What a fuss about food!

Food neatly packed in styrofoam-ware,

Cameramen snapping rapid photos,

While we wait to eat.

Saying Grace

Thank you, Lord, for the food we eat. Amen!

Serving is such a pleasure!

My big sister, Ama Gaisie, serves the nation as the Solicitor-General . Here she is with her daughter Asabea, serving the school children of Kibi Elementary School.

There is no feast without food...

Sitting in pairs behind those wooden desks, the food was set before them. Such manners, such patience! These aren't hungry children, huh!

Sweet and Shy

At last, this little helper managed to look at me long enough and SNAP!

A Cheerful Smile

A smile for the camera...see how she lights up!

Those who work behind the scenes

Quietly cooking and dishing out. Many hands make light work.

A Happy Cook

A happy cook makes the difference between a tasty meal and a bland one. This cook was in good spirits!

The Cooks and Helpers

This is where hundreds of meals that we had ordered, were getting packaged for the children and their teachers. Rice and chicken stew-a sure delicacy!

The Outdoor Kitchen

From this unassuming spot on the school compound, meals are made to feed sudents in a nationwide pilot that has seen many children return to school.

Let's Pose

And the camera went click on them while all their friends watched.

BOYS!

They could almost have been twins but they were just friends. How photogenic!

Enough Already...Not!

"ONLY THE DANCING!"

What a party! My Mom sure knew what would rock!

The DJs Set up on the verandah...

Honestly, I was surprised to see the DJs- that was my Mom's idea. But what a blast. It was before the elections and they were playing Nana Addo's song which all the students could sing quite well.

Felicia was the first to paint.

At last, we leave the painting for the painter!

His job was to finish it off well!

How many people will paint one small room?

The child in me wanted to paint and pose! LOL!

Jaycee paints

Big Sis and Niece a-painting!

Teachers Paint...

Boys paint too!

MY TURN!!!

AND ME!

ME TOO!

"And Draw Long Strokes From Left to Right"

Painting the Library

The painter was very cool. He made the painting an activity for all. The kids and the rest of us were happy for the chance to spread green paint left and right. And of course, the photo-op!

Shelves for Books!

There were some shelves in the old store-room, our library to be, and there were some few books-school texts, mainly, piled in some cubbies for the entire school. But we were happy, here at least was space, a beginning.

Kibi Photos-JSS

Meanwhile on the other side, a stone throw away, the Junior Secondary Students were in exam mode, while we blasted hip-life in celebration. Not fair at all. So we shall have to make amends.

Sneaking into Photos

My nieces Gyasiwa, Kesewa and Kosi sneaking into a photo. They worked so hard to make the day a success.

POSED for a photograph

Sunny smiles as only kids are capable of in my stories of Ghana and Africa.

Stirring up the Dust

Brooms in hand after stirring up the dust, these children are fast and strong!

Hardworking Girls of Kibi Elementary School

Broken chairs, once very comfy and nice are brought out of the store as the children prepare to sweep the age old dust. These are capable children, fun, playful, hardworking and smart. You should have seen them work. In no time at all, they were done, and still in good spirits.

The second Kibi trip: December library.

The second time we went to Kibi, it was to celebrate my late dad, and mark his passing with the birth of a school library in his honour. Those gathering were mymy mother, Felicia, my sister Ama, my brother Kofi, my nieces Kesewa, Gyasiwa, Kosi and Asabea and Felicia and my nephews Duke and Jimmy and a bunch of cousins. On arrival, we noticed the DJs that my mother had hired, in position, blasting highlife songs to create the atmosphere of festivity. The students were agog with excitement. The first thing we did with the headmaster's permission, was to clean out the storehouse which was scheduled to become our library.

Pretty Teacher of Kibi Elementary School

These are the people the children depend on for their future. With little resources and little encouragement, they keep at it from day to day, some with more ability and dedication than others. Let us support these teachers in tangible ways.

Kibi School kids.

Kibi Elementary School:
A group of school kids (in mufti) probably because they had a class of physical education. That's my mother coming up behind them.

