Lead me not into (Kelewele) Temptation

One of my first postings for the blogosphere was a treatise on the effects of high carbohydrate lunches on the productivity of the average Ghanaian worker. *Sigh* since then, I have been facing an up-hill battle trying to find the best lunch options besides wonderful fermented (sleep-inducing) delights.The final solution was to start bringing my own lunch. This seemed to work really well but then I found that lunch moved from 12:30pm to 11:30am so by 3pm, the pangs of hunger started a-calling.

Enter my latest bad habit: the introduction of the "afternoon snack" which consists of all sorts of mouth-watering numbers that defeat the whole purpose of skipping high carb lunches!! One such delight is Kelewele. If you have never had Kelewele than you know not what you miss!

Definition of Kelewele : small cubes of plantain, smothered in salt and spices (ginger, pepper etc) and then fried in hot oil. Best eaten accompanied by groundnuts (peanuts).

Some of the best kelewele in Accra is available at Labone Junction but fortunately (or unfortunately?) I just found a place really close to work to feed my insatiable afternoon cravings. *Yummy*. Well, my ever-expanding waist-line may beg to differ.

SCORE-LINE=

Evil Calorific Bad Foods 1: Abena 0

Delicious Kelewele, have you ever noticed the weird things "fast-food" is wrapped in? The wrapping shown above was an application letter...This clearly did not reach the intended destination..mmm....Or did it?

Of Churches, Classrooms and Sleep Deprivation

I think I am an open-minded person. In fact some of my more liberal rantings cause my Ghanaian friends and colleagues to shudder and groan. Okay, to be honest, I tend to keep these to myself especially at work. Being open-minded means that I think I am pretty tolerant of other religious beliefs. I do not want to turn this blog into rant-central but after being kept up last night by religious zealots, I feel I have reasons to whinge.

There is something that I just don't understand that happens in my country Ghana. That is , the conversion of school classroom blocks into churches once schools out .Granted not every church has a building and individuals wishing to fellowship and share the word of God cannot be prevented.

I myself am fortunate enough to attend a church that has had a church building that dating back to the "Gold Coast" so maybe I am just being churchist.

The fact of the matter is that I live next door to a junior secondary school. So,as would be expected each Sunday there are about 4 different congregations meeting in different classrooms from 8am to12 noon. In other words, one is privileged to fellowship from the comfort of your own living room!

My beef however is the inexplicable midweek all-night sessions similar to what happened last week and this week. Almost everyday from the time I got home at 8pm to the time I woke up at 4am, my Christian brothers and sisters were still fellowshipping! On a Tuesday night? Don’t any of them have work on Wednesday???? Doesn't this also affect the productivity of our great nation? Sometimes I wake up at 2am to hear the strangest sounds emanating from the school. Are these really church meetings?

Two years ago, the illustrious citizens of my ‘hood decided to revive the neighbourhood association. With vigour and energy we met and shared our grievances…it was great while the association lasted. At one meeting, an elderly respected member of the community stood up and raised the issue of being kept awake at night with the church all-nights… To my shock and horror, the chairman of our blossoming organisation told him that next time he is bothered, he should make a solo trip over to confront the church in session and ask them to pipe down…Was he kidding? In Ghana? Tell a gathering church to keep the noise down? Did the old man want to be cursed and branded the spawn of Satan? I was bemused…Needless to say the ‘hood watch thing soon collapsed and we have been left to our own devices with bumpy roads and all-night church services…*Sigh*

The Effects of Lunch on the Ghanaian worker

My big brother, the same one who told me in the early 80s that my heart-throb Michael Jackson would never marry me because I was black…years later when Michael transformed himself from a black man to a Japanese woman, I admit that my big bruv may have been right..

Anyway, I digress…this is not about Michael. My big bruv has this theory that there is a direct correlation between our lack of productivity as a nation and the meals we indulge in at lunch….

So class, the equation is:

Ghanaian Worker + Typical Ghanaian lunch = Sleep for the rest of the afternoon

I have direct experience with this phenomenon. After a lovely fermented meal like banku (fermented corn and cassava dough), I have to prop open my eyes with tooth-picks.

In fact most Ghanaian lunches from Waakye (rice and beans), fufu (pounded plantain and cassava) have that effect.

I think my brother may have a point because when I was in the Netherlands earlier this year I noticed a different phenomenon:

Dutch worker + light sandwich lunch = 30 minute lunch + Nonstop work ‘til 6pm!

Eureka, I have solved the reason why we have a productivity problem in Ghana!

To elaborate on the equation:

Ghanaian Worker + Hot weather +Typical Ghanaian lunch = Lack of productivity for Mother Ghana

So if we could replace “Typical Ghanaian lunch” with “light sandwich lunch” we could in fact reverse the phenomenon and claim our well-deserved position as a middle income country!

Ghanaian Worker + Hot weather + light sandwich lunch = Productivity for Mother Ghana

Of course there is still the problem of the hot weather....