Clothng Mishaps

Clothing mishaps.
Who hasn't experienced it?
Oh, you! at the corner.
REALLY! you have not lost a button close your cleavage?, Ripped your pants against a ragged edge?
YOU HAVEN'T?
You sure you human?
My pants have been ripped. Okay, not totally ripped. This is what happened.
My pants have a side zip up to the waist. Today was my first time of wearing these pants since they were bought a couple of months back; not because I didn't want to wear them but because I did not have any shirt to go with it. They are brown stripped pants. So anyho, I wore them today with a light brown blouse which ends it a bit below the waist. I went to the lavatory and guess what?  I COULD NOT PULL UP THE ZIPPER ANYMORE! WHAT GIVES!
So I wiggle a bit here, and a little more there and whhrrrruup! The zipper runs over.
There I was with a torn zip and a blouse which couldn't cover the essential; my hip.  Either I have gained weight in the few hours from home to work or I have expanded. My dilemma.

Good thing I had my phone with me. I called a friend to find out if she was at home cos she lives close to where I work. Nope, her leave was over and she was back at work. Good gracious. Hmmmm
I then remembered one of my colleagues at work had blouses for sale; I called her and told her my predicament. Entem ara then she brought me a long blouse, which covered the torn zip at the hip and complemented the pants. Thank God. Crisis averted till another time. (no crisis oo)

Cutting it Short

buzzfeed.com

To cut a long and maybe extremely boring narration short; I got myself mugged in South Africa. Oh, this was not the hands-in-the-air, gun-pointing-at-you, armed-person-looking-fugitively-around kind of mugging. It was more of gal-squealing-at-sight-of-Moda-shoe-store, going-in, sitting-down, trying-on-pair-of-shoes and opportunist-thief-unclasping-gal's-shoulder-bag making off with everything she had :- passport, money, new purse, camera, eye glasses, hotel keys; everything.

forefugees.com

Since this is going to be a short narration, here goes; the hotel was so kind to let me use their hired bus and money to take passport pictures at Kempton Park for my temporary travel document- no charge (hey, given that everything else (insert: Internet) at the hotel apart from the basic stuff must be paid for), the Ghanaian ambassador, who had just arrived, came all the way from Pretoria to Johannesburg when he was informed at the incident (now, that might have been because my colleague is a friend of his family. :)), Charles (my good samaritan) innocently asks how much I had lost and gave it all back to be, saying 'This will not compensate your loss but let it ease it somewhat' (it is great meeting new people. They keep surprising you. I had met Charles only the day before).
Oh must not forget this, this Ghanaian dude who drove me to get a traveling bag at Festival Mall took what little rand I had on me for the cost of the transportation (Charles give money in the currency I was holding, $. In order to change foreign currency in South Africa you must have your passport, travel document etc)); I had to borrow money from the hotel's till  Hmmm.  One might ask, how come? This person was sent by someone else (my colleague and I had initially contacted to take me to the mall based on the understanding that we were not going to pay because we were going to advertise his lodge free for him), and this guy charged me his normal fees, which as twice the normal amount if what the receptionists at the hotel said is true.

fulanofiles.blogspot

So yes, next time I go to South Africa, I am hiding my passport and money in my 'druss' since it looks like that is the only way I can protect them and I will be watching with eagle eyes since almost everyone will take advantage, including the police. Bedford police said they could not take me back to the hotel after the mall security had taken me there to make a report. Apparently they are not allowed to move out of their precinct. One policeman offered to get his colleague policeman to take us to the hotel but he will require payment. This policeman after getting us to the hotel took 300 rands and asked that we add more since the guys at the police station will ask for a cut of the money. Huh? At this point, I cried buckets of water on the guy; telling him in-between sobs and sniffles that the police in my country will go out of their way to help foreigners who had been through such an ordeal as we had and not made demands on us for money we did not have. How did we pay him? Premier Hotel O.R Tambo gave us money (to be refunded) to pay. POLICE in SA? Baabiara enjoo ye! No place cool!
E GO B PASS!

'Adventure' In SA

I am back from South Africa people and I must say I saw nothing; mostly because I was cooped up in a hotel inside Kempton Park, did not know anyone or maybe I was just plain o' scared. So for a hundred rand (R100), I got a wireless voucher from the hotel designed to work scarcely at best and run out after 5 days; let's just say, I learnt my lesson.

baketasticblog.com

itnewsafrica.com

 My adventure in SA started at Joburg airport as my colleague and I realised we could not make calls to Ghana from our Most Terrible Network (MTN) sim card, the exact problem we wanted to avoid when we called MTN Ghana to ask about what we needed to do in order to make calls from SA. A customer service person asked as to load up as much credits on our MTN call accounts as we can and although automatically roaming had been turned on for all MTN lines (I did not know this), just to be on the safe side we send the text ROAM ON to some short code (I have forgotten which code) before we leave the shores of Ghana. So after loading up hundreds of MTN Ghana call credits, we got to SA only to realise we cannot make calls, however we could receive calls and, get this, get deducted for those calls we received! (We knew the way it worked but this was supposed to be a two-way bargain; I make calls, I pay; I receive calls, I pay. It worked one way; their way!)  The Cheats! So off we marched to the MTN SA booth at the airport. Explaining our problem, the lady at the booth, we were informed that we would have to purchase a R60 MTN card from them to get a new sim card which will enable us make calls; hmmmm, another MTN sim card, even if the R60 was for the call credits and not the sim? Nah, I think we will pass and a pass we gave it.
Got ourselves a Vodacom (Vodafone in Ghana) sim card instead and lived to regret that purchase.

techmtaa.com

This is enough for now. I will continue with more; about how I made new friends; a beaut and a heart of gold... :) What I ate as a practicing vegan...

