That Dream - Where it All Starts!!

On a fine Saturday, I decided to talk a stroll of which place I

was going to not known. I then  dressed up and called a friend and decided to just hit town. We met at a central location and decided to hit one of the Traditional Suburbs of the capital Accra, Ghana.

We enjoyed our outlined walks through  the township, meeting and talking to young people and children alike. Though our appearance drew a few attention, people around saw it as normal and went ahead in their normal duties and livelihood.

As we continued in our quest to explore the township, we took a turn and there we were in a suburb called Jamestown. Aside this area known for its good dancing skills, they were also blessed with a few national soccer stars.

Little did we know that, Jamestown was endowed with the talent of boxing. As we took a few steps, there we saw a large gathering of people. So we decided to approach and there we were, An improvised boxing ring created in a circle form by both passer bys and onlookers.

It was a boxing tournament for children. My reason for this is that, at that young and tender age a dream is born and children at say age two are given the very basic lessons and rudiments of the sport.

The child is taught how to jab, hit a knock out blow, upper-cut punch, block and how to move step which all forms part of the basic things one needs to be better developed in the sport of boxing. So I asked who organised this and how often, I was shown the organiser of whom was also a young man and he told me this is where it all begins. I asked him again, why such young kids, he told me these are children who are convinced to be world champions of the sport when they are grown.

He gave me example of names that had begun like this and later became world champions and household names of the sport. Names like Azumah Nelson, Ike Quartey, Alfred Kotey, Braimah Kamoko aka Bukom Banku and many more that had to do street boxing battles.

All he told me in summary was, this is where the dream all starts (In the GA language).



Photo Credit: Ghanyobi ( www.ghanyobi.com)

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How I Spent My New Years' Day

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And in a twinkle of an eye, 2013 was over and 2014 was ushered in.

It happened that at the transition period, I found myself in church. We had some friends from far and near who worshiped with us into the new year.

Church was done with and it was time to fratenise. Met some new people and reconnected with a few that I had not seen all year through, some of them were out of the country, some out of town due to job and many other circumstances. We shared some jokes and spoke words into each others lives wishing each and everyone the best of the new year.

It was time to get back home to catch some sleep before dawn broke. I reached Nungua at about 3:39 am and had a call from a very good friend asking me to show up immediately at his new year party. He did the same thing last year and it looks like that is his chosen date for any party of a sort from him. I so turned up and it was also a fun time to be remembered. Here i also met some new people and once again reconnected with some old friends. We had interacted on so many issues throughout the year, from social programs to politics, to religion, to marriage and many topics you can think about.

I decided to leave the venue to go back home at around 4:25 am. In as much as I was enjoying the convos with my folks , I was also in one way being entertained in a lengthy chat with a lady friend somewhere in Europe. We shared how the day went, what we all did on that day and what I was doing at the particular moment up and not sleeping. Well that kept me company till I reached home. I decided to catch some sleep as wanted and the next thing bam, I was drowned in my sleep.

Fast forward, some hours later I was up and decided to clean and fix my room a little. I swept, packed a few things up that were not lying in it right place, took out a few cabwebs, laid my bed with a new bed sheet, and dustered my closet. I was exhausted after that and took a short nap after. Later it was midday, so I grabbed some snack and guess what it was, Vita Milk Chocolate and fruit cake. After enjoying that, I went to the showers and sat down to have a plan on how to enjoy the day, either to go out or still stay indoors resting. So I made a few phone calls and some friends came around my house. Boom, the merrymaking had began, a caucus one too ofcourse. 

Some hours later, it was time to go watch the EPL game between the club I support, Tottenham Hotspurs and Manchester United. Instead of watching it at home, we agreed on going to a sports bar and pub to watch it so we can have our freedom to rant and make all the funny comments that comes with watching a football(soccer) game. We then made it to town and when we arrived, we were about 13  minutes late into the game. I was a bit relaxed and was seriously sitting on hooks just waiting for us to go ahead first. Because with our current run of performances, conceding first would have dumpened our spirits of a comeback into the game. Yeeesss!! Was my initial reaction when Adebayor nodded the ball at the back of the Man United net. In fact I was the only true true if I may say Spurs fan in the pub, the rest surely were United haters who just wanted them to loose.

So the game ended 2:1 in favour of my club Spurs and it was all smiles for me and the match day haters of Man United. We hanged around the pub for a little while and we decided to change locations. We visited an eatery joint had some meal and it was about time to call,it a day. On my way home I met a friend who I spoke to earlier at the crossover service. He had wished me a happy new year and was again wishing me for the second time in just one day. It was interesting for me because I had also encountered the same thing some hours back when a female friend also wished me twice on different occasions on the same day.

In all, it was a great day fun filled. I enjoyed every bit of it, I certainly left a few things since I don't want to take all of your time. This is my first blog post for 2014, so I am sure going to be here. Come around my blog often, because I will be updating it with interesting lifestyle post. I love to blog if I have the time.

Wish all my followers and regular visitors from all over the world to my blog the best of 2014. Wish you all have a good one and wish you well in all endeavors. May all your dreams and aspirations be manifested. Believe in yourself and keep pushing till you exhaust all possibilities. It shall be well folks.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! CHEEERRRRSSSS!!!

Take it As It Comes

Confederation of African Football

This blog post was intended to be uploaded during the AFCON competition for which some few reasons delayed it. I am still of the conviction that the motive and lesson then can still be used today as it looks like they still exist in our various national teams.

So enjoy the 'then' 'now' blog post. Nothing is never late when there is a lesson to be learnt i guess right?

Why were Ghanaians so peeved? Don't they think Burkina Faso also deserved to write their own history? Should it always be the so called big boys of Africa?

We were never a force to reckon with from game one. Meanwhile we were telling ourselves what's the need if we don't play well and win because win was all that mattered in a game.

And o Kwasi Appiah, so you boycotted the presser for no reason given because it didn't go your way. That's a shame and a big disgrace to the sport.

Salute to Didier Drogba, who after loosing to the Nigerians went as far as the dressing room to congratulate them and grant an interview to the press stating, who he thought would win the tourney for which he predicted Nigeria.

Information got was that for no reason given the Coach Kwasi Appiah, boycotted the presser. So what the coach of the Black Stars was trying to tell the whole world was that, he didn't know at that stage there had to be an obvious winner as well as looser for one to progress to the next stage of the competition?

Well to some of us, we've had the opinion that the team had always been favoured by the referees and we were not playing any meaningful soccer to deserve such gestures.

For him being a former player, I think he should have known better.

Ghana Football Association

"Well the Black Stars has the opportunity to claim a medal in the 3rd place play off between Mali who we beat in the group stage. Also we should take note of the fact that about a year ago, such a scenario occurred in the AFCON in Gabon where they beat us to the medal after beating them in the group stage of the competition." [From original draft post]. But we lost that spot once again.

Hearts no doubt were broken when Burkina Faso won the semi-final clash against Ghana and for me I am happy for the sport as we can also write the history books that Burkina Faso also played in the final of an AFCON the same way history was made when Cape Verde, Togo, Ethiopia who all made it through to the next stage of the competition.

I love football and especially the Nations cup -AFCON. Let the best team win always.