Oasis Bar and Grill Now Open

Some time in June I wrote on this blog about a joint which was soon to open in Tamale - Link here. Well I am proud to announce to you that Oasis has been officially opened. The specially day of its opening was a very proud moment for the owner, Mr Andrew Alhassan. I am pleased to share with you below some pictures that were taken on the opening night. Don't forget, whenever you are up in Tamale, try your best to pop into Oasis for some very good food and relaxing atmosphere.

2016 Living Word

"At the heart of this devotional is a desire to make God's eternal word real to our day to day experiences. The study format is easy to follow and the daily insights rich with meaning.
You can use this guide for your personal or family devotion, facilitate a Bible study or prepare a study lesson for a group you lead. Whether you are a student, parent, worker, busy executive or a senior citizen, you can develop a closer walk with God and study His word daily. Make time to draw on His wisdom from above and see the difference it will bring into your life."
 

Whilst back in Ghana last year between the months of August and December, [yes I know,I spent several months there all in the name of relocation] I fellowshipped every Sunday morning attending Church Service at ICGC located at Abossey Okine. I was initially invited by a good friend Belinda Quarshie several years ago and since then, whenever I am in Ghana, I make it my mission to attend church service there. I am very skeptical about churches in Ghana. I feel many of them have deviated from the soul purpose of why a church is needed in a community, and have made it their aim to feed people with nonsense and device as many ways and means of extracting money from them based on absurd reasons. 
Anyway, ICGC sat well with me. I liked the church very much. I would not say I liked everything about the church, but on a scale of 1 - 10, I would give it a 9 based on the atmosphere, preaching, etc etc. 

So, "Living Word" is a yearly book written by the Senior Pastor and founder of ICGC - Pastor Mensa Otabil. My copy - Living Word 2016, was purchased as a present for me by Belinda in November last year when I was in Ghana. It is meant to be read on a daily bases, but hey, I found the content very inspiring and full of great value. I ended up reading more than one page at a time. I ended up finishing the book last week. There are several pages which I enjoyed. Others I had questions on. 

I am eagerly looking to next years Living Word 2017. I plan to be in Ghana in November for six week. Hopefully before I leave, Pastor Otabil would have the Living Word for 2017 published and out for sale.

ECG- Where Art Thou - Further Updates

This is beyond me now. I refuse to give up because I fail to see how a full government machinery can be so incompetent on the very basic function of providing service to customers.
Still on my burnt ECG meter and my several attempts to get them out to investigate; it appears ECG is doomed for failure.
I called ECG Customer Services again and was connected to Louise. After giving her my reference number, guess what, yes you probably guessed right. She blurted out “sorry sir, we are currently facing challenges with our system so please hold for 60 seconds” everything with ECG seems to be one massive “facing challenges”. When she finally got my details up on her screen, she informed me that she would send a…… I am trying to remember the phrase she used… sod it, I cannot remember; anyway, what she said implied was that she was informing the Fault Team that I had called. 
At this stage, I tried to remain calm. After going through this same scenario over a period of five days, I was on the verge of exploding with anger. But I kept my cool. I bluntly told her that her action was useless because on every other occasion that I have rung her co-workers have done the same thing and I am still waiting for the Fault team to visit my property.
I then asked her if there was an update on my ticket regarding what time the Fault Team would be at my property.. 
She said no
I asked her if her message to the Fault Team would generate a response as to when I should expect them at my property. 
She said no. 
To make matters worse, she suggested that I ring the ECG Office at Makola and make a report. Yet again, I could not believe what I was being told. 
Hang on I said to her, what is the purpose of me ringing you if you are asking me to make another phone call?
Oh well, I said to myself, I suppose it will not harm if I make this call. Let see what can go wrong here. 
I wrote the two numbers she gave me [0302664900/0302664904] and dialled the first out of the two. It is no surprise why Ghanaian Government organisations are absolutely messed up. Can you imagine that when someone finally picked my call to Makola and after me explaining why I was calling, I got routed back to Customer Services. Fortunately the person at the end of the line knew what I needed and told me to ring again but this time dial extension 264 when prompted.
Extension 264 picked up my call, but had to take down my number because the person who can deal with my issue is on the phone and would call me back. Note that this was roughly an hour ago. I am still waiting for the call back.