Kibi in November

My sister Ama, and I travelled the Accra Kibi road in perhaps two hours, chauffered by Mr. Bernard. We went to speak to the headteacher about the library project. I explained about the idea of celebrating my Dad with the library project to benefit the kids of the school. I told him about the books which were then on the high seas, making their way to the shores of Ghana. I had taken almost two suitcases full of books with me, as my personal luggage, only managing to squeeze in a few clothes. Mr. Adu Poku was enthusiastic. He left the planning to us.
On that first day we went around with my mom to meet and greet the teachers and the students. I was happy to see the students were well dressed, well mannered, healthy, confident and quite well spoken. There were about sixty of them in each class and yet the classes were disciplined and not rowdy. The future generations are coming up and they are looking good!

Mr Adu Poku and Kibi District Authority Elementary School

Mr Adu Poku and Adwoa Badoe at the Kibi Elementary School, Nov 2008

Mr. Adu Poku, headteacher of the Kibi Elementary school wrote to me and called me. I was so thrilled. He said at last he was entering the donated books into a library ledger so he could make the books available to the children. I have to get around to posting the photos of the library clean-up and the eager kids with whom we celebrated the arrival of books, a project we embarked on with the help of the Guelph Library staff in honour of the 10 anniversary of the passing of my father. I have since followed the books up lat Kibi, this past August, only to find school closed for the "summer." I met Mr. Adu Poku who was then on his way to his farm. He was grateful for the books on behalf of the children and has followed up with a phone call and a letter, just this week. This is grand!

I promise to post the photos of the kids and the school soon. This is why have written this blog, to hasten me. I tend to slow down conspicuously around tech matters.

Hogbetsotso 2009

Adwoa at Hogbetsotsosoza 2008., doing agbadza highlife..I can't believe I went there without my bubu or kaba-slit.

Next Saturday, October 10th is the annual Hogbetsotso festival. I must make plans to go to Toronto to see our own Guelphite, Atsu Amegashie , professor of Economics, who will be a chief this year. Atsu is the best dancer of all, lithe, rhythmic and indefatiguable. I always anticipate the mass Atsiagbekor dance performed by the entire troupe and the good food, particularly kenkey, fresh hot pepper and keta school boys that my sistah Evelyn Quist serves. This year I will miss Mr. Fugar a true elder of the Southern Volta Ewes. He was the one who first connected me with Hogbetsotso. Almost every year I danced agbadza with him. May he rest in peace. Hopefully this year, I will set off on time and will catch the dances which so thrill me.

PENGUIN SOUTH AFRICA- PRIZE and SERIES

African Renaissance has been on my mind since my trip to Barcelona a little over a week ago.

Recently Penguin South Africa has launched a new writers prize for African writers for Adult fiction and non fiction. They have gone so far as to launch The (new) African Writers Series which once belonged to Heinneman-bringing new life to the dreams of African writers. Chinua Achebe the Editorial Advisor of the series had this to say:

"Africa is not simple-Often people want to simplify it, generalise it, stereotype its people, but Africa is very complex. The world is just starting to get to know Africa-

This is what I personally want to see-writers from all over Africa contributing to a definition of themselves, writing ourselves and our stories into history."

www. penguin.book.co.za/blog/2009/04/23

The Last Few Days of the Year

Here's wishing all my friends accross continents Happy New Year.
May the coming year bring righteousness, joy and peace to our lives, our homes, our city, our province, our country and the whole wide world.

I will enjoy the singing of Auld Lang Syne ...... May our circles of friendship be unbroken!
Adwoa

GHANA 2008

The first Kibi visit in November, meeting the students and the teachers.

No pictures yet. I arrived Sunday evening and was met at the airport by two of my sisters and two of my nieces. It is great to be met at the airport. Conversely the airport feels a lot more orderly and peaceful than years ago when we first began to travel.

Accra feels a little different this time. Perhaps Canada really is HOME! I have already had my hair done in braids and am looking quite nice I think. I have met family on both sides - my husbands and mine and all are doing fairly well.

Tomorrow we advance to Kibi, Kyebi or what you will to see what is to be done about the library. I will take my camera so you can see through my eyes...eventually.

