Changes

2014 was not an easy year for me but I made it through and that’s what is important. It was the year I turned 21, the year I learnt that if I make up my mind to do something, I can do it. The year I realized that deep down, I am unable to conform, the year my heart got broken. But then I’m not here to talk about my year (surprise, surprise)

I have not been as faithful to the blog as I wanted to be mainly because it started to feel too much like work and not something I enjoyed doing.

Personally, sharing my writing is not an easy thing to do. It feels like I’m stripping down to nothing in front of everyone who reads what I write, I’m baring myself to you, showing you what’s in my head and it’s not that easy or comfortable.

Don’t get me wrong, I love writing, I enjoy it. I have bits and pieces of words draped over single thoughts, I have painted so many portraits with words but they may never be put up (a runway that will never be walked, an exhibition that will never be open).

I am changing the face of my blog. I realized that I liked pretty things and I loved writing, I just wasn’t too sure if I could put the two together , I didn’t know if it would come out how I saw it in my head but if I don’t try I will never know; what’s life without challenges.

I hope you guys will continue to support me with this new direction, we’ve made it this far, we can go farther.

(yeah....that's me, you can follow me on Instagram if you want more, always @aghanaiangirl)

The New Black

So the other day I was minding my business, scrolling through my twitter timeline and judging people like we all do when @chiiief sent me a direct message asking me if I could write a piece on “ the new black”, so I was like sure, it sounds interesting. Truth be told I’d seen it around but I never paid much attention to it, haven’t been on twitter in ages and I assumed it was just one of those things. So I started to dig deeper and do some research ( and by research I mean stalking people who had in in their handles and following the links via #thenewblack) I realized how intriguing this topic was, look beyond the fact that it’s a campaign for a beer (some of you dier, even if the cure for Ebola was wrapped in a condom wrapper and you were dying from it you’d not even look at that foil )

Ok so The New Black

I am part of the New Black, I just never knew till it was defined. What is the New Black? (no, its not orange) The new black knows that gender, color, religion or anything outside of actions do not define who a person is. The new black straddles the past and the future, never letting go of the rich heritage we have (seeing it in our speech, style,) and still moving on with the hope of an even brighter future. The new black accepts Kanzo (scorched rice) but won’t say no to sushi, loves both Kantamanto and Truworths, knows that trotro or private transportation will get you where you need to go.

The new black dreams, big dreams, bigger than the continent, larger than life. Dreams of a better Africa built with their own hands, building on the foundation our fathers (and mothers) made. The new black sees the continent as a place to invest in not escape, to come back to ….a place of endless possibilities.

The new black seeks to experience, it asks “why not” the new black perseveres, is strong, open-minded, has a sense of adventure slightly tainted with caution (an eye cannot be replaced ya know) The new black is so much more and like @chiiief said “you can’t bleach it”

where have i been?

Have you ever found yourself on another planet, a cold isolated rock where nothing exists, not even *gasp* the internet? Neither have I. I’ve been right here wondering which of my many writings to put up and posting snippets on my twitter. I am such a perfectionist when it comes to my writing, I want to give out my best, but then we can’t always be perfect so I end up not posting anything. My dear readers, I apologize. Good, bad, I’m putting it up…we can’t always be perfect.

Speaking of perfection, wouldn’t it be awesome if our lives were perfect? If everything fell in place at just the right moment? Funny how we all want that when deep down we know it can never happen. No one is or can be perfect. Perfection is relative. What’s perfect for me may be imperfect for you. Your beauty may be my ashes. We both look at the horizon, I see the setting sun, you see the clouds and someone else sees the vibrant hues, it’s the same thing we are all looking at but we see different things.

Take a moment to enjoy life, make memories, and overwhelm your senses. Do something daring. Step out of your comfort zone into uncharted waters, explore, discover, live.

We were made to thrive not survive. Put your phone away, step out of the house, love those around you, don’t just send emojis, be the emoji. Smile, laugh, cry, hope, love, above all live.

Whoa. Did I get carried away or what.