ECG - Where Art Thou

I took a stroll to Oxford High Street, Osu. My plan was to pop into the bank and withdraw some money for the weekend. On Friday, I was informed by my Business Relationship Manager that Barclays Bank in Osu would be open on a Saturday. I wasn't. However if I had an ATM card I could have withdrawn some money from the ATM machine. I did not have an ATM card, so I was out of luck. Anyway, the trip to the bank was not a wasted one. I had packed my Nikon D5500 into my backpack. I took it out and proceeded to make my way back home heading towards Danquah Circle and then doing a right towards Labone Junction. I managed to get some shots but was kicking myself because I had not packed my SIGMA 18-35mm lens.

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I got home around 11.50 and switched the aircon on. Twenty minutes into enjoying the benefits of having an aircon, I could smell burning. I went outside and had a quick peek at the aircon. Nothing seemed to be wrong with it. Then I went back into the house. The smell of burning suddenly became stronger so I went back out again and this time I noticed that my electric meter was on fire. I was immediately transformed into a headless chicken and started running around in circles looking for something to put this fire out. Finally I found a heavily soaked rag and used that to put the flames out. I called ECG Customer Services and exactly 12 noon and gave an account of my issue. The agent - Pyke informed me that the systems was not responding and that he would have to log my issue on another platform. He went on to mention that he would not be able to give me a reference number until the system was up and running. To my amazement Pyke said I should make my way to the ECG offices at Makola to report my issue. I just could not believe what I was being told. I immediately told him that I was not going to Makola to report the issue and was expecting this to be handled by the ECG Complaints Call Centre. What if, I asked him, whilst on my way to ECG at Makola, the fire started again; who would be around to contain the fire.  

At 13.00, I called again and this time I spoke to another agent called Francis. Francis was able to locate my ticket and proceeded to give me a ticket number [91100]. He told me that the response Team at Makola had been informed and they would be dispatched to my location as soon as possible.

At 15.41, I call the ECG Call Centre again and was connected to Adobea. Adobe informed me that their system was down and hence could not pull up my ticket. I had to give a brief run down of what the issue was. I asked if a team would be dispatched to investigate the cause of the fire at the meter. She said they had been informed and would be out to my location ASAP.

At 16.51 I called ECG again asking for an update, my call was picked up by Abigail. I got the same "razzmatazz", but this time she added a "twist". She said she was doing her best to get the Team out to my property, but in the meantime, if I could call the Team at Makola on 0302664900, that would be a good idea. Guess what, I called the number three times and got no response. 

At 17.44, I was on the phone agin to ECG speaking to Erica. She was able to pull up my ticket but could not tell when the Team would be at my property. She even suggested that I go to the ECG Offices at Makola on Monday to report the issue. I decided to change the tone of my voice and demanded to speak to a supervisor. I was transferred to Evans who assured me that he was going to call the Team at Makola and find out what was going on. He also assured me that he would give me a call back.

20.40 - Still no word from Evans as promised. Called ECG again and requested to speak to Evans. I was told that Evans has left for the day. I was transferred to another supervisor called Patrick.

21.33 - Called ECG and demanded to speak to Patrick. Still no updates on when the Team will be at my property to investigate why my electric meter suddenly caught fire. Patrick assures me that the Response Team will be at my property and that the reason for the delay is due to other faults that are being looked at.

Updates to follow as and when they are available!

