ghana is the beautiful textile prints. Especially Friday's traditional wear, when staff in most banks and offices wear cloth. Many of them have even had their own print designed, because practically everything has a design, whether it be the church you belong to, the bank you work at or a special occasion. I even own three different Ghana@50 prints! (How many do you own?).

Now I hear there's a new print about to be released: the official Mills/Obama print! Can you believe it? There's even going to be a separate "first ladies" cloth featuring photos of Naadu Mills and Michelle Obama! As amusing as it sounds, I can't wait to see the designs as I am so curious. Wish I were there...

(The only cloth I can adore whilst here, a beautiful piece a friend lent me for me to carry my baby in)

Swedish National Day

On this 6th of June, Sweden's National Day, there's been a lot of discussion in blogs and on TV about integration and rasism. TV4, a television station has been showing a trailer as part of their "nollrasism" (zero racism) campaign. The trailer shows a tennis game between a fat, older, white man and a fit, younger, black man. Even though the black guy keeps winning the balls, the referee continuously gives the point to the white one. The white man, Svensson, wins the game and at the end of the scene it is written across the screen "in real life it isn't a game".

I like the trailer, and I think any black or foreign-looking person in Sweden can understand it as it depicts our reality. Most of the time we are judged before we've had the opportunity to achieve, even if the person we are up against is not as competent. However, whilst googling the trailer I found a few people criticising it. I'm always open to hear other's opinions so I read one criticism. To my disappointment, the person criticising it has nothing sensible to say, but rather claims that the only message it gives is that Swedes are fat and useless and always discriminate against foreigners. As mentioned, for anyone who has experienced racism, the message is very clear: it is NOT that all Swedes are incompetent and racist, it is simply showing how foreigners are often discriminated against, even when they are clearly more competent better at the job, as you can assume a fit, young man would be than a fat older man at playing tennis.

After being here a few months it is sad to see that nothing has really changed. I doubt the children growing up today are growing up in a more tolerant, less ignorant society than I did nearly thirty years ago. Clearly, I'm not the only one who feels this way as my friends in inter-racial relationships are looking to move to other countries so that their children won't grow up in the same environment they did.

This is a complete digression from what I wanted to talk about, but it is a more important topic. I have been meaning to write about being black in Sweden, but there's too much to say and it's too exhausting to think about that it's often easier to not think of it.

I wanted to talk about the National Day, but now I've completely lost my track. :)
In the early nineties, racism and nazism became a fashion with skinheads seen all over the place, foreigners being beaten up and murdered and refugee camps and mosques burnt down. At the time skinheads claimed the Swedish flag and the celebration of being Swedish. As a result for many years it was considered taboo to display the Swedish flag as it meant you were a racist. Sweden has worked hard to reclaim the flag and by making 6th June a National holiday in 2005, the government has tried to encourage national celebrations and pride in being Swedish. But on the news this morning a survey showed that only 40% of Swedes intend to celebrate, with many of those celebrations quite dubious, e.g. "it's my wedding anniversary so we're celebrating" or "I'm preparing a hen night for my best friend".

I didn't have any plans at all and since the weather's been awful (minus 3 in the night!), I think I'll just stay in with a few cups of hot tea. Happy National Day!

Last weekend of May

...of course any homesickness I had disappeared when the weather went from ok to great! This whole weekend we've had up to 25 degrees and sunshine, without the humidity of Ghana which usually prevents me from wearing my natural hair straight. The weather is a major issue in Sweden especially as we head towards summer. It can turn from 25 to 12 degrees overnight. When the weather is good, so are people's moods and suddenly everybody is out and about. For us that meant carneval in Hammarkullen (an area mainly inhabited by foreigners), picnic in Slottsskogen, the main city park and walks along the river, Göta Älv.







Above and below: Röda Sten, where a soldier apparently collapsed and bloodied the rock. Every year the rock is re-painted red to remind us of his blood (and almost as often private persons sabotage this by painting the rock a different colour or adding white dots for a polkadot effect!)



Leaving us all a bit tired...

I miss you!

Last Thursday I missed home. As they say, the grass is always greener. For me that means I am always missing home. In Ghana I miss my hometown Gothenburg. When in Gothenburg, I miss my Ghana. I never win!

But last week there was no reason at all for missing home. I was happy, the weather was ok, I had no complaints. But suddenly I just felt a longing, like the ache of when you miss a loved one. I could hear Ofori Amponsah songs playing in my head, and as soon as I imagined the music, I could suddenly smell the beautiful sea breeze that I'd smell when leaving Tema and heading towards Sakumono. I even pictured myself getting out of my car at the Law School car park with the cacaphony of Makola in the background.

