Tuesday, 24 December 2013

BarCamp Accra 2013 - More Than Awesome #BCAccra

By now I know my readers know what BarCamps in Ghana are like and some of you had the opportunity to attend, if you still don't know, this this will help you out.

Thanks to +Google Maps and my Google Map Maker boss +Felix Nartey no problem locating the venue this time. I found myself at The World Bank (Head Office) as directed. 

Hehe! The World Bank doesn't share money oo! Like someone was thinking. I love the place 99.9 % I will use the 0.01% for Lotto :-D.

The theme was "Exercising Ethics to Engineer Excellence" and the panel discussion for BarCamp was all about how we can deal with corruption in the Ghanaian community. 

As usual there was Speed mentoring session, which is like speed dating but you learnt via +Kuukuwa Manful

During the speed mentoring session, the rest of us in the conference room led by +Mac-Jordan Degadjor witnessed an awesome game known as "Chinese Whispers" you wanna what it is? Next time make it to nearest BarCamp, Ok? But I will tell you. 

Someone whispers something to you and you also whisper to someone till the last person. The last person will let everyone know what was whispered, afterwards the one who commenced will tell us all the right word. It was fun. The word that started was "Photowalk" but +Donald Ward  changed it to ... guess it.. are you correct? #Tonga. lol!  #tonga did not reach the last person. It was fun. :-). The last person's answers were funny. You just can't laugh. The reaction when someone whispers to you..... lol!


Breakout sessions were organised, was in  +Planning Wikimedia Ghana's Content Creation (Wikipedia) session organised by +Enock Seth Nyamador (myself) and +Felix Nartey. You can read about this session soon on PWMGH's blog.
 I also joined the Creative Writing breakout session led by +Kinna Likimani
BarCamp Ghana: Matching Twitter handles to faces via +Delalorm Semabia. So new and old faces met. I met +Doris Anson-Yevu +Felix Nartey +Sena Quashie +Senam Aseye Bridget +Roger Gaisie +Omane Ossei-Poku +oliver akindes  +nathaniel ALPHA +Akua Akyaa Nkrumah  +Kwabena Akuamoah-Boateng +Edmund Laryea and etc. Hey! wait +Ela Asare  .. just can't complete.

BarCamp Accra Accra ended with the Ghana National Anthem, Yen Ara Ase se ne, and Arise Ghana Youth. You can read a full recap of Barcamp Accra by +Mighty African here . Hope to see you at next BarCamp.

Posted by at 4 comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Tuesday, 19 November 2013

Ho - Aflao #trotro Experience

Trotro mini buses
Source: Wikimedia Commons

If you are not in Ghana and reading this am 100% sure you've never heard of the word trotro.

mate used here is the name of the one who helps the trotro driver, collecting lorry fare from passengers and others.

Trotro I will say is a major means of transport. I love taking trotro's a lot. I was thinking I name this post Aflao - Ho, Ho - Aflao #trotro experience since, the experience from Aflao to Ho to was funny and interesting too.

Aflao to Ho...


Leaving Aflao for BarCamp Ho in October,  At 5 AM, getting out of my house and the shouting Ho! Ho!! that morning the driver of the trotro just applied the break and I jumped inside happily thinking it was full of people going to Ho. Not knowing all of them were going to Dzodze. After Dzodze, the driver and mate's eyes became hot since they were not getting passengers as we move.

Well luckily we got one passenger on board, he was heavily drunk. He started telling driver he was over speeding. Soon another passenger, a male, also got on board. As we were going another trotro who was also looking for passengers along the Dzodze - Ho stretch came to by pass us.

My driver was like ahhhh! lol. All these passengers were not going to Ho, so the drunkard alighted first as he continues to sing his destination to the mate. Now the second guy alighted and presented GHS 50.00 to the mate. The driver nearly died. Haha! If you know the way I was laughing.
So we have to wait for him to quickly get money from a koko seller near by. And the driver was telling me, some people are not serious oo. Laughing all together.

