42 days left.

Just like once I started this blog with a countdown for moving to Africa, now I am doing a countdown for moving away from it...

I am left with 42 days in Ghana, at least for 2012, and slowly am trying to say goodbye to the magical morning moments, where I drive in the back seat of the taxi and watch Ghana happening on the road side... the colors, the children on their mothers' backs, the ladies that carry heavy loads on their heads, the palms...
I will always love waking up and seeing the green, lush palms against the blue sky. That is my all time favorite image of Ghana...

=2pi(x+y)^2

Life is like mathematical formula...

We kind have our formula, and then we just test with the value. The same as we have our lives, but we test with things what we can change in ourselves and in the world around us. By world around I literary mean the world around you. Dont try changing it as such [that would be like trying to argue, that symbol PI has different value than ~3.14...], but change your location in it. Instead of waking up and seeing concrete walls outside of your window, move to a place, where you will wake up with blue skies and the beach as your view every morning you wake up... Instead of seeing sad, grey people next to you, move to a place, where you can see people dancing on the street in colorful outfits with smiles on their face. Instead of being in an environment, where your body constantly is tense and stressed, find and move to an environment, where your body is relaxed, mind is at peace and you smile. On your face and with your gut!

I think I found my formula, when I finally stopped fitting into to the social frame, that I must be associated with one place and set locations brings happiness. It probably does for some people, but it does not for me... Location is my 'X' and 'Y' are the people around me, which really makes my life look like a mathematics problem.

So figuring out life, is a bit like solving math's problem... it is the challenges you face along the equation, all the formulas you try, till it comes to some logical result...but as you know, in some formulas we leave the unknown symbols 'x' and 'y' as such, without giving them value.  And that is the answer we had to find.. x and y, so we can multiply it by PI aka infinity. And the single result can still be different, it all depends on the value we put in as X n Y.

...just like with those views outside your window, it is you testing with the numbers in the equation, trying to find the value that best suits your test book!

Keep experimenting - you cant go wrong - if you have found your formula.

I think I have mine, the rest is just playing with numbers!

STOP - THINK - ACT

I found this poster in Zimbabwe in an office, and it made me smile and think of Soviet Union, where people often were facing various 

Things people need to warned about in Zim! :)

Visit Africa.

It is coming up to almost two years for me permanently living in Ghana. [See pictures by my friends Jonathan and Louisa in their HiddenPicturesProductions Home page  ] And when I say Ghana, I do also mean Africa. It is similar if I were to live in Latvia, it also means I live in Europe. For those living in Europe, we tend to expand our information bubble within the whole EU and know what is happening in neighboring countries more than in Asia or Africa. And similarly, my attention on the BBC web page is always drown to Africa, as it is my home now and it is important to know what is happening in the near by countries.

I admit that it is politically incorrect to say "In Africa this or that..." when I have only lived in Ghana, but I believe that my encounters with people from other African nations, local media and the fact that my every working day is lead by the time zone in East Africa, gives we some credibility to be able to say "..but in Africa!!!"

Currently I am in my hotel room in Malawi, drinking delicious Zimbabwean local grown coffee, packaged in simple plastic bags and hand written label. I am spoiling myself with chocolate made by a Belgian chocolate maker, who found his home in Zimbabwe more than a few decades back and using some local products is making chocolate that can easily compare with the Swiss brands. And am drinking it from a beautiful hand-painted cup by Rose Rigden bought at Doon Estate in Harare, Zimbabwe.


Just in 2000 (which to me, seems like just a few months ago) the world's media was obsess with showing only the negative image of Africa [or maybe that is all I noticed in the wide range of news coming my way]: the hunger, the dirt, the illnesses, the wars... It was portraited as "Hopeless Africa" by the Economist. And till today, I believe, one must look really hard to find the other side of the coin in media, when reading/hearing about African continent.

Me being me, I did not believe it is that bad. I dived. I came over and all I saw was - colors, happiness, people enjoying life. Dancing on streets, cooking together, sharing meals, rising children collectively... And yes, there are poor people. And verrrrrrry poor people. And many of  them are not blessed by with the place where they were born at - no clean water to drink, no water to water the plants and get something growing... and yes, there are diseases and wars. But there are also wonderfully creative and innovative solutions to all these problems. Have read in this Guardian article published this week :  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/26/africa-innovations-transform-continent  and visit the home page of the company I work at : http://www.esoko.com/ and you will see that, people do not just choose to die - they search for a way to make their lives better.

