oburoni azonto

I didn't think I'd post any more Azonto vids but i couldn't resist this one

Deliberate delusion

I wish I could express what I'm really feeling


I can but I still wouldn't matter


I would but it wouldn't change a single thing with which I am dealing


So gone, it can't be brought back but my puny brain refuses to get fatter





I really wish I could transform the thoughts into words, not concealing


I can but the response would just fester


I would but it would not bring me healing


So in silence I suffer; a fool to you, a jester.





I really wish I wasn't thinking about you. I'm pretending


I can always succumb: the memories, always petting


I would but this reality is not as exciting: dull, dead, uninspiring


So in dreams and delusions I will stray so my mind can roam, no fettering





I really wish this wasn't so unhealthy. 'It' I must surely be losing


I can snap out of it but the alternative I find is too unnerving


I would but to be thrust into the big bad world with no guidance, no counselling


*shudders* not half as compelling

Astrology or coincidence?

I *heart* birthdays.
I will be one of those mums who plans her baby's 1st birthday soon after he's born and will continue throughout his life, regardless of his feelings about the day. 
I cannot understand people who don't want to celebrate the miracle of their birth and the continuous marvel of life and growth and God's Grace. It's borrowed time and can be snuffed out any minute. celebrate the milestones! I just can't understand them.
I have a birthday coming up in 1 week 2 days 3 hours 28 minutes 20 seconds (and counting down). But for once I don't have it covered. All I want to do this year is fly away. Literally. Into a tree or cave and hibernate, I'm knackered. Hopefully it is the malaria or whatever it is that I have gone to contract talking and I will snap out of it and be perky soon. *fingers crossed*
 Anyway, I just came across this eerily accurate description of myself. I'm not a fan of astrology, maybe it's because my star sign is a goat..I mean really, how did I not end up as something sexier. Aponky3 paa, smh. but this is majorly on point:

December 23 Capricorns have a great deal of emotional pluck (pumps fist). If plans fail, they simply start again (what else can you do?? duh!). Because of their good attitude and ability to motivate others, they make excellent mentors. Although they may seem scatterbrained, they have great organizational abilities (so true, I somehow manage to pull stuff together). Witty and intelligent, they are exceptionally verbal for people of their sign (oh, the others are quiet ehh?)

Friends and Lovers: Because they have such a likable nature, December 23 individuals make friends effortlessly but are unlikely to reveal confidences (my excuse is that I forget and/or hope you do the same) or ask for advice (I am almost past that..). Love is a permanent and practical factor in their lives (love which I can't find, but yeah). They value stability and do not usually seek separation or divorce unless there is no alternative (one of my worst 'fears' is divorce).

Children and Family: December 23 natives love the traditions of family and typically have happy memories of childhood (yes! I still remember most of what happened when I was a little kid. I was sooo happy! aww! *reaches for childhood album*). Though their upbringing is likely to have been strict, they look at this as positive (I hated my mum especially, she was awful!! but I love her too much now). They are good parents who do everything to provide stability for their child (I sure will). Though they promote fun, they are strict on discipline (none of that friend-parent stuff till you're old. I will beat them into submission).

Health: People born on this date have a common-sense approach to good health.(*scratches head* I do?) By not overdoing anything (Lmao, really? one of the things said to me the most is "relax"), they reap the rewards without losing out on the occasional need to indulge a bad habit. Health problems are typically minor, but problem skin is not unknown (that facial better have me looking like Halle Berry). If they make water their main beverage, the skin condition is likely to clear up (did my mum put them up to this??? *raised eyebrow*)

Career and Finances:

People born on this date are serious about career ambitions (i be serious pass! waay too serious). They work hard, learn quickly (that's me!), obey the rules (even when I don't want to), and they know that professional shortcuts can be deceptive. They often spend a great deal of money on home decorating ("nesting" I was told), with an eye for antiques and other objets d'art that will increase in value (ooook! Eyes, start working on that).

Dreams and Goals: To climb to the top without fudging the rules is a common goal of December 23 people (yup, no corruption for me, so help me God. making it the right way). They know what they want and are willing to work (mega) hard to get it, no matter how hard that may be. They never blame setbacks on anyone but themselves. If a goal becomes impossible to fulfill, they replot the course.(Plan B -G if necessary)

You should embrace: Details (the little things and the fine print), imagination (I have embraced it and for this reason I do not watch porn or horror films), a personal agenda (I'm working on that)

You should avoid: Stress (I am in the wrong profession), demoralization (I live in the wrong country), indifference (a name pops into mind, personifies that word)

So how is most of this so accurate? and does that mean all people born on the 23rd of December around the world automatically have these same characteristics and ideals?? Mind blowing isn't it. I do not want to encourage any hocus pocus but check yours out at: http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/birthday-astrology-guide.htm and let me know how close to home yours hit or if it was a disastrous miss. 

