So... Merry Christmas everyone!

I made this card and put it on the news board in the office in the hope of gaining some Christmas spirit. Not really a successful attempt...but then again what is Christmas spirit? Is it the result of yearly routine, of media preaching, of advertising hypnotism, movie industry imagination or religious dogma?
Do we have to care more now, to give more now, to share more now, to love more now? Apparently we do cause otherwise how would we feel the Christmas spirit? Or do you think tiny lights, weird looking trees in the middle of the house, smell of special kind of food or high notes songs will do it?

See, people do need specific dates to remember them to display more of those basic human feelings that all year long get lost in reports, meetings, phone calls, emails, budgets, plans, strategies and worries. Following this logic, 14th of February is just as good of a celebration, riiiiiiiight?! ; -) I have too much free time on my hands these days, don't I? : ] ...or maybe I just miss people at home... noooo, it has nothing to do with this time of the year when everyone or most of people are with their loved ones - i'm not a sheep, ok? just acting like one :P

PS: The first thing on the card means Merry Christmas in twi, the second means the same thing in ga and the last one is in Romanian.

Christmas party at Champs

A very important place in every trainee's life(and probably of most obrunis in Accra) is... Champs. And that's where we were last Saturday for their Christmas party.

I'm mentioning this mainly because I wanna brag about winning one of the 3 bottles of red wine. The whole thing was so strange - I said "I want to win a bottle of wine, I want wine" and the next thing, what do you know?! - the elvette (feminine of elves, one of Santa's helpers) picked my name out of all the people in the place. Call it luck, destiny, chance, coincidence, mistake or whatever, but I'm still happy, even now, after we drank the wine which by the way was very very good. I would have also won the Karaoke contest with a prize of 500.000 cedis which is about 50 dollars (to spend inside the bar and restaurant) if I wouldn't have been such a scared chicken and actually sang. Oh well, next time will definitely drink more. ;)

This about sums it up

in a cab.

Boat trip on Volta Lake

Volta Lake - you might have heard about it in Geography classes back in the days, but just so you know it is the second largest artificial lake in the world - after the one in China. Not that this would help when it comes to providing the country with energy.

Now the story. In an early Sunday morning we all - Dalia, her Lithuanian guests, Misha and myself - headed to the trotro/bus station to find our ride to Akosombo - that's the name of the dam. And so we did - a bus, not a trotro - which made us wait for a while for it to get filled. Since I was kinda bored in the process and not comfortable enough to catch some sleep, I bought one of those games most of us had when we were kids - tetris and some other 99999 "fun"games - from the guy's head you see in the picture - quite impressive variety of stuff, wouldn't you say so? :)

I was entertained for about... 30 minutes, then Dalia got entertained for a while and in a few days after I'm getting really tired of it (I will have fun when there's no light....yupiii) I will give it to one of my neighbors - Hugh, a 9 year old bright little guy. Very noble of me, huh?

We had to change transportation in one small and cute little village with a really nice big bridge - forgot the name of it - and we got a trotro which was going to our destination - that's cause it was filled with "The Band" on board - a good moment for me to show off my impressive knowledge of twi. :) The Band sang the whole 5 hours of the boat ride and people danced and danced and danced. Yeah, Ghanaians like to dance and they're not shy about it. I like that.

The boat ride wasn't spectacular for me (I'm referring mostly to the landscape we've seen which was just water and some islands - talking from a landscape point of view the boat ride I took while in Greece was much better), but it was relaxing and fun, although a bit too touristy for my taste. It actually reminded me of the boat ride I took back home in Romania from Tulcea to Sf. Gheorghe (a small village in The Danube Delta) on the big and slow boat - but I have to admit this was much nicer. We had food and one drink included and the service and entertainment was really good. All for about 16 dollars.

Oh...and we stopped at an island, 27 km from the shore where people live - main occupation - fishing - some will say bagging cause that's what they do the two days a week the boat stops on their island, but the rest of 5 they fish. :-) It is true they also dance and sing and have canoes for short rides, but as you set foot on that ground many kids start grabbing your hand and ask for money. We didn't like that last one activity. We appreciate when they provide a service or something for some money and NOT BEG. And apparently there was no school on the island so they had to go with the canoes on a neighboring island for education where is also a training camp for military force...or that's what I've heard between big hungry bites of chicken (we've got all these infos after we came back on the boat, in case you were wondering).

Now, how can I forget the beads?!?! See pictures for enlightment. I loooove, or better say I'm addicted to the local bracelets, necklaces and earrings - so original and colorful. They were selling those before getting on the boat. Not enough money to satisfy my huge urge of shopping, though.

Oh wow...look at me...I've written quite a lot this time. Not bad! :)

Hand in hand

A major cultural difference I've noticed is that men hold hands like me and my boyfriend hold hands without any gay connotation - it's a symbol of friendship. Weeeeell...100% of the straight men in Romania wouldn't be caught dead holding hands in that way.
I have no idea about the sexual orientation of the men in the picture, but most of them hold hands like that or even touch like those other two without any romantic interest. How can I be sure you ask? I've observed and asked around about this strange to me habit. I'm pretty good at observing and asking - so that should do it. :-)
Of course there are gay people in Ghana also. One may think they’d be more difficult to spot (that’s if they “don’t wanna get out of the closet”), but it must be hard for them since this is a very Christian values based society. Anywayz - it's never easy I assume...

