Meet the Snow Leopard Kwame Nkrumah Acheampong

I remember the first time I heard of Kwame Nkrumah Acheampong...A Ghanaian man, raised in tropical Africa, who six years ago for the first time stood on a pair of skis...and now is going to compete in the Olympic games in Slalom (or downhill skiing for you who are still not familiar with snow).

Could this be for real? Can a Ghanaian ski professionally? Is it Fool's day?

My my sarcasms quickly went away as I (again) had to realize that life is so much better than fiction. Here are some other facts:

* He shares names with Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah.
* Some marketing team has come up with the brilliant idea of calling him "the snow leopard".
* The problem for Nkrumah Acheampong has been financial rather than physical, see my fellow blogger David Ajao's post here.
*A Ghanaian government official flew to Vancouver to wish him "good luck", source Reuters.
*His goal for the olympics was "not to come last"
*He actually skied better than 7 others...
*...Or at least skied better than one other skier as the other six were disqualified or did not finish the competition. See results here
*He now wants to teach kids how to ski - in Ghana! Reuters got this wonderful quote:

"We've got the site and everything. It's just to get all the equipment, the bulldozers to level out all the rough patches, grow the grass and -- Bingo!, we're there."

What can I say, life is better than fiction, especially the life of Kwame Nkrumah Acheampong!

Pic: From the official Vancouver athlete page here.

Inventory of Normality Feat. Paulo Coelho

Ok, so normally, I hold a fair share of skepticism against everything signed Paulo Coelho - the bestseller writer who's recipe for happiness is to "seek the truth in the desert" (The Alchemist) - however, when I stumbled across this list on his blog (Thanks, Cris) several of its items spoke to me.

Really, how did these things ever become normal?

3] Spending years at university and then not being able to find a job.

7] Trying to be financially successful instead of seeking happiness.

9] Comparing objects like cars, houses and clothes, and defining life according to these comparisons instead of really trying to find out the true reason for being alive.

24] Using all possible means to show that even though you are a normal person, you are infinitely superior to other human beings.

40] Avoiding depression with massive daily doses of television programs.

However, it is also interesting to see that certain things are just soo tied to geographic places/cultures - eg. would this happen in Ghana?:

5] Retiring only to discover that we have no more energy to enjoy life, and then dying of boredom after a few years.

H3! In Ghana, live after 70 is sweet-o.

25] In any kind of public transport, never looking straight into the eyes of the other passengers, as this may be taken for attempting to seduce them.

Haha, seduction is a constant part of public life including transport in Ghana! Why avoid starting it?

26] When in an elevator, looking straight at the door and pretending you are the only person inside, however crowded it may be.

In Ghana, in the few elevators I've been, you'll politely say "Good morning/afternoon/evening" and then maybe chat the person up, see above!

27] Never laughing out loud in a restaurant, no matter how funny the story is.

Oh, every story is funny in a restaurant in Ghana! "Chale, serious? hahaHAHAHA!"

Anyways, this time I can still recommend Paulo Coelho.

Pic: A serious trotro where people do look each other in the eye.

Ghana Graduation

Yesterday I met with my sister-in-law. She is a wonderful, easygoing person and very easy to talk to. We sat down and discussed all different kinds of things; Ghanaian versus Swedish food, what to do in the weekend, how our careers are moving along etc. We laughed together and she vowed to soon come visit me. As I was leaving I wanted to give her some of the fresh corn (in Ghana maize) I was carrying in a big, black shopping bag.

- I got too much, all of this I bought for 1 GHC, so please help me out!

And then it happens. As my sister-in-law picks out a couple of corn cobs she, having lived in this town all her life, asks me, the obroni-new-kid-on-the-block, where I've gone to buy so much for so little. Bursting with pride I tell her what corner of the market I went to, feeling like I just graduated with a degree in Ghana Street Smartness.

Morning Walk

I leave the house around seven thirty after having waved goodbye to my husband ( he leaves for work around 6.45 ).