Be honest with yourself, after all if you can't admit the truth to yourself who can you tell?

Vocabulary lesson: funny but serious

...It is not the drivers of lorries and tanks who have brought pains to Nigerian people,

NO!!
Rather, it is because of the failure of government,
Benin-Ore-Lagos road today is in a state of CALAMITY, so, if the roads is in a state of ANOMIE, If driving through the roads is engaging in a MACABRE dance, CULPABILITY is that of government.It will be SARDONIC. It will be LUGUBRIOUS,and it will be a state of DISMAL ABYSMAL if parliament does not rise this morning to fix CULPABILITY where culpability is...

I have done the hard work for you:

• Calamity: a state of deep distress or misery caused by major misfortune or loss OR disastrous event marked by great loss and lasting distress and suffering 
• Anomie: social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values; also : personal unrest, alienation, and uncertainty that comes from a lack of purpose or ideals
• Macabre:  having death as a subject : comprising or including a personalized representation of death OR dwelling on the gruesome OR tending to produce horror
• Culpability : meriting condemnation or blame especially as wrong or harmful
• Sardonic:  disdainfully or skeptically humorous : derisively mocking
• Lugubrious: mournful or dismal
• Dismal : showing or causing gloom or depression OR lacking merit : particularly bad
• Abysmal : having immense or fathomless extension downward, backward, or inward OR immeasurably great : profound OR immeasurably low or wretched

definitions provided by: http://www.merriam-webster.com/

My first question was: is he a lawyer? lol.

How many words did you know?? Are you as well read as you thought you were? 

Gorillas, Lions and the Battle for the Jungle

I'm home sick, I woke up with a lovely bouquet of seemingly unrelated symptoms that have knocked me flat out. So I'm home trying to study for a test I have tomorrow.
Anyway, got of the phone with someone I have grown to admire a lot and the conversation was full of so much positive energy that I feel better. (Will give you details about that later)
I have grown to admire this young man because of his work and because he turned out to be very deep different from what I initially judged thought.
*drum roll*
Yom (he looks serious and dignified in this photo...not to say that he usually isn't *innocent look* lol)

I read his note and it made me feel so...revolutionary! I wanted to do 'something'! So I am sharing it with you. Here's to everyone who hates the 'system'; the nonsense we have to go through for the simplest things and longs to change it. First,be the change you want to see and be comforted in the knowledge that the other lions and lionesses are gathering and we'll support each other.

LIONS IN WAIT VS GORILLAS IN SUITS!

They think they reside in positions of power, they think they decide but that position is ours,

We are the minds, we were raised in the green grass and blossomed into flowers.

We posses the antidote

To evolve into lions, for long our system consisted of antelope

Our thought processes live in the world the white man tried to conceal from us.

We are the open minded

We refuse to be sold the common dream of pensions after a life led mechanically

Free spirits, the Bold, champions of the beautiful.

Prostitutes to diversity in the face of adversity.

Older generations may claim hope is not an emotion they can invest in us

But they forget our unity even if stemmed from Azonto sits us above the short sighted division caused by their shallow minded politics.

So don't fuckin sit there smugly acting like you are a refined product talking about; there's no hope for the youth,

U destroyed our hope with your selfish desires and insurmountable greed you were narrow minded zealots who still!! even at the prime of your mature years cannot see beyond ewe and Ashanti, Ga and Fanti.

tribalism should have died when Ghana was born.

Instead you placed all the tribes on a burning coal pot and fanned the flames with your strongest. arm.

So what if I Sag my pants, at least I'm open minded enough to have an "Ashanti" as my best friend.

We think along completely different lines so when you are calling it Ghanaian hospitality I'm calling it ass kissing shamelessness

And when I sit at a table with "white" people, there's no way I'm letting them belittle my country no chance in hell. Even if they're paying for "dinner".

You are cowards!

I do not steal, I do not cheat I do not suppress the growth of my own brother. We do like to have fun.

But that doesn't mean we don't know Britain or America's main interest in Libya was to suppress the establishment of the African monetary fund, or that oil is the main reason behind the united state's middle eastern tirade.

That does not mean we do not know the current GDP is 13.6 or that you have signed a greater chunk of our oil reserves(our suposed savior) over to the western world

We just refuse to talk abut these things because YOU make it look so distasteful so unappealing with your barrages of insults your threats of violence, your psychotic rants that scares most of us in silence.