I constantly see happiness, joy and celebration in this continent (perhaps too much, as, I believe, Ghana has a public holiday almost for every month of the year). The amazing growth and creativity of African people - from Azonto Dance in Ghana, that was recently introduced to the world through a BBC report, to the very skilled African designers and African Fashion Week in SAfrica... To the same The Economist writing about the HOPEFUL African Economics a decade latter.

And yes there are a few idiots lets on this continent, skillfully using their people as marrionets and milking aid money into their big pockets... but, I believe, it also was the case of Europe a few centuries back, when people were less educated and had less rights...

Give Africa a chance and come and see the beauty of Zimbabwe's wildlife, visit Victoria Falls and stay at the a beautiful lodge... Taste Ethiopian honey, that the SLOW FOOD association has announced as one of the biodiversity sources and  honey collection trade in Ethiopia, as something than needs to be well treasured. Get Kente tailor made dress for you in Ghana... Try the benefits of Baobab seeds for your health or Shea butter products... Read the book of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and many other wonderful African Authors listed in the following link : http://blogs.african-writing.com/ivor/2011/03/29/a-must-read-african-authors-books-list/

Africa has so much to offer, that it should not be excluded out of your travel list, just because you heard that there is cholera outbreak in Sierra Leon right now or just because Kony in Uganda is EVIL, who does not see the bad behind his actions...

Africa has so much more to offer and there is also a lot you can give to it, if you once decide to take the leap of faith and en-devour on an adventure in Africa.

I would like to finish my blog with a quote from Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who once said: "If I had not grown up in Nigeria, if all I knew about Africa were from popular images, I, too, would think Africa was a place of beautiful landscape, beautiful animals and incomprehensible people fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and Aids, unable to speak for themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind white foreigner."

Single Sunday bliss.

 Dear friens in various corners of the world,

I hope that each and every one of you is doing well and restfully enjoys this beautiful Sunday. Turn on some lovely music, make yourself a coffee and shed a smile towards my way!

As much as I love people and find them fasciniting, wonderful and believe that each and every interraction has a purpose, there is nothing better right now than 24h on your own. With books, movies, phone off and : My world, my rules! :) Sometimes so needed, simple treatment, that doesnt cost you a fortune, like some massages or theraphy. The answers and strenght seems to be hidden inside us. 

Once again I have found myself in a situation, that challanges me EVERY DAY. And while I like it, it also sucks out a lot of enegry and joy for life. I start relaying on other people to make me happy. [And I have learnt it the hard way - it shouldnt be like that!]  This year is all about making myself happy, proud and balanced. To do it on my own and not replay on anyone. Become emotionally independent, if that makes sense at all.


I love my job, it pushing my boundries, makes me be creative in ways I didnt realise I can be and while every day seems like a battle, I know it is all for a reason - a lesson to learn! This is my chance to excel, to rise, to grow. And I welcome the challange with hands wide open! :0

Being Ediite

This week I hooked up on the TV series 'Being Erica', where a young woman gets the chance to go back in time and change her regrets, certain things she did, which then influenced her life in the present. Thou the moral always is that, reliving the moment, we would still be making a mistake - maybe not that particular, but something along the lines - cause human essence is inborn. So she keeps popping back and forth between her past and present, and really the only thing is that she learns through reliving her moments in past, is how to not repeat the same mistakes in present.

No wonder many people believe that we need to be knowledgeable about  history in order to not repeat the same mistakes. But really... look around, how many of us do it!? Don't we all make the same mistakes over and over and over again, till we learn the scenario by heart and start changing it little by little?

For a long time I believed that once the change happens, it all has to be GRAND - brand new! New place, new people and new me. I guess, I didn't accept myself the way I am and didn't see too well the person I can be. Despite all my self-confidence from the out, I was lacking it from the inside. And it is not easy to admit failures [oh, and believe I do have them ] or if I did - cause I did it, I felt proud about it and I guess I never really analysed them much. I just rushed over them and tried to put them behind, without learning from them...
[ Psychologists say that is something people, who experience their parents divorcing at an early age, goes through latter on in their lives.] And while there are thousand ugly things in my past, there are also million beautiful things there, which all together have me the person I am now.

And my journey is not over at all - I still do not know who I am or who I will become one day. But I am much more confident - in and out -, happy and 'together' person. I try to learn from my mistakes, but yeah... there are still times, when I..slip. :)

We are never too old to learn. To change.

This time - I am not running, I am sticking with the same country and making it work with the same people. It is not always easy and all clear, but who said life is easy! :) Just like families change shape over the years, so does life -it constantly changes, and only by loving these changes and keeping up with them, accepting them - we live!

Today I will change. I will walk to lunch! :)