Best wishes,
Adwoa

(the blogger returned).

TENACITY! Lesson One from Mrs. Clinton

Lesson one from Hillary Clinton is TENACITY.
Don't slack, loosen or quit your hold, no matter what.
Her eye has been on the end even when she had not fully conceived the goal, while it was just an uncommitted germ cell in an embryonic ovary.

She has been tenacious through her education as a young woman in law school and after her heart beat was awakened by Martin Luther King and she met and married her savvy husband Bill and found the dream which then doubled. Nothing has deterred her, not Whitewatergate or Whitehouseimproprietygate, when most feminists may have been tempted to divorce an errant husband in one self-satisfying drama of revenge and justification. No!

Hillary has taught us to dream the dream and to hold on to the dream, taking the plusses and the minusses. Hillary has taught me to keep the drama low and not to be the victim and to keep counting the 'yea' votes one by one. Eighteen million she came up with. Hats off to Hiilary and the victory of tenacity. Tenacity like Hillary continues to be a force to reckon with.

Obama etc.

Obama has won the Democratic primaries and made history! I hope the Americans commit to making even larger history for the elections. Rev. TD Jakes had much to say about that on a CNN site well worth reading. Worldwide, this event will serve to lift the expectations of Black people and minorities everywhere. We are aware that this event is about America yet it touches the rest of us in very real ways. Life is about the present and the future, the past should only help to strengthen our resolve for better tomorrows.

I have learned many lessons from watching both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama on CNN news everynight. I have enjoyed most of the presenters guests and analysts for these months, all except Lou Dobbs who leaves me feeling that there is something beneath that cultivated exterior. Larry King, Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer, I like, but we need a true woman anchor, a colorful personality, smart and intense, yet cool and professional. How about Arianna of the Huffington Post? She's smart but doesn't come accross like a bully as do Nancy Grace and Judge Judy. John King will be very happy to rest his electronic map. He must be so fed up of crunching those same numbers night after night although he was a good sport and never showed it. I must say CNN is riveting in it's ability to keep us hooked on the news inspite of many repetitions. How they manage to keep circulating the same news through out the day from program to program is amazing. I believe them when they say they are the best news team.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf

Late last night, I chanced upon a documentary on the first year of Her Excellency Ellen Sirleaf's presidency of the West African country of Liberia. It ended about 2am. I was really tired after teaching dance that evening but I could not take my eyes off the unfolding real life drama on the TV screen.

What would inspire this woman entering her golden years, to attain to such a difficult and dangerous position, at a time of life when her peers would be retiring and seeking rest and pensions after years of service.

The woman I know, if she had worked hard and long for many years, would be inspired toward the comfort of a beautiful, exquisitely decorated suburban house, complete with landscaping, and a nice chauffeur driven upmarket car. Her son and daughter would probably have second and third degrees from American or European universities, and most likely would be working for corporate America and so on and so forth, in that general vein.... and why not? That is the good life. Indeed Sirleaf Johnson may have all of these as she held positions at Citibank and World Bank.

But Madam Sirleaf's older sister said their mother always said, "Ellen will be great!" Maybe that's what did it. It is my intention to research more about this woman, who walks her treadmill in the morning, dresses traditionally African, who has an unprecedented number of women in her cabinet. Ellen Sirleaf rises daily to fight against overwhelming poverty, extreme corruption, disorderly mobs (made up of exmilitia men and ex-renegade soldiers who laid waste the contryside in the days of Charles Taylor), opposition party members, (some of whom should have been tried and incarcerated for everything from war crimes to corruption) and unchecked multinationals who have exploited and mistreated Liberian workers for decades. She has very little on her side except hope and the undependable promises of aid from donors like the World Bank and IMF, who give with one hand and take back with the other hand and both feet!

Hooh! (Ghanaian groan) It's clear that her life is in danger from day to day and yet she faces confrontations as they come. She listens with grandmotherly compassion to the aggrieved, making everyone feel significant. She shoots straight with honesty and conviction in her dealings, never shying away from the difficult issues, whether with demonstrators or her own cabinet members. She doesn't run and she doesn't hide. How long can she keep this up?