Some of us will not be quiet anymore.

And let no man raise a tongue of objection towards me demanding respect,take your respect and put it where the sun does not shine.

I will respect you on the basis that you care about me and my generation and from what I can see they don't give a damn!!

Sometimes You watched in silence, other times you took part and helped the western world get rid of all Africa's lions, through coups, uprisings and this fragile concept of democracy.

Scary part is some of you would not mind plunging us into war and chaos just so every public office can hang a picture of yourself on their walls

You are not men!

real men don't buy or sell their Adam's apples.

Real men earn their Adam's apples after serving under the voice of truth and reality and compassion, real men look into the future, real men look beyond their families and beyond the children of their children.

Real men are sources of inspiration!

None of you inspire me.

And the very few who might have, enjoy their success in silence acting oblivious, so yes they too have become sheep in a society governed by wolves, so when they're told to eat grass they ask whether u want them to bleet after that.

Should you really be offended when they call us monkeys?

Because to have his needs satisfied, An alpha male gorilla beats members of his own family(nation) with a stick, you do so with financial and political power, also the gorilla is said to be very protective over his family and beats his chest to ward off enemies. Reminds me off u, only difference is, the noise u make is empty.

Keep making your noises, we are coming, slowly and gradually we will sit in the thrones and hopefully some of you will still be alive to witness the thresholds to which we will take this country.

That is when you will come to the realization that even though u lived in Ghana u were dead to the concept of mother GHANA.

We are in the time of the Gorillas in suits,

but the lions,

O the brave lions will roar again.

-yom writer poet

inspired by and dedicated to

solomon kotei quashie,

sherif christian bello.

zaaki harun,

yoofi peyo odamten,

rodney hyde longdon

frederick nana akuffo,

hardy labaran,

kofi tetteh,

Kwesi essah,

carl engman,

quasi adu,

graham sebastian

makafui mandevu adevu and every other lion [Yom! and lioness!!!] in waiting .......


http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150454422514312

poor lonely dictator

Nando's is hilarious.
I don't think Uncle Robert finds it funny though...



I would love to see Papaye or Frankies try something like this (in a Ghanaian context of course)
I'm joking. It will never happen.

AZONTO practice

I am completely taken with this Azonto craze, unfortunately I have as much body/dance coordination as a crab...i merely scuttle sideways. I miss the days of grinding, a lot of effort but not many steps *sigh*. Been looking at a lot of videos when i'm bored. I am determined to learn.


My mum's fave video and  i'm in love with these boys (and their sound effects) can one of them come and give me lessons please:



i saw this and : 0_o ummmm...... :x *falls off chair laughing*
I am so distracted by those large muscles I didn't see any of his moves.( Did his shorts have to be so tiny?? and why isn't he wearing a shirt?? )







I can't believe he danced for almost 14 minutes and I consistently saw new moves! This my new tutorial video btw.


practice makes perfect (i too can do it :D )
(i cant embed this video for some reason)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Vk98nruBcg4

Eco tourism or something close: Nzulezo

I should have written this eons ago but I was having some issues with my laptop and had to have it replaced. Anyway,I was working about 2 or 3 weeks ago and the job involved a  wee bit of travelling around Ghana. Thanks to that I finally got to see Nzulezo pronounced, much to my amusement, Nzurezo by the people who live in the area. I have been wanting to visit the town on stilts for quite a while, so when the business people I was travelling with decided to make a pleasure stop I was all for it.
It was quite an interesting afternoon.  We had to go off the main road  and travel over or about 20km off the tarred road to reach the closest town: Beyin (pronounced Benyiri, or something like that), and then travel an hour by canoe to the village and an hour back. The settlement is a UNESCO Heritage site,I think (http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1394/ )
Honestly,it was very unsettling for me to be surrounded by so much water but the guys paddling our canoe were absolute darlings for resolutely chatting with me the whole distance to get my mind off the feeling.

Anyway, at the dock was a lovely 'cafe' manned by a spanish man (or so our guide said) It didn't seem like he spoke much English though, so I took their word for it. I loved his elephant sink!!! Genius!
(quick question: why don't Ghanaians think of these things? Such places are 90% of the time owned by a foreigner....????)
(I will explain why he, the Spanish guy, is 'significant' later)
I took all the photos with my blackberry so sorry about the quality.

