I’ve lived so many places in my life that long term friends are precious.They hold the thread of my life. They knew me when and they know me now. Thus it is with Alan and Mary Brody. We met in 1973 in Ghana, West Africa when we were all young. The Brody’s went on to…
Womens Memoirs published my story “Passage into Elderhood: Happy 60th birthday” on my 2011 birthday December 29th exactly two years after I celebrated my 60th birthday by returning to Ghana. Long ago a Ghanaian friend asked me, “Janet, what kind of old woman do you want to be?” This story is the answer to his…
Well, gosh! Heather Summerhayes Cariou and I tied as Grand Prize Winners for Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett’s Womens Memoirs Memoir Writing Contest Featuring Favorite Holidays. Heather Summerhayes Cariou’s story “The Sweet Ghost of Christmas Past” is published today on Womens Memoirs My story “Passage into Elderhood: Happy 60th Birthday” will be published soon. This…
About BFA Books For Africa is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization serving as the largest shipper of donated text and library books to the African continent. Since 1988, Books For Africa has shipped over 22 million primary, secondary, post-secondary, and community library books to 45 countries in Africa. Books For Africa has received the highest ratings…
Hi Mosaic enthusiasts! Check out Lillian Sizemore’s work. She did a wonderful mosaic project in Ghana! Lillian is a mosaic artist and gifted educator. She jurored a show in which Karen Silton’s mosaic “Miriam’s Well” was exhibited. The show was “The Art of Tesserae” at Second City Gallery in Long Beach.
Check out Rod McClaren’s new blog “Village Rainbow.” Show him some love and tell him what you’d like to know about that village rainbow and its village wisdom for the 21st century. Rod is a hard-working development chief living at Busua Beach in Ghana. Thus, he is more commonly addressed affectionately by his honorary chief’s…
On midnight of January 6th, in a specially convened session of Parliament, the bi-carmel house switched sides, signaling a transfer of power. On January 7th, the day I arrived back in the United States, President John Evans Atta Mills was formally inaugurated as President. I was there for the duration of the elections. On the…
Map from Virtual Explorers (http://www.virtualexplorers.org/ghana/map.htm). Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, my West African speech gave way to my Midwestern speech. I am going home…to my ancestral home, the place of my father awaits, heart beating as promised, and the place of our foremothers and forefathers. This December homecoming pilgrimage to Ghana has been a thorough-going…
Between December 6th to January 7, Riehlife goes on holiday as Janet travels to Ghana, a place she lived and worked for several years in the 1970s. This trip will be far more simple than her August trip to Southern Africa. Because I’ll only be staying in two locations, I’ll be taking a few more…
Riehlife’s April poetry editor for National Poetry Month Stephanie Farrow is a fine poet in her own right and a close friend since we served in Peace Corps Ghana in the 1970s. Stephanie selected these Adinkra poems by A. Kayper-Mensah (Sankofa: Adinkra Poems) Stephanie tells us: Adinkra symbols are pictographs that reflect a specific proverb…