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...

Over the past week, I've spent time with my cousins and a visiting "sister" from Ghana who recently had a baby girl. The baby is adorably cute, and my would-be "maternal instincts" immediately kicked in. I've always found it amazing how a tiny baby can grow up to be an individual with dreams, hopes, fears, opinions and the whole hammock of complexities that form a human being. One thing that sticks out to me about babies is the fact that they want to be treated as anything but what they are. You lay her down, she squeals, you cradle her in your arms, she throws a fit, you put her in her crib; are you seriously asking for a full-fledged tantrum? The trick is to treat them like adults. And by 'treat them like adults,' I don't mean throw a suit on her, throw a briefcase into her hand, and sit her at a desk for hours on end. No, what I mean is talk to her. Yes, the baby, talk to him/her. Now, that suggestion might sound incredulous, and I can definit...