Anywho, I have exciting news. As you all know, I like pretty things, and I’m a girl (no seriously I am, martians have gender) so I’ll be launching a new lifestyle blog/website. It’s actually a collaboration with my twin *serious face* yes, I have a twin.

It’ll have tutorials (on everything under the sun, if we know it, we’ll teach you, if we don’t we’ll go learn then teach you) product reviews (want to try out something new? We’ll be your guinea pigs), food (because deep down we all love food) the list is endless, we are going to have fun with it, you can call our new baby a beauty blog if that makes you feel better. There will be something for the guys and the girls, the old and the young, the hungry and the thirsty. Our doors are wide open to everyone, human or martian

#oyoeandyarley

the best things in life

We all get to experience the best things in life but we are so busy chasing the finer things we forget to take some time to enjoy and appreciate the best. Don’t know what I mean? Read on.

1) Naps: these are one of the best things you could ever experience. Those naps that are so good you wake up confused with a silly look on your face, you have to blink more than once so your eyes focus, there are streaks on your arms or parts of your face, and if it was really really good, there’s drool, dried saliva tracks (y’all be looking all cute and stuff but you know, deep down in your hearts that this has happened to each and everyone of us before, don’t be ashamed). They cost nothing and they feel so good.

2) Watergasm: The feeling you get after you’ve been thirsty for so long and you finally get some water to drink. Honestly that water turns into some kind of ambrosia once you take that first sip. It feels so good. Just imagine, you’ve had a P.E class or some other kind of sweat inducing activity and your body is begging for water, coke, redbull, vodka, nothing works. Its pure unmixed water your body craves, then finally you get a sachet, or a bottle, or you reach the tap (however you get your water is up to you) and you drink. Dermit!! It feels so amazing. And guess what, that feeling costs nothing.

3) Tiny breezes: have you ever been so hot, that your sweat became some kind of glue that made you closer to your clothes than a blogger and social networks? Yeah, that kind of sweaty and you are in a room, or somewhere the winds is refusing to blow, then finally, out of nowhere a tiny breeze finds its way to you, it tickles the back of your neck or somewhere you never knew you had, yet it’s a tease, it doesn’t fully satisfy but it keeps you in place, it gives you hope that another may come along and even if it takes centuries, you wait. You may try fanning yourself with something else (an exercise book, a hand fan, your clothes, bae’s breath, anything that can produce moving air) but it cannot compare to that sweet sweet, tease of a breeze.

4) Hearing a song on the radio: you may have it on your devices or whatever and you can listen to it any time you want but nothing beats hearing a song on the radio. It stops you in your tracks, you just have to listen, raise your hands and do the dance from the music video, then remember where you are, look around to see if anyone saw you and just walk away like nothing happened.

5) The feeling you get when you see your crush: oh yeah, It’s not a nice feeling yet it’s nice. The anxiety, the hope, the what if. You may not like it then but trust me, once you stop feeling that you miss it.

And here we have the best things, I may have missed some, you cant blame me, I’m just imagining all these feelings and it’s a sensory overload. If you do remember some, drop them in the comment section and let me know.

Types of People in the Study/Library

Finally, exams are over! well for some of us anyway and the long vac is upon us, all hail summer! Ok so anyway, during my papers i spent more time in the study than usual and i couldn't help but share with you guys the people i "observed" (this means i spent 90% of my time wondering what exactly their problem was)this is just a short list...if i put everyone here we'll need to rename it

" An Essay on the study habits of University Students"

but it isnt so lets jump right into it

1) Late night groupies: these are one of the most annoying groups ever, they congregate around one table and just discuss. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with discussions but if at 2 am, you get out of your warm beds just to come and debate whether Merges and Moves are Transformations, then there is something very wrong with you. When you got to the study after 12 am, it means you are going to suffer behind your notes / past questions till an acceptable hour (usually 4 hours later) then during the day (if you remember) you find that friend who pays attention in class for explanations. Finish! What is the meaning of coming to disturb our sufferings with your drama?!

