Rain rain come again
It is with a beating heart that I boldly ask this question: when will the rains in Accra come pouring? I need to ask this question. Looks to me it’s been a long time coming.
Advertisement
Someone tells me it rained heavily in some parts of the Central Region over the weekend. A relative in the Eastern Region, Akyem to be precise, said same. Oh Accra, what have we done to deserve this heat?
On Sunday evening, I watched a movie on one of the TV stations, I forget exactly which one – the detriments of having too many TV stations to zip zap with one’s remote control.
The movie is called the Arctic Blast; a very brilliant work of art which explains the fact that the coldest part of Earth is not the North or South pole, but 35 miles above our heads in the mesosphere.
It shows how ozone rifts open up all over the globe, sending chills towards London, Moscow and Tokyo; icy mist that has the ability to freeze a human body solid in a matter of seconds and drop airplanes.
“The movie is just too sick” as my nephew puts it. He uses “sick” when he intends to tell of how brilliant something is. I don’t even know where he got that term from.
As I watch the Arctic Blast, I wished a little of that chill would sweep across this part of the equator. Aaagh, you should see how my whole body is scattered with heat rashes.
Nii Friday is the one who makes me feel sorry the more. He also has heat rashes all over. And he cries from the prickly nature each time he begins to sweat. You should see us walking around my home – Naa Atswei, Obodai and I. It’s as though we’ve created a little Garden of Eden in our small apartment.
Adorning ourselves with clothes at night has become a thing of the past. Both standing and ceiling fans blow hot air. I wonder how those on the deserts survive. But even there, I hear the nights are really cold. Oh, that some cool air will blow over Accra.
Hm, it's almost as if the sun has refused to go to bed lately. It’s working in overdrive. In fact, sometimes my home feels like El Azizia, Libya, where the highest temperature ever measured on Earth was recorded.
To lessen our discomfort during the day time, I have bought a large brim plastic bowl which serves as a miniature swimming pool. During the weekends, I simply fill them up to about three-quarters high, and dump my toddlers in there to cool off.
What did we do to our ozone layer, Ghana? Have we depleted all of ours or something? If so, what could have been the cause? I really need an answer to this.
If it so happens that some individuals have been the cause of this depletion, they must be brought to book because their actions and inactions are making some of us sweat especially at night.
When I complained at the office this morning, about the heat in my home, all of my colleagues expressed the same sentiments. “Ablah”, said Ameyaw, “as for you, you can even afford to use the fans in your home. For us, the cost of the electricity bills aren’t making us ‘see top’. We don’t use the fans at all. The more you use, the more you pay”. We had a good laugh, the way he rendered his concern.
But the hike in electricity cost is making people do all sorts of things oo. Our neighbour whose back yard faces our bedroom has refused to switch on his back lights at night.
On days when he does, he switches them on around midnight, and by half past three, they are off. I wonder whether he has an alarm which aids him to pursue that regimental feat. His timing is so punctual, it makes me laugh sometimes.
I wonder how they are surviving in that house. They virtually grope in darkness. For over two months I haven’t seen any proper nocturnal illumination in that house.
Once a while I would hear the “man of the house”, the “punctual switcher” yell in Twi, “who left the light in the kitchen on … who left the light on the porch on?” For goodness sake, dumsor has ended. So why is anyone inflicting dum on themselves the way this family is? Hahahaaa, a real case of woara bedum.
Well, without having discussions with anyone in that house, I made an electrician connect a bulb behind our bedroom so at least, that portion of our apartment and our neighbour’s backyard is well lit.
What Obodai and I have done is to change all our bulbs to energy saving ones so the consumption is bad but not too much as to keep all outside lights off, or in a state of rationing.
Hm, what was I even talking about? Eherrn, the heat! Hm, if there is anyone in Accra, looking forward to the rains, it’s me. Why should I invest in nice silk nighties only to deprive myself of wearing them?
Someone however told me the other day that the best way to go to bed is to be clothe-less. Maybe I should tell you more about that next week. For now, am off to pray for the rains to descend upon Accra.