Sorry, it’s been a while, but I’m back, hopefully, back to regular updates. For anyone who is in Ghana, or read any other blogs relating to Ghana you will know that we had the mother of all power outages. It was a Saturday, the rain came down, I say rain but it was more like a mini hurricane. It didn’t last long but it left a lot of damages. The lights went out and didn’t come back. Four days later, when I enquired as to what was the problem, I was told that there was an existing problem with the transmitter which was made worse by the rains which blew the cables away. They couldn’t tell me when the problem would be fixed but I was rest assured that it wasn’t just my area that had no power for four days (I don’t know if that was supposed to make me feel better but it didn’t). I then got the scripted “is there anything else I can help you with Madam”, like really, after my mini rant, what do you think. It came on briefly on the fourth day, then it went out again. By the weekend I had power for 6 hours and then it went out again, it came back briefly again on Sunday and off again. This week it seems to be back for good, well as good as it gets for Ghana. I am just hoping it stays that way, at least until I can find a reasonably priced generator anyway.

So what’s been happening. The lady formerly known as smother has left the building. Aptly, the day she was leaving was on the second day of the lights off. She gladly went back to civilisation (her words not mine). Actually I do miss her. On the last day, as we had no other source of entertainment we had a good old chat. I have to say, we had just gotten used to each other and there she was off back to London. She got used to the fact that I may or may not have dinner, I got used to her following me around the house first thing in the morning and just talking although I never got used to her enquiring about my love life and practically putting a hat on hold everytime I spoke to a guy, but learnt to just ignore it.

On the Sunday I checked her in, she got her boarding pass and then I escorted her to the escalator where she went up to departure. She must have been in the customs hall for a while as about 10 minutes later she called me to ask whether place of embarkment was Accra or London. I had to laugh, she really isn’t one to go quietly.

So she’s gone and in her place is my dad. The father I left in London almost 4 years ago worked 12 hours shifts, Sunday to Friday. On Saturday he was out of the house, for a funeral, christening, funeral, I hardly saw him. He was quite a miserable git (I say that with love), but for 5 weeks a year he was was relaxed and happy and that was the week before going to Ghana and the time he was in Ghana. He liked to cook, but a traditional man, likes a tidy home but with 4 women in the house he would not pick up a broom. My dad never punished us but we were always more afraid him then my mum, probably because he didn’t say much and it was the fear of the unknown. Dad is a Kumasi guy, when he comes to Ghana, I see him the first few days and the last few the rest he is in Ghana.

The dad that is with me now has too much time on his hands. He has taken over mum’s project, she had nearly finished the house with exception of the kitchen and some finishings so he has been seeing to that. In the meantime he finds time to call me to ask me have I eaten, comes over to my house to cook and give instructions on how to keep the place neat. He’s found time to do my plumbing, electrics (ok, I exaggerate he changed a lightbulb), and he like my mum thinks I am 6 years old. On Friday last week it was a holiday, dad turns up as I was not doing anything to accompany him to some in-laws. Now between the ages of about 5 and 10, I would have readily jumped up and gone but today any day to myself where I can just relax is just a blessing.

I went along, couldn’t say no. We went to my brother’s in-laws. Dad said we were going for lunch. It was on the other side of town and there was a lot of traffic, even for a holiday. We get there around 2 as we had to see the progress of the workers on the house first. We got to the in-laws about 2pm and we were both kind of starving. The in-laws, talked and talked and talked yet no food was forthcoming. It was after a few hours that the lady said to dad that she didn’t know what to cook for him, she was going to make fufu but she didn’t know if he ate it. My dad was quite confused as he had told her the day before that he ate anything but well too late, she was’t going to cook anything now. We waited a while and then said it was getting late and we had far to go so went. It was about 6ish and dad was starving but he had promised to visit a friend first. At least we got some small chops before finally going home otherwise we both would have passed out. Very important lesson learnt. Eat before you leave.

So that was my Friday, Saturday I was up early, cleaning up, dad made a few calls, I am sure he was just having fun calling people and saying that he was at my house. We had eaten at my uncle’s the night before but there was no food in my house so I went out to buy him waakye so he wouldn’t complain that there was no food in the house. He didn’t complain, although he asked me like 10 times when was I going to go shopping. It has basically been like that all week, he has a key, sometimes he stays round sometimes he stays at his brother’s house but at least with smother I could just go to my room and ignore her but with dad I’m obliged to sit in the front room and have dinner, although he still doesn’t really talk much. But it’s cool, his is only for a short period. It’s not going to be 7 months.

This weekend, I will be home alone because there is a funeral in Kumasi, so at least I can rest.