I thought I was done….

….but I’m not done with my mango blog series yet. Can you stomach just one more post about mangoes, pleeeeeaase? Imagine a BIG, cheesy, toothy, molar to molar smile from Mango lady. :)

After lamenting on the slow mango season, which is so, well this weekend, 3 mango trees decided to go on a speedy ripening session over the weekend. Talk about overflow. I spent Saturday morning and afternoon distributing mangoes to friends, only to come back to see that more had dropped on the ground, waiting to be picked up. Neighbourhood people came knocking asking for mangoes. We are only happy to give them away.

See this full bucket…



... and there was another one too.

At church on Sunday, one of our teen neighbours delightedly thanked me for the mangoes… she said she ate 6 at a sitting. Knowing that there were several children in her household, I packed lots for them. I remember, one of her little brothers badgered me a few weeks ago, asking if he could get ripe mangoes. So it was a pleasure to knock on their door late Saturday morning with a basket full of mangoes. I can only imagine the sheer delight when they saw the fruits after I left. My pleasure!

My mom’s lunch after Sunday church service, yesterday consisted of this… tea and two slices of toasted bread. No big deal, it's normal for my mom to eat light after church service. But desert? A bowl full of mangoes. I laughingly told her that it seemed her desert was more than her lunch. Sometimes, just mangoes is supper for me and my mother. The other members of the house do like mangoes but they are not as passionate about them as my mom and I, I think.

Talk about Mango Fever!

I’m hoping to blog next about refraining from food, including mangoes. … Sssssh… Gasp! How can I ever part with mangoes when they are in season?

Up with Mango Flu, not down with Swine Flu,
Lady Akofa. : )

Note: I’m not promising that I’m done with the Mango blog series; there might be more stories to tell sometime soon. Sorry, but… ahem… but… I do looove mangoes, so bear with me!

Yellow Mango Story

I intended getting some pictures of yellow mangoes as promised as a sequel to my Green Mango Story and ended up doing fun self-portraits in front of the mango trees. : )

Look at this fruit basket….



…. it used to be full and overflowing at last year’s mango season. This year the harvest has been slow, so it’s not uncommon to see a lone yellow mango amidst plenty green ones, like this:


Now to the fun picture…



Here ends my mango blog series for now. : )

God bless ya.
Mango lady.

Green Mango Story

Did I tell ever you, I looove mangoes? Then let me say that again... listen well.

"I heaaaaaaaart mangoes!"

Alrigh-dee. You really didn't have to listen to me, although you might want to see some mango shots from my home sweet home.


Can you see this picture above? That's our border wall with one of the mango trees leaning towards the wall. So that particular corner has been a source of fun, contention, prank among neighbourhood kids who love to throw stones at the this tree in hopes that one of the spotted yellow mangoes will fall on their side, outside the house. But you'll never know whether your shot will be successful or not, in the first place.

A few months ago, my mom asked the gardener to pick up all the stones the house, some of which are leftovers from house construction materials. Those stones are now in front of our gate.... really, we don't know what to do with them. :) I guess a few of them will find their way back, until we properly dispose of the stones.

One day, I was back from work quite early and I met two kids standing, looking at this tree for yellow mangoes. Harmless. As long as they are able to get what they want, they can continue. After all there are 6 other mango trees inside the walled house. So I rang the bell waiting for the door to be opened so that I could enter.

But then one of the kids walked up to me with super confidence and said, "Madam, I threw a stone and my mango has fallen inside. Let me go inside and get it," as if he had every right to claim that one mango. My mind was like, "Hahahaha! What a comic scene! He really thinks he has a right to the mango!" But I smiled and allowed him to go inside the house grounds with me and wasn't at all bothered that he picked from the ground more than he had worked for. After all, this is just one time, I don't think he will be back again.


We lived in our previous house for some 20 plus years and it always brings some good memories when I think of those days. We had incredible neighbours and great relationships with most of them, some of which are still flourishing, although we the kids have grown up and have busy lives of our own, and have all moved out of that old neighbourhood. Today, when there is an occasion, we try to honour the invitations and celebrate together. There is nothing good as observing the faithfulness of God in a family friend's life.

We didn't have a mango tree in our previous house compound. There were 2 mango trees, if you ask me, malnourished and heavily in demand by some notorious kids, including yours truly. Where were the trees? Standing at the borderline of where 4 houses intersected, so it seemed like nobody really claimed ownership of them. But the boundary lines were clear, we knew who the rightful owners were.


