Friday, October 26, 2012

Adventures in a Foreign Land - Almost Feels Like Home

Overcrowded neighbourhoods, dilapidated buildings, overflowing garbage bins with an indescribable stench, artificially created footpaths where there once might have been a well manicured lawn, cluttered balconies and groups of people sitting outside watching your every move with overly suspicious stares. Did I just get off a bus or did I just walk out of an aeroplane? I know I just got off a bus so why do I feel like I'm home? Last time I checked, home was over 6,000 miles away.

A walk through Central Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba had me wondering if I was back in Ghana or if I was still in Canada. Something had to be terribly wrong. No part of Canada is suppossed to remotely remind me of where I came from, or so I thought. What even baffled me more was, everywhere I turned, I just kept seeing other Africans like myself and a few other minority groups including a group I had come to learn about during my stay in the country, Aboriginals. I would almost have fit right in if I didn't feel like and wasn't being treated like a stray.

All I had wanted was to get to know my new environment as much as I could in the short time I had. Last thing I'd expected was to find a bit of my country in this country, especially since I had only been exposed to the plush neighbourhoods I had expected to see. As a matter of fact, I lived in one such neighbourhood. Of course, I termed these neighbourhoods plush by my standards.

As I got on a bus to ride out and head on back to the plush neighbourhood with a bougie name (Royalwood) I lived in, I couldn't help but hope all the people back home who would do just about anything to get out and seek greener pastures in the West could see what I'd just seen. Sad thing is I was one of those people. Worse yet, even though my neighbourhood in Accra was not as plush as the neighbourhood I lived in in Winnipeg, it was so much better than this place I'd just left.

Moral: (yeah, there always is one) there's no place like home :D

This is so not Gh



Tuesday, October 09, 2012

I So Totally Miss Kwaku Doe :o(

It's been ages since I last blogged about Kwaku Doe. Why? Cos I don't use the same route to work no more. I hardly ever see him. If I do see him, then it's cos I'm headed home and he's on the other side of the road :o(

I do get to see him on Sundays sometimes but we hardly get to talk. I remember there was this Sunday, I was just at his spot and there was this physically challenged man begging. Kwaku was also making his rounds but the other guy was a step ahead of him. Now, I knew the traffic light was just about to go green so I was a bit impatient when the other guy got to me first. I couldn't wait for him to leave but I dint have enough money on me to give him and Kwaku, and there was a lot of questions I wanted to ask Kwaku. I waved the physically challenged guy away and Kwaku saw it and I guess he concluded I was not in a giving mood. Urgh! I was pissed at the other guy then I felt bad for being pissed at him.

Anyways, something happened last Sunday that I dint quite get. A couple of Sundays ago I asked Kwaku how long he'd been begging and he said he'd been at it for about four years. Then last Sunday I asked what he'd been doing before he started begging and he says that's all he's been doing like forever. I'm starting to think he prolly dint understand my question. I should have spoken a local language or something. He must not have understood the English I spoke or he couldn't express himself well in English. Whichever ways, I'll get another shot maybe next Sunday.

Saved (Twice)

Sometime in 2018, I was heading to work when I heard this knocking sound. It was coming from my car but I couldn't tell which part of th...