This is my Life…

I’m very glad for the TV I bought three weeks ago, because every weekday I watch international news from DW-TV (Deutsche Welle) which is broadcasted on GTV and TV Africa. We have three channels which are free of charge; GTV, TV Africa and TV3. TV3 broadcasts programmes from MTV (Music Television) a few times every week, so it’s nice to get a small feeling about what’s happening on the music scene outside of Africa. They also broadcast soccer matches from La Liga once in awhile.

Two weeks ago I received two late arriving Christmas cards, one (with sound) from my mother and one from my grandfather’s brother and wife. I always appreciate receiving postcards; it’s something special about it.

On 12th of January we received a new volunteer, a female (25 years old) from Gothenburg, Sweden. It is her first time in Africa. The first evening she had arrived, she told me; “I don’t think this is the right project for me” and I gave her the answer; “you should at least give the project a chance for a week”. Two days later she left Kumasi and went to an orphanage 1½ hours outside of Accra. She had definitely made up her mind even before she came to Kumasi. I only feel sorry for her, because she is missing out on a great opportunity to get to know and experience a totally different community; the Muslim community (Zongo).

Sunday 14th of January – I went to see off an American friend who left Kumasi and Ghana the following day. We had a lunch and discussed the world. She’s now in Europe skiing with her dad in the French Alps. Then she’s off to Bucharest (Romania) where her parents live and from there to…?

Last week, Tuesday, Issah (Mr Abu’s youngest brother) came to the SYDD apartment in the morning and when he stepped inside the entrance door I could see that he was having tears in his eyes. He told us that when he got to school (Armed Forces School) this morning they were caning about 30 students severely. When Issah saw the caning from a short distance, then he decided to not enter the school premises and go back home instead. When I heard Issah’s story I got both sad and angry, because in what way will it help boys and girls between the ages of 15-25 by caning them? Issah told me that when ever someone isn’t obeying the rules at the school, then that person will be caned and afterwards he or she has to weed. He also told me that the school staff never lets any of the students explain before being caned, they will just cane the students no matter what. Issah has been caned before and it makes me really angry and sad to hear that, because he’s probably the kindest 20 year old boy I have ever met. He has about 1 hour and 30 minutes walk to school everyday (one way) and sometimes when he has been late, then he has been caned. He hasn’t had any chance to explain that he has a long way to school, they have just caned him. He told me that they cane the students where ever they like, and that they use wire.

Last week Monday, SYDD Non Formal Education (evening classes) started again, but this semester Mr Abu and I will not teach as much as last year, because we have so much other work to do. We are only going to go there once or twice in a week to supervise the lessons. During the last week we also held discussions about the future of the organisation and which things that needs to be structured. There is so much work to do within the Muslim community (Zongo), where we mostly work, and the problems and challenges are bigger there than in other communities.

I went to Aboabo Post Office three days ago (Friday 19th of Jan) to check the post box and I had received 7 packages from my mother containing all different kinds of items such as; sun block, medicine, gifts etc. The personnel at the post office told me; “we want our share!”. Hehe, no way I was going to follow the corruption that exists within the Ghana Post Company and dash the workers something. Someone has to break the corruption trend. I had also received a letter from my aunt, and it’s always nice to get private mail in the post box.

This past weekend we had several visitors in the apartment. On Saturday Sadat was visiting for a few hours and also Issah was around, and in the evening Mohammed came as well as Mumin, Ahmed (Mr Abu’s son) and Manaf (Mumin and Ahmed’s cousin). The three children slept over and in the evening I was taking care of them for 1 h 30 min when Mr Abu was out. The amount of energy the children had was crazy and they triggered each other all the time! They put on reggae music on the cassette deck, ran around, fought with each other, screamed, they did absolutely everything! They also put on their sandals and started gliding around on the floor, and after awhile when they started getting warm; “Mr Erik, Mr Erik, shirt!”, which meant that they wanted to take of their shirts and continue to glide around on the floor. It was ultimate chaos! Yesterday morning, the three kids (Mumin, Ahmed, Manaf) had too much sugar in the blood again, when they were playing with the Mumin house my mother sent. But I could see that Mumin really liked the Mumin house, because he went for it every time we had put it away. Late morning yesterday; Zaliya came to visit together with her friend Amdela, and they were around for a few hours. Yesterday afternoon Mohammed was around together with Haamis (Mr Abu’s brother). So, these past two days have been crowded in the apartment. It’s nice with visitors, but the peaceful quietness is priceless.

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Eid Ul Adha, the Islamic holiday which took place between 30 Dec-1 Jan, was something special for me to experience. I watched Muslims here and there walking around with cows and sheep. During those three days I saw meet everywhere. Within the premises where Mr Abu lives, I watched Malam and his relatives slaughter the animals while I was discussing with them about the difference of slaughter here and back in Sweden. It’s like they said: “here we just do it by our own force” while the animal is fighting back.

New Years Eve in Adum was surprisingly quiet, and the fireworks were few and less spectacular. It’s just like I told Mr Abu; “where ever you go in the world, the importance of the twelve o’clock stroke is different”.

I received three Christmas cards last week, which arrived a bit late. Two of them were from my mother and one of her Christmas cards had a tune when you opened the card (I know my brother will laugh when he reads it, because it’s a typical thing for my mother to send). The third Christmas card was from my grandfather’s brother with wife, and it was really nice to receive a card from them.

I have moved to a new apartment! A couple of days ago I moved to a new apartment, which is located in Akwatia Line. It’s in the city, so it’s between 2-3 km to Adum (downtown Kumasi), which I like. The apartment is quite big; 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom/toilet, 1 lounge room, 1 kitchen and a great balcony with a view of the city. The apartment is on the top floor, so the view is very nice. Another thing I like about the apartment building is that we have a security guard watching all the time, so you can’t enter the building without being recognized. This apartment is for SYDD staff and volunteers, currently it’s only I and Mr Abu who use it, but we except another volunteer coming soon. There are lots of things which we still need in the apartment, but so far we have got a TV, a fridge, beds, fans, office desk, a dining table and kitchen utensils. It always takes time before you get settled when you move to a completely empty place. We also have our own cook, Munira (21), who cooks dinner for us in the evenings. I like her cooking a lot, and it’s much more hygienic where I live now as we have our own kitchen. I’m very happy about my move!

The Harmattan winds are around, and it has clogged my nose completely for about a week now. The Harmattan winds blow from the northeast, bringing dust from the Sahara and reducing the visibility to less than 1 km (as you can see on some of the photos). Everything gets dusty quickly.

Work since last post: we have held our monthly meeting with the orphans telling them about various important things in life and we also told them that we have budgeted to buy them e.g. mosquito nets. We have been working in the office several days, discussing the future of SYDD. There have been different visits to organizations. The big thing has been the move to the new SYDD apartment.

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