Ghanaization of Norway

When I had just started to get accustomed to living in Norway, all this gets slammed in my face after a walk in town, in tiny Levanger, in the middle of Norway, far far far away from the Equator!


The Bolga Basket - A product of Ghana


Here beautifully displayed on the snow


And lo and behold, we DO eat fufu in Norway!

My fianceè will not want for anything when he once comes here.

The sun will come out, tomorrow...

Well, yesterday I wrote: I wonder what tomorrow will bring. This is what it brought. It's a fair going on in Levanger, hence the horse and carriage ride, and the parade through town with torches and all electrical lights turned off, and a visit from my good friend Lisbeth. :-)

But what today really brought, was a letter from Norwegian Immigration Authorities, telling me I'm free to import my fianceè to Norway at any time! I'm in shock. And happy!

Life is wonderful

Today I've ridden horse and carriage, learned how to throw a snowball in the most competative way and I've been swimming together with people 25 years younger than me.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

My guardian angels

These 3 watch over me every night. Cos they hang on a nail above my bed, and they have been doing that for a while.
The crocodile that looks like a turtle is a Ghanaian Adinkra symbol, Denkyem, which is a symbol of adaptability, ability to handle different situations and circumstances in life, as the crocodile who lives in water, yet breathes air. And I feel I have had a lot of opportunities to adapt to new circumstances. A good friend gave me this and she seems to know me well. It's perfect.
The second is an angel, which has the inscription: You are loved. The same friend gave me this too, and it means so much to me. In fact, she gave me another one this Christmas, so she must be extra fond of me! And I of her.
The last is a rosary I "stole" from my fianceè in Ghana. Though I'm not a Catholic, it reminds me of him, of my time in Tema, and it can't be bad to have Jesus watching over you at night, no matter where your religious beliefs lie.

When I moved to Levanger I picked these three trinkets off my wall in my childhood home, and carried them with me here. And now they hang on a tiny nail (prescribed by my landlord), protecting me, loving me and helping me adapt to yet another circumstance in my life so far.

On snow, shoes, sun and serious blisters

So the other day I had the bright idea to walk back to town from my sister's farm, which is quite far from the town, in which I live. More or less 10km to be exact. The weather was sparkling, as one can see from the picture, my load was not all that heavy and I thought I'd survive. Which I obviously did. Unfortunately I was wearing my heavy winter boots, they are not made for walking. Im still paying the price for the walk, but it was worth it!

My LOVELY shoes...

Lets talk about love - A view out of Ghana

Couldn't find the words, but I could find the evidence.

(Common topic for this month on Ghanablogging.)

You dont know what you've got till it's gone!

Did anyone hear me complain about the cold and lack of snow?
Well, now it looks like this: http://ahintadie.blogspot.com/2009/02/snow.html,
though the picture there is from Oslo.

In a few days I'm sure all the snow is gonna cause a nuisance too. I'm not satisfied until I get to wear sneakers..

Brrr...

Ironically enough there are reports of heavy snowfall in Spain while we have been sitting here in the middle of Norway for weeks, though in freezing temperatures under MINUS 10 celcius, but NO snow. Grass sticking up through the frozen ground, but NO snow. And for those not so familiar with the sub-zero degrees, it usually snows if its a little bit warmer in the air, it feels warmer in some weird way with snow falling than 13 degrees below zero + sunshine. And if you add a bit of wind, the real effect of the degrees drops by 7-8 degrees. So yesterday we were blessed with -5 degrees and snow, and everybody were happy and little babies at work got to spend an hour outside playing in the snow. So did the adults, and they were very satisfied with that dose of fresh air. So today I woke up, hoping for the same, looked outside at the thermometer, it showed minus freaking fourteen degrees! Brr.. My fingers are cold from typing. I'm going into hibernation.

Looks nice? Freaking freezing February.

Nice choice of words

What made my morning today:

Obama on the radio: I screwed up!

How nice to hear an American president use such candid words.

(If anyone wonders, it was said in connection with the appointment of Tom Daschle as Health Minister in Obama's government, but withdrew his nomination yesterday).

Angry Ama

When I moved into my new place, I had a nice chat with the guy who rents it out. He is a typical old school Norwegian, a narrow-minded kind of type. Anyway, the place was recently renovated since the last person who had lived there was a "foreigner" and he appearantly tore up the place. By foreigner I doubt he meant a Swede or an Australian, but probably one of the more "coloured" and exotic ones we have the pleasure of sharing Norway with. (That wasn't irony!). I have no problem believing that some wacko lived here and destroyed things in the apartement and he happened to be from a foreign country. But the house owner starting explaining to me that "you know, they have a different way of life than us, a different life style blah blah blah"... Second after I moved in I plastered my walls with photographs from Ghana full of FOREIGNERS and appearantly house wreckers.

<-- Scary foreign home wrecker

Yesterday the man who lives 2 floors under me came to ask me if I also had problems with the internet, which I have, and we got into a conversation and of course, he had to tell the story of the apartement block. "There used to be foreigners in the other two apartements, so when I heard a Norwegian was moving in, I was happy" he said and referred to me. Just wait till my boyfriend comes here, I'm gonna be you guys' worst nightmare! Stupid morons. I really wanted to say something to his face yesterday, but since he was gonna talk to the house owner about the internet, I thought for now I have to keep my enemies closer...

Stupid apple knockers.