Once I woke up out of my longing daydream, reality hit me: if I am daydreaming of driving to the law school and heading into the mayhem of Makola, I must really, REALLY be missing Ghana!

Loppis!

Today my local council had arranged for the whole area to set up loppmarknader (flea markets/yard sales). The purpose is mainly to promote recycling for environmental purposes and the hope is that it will big enough to enter the Guinness book of world records as the biggest neighbourhood yard sale. Anybody could set up in any public area in the whole borough and we were all encouraged to empty our cellars and attics.


There's been so many yard sales since I got here and what a perfect way to get rid of junk. It really supports the saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure". It is one idea I wish we'd copy in Ghana. There are so many people who have far too much while others are lacking. I am pretty sure that such an idea would however be looked down and people would be ashamed to admit to buying items there. Here in Gothenburg, such airs are gone and we rather appreciate the quaint finds that can be made.

The best thing about it is that everything is being sold at a fraction of its ordinary price, nobody's looking at making a profit. A handful of children's clothes may be sold off for 20 kronor/GHc3!It is in fact parents that gain the most from these sales; it's an easy way to get rid of old clothes and items that the kids have grown out of and what better way to purchase games, films and clothes that the children will only enjoy for some months.


I however went away with nothing (believe me, for a bargain shopper like me, that's an achievement!), it was enough to watch the crowds and enjoy the sun that briefly popped out.

Ascension Day

In Ghana we often complain about the laziness of workers, especially civil servants. I'm always unimpressed when I see Friday traffic starting at noon because staff have decided to cut their day short as the weekend is about to start. Similarly it's always funny to guess how many people will show up at work on a Friday when the Thursday before it is a holiday. Usually, the answer is quite close to 0%.

I don't know if I was away from Sweden for too long, but somehow I thought the work morale here was better. It was only when I was heading into town yesterday around 12:30 that I noticed the tram was a lot more crowded than usual. I said so to my mum and she reminded me that today, Ascension day, was a holiday. I still wasn't sure that was the reason I was seeing so many people...until I bumped into my older brother V outside Nordstan, the main shopping centre.

"Are you on your lunch break?" I asked. "Yeah, but I'm heading home, because there's hardly anybody in the office."

Suddenly I remembered my walk in Slottsskogen, the largest city park, three weeks ago, on our first summery day (24 degrees and sunshine!). It had been around 1p.m. on a Thursday and yet it seemed every person in Gothenburg was picnicking in the park. Why? Because the next day was 1st of May, Labour Day.

And as if taking a half day before Ascension Day is not enough, it seems nobody will show up for work tomorrow either. After all tomorrow is known as a "klämdag", a day squeezed in between a holiday and the weekend, which seems to be a good enough excuse to make that too a holiday.

Now I know you're thinking, what the hell is she complaining about, shouldn't we be happy for more days off??? And really, I'm not complaining, I just find the excuses for more time off funny, but mostly I am amused by how easy it is to complain about Ghana when I'm there...and how similar the working patterns of Swedes and Ghanaians are. The two are closer to each other than we think!

Unbelievable

I can't believe it. First my longlost cousin who I'm getting to know now visits Ghana in April. Then my dear friend from boarding school who I haven't seen since 1993 decides to go to Ghana in May.

And now Obama has decided to come to Ghana on the 10th and 11th of July on his foreign tour! When did I choose to be out of Ghana? March to August. What are the odds that I'd be out of the country that I haven't left for more than a couple of weeks at a time since 2005 when this historic event occurs? Granted, even if I were in the country I doubt Barack and Michelle would come over for dinner, but it'd still be nice to be able to say "I was there". At the moment I feel a bit jealous of all of you who will be there to witness the visit. So jealous in fact, I have considered changing my flight, but surely it's not worth it.

Is it?

Running and Singing

For almost two weeks I haven't been able to write due to lack of sleep, Virgo constantly using my laptop and, most annoyingly, not having anything to write once I finally get the chance to go online.

A Swedish politician created the expression "gröt i hjärnan", loosely "porridge brain" to explain what happened to her thinking process during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Somehow, I think I'm suffering from porridge brain too! The thoughts and great ideas for writing that I had planned out in my head are now muddled up into one big mess, leaving nothing concrete for me to think about. My thoughts flash to my friend who had a baby last year and went back to work after six weeks. How lucky I am not to be in the same position, as I'd probably find myself making mistakes all the time.

