The Recap

So I am entering month 4 of living in Ghana. Yep, I semi packed up (will collect the rest of my stuff in January) and headed to the homeland, Ghana! So I arrived and I was glad but sooo unbelievably stressed, it was like as ready as you try to be things always happen to throw you off and boy was I thrown!

Not anything I am going to go into here so maybe unfair to put it out there...ah well! I arrived and got straight to work, in hindsight this perhaps wasn't the best idea as I had no adjustment time. I thought I would be fine as I am forever going back and forth, but this was different.

So I am in a new place, hitting the ground running, issues of my UK life still plaguing me and no sit still and breathe time. I managed to hold it together...barely...I was really lucky a friend who was there for me was just exactly every kind of supportive a person could want or need he was great. So when there was a lull in the madness I snuck back to the UK and was able to sort out my last minute things AND because no one really knew I was around I was able to chill out and breathe.

Wow I didn't know how much I needed it until I got it and then strangely with all things sorted I was able to get excited about moving to Ghana. The way I felt was how I imagined I would feel but didn't when I officially left the first time.

Well this time on touch down in GH I was a different person, energised and excited. I started socialising and meeting people, I did that a lot and Ghana started to open up to me. There is just so much going on and so many interesting people I was hyper excited by it all.

I have met many great people but I realise I have to reign it back now and start concentrating a bit more on...oh I don't know...work...bringing in an income! Even more so as I have moved into my own home hooray...but not cheap! Admittedly glad to be settling, though I really miss staying at my friends place.

Let me just say where I stayed was like the best intro to Ghana life, everyone in the house were super lovely, my friend was super cool and patient. Staying with 'To sir with love' was a definite God send super cool guy! I will endeavour to pay it forward when someone else is making the move...I'll be honest I am NOT as patient as TSWL, but I will try!

Okay so I am in my home, Pink Mango Tree House, I have a house help living with me for two reasons security so I am not there alone and practicality cooking, cleaning etc! I won't lie it is the weirdest feeling having home staff (also have a driver as I can't drive...though even if I could drive I would still keep the driver).

I guess as time goes on I will get used to it, mainly how to manage home staff and the weird dynamic of having someone live with you who works for you. Also, I guess, that weird feeling of am I being all bougie and extra...I know i'm not it is actually necessary but still feels weird! Needs to stop being weird fast otherwise this arrangement won't work out for any of us involved.

The main thing I am learning or getting from adapting to Ghana life is a change in mindset (will blog about these seperately), I said to myself after a few weeks of being here that I wonder who I will be in a year's time because I knew I would be changed.

I guess you can't help but be changed by your environment, the people you meet and the experiences you have. I am a person born to Ghanaian parents in a Ghanaian household in London, UK. The effect is a western socialisation with Ghanaian undertones. The way of thinking and living in Ghana is very different, different morals, ways of being, what is and isn't acceptable, ways of looking at and being in relationships and on it goes.

It is challenging I won't lie and my advice to others is give yourself time to ADJUST because things aren't easy BUT if you give yourself time and accept help and support they are also not that bad!

So here I am adjusting and transitioning and growing up really. So that's the catch up, detail to follow :-)

Laptop...Trotro drama...where's a good bus when you need one???

After one of the most aggravating trips in the WORLD to Cape Coast I have picked up my Lap Top to get to work and found MY SCREEN IS BROKEN AGHHHHHHHH!!!!! So what do I do? What can I do? I can’t go back in time and try harder to get on the bus I originally wanted to get on…which I couldn’t find because no one could understand me or wouldn’t listen to what I was actually saying. After going round in circles trying to get to a bus station to take a coach I finally ended up at a bus station and after waiting for 30 minutes what finally rolls up is a flipping Trotro (minibus) type vehicle, by that time I was so fed up I was like whatever.

After overcharging me (and everyone else) for the use of this uncomfortable vehicle they took a further sum for my bag…which when I was getting down and they opened the boot I saw my bag squashed under the back seat. That is what I am sure led to my Laptop casualty!

Another happy little challenge that I will breathe through, be upset today and then just carry on as there is nothing I can do about it now…is there, maybe I’ll wait until I visit London and get it fixed at PC World. After all I am typing this on it so I better keep using it as it is before matters get worse…sigh.

IT is annoying as I am trying to regain my equilibrium but it seems that the universe is transpiring to make me learn something from giving me more and more to deal with. I think I will go for a run in the morning and try and get some peace…pound out my irritations and frustrations.

