Circumspecte

Some blog topics come to you in the form of a sentence from a stranger’s mouth, others come in dreams, and yet more from trending topics on twitter. My first blog topic in Ghana met me at the airport. As the plane descended into Accra’s Kotoka Airport, I thought to myself, “I’m finally home!” As is apparently the case with most flights arriving in Ghana, the passengers broke into spontaneous applause once we hit the runway. That’s when I saw it. The first thing to greet us upon arrival was a wretched-looking shell of what used to be a Ghana Airways airplane. The engine had clearly been removed, but the actual body was still intact, and while some paint was peeling off it, the words “Ghana Airways” and the familiar red-gold-green colors of our national flag seemed to stare wearily at the relatively spic and span Delta aircraft. Oh Ghana! My heart broke. I thought about taking a photo, but I was too distraught. Right there and then, my expectations of the “new” Ghana everyone seems to...

First post in a month! It's been a while coming and it's finally here. Warm breeze playing softly on the nape of your neck, you gaze up enthralled. There it is. What you have longed for for eons on end; finally within your grasp. You take in the expanse of it all. The red-golden-green colors silently inviting you to indulge. Yet, you hesitate. Maybe it's because some call it the forbidden fruit. That last drop of water that tips the calabash over. Come to think of it, it's quite ironic that it should be titled as such when its seeds are commonplace. At one point or another, everyone falls for its charm and after that, you're never quite the same. You either get sucked into its sweet succulent juices or you feel the stinging burn of its acrid taste. Bittersweet. The silent buzz of a bee draws you out of your reverie and you shuffle across the vast, green lawn to the foot of the tree. Some say its the exact replica of its ancestor in the garden of Eden...