Good Things

First, I apologise for keeping away from blogzville for so long. Good things are happening. Thank God. I don't want to jinx it by talking about it too soon; so I am going to let God have His way this time and not rush things (I tend to wrestle things from Him quite a lot).

So I am alive and well. I will be going to South Africa, specifically Johannesburg, for a course. I have apprehensions about it because of the rampant crime that takes place there. Does anyone know of a good self-defence instructor I could learn the act of self-defence from; for 3 weeks at most?

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How To Nip A Guy 101

A colleague and I got talking (we tend to do that cos we cool like that. :)). 

A little background of this colleague: She is married and older than I. She could be my mother. She has style and swagger.  A young man might consider her for his 'cougar' (you never heard this from me. *sealed lips*).

toonpool.com

According to her, all men are capable of cheating and are cheating and though she has never made mention of it; that maybe her husband has cheated, has been cheating, and is cheating. She argues quite well (after all, she is a lawyer) that married Ghanaian men cheat on their wife. Okay, so to the point of this post. My colleague gives the following advice to women on how to keep their men coming back home even when they cheat (cos dey (men) be natural cheaters and all),

1. Ghanaian men love it when their women fawn over them.

2. After the man gets back from work, welcome him home gently and give him a massage.

3. Give your man a pedicure and massage his feet.

4. Don't press your opinion too firmly if he is in disagreement. Allow him to do whatever he wants and when it backfires, he will come back with his tail tacked between his legs (okay, so I added that bit of imagery)

5. Should he ever ask you to leave the home you have built together, be as stubborn as a mule and stay. (huh?, hmmm)

6. Do all these and more at carefully orchestrated periods and you are sure to get whatever you ask of 'your' man the next day.

So what say you, cos I need to nip me a fine male specimen, but I envision the following problems

toonpool.com

1. I am opinionated and waste no time making it known that something is impractical and ....

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2. I don't want a home where the man crosses his legs and watches me do all the romancing and planning of getaways and fun times, oh and let us not forget the cooking. the cleaning and washing (thank God for the washing machine; I require a washing machine), ironing, diaper change ....

3. I love me some strong arms on me too and a cuddle or two or three, oh, you get my drift

4. I hate manipulation; of myself and of others, in any form. I want the truth; plain, plain. :)

Looks like I have a long-ways to go or maybe I can keep dreaming that I will be loved and appreciated with all my niceties and fault-lines. :)

Side note: What the heck happened to the images of handsome guys on the internet cos I sure ain't finding none! Took me awhile before finally settling on this, even though I still have misgivings. :)

To Catch a Thief

When 25-year old Amina took it upon herself to remove items that did not belong to her from Sarbah Hall in University of Ghana in the middle of the night of 31st March 2011, little did she know what would be in store for her when students of the Hall lay hands on her.

What happens when students take it upon themselves to merit 'justice' on a thief?
What happens when physical abuse turns sexual?
Who takes or will accept the blame?
Who cares enough to condemn without justifying such an act?

Read Daixy's blog post on this issue. My heart goes out to you, Amina. You may be a thief but you did not deserve this. No one does.

Of Mad Men and Fear

www.ghanaweb.com

Standing at the bus-stop this morning impatiently waiting for a trotro to Tema Station, it was almost fifteen minutes after seven, and I was contemplating whether I should board a taxi ('dropping') like I had had to do for three continuous day, I heard this incessant stringing of words beside me, I slowly turned my head only to realise there was a 'mad' man standing close to me at the bus stop. I detest the fact that unkempt, plainly out-of-their-minds men who roam the streets of Accra incite feelings of fear from people they come in contact with and yet I could not stop the flare of fear that shot up in my heart as I saw this 'crazy' man. It didn't help that he seemed to be looking at me and speeching away with incoherent words and gestures. A lady standing in front of me quickly walked away and yours truly, the macho that she is, kept standing there, all the while thinking, "you try anything crazy, I will beat the *?@# out of you". What gives! Ah! It is my stupid, 'crazy' pride I tell you. One thing I love to say is I am not afraid of another human being. The man, albeit crazed, is a human being like me, so why should I run away from him?, though such 'crazy' people have been known to cause serious harm to people and seem to possess super-human strength when they get all crazy. Let me digress (ah, digress, always wanted to use that word. lol), this is not my first and sure will not be my last (if the 'mad' people are not taken off our streets to psyche hospitals), encounter with a 'mad' person.

anangfio.blogspot.com

About six years ago, one 'mad' man touched my butt and I distinctly heard the word 'big'. I had turned to talk to a friend at a bus stop (these bus stops seem to be a magnet) near Gaza, a hostel at KNUST when my friend started running and as usual I, the cool cucumber that I am, did not ran after her. I just walked fast towards her, asking why she was running away. Then it happened. A second delay and I ran like lions were after me. Looks like I did not learn anything from that encounter. Yours truly, the 'foolish' Amazon, was not drawing herself away, again; she was spying the empty trotro which had made a U-turn and was about to halt at the bus stop for passengers to clamber  for seats. I 'gauged' the trotro's entrance and got myself a seat.(*sign of relief*). As the trotro was about to draw away from the stop, I noticed the 'mad' man, still speaking incoherently, standing close to the trotro's entrance. The trotro drove away with him standing at the bus stop and waving his hands.
I seriously need to get me some super-fast-reacting adrenaline hormones.

P.S. Man in insert is not really a 'mad' man. He is a hiplife artist known as Kwaw Kese, goes by the nickname Abodam, which means mad.