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.
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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
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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!!!!
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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.


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