Although they were malnourished trees, they were a source of a competition and chidish squabbles as to who would get the ripe mangoes first. And woe betide you if you didn't live in one of the four houses and you wanted to claim the fruit of any of these 2 mango trees. Hahaha! :) In our teens, we somehow lost interest in climbing those trees in search for fruit. You know teenagers have constantly changing interests, right? "Yeaaah...," that's sounds like a teenager's disinterested response. :)

Anyway, there is something I learnt from the book of Ruth and from my not-so-90-day Bible reading challenge about God. God has a soft spot for widows and orphans, the needy and vulnerable. And he wants us to remember them as well. I wonder whether the universal Church is living up to this calling today? Had not Boaz allowed Ruth to glean from his farm, I wonder what other hardships Ruth and Naomi would have had to face? And that love story? It would never have happened. But thank God for wise men.

And for me, although lil Mr. I-have-right-to-the-mango-that-has-fallen-inside-your-compound appeared audacious and mildly rude, I knew that he clearly didn't have money to buy a single mango at the market. And besides, we have several trees and often times give the mangoes to friends and family. We can't eat them all.

But I'm glad the lil' boy dared asked and he got even more. The TNIV calls it "shameless audacity." Thinking about it now, I wish somebody had videotaped that interaction between me and lil' Mr. Audacity. He was incredibly confident that he'd get want he wanted.

Next time, I'll post pictures of ripe, yellow mangoes. Stay tuned!

God bless ya,
Mango lady. :)

Cruising through a beach community

On the way to a friend’s wedding last year, I took these photos. Certainly not phenomenal images as I took them while the car zooming across the highway. Anyhoo, I like these pictures.

And by the way, this is parts of Accra, Ghana... for my non-Ghanaian visitors. :)

Thinking, "When next can I go to the beach just to enjoy?"

Lady Akofa.

Glad when they said...

Psalm 122
A song of ascents. Of David.

1 I rejoiced with those who said to me,
"Let us go to the house of the LORD."
2 Our feet are standing
in your gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is built like a city
that is closely compacted together.
4 That is where the tribes go up,
the tribes of the LORD,
to praise the name of the LORD
according to the statute given to Israel.
5 There the thrones for judgment stand,
the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
"May those who love you be secure.
7 May there be peace within your walls
and security within your citadels."
8 For the sake of my brothers and friends,
I will say, "Peace be within you."
9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God,
I will seek your prosperity.

God bless ya!
Lady Akofa.

Fix it Friday: Coo Baby

Hi y'all,

I'm trying something new here. I'm new in photography and want to learn more. So I'm taking part in a Fix it Friday game, contest.... eerm...what do you call it, when there is no prize to this one??? Anyway, the idea is to fix a photograph by editing it. So here we go. Below is the original picture, but I've already rotated it.

Ain't Cooing baby so cute?

I'm new to photoshop and thrilled by what one can do with photoshop. Awesome photo edit programme. No wonder professionals hail photoshop!

So here is what I did.

I used the healing tool brush to take out the teeny tiny blemishes on Coo Baby's face and sharpened the edges and changed the image to greyscale mode all in PhotoShop, saving it in TIFF.

Then edited the image with soft focus on Google's Picasa and saved it in JPEG. I don't know how to do that on PhotoShop yet. There is something warm, glowy and fluffy about Pisaca's soft focus that I think suits baby images.



Warning, this is just a test! I might take down this post in 3 days or so. I should probably create another blog for photo stuff, if I'm going to be a regular participant in I Heart Faces Contest.

So tell me what you think!



Go see what other ladies and big mamas are doing with Coo Baby's image. Such a cute baby too.

God Bless ya,
Lady Akofa.

Strange sights?

Yo-hooooooo!

Strange sights? New header up. What do you think?

Just trying to spice up this blog a lil'. :)

Have a great weekend!
Lady Akofa.

New life is here!

Hope you all had a lovely Resurrection Weekend? I hope so.

On Easter Monday morning, I was in another room in my house simply relaxing. I looked out to see the nearest mango tree. If you’ve visited me here for a while, you know that I loooove mangoes. Hmmm… Most of the mangoes are still green. We haven’t had rain in a while… I wonder if the late rains have affected the ripening of the mangoes? Oooh, that You’d send us rain today... is it possible, Papa God? I’d love to smell rain soon. Probably not to disrupt those out there picnicking, but how about rain tonight, Papa God? Missy’s heartfelt thoughts.