Off we go and another drunkard again. Oops!. They will enter the vehicle before you can tell. This one wasn't having money to pay the lorry fare. But sat down quietly. Now time for him to alight. He was telling the mate, he will get the money at his destination and pay. Then the driver roared: "If you don't pay, I will drive you to Ho" can you imagine? Ho is very far from where we were at that moment. And how will he get back. He alighted and was playing nonsense, so the driver instructed the mate to remove his pair of shoes and let's go. Still laughing at the way the mate and drunkard were displaying. A woman at the roadside came to his rescue, paid for him and off we go.

The driver managed to by pass the other trotro driver before we reached called Ziope. He was telling I really wanted to reach Ziope before that driver, if not wahala for him. Still laughing.

Got to Ho safely and said bye to the driver and still laughing.

Found my way to Ho Polytechnic and BarCamp Ho started.

Ho to Aflao...


After BarCamp met some old friends who wanted me to spend my night at their place. It was a clash.. Those in Ho Polytechnic and University of Health and Allied Sciences. I wasn't able to tweet in Ho at all since I tweet via SMS. Tigo Ghana's service in Ho and all over the Volta Region is very POOR. I was mad at Tigo.

Spent the night in Ho, Enjoyed free Wi-Fi and blah... blah.. blah.. :-D

Now is Sunday and time to leave home (Aflao) Here the #trotro experience I never had started from.
Getting to Ho main lorry station at 6 PM, I decided to enter the first car available going to Aflao. Things didn't work normally like how you enter a trotro. Trotro always set off before you start paying to the mate. We paid before we set off. Some women were complaining.

After paying already, this driver without a mate took us to a filling station to fill his fuel tank. Instead of him doing that earlier.

Then something happened the guy at the Filling Station was seriously talking on the mobile phone, so with less attention on business the fuel poured on to the ground. The driver want him to give out GHS 2.00 for the fuel on the ground. He disagreed and was saying : "It was the fuel tank of the vehicle that was leaking."

 This went on for some minutes, I was only thinking of getting home as early as possible.
Off we go. One the way I learnt something new from the women after three or four policemen signaled the driver to stop.
We were in the vehicle for about 30 minutes drive out of Ho township, then OOH! The car just started slowing down in a manner that you will know something is definitely wrong.
Then Driver: We can't move on, there is something wrong with the engine belt. I was like hey! Then we all started complaining. One of the women said: "It was because the car was not in good form, that was why they were doing things secretly at the station."

Luckily for us it was just a few metres away a Police Barrier and houses were around. I felt very sad for a woman who was actually concerned about how her children are doing back home at that moment.

We were there for about 30 minutes, it was even going to rain and we were all saying if it get serious will just enter the vehicle. The driver talk to one of the drivers back at the station. Soon a vehicle arrived.
We got inside quickly as it started raining and got home safely.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Python African Tour (PAT) Ghana 2013 at iSpace

Python African Tour (PAT) Ghana was a very interesting and mind-opening three days FREE event all about introduction to Python and Django. PAT Ghana 2013 took place at iSpace Foundation, from 22nd - 24th August, 2013.

I am glad I made it to PAT Ghana 2013 all the way from Aflao, in the Volta Region of Ghana. Reaching iSpace was like Wow!

Day 1 - We were introduced to the basics of Python. Building quadratic equation solvers running in the terminal (command line) and others  by Edward Pie (@hackstopie)

Day 2 - More on Python by Kweku Danso.

Day 3 - Introduction to the Django Web Framework by Kweku Danso.

SOME TWEETS FROM PAT GHANA 2013








There were other Python enthusiasts around, Emmanuel Okeyere (Chief), Gameli Adzaho, Courage Mabrey, Nehemiah Attigah, Fifi Baidoo and others.

Group image after final day of PAT Ghana 2013. Source: iSpace Foundation
It was a great event, meeting both new and old folks. Thanks to Felix and Elorm I was able to know some attractive places in Osu, it was great. Not forgetting Samuel, Nana Kwame, Nathan @ iSpace, oh and the list continues.