She more than others, in world politics in recent times is the true revolutionary. I will be watching her as she leads this unlikely democracy, which is born out of years of civil war and loss. Indeed I will be praying for her. She will need a lot of help and I hope that America which has historical connections with this small country will find her cause worthy of real help. There will be many lessons yet to learn from her. And perhaps someone will follow her up soon with yet another documentary in the last year of her term.

I think of Winnie Mandela who began so well but was in the end affected by the corruption and dangers of her time. I wish Ellen well. " Finish hard", we cheer her on! I echo what her mother said when she was only a baby: "Ellen will be great!"

The Guelph Public Library is 125 Years Old

My librarian friends at the children's department of the GPL

CELEBRATE IMAGINATION!

Yesterday night I attended the GPL Gala at the Westminster Square Branch to celebrate all of 125 years and to promote the new main library which is yet to be born.
Sixty Guelph authors, guests and members of the public heard speeches from Norman McLeod the Chief Librarian, Susan Ratcliffe, Thomas King, the keynote speaker and Mary Mulholland of the Friends of the GPL. Dean Palmer unveiled the commemorative Triptych.
I didn't know that Guelph was home to so many authors and as our names were called we walked up the red carpet to applause. My notables were Bob Munsch, Linda Hendry, Janet Wilson and Jo Ellen Bogart, Dave Carter, Edeet Ravel, Stephen Hennighan, Amy Baskin, Jane Lewis and Werner Zimmerman.

30 million copies of books by Bob Munsch have been sold worldwide. WOW! I believe Linda Hendry and Janet Wilson have written and/or illustrated about 50 books each but the gathering wasn't about numbers and fiscal success, just simply about books and authors and the celebration of imagination. Our guest of honour, Tom King, said that writers didn't write for money. Well, making money while writing is very helpful especially if it is one's job or if one wants to spend more time doing it. But it is true that we write really because we feel we have something that begs to be said and also because we feel we can say it in such a way that people would like to read it.

There were trays and trays of cheese and grapes and so much left over at the end. The jazz by Bebopamoeba was electric, enlivening atmosphere. It was nice to meet new people and renew old acquaintances. I didn't take a camera but there were many photographers and am sure we can expect some photos on some internet site soon enough.

I would like to say thank you to the staff of the Guelph Public Library who put on a great gala and who went out of their way to celebrate Guelph authors on the anniversary of GPL, the very first public library in Ontario.

Happy Anniversary GPL!

Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Books Awards

Baba Wague Diakite's Art

1:30pm at Ryerson Community School, Denison Street, Toronto: About forty people gather at the library to announce and celebrate the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Book Awards. Started in 1976 by Sylvia Scwartz in honour of her sister Ruth, their family have since 2004, renamed the award for both Sylvia and Ruth whose work honoured children; Ruth as a bookseller and Sylvia as a photographer. The award ceremony was simple and sweet with the welcome and introductions by Brian McBurney the teacher-librarian of Ryerson school and Janet Stubbs of the Ontario Arts Foundation. Fule and I were the entertainment, and who better to tell of than Ananse. That trickster spider has been my favorite theme this week and as the owner of all stories, he claims even the ones in books. Ha!

Lorraine Filyer of the Ontario Arts Council, introduced the student jurors and the shortlisted books of both categories of the award: Picture Books and Young Adult books. She also gave us a glimpse of the process of choosing the winners.

Kenneth Oppel won the YA award for his book "Darkwing" and Duncan Weller won the picture book award for his picture book "The Boy From The Sun." In attendance were Carol Solway and Herb Solway representatives of the Schwartz family and the foundation, the principal of the school and other people connected with the OAC, libraries and education. There was a delightful 3 month old baby girl in pink and blue jeans and about thirty five students including the jurors and their friends. At the end we ate chocolate cupcakes and juice. Yum!

ANANSI, THE ORIGINAL SPIDERMAN

Hand made by the artists of Puppet's Elora: Annerose Schmidt, Bev Matheson and Connie Smith.
Oh Anansi, is this so?























Yesterday, I heard two Anansi stories at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Bayview Avenue Toronto , where Fule led a drum workshop. I met two women from Jamaica and Eunice from Barbados. One of the ladies told me two stories she had heard as a child.

