The man from far North!!!

Having lived 7years in Norway,  I feel I am in a better position to assess my life in the diaspora. I was struck by how quickly I fell in love with my new home. It was to exagerate PERFECT! People minded their business so that i could go on with mine. I needed not think about what my neighbour thought, because i was almost certain i will never meet him. Well we could just say hi! to each other when we met in the doorway, and that was all that was required to be a good neigbour.

But God, it was stressful as well; all the family events you had to attend. They were mostly fun because you got to meet people. Yet it was stressful because you had to answer dozens of questions about yourself, where you came from and how you ENJOYED Norway! Most of the question bound out of curiosity. But there were a few though, nomatter how innocent they sounded, provoke you to the bone. WHY DID YOU ESCAPE FROM YOUR COUNTRY? Fortunately i have had to answer this question once.

I remember vividly how i used to talk to my friend from Gambia everytime one of us had to go for a family arrangement. It was either we were going for interrogation or into the fireline! But you get use to it. After a while you would have answered all the question people had, so that you stop being the interview object.

However, you become used to being the one giving answers such that, you do not learn to ask people questions. But rightly so, you cannot ask a norwegian how do you enjoy Norway. It will be totally out of place. I am afraid i have become such a person. I am not able to small talk with people if they are not asking me question.

I have vowed to do something about this and so i try to ask people questions as well. Yet my biggest challenge is what to ask people. what is culturally and politically correct to ask people? These are very difficult things one has to know to be able to small talk with people. Because a wrong question might just destroy a conversation just like that. I will come back to this topic in the near future.

Today i want to focus on one question i usually get from people i meet for the first time. Do you miss home(Ghana)? I always answer in the negative. And rightly so, i do not miss Ghana and Ghana is not home. Home is where your heart is. Levanger is home for me. I am able to caught up with all my friends and family, thanks to technology. I therefore do not miss home. At least so i thought until yesterday!

I was lying i bed and started thinking about what i use to do when i had a crisis back i Ghana. I always had a family intervention. Albert, Matthew, Bill, they where the family. We had to discuss til we found a solution.

I was sure to get arguments and counter argument until i saw reason. I knew my decisions have be checked counter checked and certified. That i miss. I miss the feeling of not having to prove yourself to everybody that you are a human being like they are. I miss not having feel like a represent a race and a people than just representing myself,

I miss being me!!

First resolution I many years

I decided not to be like most people who make new year resolutions. I have never seen the point of it. I believe that one should decide what wants to change at any time of one’s life and do it there and then. But it seems a lot of my decisions and changes happen to coincide with the start of a new year.

I the past few days I have decided to concentrate on me from now over. It sounds a bit selfish right, but I met a wife elderly lady who has become my big sister. She said when you spend your life taking care of other and nobody takes care of you back, you get drained and in the end you have nothing to give.

Well I do not wish to wait till that time when I have nothing to give and nobody is there to hold me hand. So I will begin today. I will spend my time and energy on people who care, people who make a difference not just in my life, but who are willing to give to others.

I am going to enjoy every single day of my life now. Life is too short to sit on my ass and think that tomorrow will be better and tomorrow I will enjoy my life. For the first time in so many years will not have to work twice a day. I will spend the evenings enjoying the company of my sweetheart. It is amazing how quickly they grow. She is almost as big as me, at just 4 and a half. Not that the half matters to me, but oh how she loves to correct everyone who says she is four years and not four and a half.

Well I will write a bit more! Happy new year!!!