I lock my gate with a heart on it and criss-cross through my neighborhood, saying my "goodmornings" to the people I meet. I turn onto Hospital Road and follow it for about 15 minutes. There is a lot of traffic, lotto kiosks, chicks, kids going to school, food being sold, craftsmen lining up their produce like sofas or baskets, and taxis that don't mind me walking briskly in jogging shoes and stop to ask where I am going. Sometimes, a friend will drive by, like this morning the neighbor in the black pick-up. His window is already down so he just slows down, stopping traffic, and shouts to me across the road

So, you have started your exercise again?

I have. Interestingly, it seems like it is as much an exercise for the mind as for the legs. Walking is really the best way to think. I think about the car I am going to buy, what I will do this weekend and why dragonflies are not considered scary, but beautiful.

My legs move almost automatically.

I stop and become standing for a while trying to cross the busy Hospital Road to get to my destination, a pool. There I will emerge in the water to chill myself, because even though it is just eight in the morning I am sweating. Before I enter the pool premises I pass by the Christian Vertical(!) School. Kids are sweeping the schoolyard, attending to a fire of scraps and rubbish when they suddenly get interrupted by the bell. They line up as I watch them from the dirt road and start to sing.

God bless our homeland Ghana.

In the pic the jogging shoe that does not impress taxi drivers.

Everchanging

Having a philosphical day. Everything is moving, floating and life will never again be the same.

Oh, no! Noone died - except for Pavarotti, may he RIP - it is just that this week is my last as an intern with the organization I have been working on now for a few months. I will not come here daily anymore or spend time with the same people. I will not work on the same projects or post my blogposts from this computer.

I acknowledge that there is a sadness to leaving something behind and to remedy it, I have already started to plan my life outside the office gates and I am looking forward to it. It will be a lot of reading, now mainly academic stuff and hopefully some long distance travelling and more time for being creative, business-minded and maybe even sporty (on Monday...).

Of course everyday is a possibility for a fresh start, but it would be exhausting to think about that daily. But today, I am embracing the idea that after tomorrow life will be different.

Everyday life

The wonderful, however non-exciting, everyday pace has reached me here in Ghana. Everyday, I kiss my bf goodbye in the morning, go to work, eat lunch with the same crowd, work a few more hours and then take a taxi home. At night we might do some visits, maybe go out to eat and then – it has of course already been dark for a while – it is time to go to sleep. I dream my vivid dreams (as always) and am awoken by the sun shining into our bedroom around 6 am.

But I mean, there are also stark differences in this “everyday life” compared to the “everyday lives” I have led before. For instance, before I never before saw the green tail of a gecko disappear into my wardrobe when opening my underwear drawer. I did not use to go for lunch to a "chop bar" where most of the customers order goat or snail soup. Nor for that matter meet a (living) goat family everyday on my way to lunch. I never used to celebrate when a supermarket opened in my town, now I do. (That was yesterday, and it just made my week to be able to have salad, hard bread and goat cheese for dinner). I never before used to come home to my own house. Complete with a man. Also, even if I feel I have gotten used to the way things look around here, I do sometimes remember to marvel that the soil is copper red, the nature deep green and whole trees can be covered in flowers, that people do actually carry suitcases (even backpacks) on their heads with ease, that men dress in big colorful prints and it looks good. And that every plant looks different from the Gotlandic nature I knew in my earlier life…

In the picture my favorite Ghanaian grass. Its every strand looks like a bouquet of Swedish “timotej” grass. And yes, I am aware that in my previous life I probably would not have mentioned "goat" three times in a short text like this one.

Day before xmas

It isn't really xmas tomorrow, but this is the feeling I now have. Tomorrow, I get to open the great gift of reuniting with my man and breathing the dump, warm air of Ghana. Starting a new life...

Yesterday a heartfelt goodbye with the friends here in Uppsala. We started with a drink and continued with dinner in one of the student clubs. That time of my life is now behind me. It feels sad, a lot sadder than I had imagined even though the customer service at the student place as usual was LOL bad. "you need drinks WITH the starter?"

Talked to one of my friends about how its possible to even become closer to some friends when far away. P told me about a friendship that even wasn't that great in reallife, but over longdistance it was a kindered soul meet. Technology of today has a way of breaking down distances. But still, it won't be the same.