Anansi had three kids at a certain time by his beloved wife. One day, he brought home four fingers of plantain for supper- perhaps it was all he could afford. So he called his family together and shared them out, one finger for his wife Aso, and one for each child.

Then he returned empty-handed to his room. "How about you Anansi?" Aso asked. "Aren't you hungry?"
Anansi made a sad face and said he was happy to sacrifice for the good of his family. Having thus stirred the heart of his wife, she immediately broke her plantain into two and gave him half, which he ate quickly.

The others each in their turn offered him half, and each time, he graciously received.
Who had the most food in the end?

In the second story, Anansi said he was cured from gossiping. The other animals decided to test him so the bareheaded vulture announced that he was going for a hair cut. Try as hard as he did, Anansi could not prevent himself from asking his neighbours, " Pray tell, and where is the hair that vulture's going to have trimmed? It can't be on top of his head, he-he!"

" Gossip!" his neighbours cried.
They say it was the only time the trickster was tricked.
I say, be careful what you say when you hear wonderful things!

Ananse Owns All Stories or Does He?

photo courtesy: Puppets Elora

About three years ago Connie Smith formerly of Puppets Elora, approached me to retell an Ananse story for a puppet show. The whole idea of puppets aroused my interest immediately, having once enjoyed those strange puppets on Ghana TV, playing musical instruments with jerky motion, all those many years ago. My other memories of puppets in my youth was a Punch and Judy show I watched at the Goethe Institute in Accra, Ghana and of course Sesame Street on GBC. Yes, I believe there was a puppet show on Sound of Music too, with a yodelling goat. I trust my memory!

So I went and watched "Babushka 's Doll", a puppet show staged by Puppets Elora, at the Westwood School, to meet the puppeteers and acquaint myself with the unique artistry of puppets in storytelling. A visit to Connie's house and several email edits later, "Anansi, The Spider-Man of Africa", was scripted by Connie and I and ready to be sculpted, stitched and otherwise created, by an amazing group of women known as Puppets Elora. Later on Fule provided a sound track.

Here's where memory fails, for am not quite sure when we premiered the show at the Gorge Theatre to a fantastic audience, but I do remember the show and it was great! So here's a photo of Ananse and His good looking wife Aso-Yaa discussing who really should be the owner of stories. If you have a chance to see Puppets Elora this Spring, seize it. It is very well worth every dollar!

Annerose the sculptor and puppeteer made a mask for me, representing Nyame of the Sky, for in this story Ananse has opportunity to speak to Nyame.

Yankadi

photo credit: Greg Coman

I love Yankadi, not only because I don't breathe so hard when we dance it, but because of its curvy, loose and comfortable flow and also because it is so good to dramatize. Last Saturday while recovering from an attack of the flu, I was still able to teach Yankadi at Studio Soleil's African Dance workshop at Ballinafad.

Here's a photo of my favorite Jiwani dancers, Rocio, Kiah and Mary at last February's Song of Wagadu: Song of Africa show at the GYMC, Guelph.

FRIENDSHIP and CELEBRATION

Maureen and Stephanie

Searching for the sun on a cloudy day,

Memories will do just fine,

If caught and stored in digital pixels,

full colour and pleasant on a day like this.

by Adwoa

OSU CHILDREN'S LIBRARY

Kathy Knowles and Adwoa at the North York Library! Photo by Tony Aidoo.

When I was young, at probably nine or ten years old, we lived in a suburb of Accra called Ringway Estates. I guess it was really a sub-suburb because the original area was the traditional land of the Osu Ga people, so the larger area was called Osu-RE. I liked Osu-RE, because we had our own departmental store, the GNTC about two hundred metres one way and down the street, there was Modern Bakery and later Afridom and Fifo which had a very friendly store manager. Our part of Ringway was also home to a busy night life with kenkey sellers, kelewele sellers and in the day time a true 'Yo ke Gari' (Gari, beans, fried plantain and zomi) seller. Ringway was a bustling lively area. We had the best Chinese reataurants, Mandarin, Pearl of the East and another one whose name escapes me. My cousin owned the Ringway Hotel, but he never invited us there and then there was the large Penta Hotel, which someone squeezed on the corner opposite the British Petroleum gas station.

