Hope for the New Year

New Year Day, 2010.Kokrobite Beach.

Kobrorite is one hour driving from the capital Accra, and the white sanded shore line makes a great weekend getaway for locals and expats alike.

Spending the New Year Day on a beach seems to be an annual celebration here, especially for the young and restless. Kokrobite is packed with 20s and early 30s, we are the definite minority here. Hundreds of young couples, singles and everyone in between played in the with the waves or on the beach with friends. Soccer balls flying around, kids were busy running around.

Even walking vendors selling beads, oranges, pineapples, fish, you-name-it seemed to be having a great day. Three 7 or 8 year old boys carried an aluminum basin of coconuts, which run out before the boys could trun around and got back to us.

One young couple sat by the edge of water, her back lying on his chest. When the waves came ashore and created an whiteout, the water foams surrended them, and they seemed to be floating in an island of bubbles for a second.

Football, the national pastime is the play of the New Year Day. Not only did we drive by a field where a local game was being played (6 hours later when we drove home, the games were still ongoing), the young men were all treat the beach like another street for fatancy football. Within a few months, the World Cup will be held in South Afirca, the first African country to host the games, the footballmania will heat up even more in Ghana.

No one seemed to mention the domestic double digit inflation, the failed terror attack attempted by an African, and many other glooms and dooms in the 2009, and everyone is enjoying the arrival of something new with the hope that the New Year will bring them something better.

Happy New Year!

Ghana 2009 Review

Jan 7

Prof. J.E.A. Mills and Mr. John Mahama are sworn in as President and Vice President respectively of Ghana, after a close run off with opposition party leader NPP's Nana Akufo-Addo

July 10-11

US President Barack Obama visits Ghana after attending G20 in Italy and addresses Parliament.

August

Chinese Ambassador donates Chinese language textbooks to University of Ghana, the privileged school to encourage teaching Chinese

Sept 6

Ghana national soccer team Black Stars beat Sudan team and became the first African nation to qualify for World Cup to be held in South Africa 2010

Sept 21

Ghana marks Centenary Celebrations of the birth of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the nation’s founder and first president after gaining independence in 1956.

Oct16

Ghana’s Black Satellites under-20 soccer team beat Brazil to win Africa’s first World Cup at the U20 soccer Championship held in Egypt.

Nov 10

MP runs his car into Parliament Speaker’s in an attempt to outsmart Accra traffic

Dec.

China tops Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) list for having the most registered companies in Ghana, but South Africa ranks the first in terms of the amount of the investment

Fireworks in October

Locals put out a big fireworks on display on this past Saturday night, and there is a good reason for it.

The Black Satellites successfully and historically beat Brazilian team to win the first ever U20 FIFA world cup. Although it is a win for a youth team, it is still indicates a bright future for the Black Star, the national team.

The year of 2009 must be a year of Ghana, first it peacefully transferred power to a opposition leader in a closest election ever, next it welcomed a fist African American President visit, becoming the first sub-Sahara country to receive Obama and his family. A while ago, the Ghana soccer national team stormed through qualify round and became the first African nation to enter the FIFA World Cup next year in South Africa, now the tomorrow soccer stars shine in Egypt to bring Ghana another trophy home.

Viva to the soccer players for bringing some cheers and lifting the spirits.