2) Sonorous Slumbering Humanoids: oh these people are my favorite; they make my nights/mornings. They leave the sanctity of their beds and come to the study with lots of books, pile them on the table, open one and sleep. They sleep with so much audacity its amazing, they are no respecter of tables and chairs, no matter how hard it is, they will sleep on it and be so comfortable that they will snore. Loud death knoll-like sounds. These people are usually guys (most girls are too known for things like this) I love it when someone tries to wake them up and then they snoring does this weird on and off ,high low thing, lawd I just die when that happens

3) Chatterboxes:i really have no idea what to call them. They talk, a lot. A lot, a whole lot. It’s like they are studying how to be louder than the normal human was meant to be. They have a wide-range of topics from what one of their roommates and her boyfriend were doing the other time to why the economy is so unstable (they will compare countries) but never will anything even remotely related to their academic pursuits enter their conversations, they are like the anti-education version of groupies. it hurts me to say this but yes, 80% of the time they are girls

4) Honor students: if you cannot relate to this then it means that’s you. They are the people who actually study, they learn. They open a book at 12 am and don’t even yawn or play with their pencils till 5 am. They don’t even move their head to check who else is studying and if it would look awkward to leave less than an hour after getting there (guilty as assumed) , they are so efficient their books are sluts for them, they open and stay open all night long, sometimes even during the day. They are the people who need to go out more and get some vitamin D

Adore You -MC

“Hey, are you listening”

Close your eyes and soak in my words, let them wash over you like a cool summer rain, each drop sliding sown your skin and soaking into your clothes. You say you love me, and you need me, you do your best to show it to me every day, with every breath you take but you know something amazing? I love you more, I need you much more, I adore you.

I love being with you, I love having you around, I never want you out of my sight, I never want to see you hurt, I want to hold you in my arms and wipe every tear away. I want to show you off, I have been waiting for so long.

“Can you hear me?”

I adore you. When you laugh out loud at things that are not funny, when you cry over little things, when you make mistakes and try to hide them from me, when you fall asleep reading, your mouth slightly opened and your arms hanging over the ground beneath the couch, not a care in the world.

“Are you listening?”

You cry out for me in the times when I’m even closer than ever, you may not see or know that I am there, but I AM. I long to carry you in my arms, to walk with you, to do marvelous things for you, to keep you safe in my arms. I knew exactly what I was doing when I came to you that cold night, you were made for me.

I adore you.

"When you say you love me, know I love you more. And when you say you need me, know I need you more. I adore you."

"i know you are listening"

I love you, I adore you. I cannot express it like you do, i cannot begin do the things you do to me and for me. When I cry out for you, when i'm scared, oh so scared, you come to me, its like I stand with an army.

"I know you can hear me"

I long to be with you forever, to be in your arms till the end of time and beyond. When you say you love, I feel it in the depths of my soul, its a light to all the dark corners in me.

I adore you, I adore you.

Share a coke

So coca-cola Ghana came up with this great new campaign: “Share a coke”. We were seeing amazing adverts on tv and billboards with names we could actually relate to; Kofi and Afua (those born on Friday) Ama and Kwame (for those born on Saturday) and the rest of the days with their male and female equivalents. It was quite fun to discover new billboards with your day, a friend’s or a relative with very accurate characteristics and be like

“That is so true”

Then the news started drifting in, trickling onto my twitter timeline, my whatsapp messages, even in normal conversations. I don’t know how true this is but the news was that those in the Northern part of the country were unhappy with this new campaign from coca-cola simply because the names were Akan names. I was told there was a boycott of coke products or something like that. All I could say was “Like seriously, even the Gas aren’t complaining, hoh”

Before you storm my blog with pitchforks and torches dear keyboard warriors, hear me out. We live in Ghana, there are so many ethnic groups we cannot begin to list them all, you do not expect a company hoping to make profit to use ones a lot of people don’t know about or can relate to. I mean the first time I saw the billboards was in Accra and that is Ga land the last time I checked. I was actually waiting for the Gas to say something but it never came, or maybe I didn’t hear them. I understand that everyone wants to be recognized but all this because of a coke? In the end are we not all Ghanians?

