Saturday 28 April 2012

"The Blogs Must Be Crazy"



For the next three months I'll be working at a school in Fumesua in the Ashanti region of Ghana. As would be the case, Fumesua is just about the only part of Ghana that Google Earth has decided isn't really worth the effort. But any keen geographers out there can momentarily put down their felt-tips and check out Kumasi - the second largest city in Ghana - and have a squint for some vague, blurry and pixelated settlements about 15km to the east, on the Accra-Kumasi road...

Now there comes a time in everyone's life when one must bear the pressure of having to think up a decent name for a blog. 

For me, this day has come. 

After a somewhat inauspicious start (Ashanti, obruni and Kumasi don't invite wordplay as much as you might think), a few ideas had been put on the table: the Tom-Clancy-thriller-sounding 'Black Star Rising' was pitted against any number of titles in the vein of 'This is Ghana be …[insert adjective of choice]'  and many many more. It was a desperately poor collection. To make it even worse there was the devastating moment when I had to pass on 'Accra for Help' - I'm living and working a good four to five hours away from the capital, so frankly that would be misleading. After much staring at blank walls, many deliberations and various contributions, 'Notes from Ashanti town…' has won through.

The following posts will be a collection of anecdotes, observations and general ramblings. They might amuse, they might bore or they might even - on a lucky day - inform. It's anyone's guess.

Akwaaba to the blog…