Hectic Week!

Last week was full of activities as Oxfam GB took part in a campaign, dubbed 'First Rice Week', to promote Ghanaian rice and thereby support local farmers.

One activity of the Week was the procession in the streets of Accra. It was a long march, starting from Nkrumah Circle and ending at the House of Parliament, after delivering a petition to various Ministries.

It was great to see farmers demonstrating for their rights with so much enthusiasm. Their claim that local rice is healthy must be true as they walked a long distance and danced all the way. Their fitness proved that farming is good too: women, who are the majority cultivating the land, led the group.

After this 'breathtaking' event, I had the surprise of a call by former students of Bristol University. Joe is Ghanaian and works in micro-finance for a partner organisation of Oxfam. Patrick is from Uganda and came to attend a workshop at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center (http://www.kaiptc.org). I enjoyed spending the evening at Paloma with them. This wrapped my day up.

Power savings

After four weeks of absence, water came back in the house. I’m wondering for how long… However, electric power has been rationed since last week because Ghana's only - or almost - source of energy, the Volta River, is dry. I hope that the rains yesterday and today will help the level to come up to a normal level... a better anyway.

Consequently, yesterday morning, I decided to bath at the office (the expression ‘bathing’ is more used in Ghana than ‘having a shower’ – now I understand why: the use of buckets is more common because of the frequent cuts in water distribution). After being dressed again, I could not open the door and stayed locked up for almost one hour! The organisation had to call a carpenter to release me. Fortunately, I had this marvellous book on sociological mindfulness with me. It was talking about an – imaginary – experiment between newborn identical twins. One twin is put in a box, in isolation of social life, whilst the other one lives normally. After 18 years, scientists can compare how they have become. Not a pleasant experience for the former, I can tell…

I'm looking forward to welcoming a friend from Belgium on Saturday. This will bring a positive change for two weeks. Meantime, I expect my neighbour, Diana, to leave back to Europe, after more than eight months spent in her native country. I will miss her. That is life: creating ties, that can be strengthened or unmade, sometimes kept... Despite distance, time and experiences.