And you know what happened? Within 3-4 hours of such thoughts, clouds started forming, and my, it rained heavily, with strong winds. I was pleasantly surprised. Co-incidence? I don’t know. Weather forecasts are quite unreliable in my country and I rarely watch television or listen to radio, these days. I’d like to think that it was a Spirit-led prayer. God knew He was going to send rain, but He wanted me to share in the delights of the rainfall!

So while it’s spring for the Northern-most hemisphere of the earth, rainy season begins… our own special kind of spring in the equatorial/tropical lands. Flowers are blooming, seeds are germinating, what was then almost lifeless, without hope is now budding, fresh and tender. New life is here!

Aaah… see what He says:

"Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men, and plants of the field to everyone," Zechariah 10:1 (NIV).

Indeed, new life is here… in Christ Jesus.

May He bring life to that which is lifeless in your life,
Akofa.

Shortcuts = Bumpy rides: A humorous look at commercial transport in Ghana

Call it comical, hilarious, cynical, what have you. But there is a unique side to being able to take 'intolerables' as light stuff. I know, such things won't be tolerated in European or North American countries for the most part. But I live in a different world! : )

In Ghana, Trotro (commercial bus) drivers love shortcuts. At the slightest sign of traffic ahead on main roads, they branch (off) to the nearest shortcut. While most shortcut routes are not illegal, they are often un-tarred, flood-eroded, dusty and pot-holed.

The ride gets bumpy, with bodies swaying and heads bobbing up and down as the driver dodges potholes and takes sharps turns along eroded roads. Often my bag is covered with a layer of dust resulting from tires digging up layers of dust as they attempt to speed up the street as the driver steps hard on the accelerator. Can you imagine the dusty plight of those pedestrians walking along this route as well? Cough, cough… clear throat… Aaaachuuuuw!

In my opinion, shortcuts are rather longer than sticking to the main route. Why? The driver spends all his time dodging potholes, swinging here and there the delusion that as long as the vehicle is moving, the destination draws nearer. Not always so.

And doesn’t it make sense to be gentle with your vehicle, especially when it’s not a Land Cruiser? It’s no wonder trotros are in constant need of repairs. I’ve been in moving trotros where doors suddenly fell off and we had to stop so that the driver’s mate will pick the door up. And I’ve been in trotros with inappropriate, lightly-stuffed cushions, where metal stuck out and tear at my clothes. Oh yes, my one new trousers and several skirts have been subject to clothing-unfriendly seats. There have been trotros with lopsided seats: either you sit 45 degrees backwards and not the proper upright 90 degrees or you sit with your butt going 45 degrees on the chair. How is that for unbalanced seating?

The sad thing is that trotro and taxi drivers are unlikely to read this. The drivers mates? Nada. They are on the road right now. But I’m sure some of you own taxis and trotros. Could you ensure that your vehicle is road-worthy, people-friendly and clothes-friendly? Maybe you’d find that the frequent wear and tear and constant visits to the mechanic is the fruit of bumpy, pot-holed rides.


Till I buy my own car, more pressing need to get it soon, it’s gonna be the bouncy trotro ride, taxi ride or the frequently borrowed car from my parents.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After sharing this piece on facebook with a few friends, one reminded me of another type of trotro and we call it, Bone shaker. That's the point! Your whole body including your bones shake when you ride in one! Hehehe!

Ghanaweb has a hilarious photo story on the use of trotros.

"It's a wonderful world!"
Lady Akofa.

Sun Up. Sun Down.

Sun Up. Sun Down. Every. Single. Day. Ever faithful. Ever Sure. HE is.

And I'm ever grateful for the anchor I have in God. So a new chapter begins for me.

A new decade. And I'm extremely excited about the future. Just as nobody knew in 2000 that nine years later the world would be facing a worldwide economic crisis, I don't know what will be tomorrow. But I'm not worried nor anxious.

HE is my Father, my Refuge, my Strength, my Provider, my Friend, my Deliverer, my Healer my All in All. HE simply IS. As sure as the sun rises each morning and sets each evening, I'm sure that my Papa God will take care of me and won't fail me.

This is my confession on this blessed day as I turn a year older.

And I'm extremely grateful for my family, friends and loved ones who have walked with me in this journey so far.

Anybody celebrating his/her birthday today or this month, April? Happy birthday to you too!

God RICHLY bless you,
Akofa.