What am I trying to say? We Ghanaians need to learn to chill out. There are much more important things to fight about than whether your name was put on a bottle or not. Better infrastructure for schools is something off the top of my head, we need to get our priorities right. P.S: Saw a Nii and Naa (for my Ga brethren) billboard so I guess slowly but surely, everyone will be included, so again I say

“Chill out, it’s just a coke”

Or better yet, join me as we share a Brukina

How I prepare for lectures

This is how yours truly prepares for those abominable early lectures. Say the lecture is at 7:30 am, this is what happens:

5:00 am : I wake up because the alarm is just too irritating, stare outside for half a minute and since the sun isn’t up its obviously too early in the day to do anything so I close my eyes for a few seconds more and contemplate on the pros and cons of getting out of bed at this hour and how it will affect my day.

5:30 am: I roll over and continue my sleep, though there’s an annoying voice in my head telling me something about lectures and being late again.

6:00 am: I open my eyes realizing the sun is out and that my contemplations ended in a part 2 of my sleep (at this point I’m like “it’s God’s will, He saw this coming and He didn’t stop me, therefore my extra sleep was a divine appointment”) I usually turn on my laptop and make a lot of noise with my early morning worship then progress to kpop because it makes me feel amazing and I refuse to be awake alone so the floor has to wake up.

6:20 am: done with my quiet time, then I do the necessary bathing, and staring at myself in the mirror wondering where that mountain on my face came from and whether to pop it or not (don’t say eww, we all do it)

6:45 am: at this point I’m freaking out because I haven’t made up my mind on what to wear and my War Paint (that’s what the women in my family call make up) isn’t on, plus I’m debating whether to change my playlist or stick with Girls Day and Girls Generation for another day.

7:15: at last, got my make up on after nearly poking my eyes out with my liner, and finally settled on gloss because lipstick is only for days I’m super prepared for class so I can answer any question the lecturer tosses at me (I wonder why they think girls with lipstick are airheads who don’t pay attention and need to be called upon every moment), finally decide on jeans and one of my graphic T-shirts.

7:25: i stroll out of my room praying the lecturer will be late, or it will rain or big foot will be found in the lecture hall so lectures will be cancelled, or even rapture , making promises to God on the way that next time I will be a true P31 woman ( proverbs 31) and be up before the sun if I’m not too late for the lecture (we both know it will happen again but God is cool that way)

Issue with Posting Comments

Lots of people have sent me messages that they can't post any comments, been working on it but nothing i try seems to work and i'm thinking of migrating to wordpress, manage another blog on there and its much easier ( for me anyway).

Been MIA for a while but its because i'm working on a project that seems to be taking longer than i expected.

Will leave you all here, hope i can update more frequently.

short story

She followed him with her eyes as he entered the lecture hall. She’d never seen him before but then again, that was not surprising seeing as there were over 100 students in the geography class. He was in dark jeans with a gray wife-beater that showed off well muscled arms,

*I wonder how they feel* she thought.

The only seat available was right in front of her and he plopped into the chair in a way only he could. His hair was slightly damp, she realized and he actually smelled good, a welcome change from the guys who usually made it to the early morning lecture. The slamming of books made her jump as Cat took her seat. Her best friend since kindergarten, they’d grown up, gone to different secondary schools but still managed to keep the relationship alive and now, they were back together in the University.

“Blue!” “Of all the colors you could have gone for, you chose blue”

“Lovely isn’t it” Cat grinned, flipping her hair

It was lovely; the color was not something anyone else could have pulled off put Cat did it perfectly

“You look like Gnomeo”

Cat stuck out her tongue at this and they both started laughing. It was a morning ritual for them, greeting each other with a wisecrack and laughing like they were the only people on the earth. Cat took out her phone and started tweeting, leaving Emily alone with her thoughts.