Here is a post about PAT Ghana by iSpace Foundation Making Love To Python at iSpace

If you were at PAT Ghana 2013, kindly give feedback to the organizers, for better events in the future by filling the feedback form here

If you are interested in Python stay connected to Python Ghana via these social media sites for latest updates.
More #VIM
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Monday, 24 June 2013

Javard 2013 students after their BECE

source Wikipedia
The Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) organised by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) in Ghana is the only legal external exam that guarantees your access to Senior High Schools education in Ghana, this year's BECE started on Monday 17th June to Monday 24th June.

I was privileged to have taught some of these students from Javard International School (my Alma mater) at Denu-Amedenuta in the Ketu South Municipal District of the Volta Region.

When the examination started I was not able to visit the center during the the first week because academic works were still in progress, therefore the proprietor Mr. Joseph Amuzu insisted subject teachers and the Headmaster Mr. Newlove Kpogo are the only people allowed to go on the respective days of their subjects.

Since I teach ICT and it is on Monday 24th June which is also the final day, I was just waiting patiently to seeing it. Which will even make this blog post richer in terms of pictures and how the students will react after their final paper on that day.
So I decided to write the above of this blog post earlier before Monday. And wait some pictures to make it look good as you can see the students reaction below. :)

SOME STUDENTS IN PICTURES

Rita, Cynthia, Fati, Perpetual and Rejoice (behind)
Clement, Peace, Selasi, Obedience and Jilchrist (behind)
Bertha and Peace hugging 
Lily, Cynthia, Leticia and Emilia
Thelma, Rita, Fati, Mr. Bukari,  Perpetual and Maxwell (behind)
Obedience and Gift (Nigerians)
Mr. Bukari and Clement
Dairy, Seth and Joseph
Gifty


Martina with a smile there :)
Jilchrist and Obedience
Precious with all his things leaving school campus
Believe with her table and chair going home
Lily, Cynthia and Emilia.
Myself and Lily

It was nice meeting all these boys and girls, will miss them a lot especially those who like disturbing me because of my 'smallish' nature :). Oh! where is Abigail? :(

I wished them all flying colors in all their papers and advised them to take their time of stay in the house to learn about how to use to computer effectively especially the girls.

Also told them to contact me when they need any help in terms of knowing anything about the computer.

Wishing them all the BEST once again. More VIM!!!!
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Saturday, 1 June 2013

Day 1 Experience with Linux (Ubuntu)


Less than a month ago, I received an Ubuntu DVD sent by John Abbot from USA to me after my quest for Linux.
I was very happy when I received this DVD, all on my mind then was to eliminat the Windows 7   installed.

On getting home around 8 pm I quickly settled down and started the installation.
I didn't bother to read further any longer, because my quest for Ubuntu was very high to the extend that all on my mind was seeing UBUNTU work for me.

Suddenly something terrible happened. Do you want to know?
OK, here is how it happened.
During the installation, there came a stage where I have to choose what to install. I decided to replace Windows 7 with Ubuntu 13.04 hence I went for the second option.
Not knowing Ubuntu will not leave my previous partitions on Windows 7.

After the installation have been completed I started looking for my files. Then I realized that the capacity of my hard disk have increased. Immediately, I knew all was not well but I said to myself
"All is well, All is well" 
as I always see from my favorite Indian movie (3 Idiots) yet all wasn't well.



Indeed I've lost numerous files, but immediately all came back to normal when I realize I had a little back-up. I quickly searched for it. Luckily I got some of the valuable ones. And I also remembered I have some of the confidential ones in my Google Drive.

Then “More VIM” and “Think Ghana Is Friday #TGIF” mode was activated since it was Friday.

I quickly open the Ubuntu Terminal (Command Line Interface (CLI)) and started inputting the commands I've learned.

Hey, do you know what my first command in the Terminal was? Yeah! Thinks you got it right ls,



Secondly I used the cd (Change Directory) command to change my current/working directory to Desktop.
Quickly I remembered the cat command, which I used it to create a text file, now representing the text portion of this blog post.