Ringway had much to offer. Mark Cofie the business man, opened Rendezvous at the BP where we bought our first slushies. Later on he started a restaurant nearer Osu proper where we could buy not only slushies but doughnuts and popcorn. We saved all our money to spend at Mark Cofie's. Sometimes we bought cotton candy, which we called candy floss, at a corner store near Mark Cofie's. It was a little later that the Patisserie Mondiale opened next to Modern Bakery and there lay the greatest temptation, for Patisserie sold cake in slices! By then we were in Highschool. In those days Patisserie's cakes cost fourteen to sixteen cedis a slice, but somehow we convinced my mother that it was worth it. She always said their cake mix had been whipped to death. My sister Ako and I did not mind how much whipping the cake had taken. The icing and fillings were out of this world!

Ringway also had the best night clubs but we were not permitted to go near them, not until we were done highschool and even then, we went to those places only occassionally and without naming exactly where we were going. There was Keteke, the start-up club, where the initial middle class jammers had begun their life of fun. Old timers who had forgotten the passing of the years, still continued to visit Keteke where the youth thronged. Then there was the more sophisticated Cave du Roi . A little later, someone built Black Caesar's palace, which must have been an ugly building, but we thought it was the greatest building ever for it's imposing Castle-like entrance. That was the place where the decadent rich went who had money to spend.

Ringway was where a number of President Kwame Nkrumah's ministers and cohorts had built their homes in the fifties and sixties when Accra was becoming modern. Conversely, Ringway also boasted the Danquah Circle, named after J.B. Danquah of the opposition UNCP who had died, jailed in Nkrumah's infamous Nsawam prison. Ringway was home to the Abbey Road Boys hip boys who tried the new substance, Marijuana and suffered for it.

Our street, was home to the Polish Embassy, the Hungarian Embassy and the American Embassy Annex. We had our own cobblar at the street corner, who was also a fireman and many of our friends lived within walking distance. When much later I met my husband in faraway Kumasi, surprise, his family had just moved to Ringway!

At ten years old, the best thing about Ringway was a library my sister and I discovered, called Osu Children's library. We shared one library card and we only borrowed Nancy Drew! Back and forth we walked, returning and borrowing books, probably until we had read the last Nancy Drew. By then we were off to boarding school. (It is probably more likely that we lost a book and never went back).

So here comes Kathy Knowles, who has founded Osu Children's Library fund and who is growing libraries all over Accra, Ghana, like tomatoes in her garden. Kathy is a chance librarian, chance library builder, or more truthfully a Destiny-Librarian. She has found her calling in life as though it were a penny on the ground which she stooped to pick up. Starting her first library under a tree with her kids and neighbours kids, she has gone on to found over a hundred libraries of all sizes and shapes in Ghana. Her libraries are sometimes housed in a school room, or someone's house or held under a tree. Her foundation has also built at least two beautiful library buildings, one in the Nima slums and another elsewhere. Kathy is a champion of Accra children many of whose success in life will be directly attributed to Kathy Knowles-Canadian, and Ghanaian-child and book lover!

Anna, Tony, Maureen and I, listened to Kathy Knowles speak on April Fools day. Anna Aidoo and her husband Tony and girls, represented the Ghanaian Consulate in Toronto. Anna was resplendent in her kente kaba and slit! I really enjoyed the coffee and biscotti afterward but it was Kathy who inspired us all. We were inspired by her vision, compassion, the size of her work and the dignity with which she treated her Ghanaian employees and the many children who benefit from the library. This love and dignity is obvious in the books she now publishes for Ghana and Africa but which I feel must be read here, in Canada and everywhere else. She has captured what very few people are able to do: the beauty of the African people. Beyond that, Kathy has captured hope!

This month I have started a campaign for a children's library in the small town of Kibi which the citizens call Kyebi, in the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area, where the Okyenhene reigns. It has been my great pleasure and inspiration to meet Kathy Knowles.