Stunning Wrist Beads By Mabel Simpson

It all started with a tweet that caught my eye at a time I had dedicated my time to be on twitter.
This was the tweet

I blinked once, and blinked again. This was an opportunity not to be missed. Truthfully, my initial reaction was to ignored it as I thought this was too good to be true. Mind you, this was my default settings in me speaking, no offence to Gloria :-). It must have taken a fraction of a second for my thoughts to go through my default settings to me hitting that "retweet" button. In the meantime, whiles waiting for the results of this "mini event" organised by Gloria to emerge, I took a web trip to msimps website. I am an inquisitive person. Curiosity has not killed me yet and I doubt if it will ever [smile]. So this is my critique of the website. The first thing that caught may attention was a bunch of SQL, PHP coding errors. I have sent simps a whatsapp and hopefully she will have this rectified as soon as possible. The last thing you want lingering on your website, especially if it is used as a platform to sell you products, is for coding errors popping up here and there. Unfortunately I did not see similar bracelets featured in Gloria's tweet, being offered as an item to be bought on the website. I might not have looked hard enough, but I am quite certain it's not there. I am sure there is a valid reason for this. The reason I raised this is because the bracelet is very nice. I am wearing mine now. You will notice that there were 16 retweets of Gloria's initial tweet. If we do the math, it means there are 11 people out there who can be potential buyers. Fair enough, these 11 missed out on a freebie, but that does not mean that they will not be will to pay for the wrist beads given the means to. I feel that the website needs two major uplifts. The first is the fonts used are too small, secondly the "contact us" page needs to be redone. 

Gloria announced the results and Kuku Dela is a lucky winner of an amazing well crafted bracelet.

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After a few messages on Twitter and WhatsApp, I finally picked up my bracelet from what I presume to be an outlet near Bluegate Junction in Osu. Fortunately living in Nyaniba Estates made the trip to collect it an easy one.

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The items being sold by msimps are really nice. I draw my conclusions from the bracelet I received. The bracelet has been well made and I am fairly confident that if these wrist beads are of high quality, so too are the rest of msimps products.

Finally, why don't you vote for msimps to win the Glitz Style Awards.
Click on this >>link<< and click the "like" button
OR
Head over to Glitz Africa Awards page on Instagram and vote. You will need to search for glitzafrica in Instagram. Better still, click >>here<<. Then scroll through the pics until you come across that for Mabel and use the "like" button. Simple.

So Many Colours At Church ICGC Abossey Okine

ICGC is located at Abossey Okine in Accra, Ghana; and  has always been my preferred place of worship when I am in Accra. I was introduced to the church by a very good friend of mine. Generally I am very weary of churches in Ghana, so by default, I am very selective as to which church I attend. Since being introduced to ICGC, I have been in and out of Ghana over the past couple of years several times. On each occasion that I am in Ghana, I make it a point to attend ICGC.

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This Sunday gone, we had the pleasure of Pastor Otabil preaching. He continued with his series which he started last week. Unfortunately I was in Takoradi last week, so I missed out on the beginning of the series. There is never a dull moment in the clothes people wear to church. Admittedly there is the usual black or white attire, but 90% of what everyone wears is filled with colour.  Correct me if I am wrong, but I am of the very strong opinion that Ghanaians love wearing colourful clothes. This is more prominent in women. The  Kaba and Slit serves as an excellent "medium" in displaying colours based on the material used in sewing. A quick Google search using  "What is kaba and Slit" will generate a list of websites which attempt to educate you what Kaba and Slit is.

ECOBANK - Information Technology

I am pitching this video because my brother, Mr Felix Duku CEO of Duku Consulting Ghana is featured in it. This was when he was head of Information and Communication Technology at ECOBANK, Accra Ghana.
For those of you who know him, spotting him out will not be a problem, however those who don't will see a brief introduction with his name and function......enjoy

Click on picture to view video.