Instead I'm enjoying my maternity leave by doing simple things that the brain can handle, e.g. today, watching Göteborgsvarvet (the Gothenburg Race) in the sunshine. For only the second time since I arrived, I had to take off my thin sweater as I was too hot. What a luxury when outside Ghana! Unfortunately I had put my camera away when Spiderman passed me and when two men ran by in only tarzan Speedos! At least I tried to capture a man in a wig and makeup (didn't get a good picture as you can see).




And now, I'm continuing my lazy Saturday by watching the Eurovision Song Contest. Hey, when are we establishing the African Song Contest? Or are we too sophisticated for that...? ; )

A very taxing day

Today is D-day in Sweden, as in Declaration day. It's the last day to submit all tax declaration papers and then either look forward to getting some money back or having to pay up a bit more. Sensible people like myself had planned to submit the information via the Tax Office's website way ahead of time, but after spending two weeks setting up my "e-identification" on my new laptop, I then spent another week trying to log in to the declaration page without success. It seems so many people were doing the same thing the system probably went down. Finally, last Thursday afternoon, after many attempted entries, I got in! Only to receive the message that I couldn't declare online but must rather visit their office. As I'm sure you know, Friday was Labour day and so ironically, after trying to declare over three weeks ago, I ended up going to the Tax Office on the very last day.

This morning I tried to figure out the best time to go and decided that it'd probably be best to get there just before lunch, when others would try to sneak from work to drop off their papers. I also thought that with all the available options: preprinted forms to be submitted in the offices mailboxes, online and sms declaration, there couldn't be many people that would need to go to the actual office. How wrong I was!

Already as I got off the tram I realised there were a lot more people on the road than usual. People seemed to be flooding in both directions. But what to do? I took my queue number and decided to wait outside as the pushchair felt a bit to bulky to squeeze in the crowd indoors. 50 minutes later it was finally my turn and the actual declaration itself took a cool 90 seconds.

Amazingly I felt so much lighter afterwards that I decided to skip the tram home, braved the 10 degree chill and headed over the cobble stones for a refreshing one-hour walk home.

Who got the flu?

At the moment I am watching the news, learning all about swine flu and how to avoid it, It's been all over the news for the past few days and I am curious to hear how it's being handled by Ghanaian media. Fill me in pleeeease! I can inform you that the very experienced Swedish reporter did not impress me when she asked the swine flu expert "Will any Swedes die from this flu?". Erm, unless she's also a psychic how can she give a confident answer to that question?

Being a multitasker, I checked my email at the same time and couldn't help but laugh as I (finally) saw evidence of the source of swine flu.

Thank you, Poetress for sending it to me! Luckily, there's already a remedy...

(Pictures not mine, received by email, so I don't know the original owner.)

New life

As promised, I do have a good enough excuse for taking a leave of absence from the blog. Here it is:

So I went to Sweden to complete phase 1 and 2 of my latest project. The plan was to get in, slowly get through phase 1 and after a few months attempt phase 2. However, life never turns out as planned and instead I had to complete these phases almost as soon as I got here.

The project: the birth of my first child. Phase 1: pregnancy. Phase 2: labour. Well, after going through both of those some weeks ago and spending A LOT of time in hospital, I can proudly present to the world the most beautiful creature ever, my daughter.

We’re now attempting to take on phase 3: life. It’s a slow and steady process and lesson number 1 seems to be: my time is no longer my own. Hours can fly by and all I have managed to do is have a shower, change and feed her and yet I’ll not have had a minute’s rest. Even writing for this blog has been a project on its own as there are so many other things to do when I have some spare time (sacrificed half an hour’s sleep for this post!).


My hope is that I’ll manage to prevent this blog from being another “Mummy-blog”, but of course my life from now on will take on a new angle and I may have to delve further into the interesting topic of Boob Juice!

Long time no see!

It's been a while, about two months I think? I've been through a life-changing experience which I'll tell you all about later and at the moment my life feels very far from my chillaxin girl-about-town life in Ghana. Oh yes, did I forget to mention I am in Sweden? Have been here for a few weeks and may stay for another month or two. So I guess I cannot call myself a "Ghanablogger" at the moment. For now I can only tell you about life in Sweden, but from a Ghanaian's point of view of course! I will do my best though to keep in touch with life in Ghana, after all it will only make it easier for me to come back swinging when I return to my beloved home.

Getting back to blogging is like getting re-acquainted with a friend you haven't seen in a long time, I feel a bit shy, a bit unsure and will take babysteps getting back into the game. Not sure how often I will write or what about, but it feels good to get back to this world that I've missed quite a bit!

Hello...

Message from your blogger

My sister sends greetings from Gothenburg, where it snowed this morning(!),but she´s unfortunately unable to access her blog for at least another week or two. She promises you that her excuse for not blogging is good enough and she´ll be back with lots of stories soon./ Mr.T