1. the 'dockside' cafe: Cafe Puerto

2. I love this sink!! 

3.  the bar

4. The 'dock' (you can see the motor boat just beyond the woman's boat if you strain a bit)

5. A man made channel was constructed, reportedly by the government of the Netherlands, to join the natural lake. 

6. The water isn't so deep, about 4 feet.

 7

8. sorry there are so many shots, I found the view breathtaking...or maybe it was just to take my mind off the water,, which was impossible!!  lol.

 9

 10

11. NZULEZU!!! (after about an hour on the open 'sea') (that's a guest house under construction)

 12

13

14. The Church of Pentecost

15. The School

16. there are a couple of bars and I saw a guest house

 17

18. lured him ,after a long courtship, with Club Orange

 

19

Anyway, this is all well and good. but the beauty of the place wasn't what was on my mind when I was leaving it.
On the way there I was made to understand that Nzulezu is being preserved as an eco-tourism site. The people and their dependence on the river forces impresses upon them to keep the balance. They eat and drink from it, and rely on it as a source of transport. The guide/rower was very passionate about it, insisting - when I asked why we couldn't use a motor boat because we were in a hurry - that such activities will destroy the quality of the water which the people in the village rely on for their every need. He further explained that such motorised activity was allowed in emergencies but forbidden on a daily basis.
(here comes the significance of the Cafe Puerto guy)
I had noticed there was a motorised boat at the dock (picture 4) so at this point I asked who it was for and  expected to hear that that was the boat used in emergencies but (BAM!)
I was told the owner of the cafe used it to get to and from his home - which is on the bank of the river directly opposite Nzulezu. (The same man is building the guest house in the village itself as well picture 11 and 12)
I could not believe it (sorry, I am not exaggerating..I keep having these lapses where I forget where I am, ie Ghana, where lighter skins and hair, except albinos, are revered and worshipped). All the passion that the guide/rower had exhibited  vanished completely when I asked why that man was allowed to use  a motor boat since it fouled the water with oil. He seemed rather sad, shrugged and said "You know how things are"

20. someone's limo, latest model ;) 

I was incensed by the injustice of it all. Ghanaians lying down and allowing them to be used as doormats as usual.
This was until I got to the village ans saw this....

 21

 22. (forget that hen though, they even have sheep!!! )

 23

 24

 25

26

After seeing the kind of damage ,I feel, they are doing to the river themselves, the Spanish man can race up and down 10 times a day and I won't care.
I thought eco-tourism involved low impact visits to fragile or pristine areas, mostly to educate the visitors, raise awareness and funds. It can't be ecological  to dump rubbish directly into the river. Or tip untreated human waste straight into it. Or pour food waste right in there. Or bath into the river. All this must surely affect the pristine balance of the eco system. They probably do not realise this or how far reaching the effects can be.
But as if that was not bad enough, they DRINK from that same river!!!
*faints*
I believe God takes extra care of us in these parts, otherwise how else would they still be alive?? and seem so well??
The people themselves, are in my unsolicited opinion, destroying the very river they rely on for life...gradually. It was a very big river so it will take some time, but with reports of men having four wives and no source of recreation at night but sex it might not take that long.
My hyper active imagination pictures solar power or hydro-electric technology being harnessed to bring the people a better life. Phones must be charged in town at times! In 2011 that's a bit much, no?. The people have built a school and pay the teacher themselves so they have the right idea about some things. I imagine a proper dock being built and an annual eco-logically friendly regatta being organised, probably sponsored by one useless network or another, to raise funds to maintain the village. Zoomlion (my heroes) could think up some wonderful waste collection or recycling system and the villagers could be trained to maintain it and man the luxury and/or minimalist retreats that will be built there.
Dreamer huh? *shrugs*

It rained as we were paddled back to the dock, and as I tried hard not to panic as my mind conjured up a torrential storm which filled the boat with water and tipped us into the crocodile (yes! we saw a "small" one our way to the village) infested waters. Due to this I forgot about my eco dreams for a while. But seeing the children returning from school paddling their own boats, when I couldn't row continuously for 10 minutes, strengthened my resolve to at least say something about it.
Who knows? Maybe someone will be listening. Maybe someone who can will do something, or tell me what I can do, short of going to pick the rubbish up myself.

[side note: I had no Airtel reception for most of the journey! such crappy service but i had full reception in the village!]

If anyone has visited Ganvie along Lake Nokoué in Southern Benin; I would love to hear about it. Is it any different from Nzulezo??

Francis (guide/rower) Nzulezo/ Beyin Amazuri project: 0241152811 
Ps. Just so we're clear ,I listed the guide's number here so you can call him to ask about tours or information or make a donation to the School or some other useful purpose. No disrespect of any sort was meant.
Thank you.