And this was the first funny command I typed into the terminal:

apt-get moo
I still didn't believe all those files were gone, so I went through all the folders one by one, and finally understood all was gone, and I said All is well once again.

I had a lot of fun with other commands in the Terminal, I also made my mind to use the Terminal for everything when I lay my hands on one. 

Even though I've lost a great number of data am still very glad for getting started with Linux.


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Friday, 24 May 2013

My Quest For Linux (Ubuntu)

Some few weeks ago my interest and love for Linux have increased so much. I made all attempts to get a copy from anyone who uses the same thing here in my community but none of the people I asked have heard of it before. 
But I really want to make that "BIG" switch for now.
Source: guru99.com

So I decided to research about one the Linux distro (Ubuntu) where I came across a lot of useful infos.
I even saw that Ubuntu CD's were once distributed ( Then I remembered I've seen one of the distributed CD's some years back with someone) . 

I found out that to get Ubuntu is either I download it OR buy the DVD 
(NB: The operating system is not for sale, it's free, you are only paying for the DVD and shipment not the software). Downloading it here will be quite something for me now.

I quickly came across a message in a forum which was posted some years back. So I decided to contact one of its members. Which he responded to.

I also posted my message in one of LinkedIn's Linux users group. This message attracted a lot of comments.
I even received private messages from people willing to send me the DVD's and others for free. Which have been sent and are yet to reach me.

I started reading and practicing some commands and other things about Linux online until I received the first DVD sent by John from USA recently. 


My Day 1 Experience with Linux (Ubuntu) coming soon now here. 

Checkout my Desktop

Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Friday, 3 May 2013

BarCamp Kasoa 2013

Source: Barcamp Kasoa Facebook page
I was at BarCamp Kasoa 2013 on Saturday 27th April, 2013 at the ICGC Transformation Temple in Kasoa. Although that was my first time of going to Kasoa I got a very simple direction from Elorm Billy-Awittor. I experienced some jerky traffic jam on the way. I thought it was going to be serious as people used to say about the Kasoa road. I spend about some few minutes in the traffic jam. Finally alighted at the last stop since I took a trotro. Looked for the traffic light to my right, took a taxi and told the driver immediately that I will be alighting at the MTN office as directed. Within 10 minutes I found my way to ICGC Transformation Temple. The theme for BarCamp Kasoa 2013 was "Making an enterprising environment for an emerging market".

All started as it used to be at BarCamps I've attended previously,  I had two speed mentoring sessions, first  with Emmanuel Okeyere of Hatua Solutions and Hutspace, where I learnt more about some programming languages and the way they are growing in the global village.
 then with Dr. Naa Mills, Medical Superintendent of Kasoa Polyclinic, where I learnt more about the risks associated with skipping breakfast. If you are used to skipping breakfast like I've been doing you better stop because it's so dangerous. I also learnt about self discipline, this is relating things we do. We all know that we have to do some physical exercise but we lack the discipline to wake up at dawn and have some jogging.

After the speed mentoring comes the panel of discussion involving Mr. Jerry Smith, Mrs. Heleen Hagan,  Dr. Naa Asunkwa Mills (Medical Superintendent of Kasoa Polyclinic,)  and Adams Nuhu (MCE, Kasoa Awutu Senya East Municipal). A lot was said about the development and way forward for Kasoa.

It was time for lunch and had some "waakye", while lunch was in progress there was a presentation from Daniel Arthur-Baidoo about how he turned what is commonly known in Ghana as "pure water"  sachets into a centre table and the image of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. You can visit his blog for more about his works.

Picture by  Komla the Ɔdadeɛ

Picture by Philip Adzanoukpe
Breakout sessions: there were five breakout sessions at Barcamp Kasoa 2013,

But I only joined one which which was led by Sandister Tei and Myself.