Right now I want to cry and I can’t help wondering am I being punished for something, what I don’t know but something is making things a little more challenging than it needs to be. Then again maybe I am being dramatic, it has been a very good week and productive…I just have been feeling a little out of sorts I guess. But I suppose that is to be expected I am adjusting to my new…everything.
So chin up old gal…or some such encouraging stuff. I will sit here and occupy myself stroking my mosquito bites and focusing on finding my happy place!!!

The journey begins....Ghana 2011

It’s funny how ordinary this first day of my ‘new life’ feels. This isn’t a bad thing, actually it’s quite positive…normalising. As I sat on the plane casting tired eyes towards my notebook, a gift from my leaving party, filled with words of kindness and support from friends and family I couldn’t bring myself to read it. I didn’t want to open that emotional faucet on a virgin flight to Accra. Besides, it would have been rude and disruptive for the gentleman sitting next to me.

I came to Ghana because I had too. No, no one was forcing me into it…I am too grown for the old ‘you are going on holiday to Ghana’ and then you remain in country while your passport leaves with your parents!!! Ever since I had left Ghana in 2003 having lived in Ghana for a year and a half I had wanted to return…it only took 8ish years.
So this new journey I am on is literally a life changer. This social sector chick is embarking into the world of business, starting my own enterprise and excited and overwhelmed by the prospect all at the same time. Admittedly the excitement is the stronger emotion!!!

So back to my first day, it ended with an invite to a birthday Bar BQ where I bumped into many returnees. As I moved around the room and spoke to people who had moved to Ghana 1 year ago, 2 years ago and so on, all almost recognisable by a look of combined resolution and determined focus; I was feeling increased feelings of ‘rightness’. As I met one new friend and told her I had moved to Ghana that morning she said a statement that I had been hearing a lot, both from those in the UK prophesising about my future and those in Ghana who I had shared my plans with, ‘you have made the best decision of your life’.

I feel nervous, I feel sad as thoughts of my friends and family in the UK pass through my mind and yet, I know this is where I am supposed to be and this is what I am supposed to be doing. So let the games begin, may the journey be anything but boring and at the end I know I will look back and know whatever happens this is the best decision I have made to date…stay tuned!

So the decision was made and the resignation given and so I am set right? Well not exactly. The boss has said nothing and it's been two weeks. So what do I do? I am excited but I am also overwhelmed, scared and...and...and it goes on. It's all so strange change..change...CHANGE! Learning to drive, entering the world of business, moving to Ghana, becoming some multiple entrepreneur it is all such a departure from my world and so I am reeling a little...okay I am reeling aLOT. Times like this I won't lie I do wish for that special someone who is all mine, there for me to unburden too - he gives me advice, a hug, a kiss, words of reassurance and sweetness...ah well. So as you may be getting my mind is a little jumbled at the moment and I am reacting a little to all this change! I am trying to embrace the change dream with relish about this jump into the unknown. It's funny I have been here before...10/11 years ago I packed up and took myself to Ghana and then I really didn't know what I was going to...age and fear I guess have set in and eroded my edge...taken a little of my fearlessness. But I see that now and so I take a deep breath and refuse to let the demons win and ruin my driving lessons and retard my movements forward if inconvenient procrastination. One life to live and I am committed to living it so here I go people today...4th April 2011...D (departure)-Day...11th August 2011...wish me luck...send a prayer and here we go!

So...here we are

So here I am thoroughly in my thirities...by that I mean I am now 31. Its weird 30 felt great and exciting and new. 31 just feels adult and grown, full of little and big pressures like, well, what have you managed to achieve and what are you planning to do now and so on and so forth.

I have a feeling of dissatisfaction with my current situation and what makes it worse is I don't know why. I should be happy, from a logical point of view last year set some pretty good foundations:

1. I have a stable full time challenging managerial job and a plan
2. I was made chair of an organisation I was passionate about
3. I moved back into my home properly
4. I am in the best shape I have been in for most of my life
5. I tidied up all relationship messiness and uncertainty

So yes, all good. But how I'm feeling is

a. A bit lost and unsure of what direction I want to go in
b. Unconnected to myself and my world
c. Unhappy with a number of nom-romantic relationships in my life
d. Disappointed with the romantic side of my life
e. Not in control of what is going on in my world

So here I am thirty days into my 31st year and that is my state of play...so whatcha gonna do about it?!?!?!?!

Well, I don't want to go through this year feeling like this and having the second list be my status quo, sooooo I am going to embark on variious ways to change what I am not happy with and make even better that which I am happy with.

I shall embark on a journey, a project 'The Improvement of the Lives and Loves of Ms VQ'...join me won't you?

I feel better already nothing like a plan to get things started right?