Double dealer

You show me your teeth

But I can’t be sure

If it’s a smile

Or a gnarl

Ghana’s ‘concrete jungle’

5:45am. Still dark and foggy. But I’m at the steer sipping on a cupa and feeling damned sleepy. A very long day lies awaiting. Not that it’s different from any other. I just feel like I should have been born in a little remote village where I didn’t have to be driving around in the wee hours of the morning. I ask myself if all the money in the world is worth the chase… No answer. Not that I was expecting any. Light turns red, I stop. I look to my left, a yawning man in his car. I look to my right, there is a trotro* full of still passengers. The driver yawns, I look at the passengers closely. They are all fast asleep. Every. Single One. Of. Them. Even the early morning hawkers look groggy and disheveled. Is this the dream life they bargained for when they left their towns and villages? Will they make it? Is this really a city where there’s nothing you can’t do? Er…

This concrete jungle post is inspired by Alicia Keyes’ new song (or new version) – Empire State of Mind, which I am sooooooo loving!
Trotro*- mini bus for public transport.

The curious case of Mental Health in Ghana

She cooks them their dinner

They munch with delight

They don’t know it’s their last

For it is laced with poison

After they cross to the other side

She lines up the 5 limp bodies

According to age

Then calls Daddy to come for his clan

She’s clearly cuckoo

Yet in analyzing the situation

The ‘News Team’ calls a cleric!

So, where are the Ghanaian psychiatrists?

2010 Promises

I've been promised the whole world for 2010
No, I've been promised small steps towards the whole world
I'm smiling at 2010
Hmmm, bliss!

Of adulterous women and so on…

They named him

They shamed him

They named her

They stoned her

They screamed justice

I scream brutish

Sleeping towns

They are no longer our homes

Mere edifices

In which we keep our belongings

And then to have forty winks

We rise before the rest of the city

And retire last

Yet we are paid no more

For spending a sixth of the day

Trying to get to there.

Plain English

I gave you all

You wanted none

I gave you none

You want all

Please do tell me in plain English,

What do you want?

I’ve always wondered…

What should you say to someone who offers you drugs (like heroin or coke), “No, thanks.” or “F**k off!”?

Would the former not be asking to be coerced?

Would the latter not be too rude and hurtful?

Should everyone try it at least once so you know it’s really nothing to write home about?

What if you try it and like the feel of it?

PS. I haven’t been offered any. I just wonder because it seems so remote to me…

Wife Swap

So they exchange homes for two weeks

Husbands and offspring

Duties and needs

Perchance they exchange their lives

Dinners and chores

Work and pets

But what if the sparks fly

And the ‘sleeping arrangements’ are muddled?

Tough Love

When my sister was in nursery school, she used to come home with scratches on her arms from where a bully in her class had scratched her. Once she complained to our Mama. Mama got mad.

She asked, “Is X in your class?”

Sis replied, “Yes”

“Is he bigger than you?

“No”

She asked her, “So why didn’t you scratch him back? Next time you go to school and X scratches you again, and you don’t scratch him back with all you’ve got, I will punish you!”

My sister was petrified. Next day rolls around. Lo and behold, X scratches her. She was scared. Scared of X and scared that if she didn’t scratch back Mama would spank her. She hesitated. Which did she fear more, Mama or X? No brainer.

With that she pounced on X scratched his face, his arms, his legs. He wasn’t stronger after all! He ran away crying and never scratched her again. Mama gave her a treat when she came back home!

I recently asked her about it and she said it was because she can’t fight all her children’s battles for them. It was a valuable lesson to teach them to fight back. Maybe one day I will see her point of view. Or maybe not.