New Year Walkabout

Dear Nii Kpakpo,

This is the first letter of the new year and I’m writing to you with a blocked nose because the weather took a turn for the worse. Chale! You won’t believe it but just when we thought the harmattan was about to subside, it takes a turn for the worse.

In all my visits here before I finally moved here, the weather has never been this bad. In the morning, we hit temperatures as low as 18degrees and even when the sun is up in the morning the temperature gradually rises until it hits 38degrees few hours after noon.

This weather pattern is pretty normal but like the changing weather patterns all over the world, this time the weather is very dry, not humid at all. It is so dry that in the abundance of Shea butter, residents are buying a particular Heel Balm from France. As to how that one too became popular beats my mind Nii Kpakpo.

Personally I carry two portable containers, one for Robb to grease my extra large nose against my dust allergies and the other is Shea butter for my face (especially lips), hands and feet. The weather is so dry that the hair on my body gets cranky and irritating so needs constant oiling with Shea butter lest it gets uncomfortable.

The weather is so dry Nii Kpakpo that when you see clouds in the sky it’s not the usual rain clouds but rather dust clouds. The dust is so much that you can actually taste it on your tongue.

Today I went back to work after the long holiday break and as usual the attendance book was full. People had grudgingly dragged themselves to work. The dust is worse on the way to work because now my district decides that they want to construct the main road and the way they are going about it is just dusty.

Honestly sometimes I don’t understand our Ghanaian engineers especially when it comes to road construction. There is a whole lot of space by the roadside and the kind of gutters they are constructing I think will reduce the size of the road drastically. Are they waiting for the district to grow then will now solicit for more money to expand the road? I really don’t get it Kpakpo.

Well, I messed up your sister’s phone and I have to fix it especially since I was the one to cause it in the first place. I put the data on her android phone off and somehow somebody messed up the unlock pattern and I’m supposed to use my email to sign in. Now how do I do that with the data off and the wifi too? I’m so confused.

Interestingly the phone repair shop is still closed. They are still not back from the holidays and shop still has Christmas decorations and curtains over it’s doors. Whilst I was waiting for them to maybe show up, the number of people who showed up asking me if the shop was going to open, as if I worked there or because I stayed there too long to look like a staff member, was overwhelming.

This people up here don’t really chase money the way people do in the south leaving home to work at the crack of dawn and even sleeping over in the shop so the shop will open early to sell, even if nine times out of ten, nobody shows up that early in the morning.

Oh Kpakpo! Business is back and booming. Took a walk through the market and there are only a few shops that are not open. After staying here for a while, I think I now know almost very corner of the market and I can find anything I want within the hour. You know I could never do that with any of the markets in Accra especially Makola though I know how to find my way around there.

Today I went looking for a wholesale shop for cosmetics and toiletries. So I got some roll on, an aftershave and some deodorants for me and her and at wholesale prices too. There were even some items that weren’t in the major supermarkets I went to afterwards and those that were in stock in the supermarkets were sometimes as high as seventy percent more expensive,

Good bargains today if you ask me.

Chale! This is the new year oh and we have to look sharp. Today I noticed that it looked like there was shortage of fuel. I wonder if it was due to the filling stations hoarding fuel in lieu of the projected increase in fuel prices or anything else.

Whatever happened to your ‘oga at the top’ when he went to fete the children of the richest people in the world. Didn’t he meet their parents to ask them to sort us out with a few million gallons of crude whilst we still try to get on our feet.

Or he rather went to shoot his loudmouth and show off his better half’s ‘ikebe’ much to the chagrin of the lascivious desert dwellers with more money than the sand under their feet.

Kpakpo, as for me, it’s the new year and I’m waiting to hear him say he has changed gears into another drive instead of the demonstrations he is so noted for.

Whilst we are on the subject Kpakpo, where is the Bearded Mayor? He has been quiet this Yuletide. What has he said about the demolition dents at that faraway place in Accra?

Nii Kpakpo, it is true I don’t listen to news that much since I came over to the savannah but I hear good stories on the radio so I just downloaded TuneIn Radio so any time I feel like I can keep up.

I have realised I miss the Weekend City Show of my roommate and your bald pot bellied cousin which joyfully satirises weekly events in the city to the enjoyment of his listeners.

The download was also necessitated by the realization that I didn’t even know the Commonwealth Torch was in town and that my most favourite artiste currently ‘Shaaiitta Whyaairrraaay’ carried it in my own old homestead Chorkor.

Oh man! We have finally ‘entered the net’ and people ‘like our tin’.
Shatta Movement for life.
SM4Lyf!

Nii Kpakpo it is very likely that I might take another social media break until I get a new gadget. You know the tab I’m using is ‘la borro’ and the owner wants his gadget back. Well I hoped I could loan purchase it but alas, that’s not possible especially since you and I both know that money paid in bits and pieces in this land of our death is not utilised to the fullest as the holder of the money will desire it to be used.

Nii Kpakpo Thompson, we are in the new year and to God be the glory. Let us keep spreading the word that Ghana is not poor. We can make it out of our current situation via a renewal of individual minds.

When I hear people calling on government to intervene in one thing or the other I get sad because who is the government if it isn’t the ordinary Ghanaian citizen who created the mess in the first place. If we prevent the mess, we won’t have to call for help and then get disappointed if it doesn’t come.

Kpakpo, we also do not have to sit down and wait for the policy makers to bail us out. Through cooperation with each other, we can make giant strides in progress. It’s for this reason that I’m glad some of you are into relevant radio so you can spread the word quicker and on a broader scale.

Let’s keep working for Ghana because this is the land of our birth, and our death too.

Keep keeping well until next time.

Your Cousin in Law,
Savannah Boy