I haven’t been dry in a while so I had to do that^ Sorry :) But in other news, hey, I’ve been wanting to write* for a while so…
Today I went to the market. The area surrounding it kind of looked like the ghetto of Rome :D The cars were parked haphazardly, the outside walls were considerably dirty, the streets weren’t pristine. The people were also more ethnically diverse - which is a suure banker you’re in a different part of town. Haha. We took a road at the back of the Coliseum to get there, and I realized how much of Rome I really haven’t seen.
So yeah. We got there, Uncle Kofi parked at a sketchy spot where the sidewalks meet (like the others haha) and we went in and the smells just hit me. But I realized for myself why markets are such good inspiration for writers. The colours, the smells, the people. There were cold, lifeless pig legs; thick, vibrant meats; gooey heart-lookalikes; shrivelled peppers; tempting spices; and yes, even a box of Neat Fufu. Uncle Kofi knew almost everyone, stole a few cherries while my mother bought some, and asked one of the Indian guys at another stall to dash him groundnuts. Haha. He’s hilarious. He’s one of the embassy drivers.
The first stall we went to belonged to a group of Egyptian meatcutters. Haha, sounds so exotic/fantastical when I say it that way. My mother seemed to like their meat, because she asked for something else everytime the guy was done giving her what she wanted. I watched the two others chop - actually, more like, sever/attack - the slabs of raw meat, with the murder weapon inches away from their fingers. I flinched with every “KAH!” and eventually had to look away when I couldn’t figure out how they did it without becoming fingerless. When we were done and my mother was joking with the vendor, they asked us if we like Egypt. My mother said, “Oh, Egypt, yessss!” Well, obviously she was just getting on their good side because I have never known of this love for Egypt. Then one of them asked us if we like Mubarak as we were walking away. I laughed saa.
I actually enjoyed being at the market, to my surprise. I took pleasure in the deluge of smells and found the unclean floor engaging (in a strange way). I’d been at home and in nice, clean places for too long.
I just know some writer has written about a market in this descriptive way before but hey, it’s my rendition.
*I wrote this a little while ago. The market trip happened on Saturday.
Look, like it or not your education gives you some privilege. What are you going to do with it?
Deborah Ahenkorah, Founder of the Golden Baobab Literary Prize
Is this the Marilyn I know?!?!?! YO! This girl’s writing is good!
Please, read! My reaction: adsjhsjdh
This is a good story. Still recovering from the writing…
READ. THIS.
And I BEG, click the link in the article that talks about “-the patronizing Western assumption that Africans are up against insurmountable odds and ethnological challenges.” Oh, I started screaming.
That post I reblogged from Debbie about Jane Eyre made me think about what I was reading in middle (primary) school. I had to go and look for African literature. Does that make sense to you? The Canterbury Tales is an amazing book and I thoroughly enjoyed studying it, but when I found The Lion and the Jewel and The Blinkards at home in Class 6, I was wondering: where in the WORLD were other books like this, and how come I hadn’t found them earlier? I loved them. I wanted us to act Ama Ataa Aidoo’s play out in school (I still wanted us to do it when I went to HGIC, but nooo, of courrrrse…the plays staged were As You Like It and The Miser…another story for a different day). The Blinkards is still my favourite book, maybe of all time (well, mayybe tied with Ella Enchanted and some Eric Carle books and Frog and Toad books and I could go on and on lool…those in particular are children’s books, but I don’t care :D) and along with The Lion and The Jewel, it’s my favourite piece of Ghanaian literature I’ve read so far. If not for my father and his wonderful taste in books…I mean? At the time I wondered whether I would’ve appreciated life as much if I didn’t get exposed to reading like that (lol extreme extension of the importance of reading, but whatever). Ever since that time I’ve been extremely grateful for how many books my dad allowed me to buy and how many he already had. I used to enjoy just searching for books I could read next. I knew the average Ghanaian kid doesn’t even get the chance to read as much. Even though they most likely want to. And that is the saddest thing. But more shameful of the literature matter: I didn’t even get to read Things Fall Apart till IG1 (10th grade). Something I don’t even like admitting. My previous school didn’t study it (though it was an option they turned down in Form 2 -_-), and somehow we just didn’t have it at home. Though we had Anthills of the Savannah.
LOL But if it weren’t for my big sister and my dad worrying about the adult content in the book I would’ve read Changes in Form 2, too. haha (wish I did -_- I mean, I had been exposed to a lot in this world by then hahaha…But yeah, maybe it wasn’t the right time.)
Education reform. I am so convinced right now. Hei! Hm.
I didn’t realize this - http://ghanablogging.com/about/ - existed though I knew that more of the bloggers and writers and arts people who focus on Ghana pretty much knew each other. Oh, and this is just like one link of a bunch of interesting things I’ve seen tonight. (Update: I just happened to look at the page with all the bloggers and I saw Marilyn’s name! As in Marilyn Osei. Pretty cool. But there are moooreee people that exist than have joined this thing)
I’ve just been running around the internet for the past hour looking at blogs and pictures and pages and stuff related to Ghana. And I am highly pleased! We’re seriously growing, makes me so happy. I’ve been seeing it since the past year, but I love seeing it more and more.
Lol and I planned to watch Modern Family. IN FACT, this is why I’m behind in every TV series known to man lool (that goes to all of you haters lool. You know yourselves. *cough* Nnen- never mind. lmao). I’m always doing, reading, or looking at something that I like/catches my interest when I have free time. Which is very little time, though. lol.
Pictures from the writing marathon we had quite a long time ago, sponsored by the literary magazine and the English department.
I’m tired, otherwise I would have talked more enthusiastically about it. But anyway I wrote something (or I tried to) based on the reddish painting with the curved or moving figures. I don’t know, it looked like moving figures to me and different scenes of people dancing put together. And I kind of went on a tangent, slightly, when I was thinking but I basically came up with this. (lol actually kind of, you’ll see..)
Aurora Borealis
Like fire he moved around her waist…
Around her thighs
Drew love around her neck
Around her eyes
Their feet met every few seconds
Switched
Said hello
Goodbye.
Her heart is beating
Faster than the percussion
Soul moving
Deeper than the bass drum
He is the wind.
She is the dawn.
Together they breed fire
Burning
Piercing life
Moving faster
Painting the sky
Bright lines intersecting
Tracing
Blurring
Distorting
Enhancing
Deepening
Colliding
Becoming
One.
I actually added like 13 lines inside right now, to my surprise..lol. It’s actually much different from what I wrote down. LOL. Muuchh different. It was like 3 stanzas, short and abrupt as anything and didn’t include the 4th and 5th ones. It’s an attempt. Basically. lol
I used three of these pictures for my photo assignment on depth of field. Later on I’ll edit and upload more pictures I took randomly, on my photo blog. (here)