Takoradi

So I am currently in Takoradi spending time with Family. Actually I arrived here on Wednesday 16th. It is always a trip which I look forward to whenever I am in Ghana. I went to the Internal Flights section on Tuesday to purchase my ticket for Wednesday. As usual, I had the option to go with Africa World or Starbow. I choose Starbow. I was not impressed. When it got to my turn to be served, the lady blanked me for about 8 minutes doing something on her computer screen before acknowledging me as requiring her attention. Nothing like “sorry for keeping you waiting”, you know, the usual customer service lingo you offer when you have kept a customer waiting. I was not in the mood to point out her customer service skills. I had the feeling that sooner or later, someone would let her know her failings. 
The flight cost GHC670.00, which I think is a bit steep. Then again, I think the fare has increased. I cannot recall how much I paid for my trip last year. It should not be difficult for me to find out. I am sure I have a copy of the receipt somewhere.
Wednesday morning found me at the airport around 8.00AM. Word of warning, if you have a flight scheduled to take off in the morning from Kotoka International Airport, make sure that you leave home/base location in well enough time. The morning traffic in Accra can be killing and without giving yourself sufficient time to leave home/base location, you will definitely miss your flight if you stretch things thinly.
My flight was scheduled to take off from Kotoka International Airport [KIA] at 9.10AM, and guess what? Yes you guessed right our flight was delayed for almost 45 minutes. The beauty of it was that after announcing the flight and us going through checkin, no staff from Starbow thought it necessary for us to be informed of why the flight was delayed. Typical!
The flight was uneventful and landed at Takoradi Airport at 11.20AM. 
I have not been into the town centre yet, but driving home from the airport confirmed my suspicions; no investment has been pumped into the roads in town. Building construction is static. Come to think of it, I don’t remember building construction to be evident on my last visit last year.
Something I did not expect, the power issue is much better here than in my hood Nyaniba Estates. There has certainly been an improvement in the power situation in Takoradi. 

I made time to take a ride with Pastor Theo to a spot called Harbour View. From the drinking spot one has an excellent view of Takoradi Harbour and GHACEM. I have never been to Tema Harbour, but I have read in the past of various upgrade projects initiated there to cater for the increased number of vessels and trade. Considering the volume of ships that use Tema Harbour, it is fair to say that it is a much bigger harbour than Takoradi. I believe there is some degree of harbour expansion going on at Takoradi Harbour.

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We didn't hang around Harbour View for long. Pastor Theo made a quick call to my nephew Eugene who works for GHACEM. He actually popped over to meet us at Harbour View. He was on his way to GSTS with his friend who is part of the IT Team at GHACEM for a football training session. I was very impressed when they told me that GHACEM has purchased a Quadcopter Drone to assist them in various strategic decision making. Considering the large area GHACEM occupies, this is the most logic tool to employ when one needs information based on feedback from an area footage. Nice move.

Anyway, we all made our way to GSTS [Ghana Secondary Technical School]. I remember GSTS from the days I was in Secondary School. Unfortunately I have never had the opportunity of visiting the school till today. I have always thought this secondary school was situated outside of Takoradi, why, don't ask. Like most most of the very good secondary schools in the country, GSTS has not escaped neglect. It is such a shame. The structures are practically begging for repairs here and there, not to mention a touch of painting.

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Ghana department store collapses in Accra

A multi-storey department store has collapsed in Ghana's capital, Accra, with many people believed to be trapped inside.

Rescue efforts are under way, with police and fire personnel trying to pull people out of the rubble.

The BBC's Sammy Darko reports from the scene that he has seen one person rescued.

Other reports say three people died when the Melcom store collapsed before it was due to open.

Accra's mayor, Alfred Oko Vanderpuye, is reportedly at the scene with rescue workers who are trying to clear the rubble.

"I was very close to the mall because I was going to buy something only for me to see the building coming down," resident Ama Okyere told the AFP news agency.

"I had to run for my life. I was so terrified. I believe there are lots of people trapped under this because this is a heavily patronised shopping mall in the area."

Our reporter says it is feared that up to 200 staff could be trapped.

The building collapsed about 15 minutes before it was due to open for business, he adds.

In a tweet moments after the building collapsed, Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama said: "My prayers are with the workers, shoppers and others who are trapped in the rubble of the Achimota Melcom building."

Source: BBC
YouTube Video Link >>here<<

Update: 17/11/2012

I yanked the below uploaded Radio Show from Youtube. Watch it >>here<<

Fast forward to 13.48 [minutes ] into the talk..

This is the dialogue that took place. Coordinator: ...the Chinese ...they donated the mobile...the mobile...ow do you call that one Presenter:...escavator? coordinator:...no..no ermm ...ermm ermm ...the thing that lifts Presenter: crane? Coordinator: yes

wow! Now this is The Deputy National Coordinator for Disaster relief