Ten things I don’t miss

 
Ten things I don’t miss from my old London life:

 Greyness: Grey suits, grey weather, grey houses, grey people
 Unnecessary aggressiveness and rudeness
 Commuting, especially the tube
 Overcrowded, overpriced, soulless bars
 Noisy, assertive drunks on the tube or in the street
 The “Daily Mail” and other narrow minded bigots
 Big Brother and “reality” TV generally
 Roads choked with traffic, where the drivers sit [...]

A mishap

I think I was robbed yesterday. I can’t actually prove that I didn’t lose my wallet due to my own stupidity, but I’m extremely suspicious. Yesterday I went into town to pay my water bill, which in itself could be considered robbery given how rarely water actually comes out of my taps, and rather than [...]

Thunder and Lightning

There’ve been a couple of electrical storms in the last few days, and when the electricity is in the air very little seems to be in the cables. But the sheer amount of electricity that is in the air is awesome. Often the storm starts in the distance, with the occasional flash in the clouds [...]

Half way point

I’ve been here more than six months now. In fact as I write it’s been 214* days since I arrived in Ghana. I’m writing this in the office due to a general lethargy that has overtaken me. I’ve got bits to do, but it’s really hard to motivate myself as there is absolutely no sense [...]

“Globalization and its discontents” - Book review

I’ve just finished “Globalisation and its discontents” by Joseph Stiglitz and my major regret is that I didn’t read this excellent book when it was published 5 years ago. Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize winning economist who was one of Clinton’s chief economic advisors and then went on to be a senior vice-president at the [...]

Road Traffic Accident

Firstly, an apology; in my last post I described Mum and Ellen’s phone calls as occasional. They are far from occasional, both phone me every week regular as clockwork. Their calls are eagerly anticipated and greatly enjoyed. Contact from home has tailed off a little this year and any sense of being remembered, whether a [...]

VSO Meetings etc

I’ve attended quite a few VSO meetings over the last four or five weeks. In fact I’ve attended more than I’ve actually been invited to. To be totally honest I’ve even resorted to organising my own. I’ve attended regional volunteers meetings for two different regions, a review of the VSO Ghana’s new HIV/AIDS workplace policy, [...]