Christ Embasy

Yesterday I passed by " Christ Embassy" while in the car. So if you wanna go to heaven, that's where you get the visa from. Forms available after death. Interviews now and forever. :-)

PS: As you probably figured out if you read some of the last posts, The Ghanaian society is a very religious one - they have a lot of churches, missions, preaching sessions, healing seassions, they go to church every Sunday and everyone believes in God. Yeaaaah...not an ideal place for a non-religious person like me. :-P
They are also a very tolerant nation in what concerns other religions or non-religions. Hihi :-)
I haven't yet been to a Sunday service, but hopefully this weekend I will go to a "baby outdooring" - the naming and showing of a new born child - to see and understand more of the culture. If I do that, I only have a wedding to go to and I've covered all the important stages of life - birth, marriage and death. :-)

Don't wanna miss out on this one ;-P

I'm dreaming of a sunny Christmas...

...and my dream is going to come true soon. Here's where I'm gonna be 4 Christmas - Green Turtle Lodge. With friends. Can't wait!
I'm really happy I can skip few months of winter....but time goes by and soon I'll be back home where is still going to be winter, but a lot of warmth from my loved ones...:-D

I'm thinkin' to get my hair did soon....

rasta style....

But I'm afraid of the headaches it is said I might get.

The biggest snails I have ever seen

On our way to the bush. They were for sale. Hmmm..I should have bought them and set them free....oh, next time.

Thank you Budapest....oh, sorry Bucharest!

Hehe - forgot about the highlight of the trip - watching Episode 404: Quintuplets 2000 from South Park: Season 4 - with me the only Romanian in a group of different nationalities. See the plot to understand why I'm saying this:

plot:

The boys discover 8-year-old contorting quintuplets from Romania. Cartman decides to stage his own performance.

The quintuplets and their grandmother try to escape from the Romanian government hoping to bring them back. The five end up at the Marsh house, asking for shelter. After Grandpa Marsh "loves to death" the girls’ grandmother, the boys decide to show the quints how great America is, hoping they'll stay and do their circus.

The girl's father is brought in by the Romanian government to demand his daughters back. In the US, the Marsh house is surrounded by protesters, hoping to let the quints stay. Janet Reno comes to the rescue!

In the end the quints tell off all the groups on their shortcomings, that America just wants them for money, Janet Reno for doing it for publicity, Romania for being selfish and wanting them for recognition, and the boys for their ignorance about Romanian culture. They then go on Oprah and start a press tour.




Wikipedia has the full info on the episode here.
YouTube has last part of the episode here.
IMDB has its share of info right here.

So watch it and laugh. The crying part [of "Oh my God, that's the way Romania is always portrayed outside the borders - cause media only shows the bad stories, blablabla – it’s so unfair, the world is so ignorant, why don’t they show “all the beauty we poses inside”?-yadayadayada] you can skip if only for the reason that South Park makes fun of everyone and everything and plus all that nice things are not entertaining at all- not for this kind of show - dumbly obvious and not for media or people like you and me.

Yes, there is a serious part of the problem, but this post cannot solve it and wishes not to get into. Anywayz, in my proactive kinda way I will give a homework equation to those interested in further understanding of the issue:
Reality + x = Perception. Who is x?

In the same proactive way I'll shut up, go to sleep and continue my traineeship as a Romania representative in the morning. Good night and good luck! ;-)

Trip to the bush

3 days weekend - long and tiring, but very fun one. First – what’s the bush? Well… “the bush”, “the jungle” or “middle of nowhere” is the place (a Ghananian timber factory) where all the other trainees in Ghana (working for the same company) are at these days. Some of them still hope to come back to the city where they normally work, but the spirits of the forest might have other plans with them. ;-)

The trip started with an almost 10 hour’s drive (including stops and trying to figure out the way to the jungle) and ended with a desperate search for petrol at night (9 pm) after we kept discovering closed petrol stations – was just like an oasis – here it is…oh no, it’s not - it's closed!

Conversation between Stevan and a taxi driver on our way there:

Stevan: "Excuse me, this is the way to Kumasi?"

Taxi driver: "yes, yes"

Stevan: "Ok, thank you"

Taxi driver: "I love you"

The trip was possible by the great power of The Red Thunder - the trustworthy car that has proved itself better than a Patrol or any other car that thinks it’s cool. It has won our lives and

our love forever. :-)

So what is there to do once you get to the bush? "Not much", my friends who have been living there for the past few months would say, but since it was our first time, there were a lot of new and interesting stuff to discover. For example Saturday we've seen the inside of the timber factory - all the work processes involved - interesting stuff.

The afternoon was chillin at the poll. Really cool - especially the scenary of the tropical forest!

Next day we went in the forest where they cut the trees. It didn't really felt good seeing the trees being cut - but then again it looks like the forest is under very specifc regulations- they cut trees, but they also have to plant, they have a map of the forest with all trees and species and cut in such a way that it can grow back. Well..it creates jobs, furniture and wood stuff and of course money for the nation. hehe

I was a bit scared I will get knocked dead by a falling tree, but it was fine - everyone is ok - yeah, they know how to cut it and everything, but "Believe me, I know what i'm doing" is one of the most famous last words. ;-P

people co and people bra ;-)

OK, so I'm the only trainee at my company. Feels lonely a bit, but now I'm even more special. Muhahahaha. :) Tobi left on Sunday. Tobi's from Nigeria and has become a good friend in the past 3 months. Good luck with everything and keep on writing on your blog so we know where you're at and whatcha doin!;-)

A traineeship is like a miniature life - people come and go - but in a more compressed period of time. Dalia had an interesting theory about it in one of her old posts. ;-)

Oh, almost forgot one thing that makes me terribly happy - a Romanian gal will join me soon here at my company. Romanian invasion coming soon in Accra - Yuhuuu!!!!So watch out!