Which was about getting Ghanaian contents on Wikipedia, the Kasoa article on Wikipedia was also edited during the session. We had two elderly persons from the community whose presence counted in editing the article. Some other members of this session were Walter E. ADAMAH, Ato Ulzen-Appiah and  Barima Kwadwo Berchie Achamfour.
You can visit Planning Wikimedia Ghana's Meta page, like on Facebook and follow on Twitter. Let's help provide more Ghanaian contents on Wikipedia.

BarCamp Kasoa 2013 got interesting when Lawrencia introduced a game.

The rules of the game were, to survive you must have three different candies, while everyone was given two candies of the same type but in all there were three different brands of candies.  I gave out mine since everyone can't survive. If you were there how will you survive?

BarCamp Kasoa ended with the Ghana National Anthem. You can read more about BarCamp Kasoa by searching for #BCKasoa on Twitter

Had much fun on my way back with Walter E. ADAMAH and Sandister Tei.
Posted by at 4 comments:
Labels: , ,

Thursday, 4 April 2013

Nature of Aflao's Road


Today I have decided to take a stroll along the Aflao road. This road stretches from Denu junction to the main border between Ghana and Togo. This is the main road that links Ghana to the capital city of Togo,Lomé.
This road has been left in a very bad condition for the previous years resulting in serious air pollution in the community due to it's dusty nature.

Aflao road
The images above and below shows the nature of the bigger portion of the road leading to the Aflao border.  
Aflao road

This road should have been constructed long time ago, but due to the uncertainty of the people of Aflao to whether a dual carriage or single lane should be constructed. This uncertainty has led to a lot of problems which I will be posting in a blog post soon. 

Currently, the road is in construction but haven't reached anywhere yet. 

Aflao road
 Work on some parts of the road.
Aflao road  

 Aflao road

Posted by at 12 comments:
Labels: , , ,

Monday, 25 March 2013

#BlogCamp13....Experience



#BlogCamp13 took place at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in ICT The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence on 23rd March, 2013 from 9am to 6pm. This was my first time of attending BlogCamp since it started in 2012. #BlogCamp13 was organised by BloggingGhana under the theme “Content is King” 

The Journey


Since I stay at Aflao in the Volta Region I woke up as early as 3 am on 23rd March, 2013 so that I can be able to reach Accra as early as possible. I went out and at exactly 3:35 I got into a vehicle. God willing I arrived at Accra few minutes to 7 am.  
Since I've never been to Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in ICT The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence  before, I alighted at 37 and walked to station and took a trotro bus after telling the driver I was going to Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in ICT The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence he concluded immediately that its located somewhere at Teshie or something like that. So I joined the bus happily thinking I will be the first to arrive there. Not knowing I was going to a wrong destination. After getting out of the trotro bus I walked straight towards the entrance hoping am going to see a sign of #BlogCamp13. On reaching the entrance I asked the security personnel whether something of that kind (Blog Camp) was taking place here.After setting my eyes on this inscriptions on the wall " Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC)"   I concluded to myself. I then asked the security to give me the right direction. He also told me where I was going is located close to the new old parliament house. On reaching the old parliament house which is currently used as the office of CHRAJ Ghana. I entered and asked of where I was going, the men I met were also telling me to go to where I was previously, on hearing "Kofi Annan". May be that was the only place most people knew to be called by the name of the former UN Secretary General. Am I getting lost? I asked myself. I quickly called a friend I met on twitter whom I've never seen before @Vilejah. He also gave me a direction which I was not satisfied with. But thanks to him. Well, I called another friend Eldad Nutakor ,who then gave me the right direction. Finally I've arrived at #BlogCamp very early late I thought myself. All the same the program have not started yet. Immediately I went and registered, took the program line-up, went for my tag and bought a #BlogCamp13 T-Shirt.

