Friday, January 21, 2011

Not-So-Secret Santa: Father Christmas Around Accra



This Christmas season, I sidled up to a pair of local Santas doin' their thing, and persuaded them to let me (and my camera) in on the secret, everyday life of Father Christmas.  Here are a few of the results.

Father Christmas on the street
Father Christmas carols with the kids
Young Father Christmas with mentor
Father Christmas pondering the poem "Footsteps"
Father Christmas makes a friend

Father Christmas shops for jeans
Father Christmas loves FanYogo (frozen yogurt snack)
Father Christmas holds tryouts to upgrade
aging sleigh-and-reindeer fleet
Father Christmas joins the SWAT Team
Father Christmas sees the light
No-no, Father Christmas, stay away from the light!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Obama's Cookie Policy Reaches Accra

As Obama prepares for his State of the Union address next week, he is surely pondering his overseas influence.  And he should be heartened: while he may be less popular at home than he would like, he's still hot stuff in Africa.

Here in Ghana, there's Obama shops, Obama posters for sale on the streets, kids in country villages wearing Obama clothing, even an Obama Hotel.

And now, Obama cookies!


Tired from running errands in Accra's mid-day heat, I stopped recently at a typical street-side shack for a cold drink.  Seeing Obama's face, with the red-white-and-blue, on a package of biscuits (that's "cookies" in Ghana-English), I couldn't resist seeing how he would taste.

The verdict?  Obama's cookies went down with me about as well as his health care reform did with America's Republican Party: dry and salty instead of moist and sweet, with a lingering acrid aftertaste.

Thankfully, I had a nice cold soymilk drink to wash my Obama-chow down.  Much better than those American elephants now spluttering on lukewarm tea.


So, my advice to Obama: while I know your foreign policy is mostly taken up with Iraq and Afghanistan, can you please give just a tiny corner of thought to your overseas baking stance?  A little push for sweeter cookies would go a long way in Ghana.