Worth the Walk :)

Imagine wanting to eat beans(gƆbƐ) so much but not having the chance! :(

 I came to Tei's office at North Ridge and met him eating beans and I loved the smell and the feel so I became a parasite :-) ...ate the food till the last morsel with him and since it was meant for just one person, we wanted more so we decided to go get more.

We then walked a distance to the popular beans joint but unfortunately for us, it was finished. So we stood for a while trying to figure out what we were going to eat and finally decided on yam chops(fried yam). Well I insisted on wayside fried yam with the notion that restaurant yam chops won't be nice. This was because he suggested a restaurant further down the road.

So Tei said he knew of a joint and that it was quite a distance from where we were so we walked that long distance, well I can't actually give it in kilometres or miles but it was long...quite long considering I had walked from Zenith to Tema Station :(

We got to a junction and he said there were two joints, one to the right of the junction and the other down the road. And he said he was sure the one to our right will be nicer. So we took that road and walked down a whole street only to find out there was no yam seller!!!

Before we started out our journey, remember he suggested the honeysuckle restaurant to which I pushed the idea aside. However on getting to the supposed yam seller's joint and finding nobody, the only option left was The Honeysuckle pub and restaurant.

We had to walk for another 5 minutes to get there. Then we ordered the yam chops with spiced chicken wings. I took cranberry juice while he took coke with lime.
The food came and looked good. We started eating and I retracted my statement immediately...it was very good :-)
Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the food before we started eating..however I'll let you have a sneak peek at when we were almost through :)

Then after eating, I asked to be taught how to play snooker...there was a pool. So I learnt the basics-what constitutes a foul when there is a kiss. Yes a kiss!
That happens when the balls touch and they need to be freed. I was so relieved when I found out that was what had to be done. I thought we had to...  :-0 Gladly it wasn't so.

Some pictures of playing snooker!

 In the end Tei allowed me to win...obviously and it was a great time. Really worth the walk. Gladly I didn't have to walk back to the office :)

Call on Tamale

Tamale is the capital of the Northern Region in Ghana with vast expanse of land and the extremes of weather conditions in Ghana.

I got to Tamale on a Thursday morning via Starbow  mainly on the ticket of Google Web Academy, Ghana for a training on the web academy. I'll write about the events that are being held after they are over but this is to share my experience in Tamale as this is the first time of being in the Northern part of Ghana.

On touching down, the hotel I would lodge in, Picorna Hotel, sent a car to pick me up from the airport directly to the hotel which was quite a distance away. That was nice of the hotel because I wonder how I would have found my way around. And I enjoyed my lunch of Banku and Okro stew. It was one of the best I've had from restaurants. Thumbs up !

I noticed there was a lot of motorcycles and bicycles around. And I was amazed at the skill with which the young girls rode their bicycles. I know I'm so bad with bicycle riding...actually never ridden one in my entire life..so I was very happy to her so adept in it :) For those that know of trotro(commercial vans), they don't run in Tamale...they only run out of Tamale. So if you visiting Tamale, have that in mind :)

I finally went to town the following day after booking the return on AWA; that was after the first day of web academy training and I enjoyed it even though the sun was scorching. The taxi driver was very helpful; actually all the people I got in touch with in Tamale were very hospitable. And to top it all, I RODE on a MOTORCYCLE...it was a great experience. I was scared at first but eventually I enjoyed it when I managed the courage. So that is a lesson: Never Say Never!

After the whole training event at the first stop, I decided to go through town to get some roast guinea fowl (after buying was I only finally accepted to have really been in Tamale :-). And since I wanted to be close to Savanna Signatures, I moved from Picorna Hotel to Samnandzo Lodge. So after my expedition in town (trying to swallow roast guinea fowl with tonsilitis was a trip :-( , I got to the lodge only to find out I had been locked out :-) And since I couldn't speak the local dialect, it was very funny trying to get them to open up. Eventually we (the security, myself and the partner I went with) made some noise and were finally admitted in. Phew!!!

I went to Walewale afterwards which is farther up north and went to Muja Wal lodge and a wall gecko(well I didn't know it was a wall gecko initially) worried me a while preventing me from sleeping...so I left the light on and then was able to sleep not to talk of the tiny insects which are attracted to light hence kept crawling up my skin.

Food in Tamale wasn't as cheap as we were told they will be. However, that in walewale was very cheap as compared to food in Tamale. But the ice cream in Tamale was very cheap and lovely. And it rained in walewale and all the bikers were riding very fast to prevent being drenched by the rain. There ain't any traffics in  walewale as well. A lot of bikes and donkeys are used in moving and conveying things around the community.

 I enjoyed myself  on this trip and the training sessions were very great and inspirational.

Praise and Adoration

Some Ghanaian musicians make the mistake of thinking all fast songs are praise material and all slow songs are adoration songs material. They tend to forget that its the content that places the song in the category of either praise or adoration(worship as popularly called).

Hence they sing songs which may be asking God for something or songs that may be lashing their enemies and just because those songs are fast, they caption them praise. the other side of the story also holds.

As a result, our most of our praise and adoration leaders in the various churches also blindly commit the same blunder in churches during these times thinking they are leading people to praise or adore God but will be actually doing the exact opposite.

Praise means to commend or express warm approval or admiration of somebody. Hence songs that will be sung during such times are to do exactly what the above says - express admiration,extol and commend God for the manifold things He has done with an example being what the Psalmist said in Psalm 8. Oh Lord our Lord how majestic (excellent) is Your name in all the earth! Praise songs can either be fast or slow. It's the content that makes it praise.

Adore on the other hand is to love and respect someone deeply or to worship or venerate. Thus songs sung under this umbrella are those to love and worship God. Not just any song that has a slow rhythm. A wonderful example from our Psalm is from 3 and 4 which says: "When I consider thy heavens, the work of their fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" This shows the deep respect the psalmist has for God and the worship with which he is attributing to Him. Another example is Jabu Hlongwane's a wonderful God you are to me. These songs can also be fast or slow in rhythm.

Songs to fall under the praise and adoration are to be based on content and not on how fast or slow the rhythm is. Let's take a cue from this and do the right thing when praising and adoring our MAKER For he truly is a wonderful God.