In the Conference Room

 

 

All started well in the conference room with a welcome address from Kajsa Hallberg Adu. Some other things about how Blogging Ghana started. It was good when three free Wi-fi connections were available which everyone was using but my laptop was finding it very difficult to connect to neither of them. So I have decided to use the rest of data I purchased from Vodafone with my USB modem. There was a presentation on Social Media and the law by Nana Yaw Asiedu . Also Ghana's first Internet Freedom Fellow 2013 Mac-JordaN gave a presentation on how things went  on in Geneva.
#233moments was also introduced by Edward Tagoe . Meaning tweets should be sent out by everyone present with the hash tag #233moments at 2:33 pm simply meaning Ghana (+233) moments.
We also witnessed behind the scenes of the Ghana Decides project which covered Ghana's 2012 Elections via Social Media.

Lunch

As I've learnt from my Senior High School friends "Chodda be man" meaning food is man. It was time for launch when we had a tasty meal with some fruit juice.

Break-Out Sessions

There were break-out sessions on:
  1. Blogging and Social Media 101
  2. Tips and Tricks for bloggers
  3. Social Media for Organisations
I joined the Blogging and Social Media 101 session which was headed by Nana Yaw Sarpong and a Nigerian whose name I've forgotten about in the conference room. This session introduced newbies and people with a little blogging experience to what a blog actually meanand how get the best out of it . A lot was learnt from this session.

Still in the conference room another session began that was Photography headed by Nana Kofi Acquah. This session really opened my mind to what photography is. Photography should really be fun as Nana Kofi Acquah said. 

Back to the Conference room


All break-out sessions were over and everyone have moved back to the conference room for the final part of the day. Something interesting happened here. It came to point that we were all asked to type and tweet some words that will be projected. The conditions for this competition was the first three people  to correctly tweet the sentence will qualify for the final to win a brand new BlackBerry Curve mobile phone from TigoGhana. Come and see fingers at work. The first three people to correctly tweet this were Frank Bruce, Roxanne L. Scott and myself (Enock Seth Nyamador). I was very hot when the final sentence to tweet was projected, in fact I was running out of data so I was praying hard that I tweet this before it gets finished. At the end of every competition there is only one champion and that should have been Roxanne L. Scott but she made a typo mistake, that was "@tigoGhna" instead of "@TigoGhana" so the brand new BlackBerry Curve went to Frank Bruce.

There was a poem from Nana Asaase which I really enjoyed. I will be glad to listen it once more as I write now.
There was also an art and rhyming from "Sony" involving the Ghanaian song "ABC for love, 123 for the story......" and a guy. The guy drawing drew a man and woman upside down. Everyone got to know what he was drawing when the drawing board was turned the other way round.

Social Media Awards

Here comes the time most people were waiting for, the social media wards.
The US Embassador to Ghana gave remarks about the event and also made know to everyone the winner of the Best Blog Award at the end of his remark. Here are the various winners:

Best Blog adventuresfrom
Best Business & Commerce Blog estockanalysisblog
Best Original Content poetrysoundbites
Best Technology Blog techy-africa
Best Photo Blog africaphotographer
Best Creative, Literary Short Stories, Poetry Blog ganyobinaa
Best Showbiz and Entertainment Blog ameyawdebrah
Best Citizen Journalism Blog circumspecte
Best Lifestyle Blog ganyobinaa
Best Organizational Blog accradotalttours
Personality with Best Social Media Presence
Mutombo Percy the Poet @MutomboDaPoet
Best Activist Blog adventuresfrom
Organisation with Best Social Media Presence Vodafone Ghana
Honorary Award for Exemplary Social Media Activism Ghana Decides Project


Sponsors

#BlogCamp13 was sponsored by @TigoGhana, Nandimobile, Intel, Samsung, Africa.com, Born Again, Voltic, Joy FM, Citi FM, The BE BOLD show, Ghanyobi.com, dust, TV Africa, US Embassy Ghana, Hatua Solutions and Nii Odzenma.

 

Enock and Eldad
Eldad(right) and Enock(myself)

 

#BlogCamp13 was a great experience I had. Especially meeting new people that I only know on twitter and others. 
If you missed #BlogCamp13 just wait for #BlogCamp14.

Posted by at 8 comments:
Labels: , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)