FUN-TUH-SEE

My heart screams I love you

Yet hermitically are my lips sewn in silence

That defeaning silence

Which pierces my soul

And chokes my breath

I long to hold your hand

But the chains of doubt keep me aloof

That enchanting smile of yours

That innocent gaze you fix upon me

Your laughter resounds with a royal melody

Your strides strike the chords of an unsung harmony

Yet to me all this be but a pleasurable fantasy

For mine is a heart that has known scorn

Mine is a heart that has danced to sorrowful tunes

Yes mine is a heart that has known pain

Do you tease me with the promise of love still ?

If this be love and you feel it too

Then let us hurry about this business then

If not leave me be in my fantasy

For though I dread its end

I cant seem to let go

So I pray my Lord my eyes do open

The truth help me see

Else am lost in that which I cannot name

I think it's love...or is it?..

Merely fun-to-see...

Poem by Kharie Pee

(@Quophey)

You Know You Are Ghanaian When

1) You know the difference between Azonto and azonto, Al-Qaeda and Alkayida/Akaida

2) Every Asian is Chinese till further notice

3) You've watched Home Alone a bazillion times

4) You watched PG +18 movies when you were 10

5) You can speak at least two languages not including French

6) Every animated show is “Cartoons”

7) Deep down, you believe in dwarfs and witches

8) You give directions using major landmarks like the waakye seller, kelewele joint, roasted plantain woman among others

9) You have this notion that every white kid is immoral and poorly trained and just needs a good beating to be straightened out.

10) You know the meaning of every glare directed to you, and are very intimate with the “if you don’t keep quiet you will see” or “when we get home you will see fire” types

11) You never ever use you left hand to take or give things to anyone and if you do you apologize aka “sorry for using left”

12) You can’t say the word “sex” in front of your parents

13) Your favorite part of science class was “ Reproduction”

14) You know the “Sweet Mother” song

15) You know how to pass by a mad person without agitating him/her and you know when to run when they are agitated

16) Your parents have threatened you with “Mmofra bone school” (juvie) before

17) You respect every old person unless a situation demands that you don’t

18) You speak excellent English when the time comes but most of the time, you use it in conjunction with at least 2 local languages to get your point across

19) Everyone in your church/hood knows your business and will “report” you to your parents if you misbehave

20) Whether you are 2 or 20 you can never talk back to your parents, you will get a beat down if you even try. in the words of Simeon Aryee " If i dream and talk back to my mum, i wake up and apologize immediately..."

21) The scariest words you could every hear were " i will tell your father" or "Wait till daddy gets home"

22) You have your punishment name that is usually present on your birth certificate, yes, it's the name you parents call you when you get into trouble and are about to enter a whole new world of pain.

23) No matter what phone you use, you have a back up Nokia that usually has a rubberband holding it together and its never seen in public

24) You have been caned before

25) Brother/Sister doesn't always mean blood

Happy New Year.

This is my new years post, its more like musings or a Oneshot of what's going on in my head, expect more of this. So yeah, lets do this.

Last year was an incredible year,I started hosting a radio show, birthed this blog, did some charity work, wrote some songs, among other endeavors but of all the things that did not go as planned,the greatest was the harmattan season.

Now if you aren't anywhere near west Africa, you wont know what i'm talking about so let me give you a quick geography tutorial. The Harmattan is caused when dry winds blow in from the sahara so everything is dry, hot and dusty during the day and cold and still dry as eff during the night.

Last year, the harmattan caught me unprepared so this year, i stocked up. I was ready to face the menopausal winds and leave unscathed. I was determined to have the last laugh.Got lots of lipgloss and replenished my Nivea(for extra dry skin) and I waited, and waited. I should not have wasted my time. The kind of rains that fell, oh mother nature is a female dog.But that's in the past so i'm looking ahead, and mother nature, know this battle is not over.

Now everyone i know, well almost everyone I know has made New Year's resolutions and what not but not me, at least not yet. Will do that on the 8th, want to see how the week will go first.

Hopefully I can get myself a new laptop before the year ends, a DSLR camera (so i can put up lots of pictures, less text more pictures...at least that will satisfy my creep gang readers) and finish setting up The Ghanaian Closet( name subject to change)