It was a bit of an uneasy night, I have a cold which has decided to lodge with me for a while. I am one of those types of people that as soon as there is a change of whether, my sinus’ starting messing up. It wasn’t so bad when I was living close to Tesco’s and Sainsburys whereby I could go on a low carb diet for a while. For a while I would change the white rice for bulgar wheat, couscous or buy a small pack of brown rice, I liked groundrice no actually that’s an understatement, I loved groundrice and found that a healthy replacement to banku so would treat myself to that on a Sunday when I would not worry about the carb intake. Whole wheat pasta also was nice and easy to obtain and although a bit more expensive wasn’t too taxing on the pocket, I used to make sweets too using ground almonds and sweetener instead of sugar I found that Splenda was a good alternative and the taste didn’t deviate too much from normal sugar. Then places like eat, pret and starbucks also offered tasty, low fat, low carb alternatives for a big fat burger if I was out in town. I miss that.

This country is carb city. There is only two take out places that you can get a decent meal which consists of protein and a decent salad in my area and that is Starbites and DNR in Osu there is sunshine cafe which also sell some of their boxed salads in the Shoprite but boxed salads for me can get a bit bland after a while for me. I can get the whole wheat pasta’s and alike but it is rather expensive and cheese, well even the normal cheese costs more than a meal at a chinese restaurant, I don’t even bother with it even though I have a load of pasta sheets which I got my sister to buy for me.

We live like we are in a tax-free country, it is only my salary slip that tells me different.

This morning I woke up at 6 when I heard a crash in the kitchen, smother had broken something else, don’t know what and I don’t care, she has already managed to yank the bathroom sink plug from it’s chain, the mop bucket has been separated from the compartment where you squeeze the mop, my mug handle decided to set itself free and I am sure her mobile phone will still give up the ghost the amount of times she drops it. I tried to tell her she was clumsy, but obviously it was the objects’ fault not hers. At 9 she announced that she wanted waakye, she followed me into the bathroom and back into my room until I had to move out and get it. I’m still half asleep but have come to sit down and take a lucozade to pep me up. I know she will get annoyed that I have took so long and I’m expecting a call any moment from now, but my plans for peace today have been changed (she was supposed to be going to a funeral this morning but plans have changed), so I grab these 5 minutes now.

Today’s topic relates to a radio talk show I was listening to on the subject of the man’s role in the home. A lot of these so called modern men called in to say it is the woman’s role to take care of the home. The proceeded to quote bible verses as is the most common way to put forward an argument in Ghana. This is all well and true, the bible says the woman is in charge of home affairs, but I don’t remember Eve, Ruth or Mary going out to work a 10 hour day and come home to do all the cooking and cleaning in the house. In fact I think the only women that put in that many hours to work were the prostitutes.

My dad, when we were at school, he worked nights while my mum work days. I never did see him once pick up a broom or hoover but he did cook for us. He also did our hair on occasion which I loved as he did it much more gently than my mum who would pull at my tough negro hair and shout at me to keep my head still while I cried out in pain.

My cousin too, well he was used to waking up at 6am on a Saturday even after managing to sneak out the club and sneak back in an hour earlier still charged with alcohol and wanting sleep to have to get up and help with the chores. So when the nanny who was taking care of his son left, he chipped in with the housework.

But I don’t blame some of these men, if their mothers were to come and visit to see them doing housework they would say the wife has turned him into a woman. In this modern age, there is still that illusion that the man should work and bring home the cash while the woman should stay home and be the maid. But it cannot work with the cost of living, for me if it takes two to make a baby, go to work, even build/buy a house. The two can work together and share the chores, it is very difficult for me to wake up on a Saturday morning as it is, so for me to get up and clean while my man is watching a movie on his laptop I would be annoyed. For me, if you are that much of a traditional man, there is one solution. Get me house help. For the cooking I don’t have an issue with that, for cleaning the bedroom I don’t have a problem with that either. But if we are going to live in a house, have children and both go to work to take care of them. Get me house help. Or else go to work and I stay at home and look after the house, but you know that isn’t going to happen, I have never had ambitions to be a bored house wife, going out to work as much as I complain gives me contact with the outside world. Get me house help and you can spend the whole day in bed and be the man. That’s all.