CHRISTMAS DAY IN TEMA

Times during supper at Bishop Herman College, when the dinning hall announcer would scream, “Tema boys, you are meeting after preps”, was almost always greeted with deafening cheer amid banging of tables, clinching of cutlery and foot-stomping,and that made me think to myself.

Tema should be such a special place, especially since there was not a day; (not one) I heard Ashongman boys were meeting after preps, I reasoned aloud.

My thoughts and curiosity were further heightened, as the Tema boys in my class and dormitory were always bragging about one thing or another in Tema.The guys carried some air of importance and extravagance around them, which made me believe for a moment, that Tema was indeed an A-class residential community.

Having also heard and read about the harbor city in the past, as the eleventh most populous settlement in Ghana, with a population of approximately 161,612 people in 2013, according to a Wikipedia source, (used because this piece is not an academic work), I knew it was absolutely not going to be like Ashongman village where I have lived for fifteen years.

I knew the terrible untarred roads ridden with potholes in my neighborhood was not going to be the case in Tema, at least that was my thought.

Yes, they made all the noise; they claimed all the big stars lived there, and all the big parties happened there.

Now that was teasing! An opportunity to visit this city was not far from a wish.

I would not wait too long to have it; our sister church at Community 11 (Bible Believers Fellowship) would hold annual conventions and camp meetings around the end of each year, which would attract members from all sister fellowships (mine-Word Bride Fellowship, Adina) from inside and outside the country.

...So the Christmas Eve (terrible) episode passed, and an opportunity to hope for
better days presented itself. The previous year's outing after evening
service that Christmas day in 2013 was
interesting- Jocelyn, Emmanuella, Dorcas, Ebenezer and Sylvester
all agreed it was.The food, the music, the khebab and the late night gari soaking
on Temasco campus were particularly memorable.

The squad. 

This year, Jocelyn and her sister Emmanuella did not camp with
us. They came for morning services, only Jocelyn was open about
how disgusted she was at the decision her father made; not to camp for
obvious reasons.

She was clearly gonna miss all the fun, and the pain too.

She constantly kept whatsapping me to know what's on and what's not on Christmas Eve.

…After morning service on Christmas day, we (Joshua, his younger
brother Philip, Gabriel -who would camp with us starting that day, and
myself) trekked to the community eight market, to purchase a few
things; food, water, drinks and a FOOTBALL, yes, Football.

Joshua, Gabriel, Moi and Philip 

We walked past the Vienna City pub inside tema, and few meters
ahead, guess who we saw.

The rap shark himself, )bedi-Sarkordie.

Clad in a grey armless tee (designer) and a sark-branded snapback, with
heavy chains and a dark shade, he stood beside one of two plush
cars, dancing to one his tunes, which was blasting out of the speakers.

His other mate, himself wearing a neatly shaped broad beard, a black top, almost bald-but not Sammy Forson his manager (lol) was equally in party mode.

I guess they were prepping themselves for a 25th night special.

Then I quickly remembered all the guys back in college used to brag about - the stars. I had just seen one of Ghana’s biggest rap kings in Tema. (sorry! I am not a celebrity ‘gbee’, like a female friend I know (Gerry), hence was not enthused about rushing for a selfie - no!)

I can imagine if Gerry had seen Sarkodie that day, her followers on social media will be the ones to suffer the noise she’d have made about it.

Make no mistake; I absolutely, absolutely love Sark, yh, but I am not a die – hard.

OK, so the stars live here, I have seen one, what else, I mused.

The picturesque impression of the Tema city I had before coming here was momentous. But once we went past the express road and entered Tema, it was almost like I had lost interest. Perhaps my expectations of the harbor city were more imaginary than real.

I said to myself that minute, “The guys have over-hyped this city”. I just could not tell the difference between Tema, and parts of Accra; maybe just the communities, as they call them.

I was however hopeful, events and a further exploration of the city would prove the guys in college right.

Away from the celebrity guys, we made for the community 8 market where we purchased snacks, bread and a football. We only needed something to keep us
active during the afternoon periods at the hostel.

At the hostel, one would have thought that, with the kind of ordeal we endured on Christmas Eve, and having had only fifteen minutes of sleep, we would catch some much - needed rest. We certainly had other ideas.

For thirty largely interrupted minutes, we played a four-a-side game of football, in front of the hostel - we would have called it, “iron park”, had it been in my area, after which we took our bath and rested for only a few minutes.

Evening service was at six. We got ready and made for the church premises hoping for a power-filled service – and so we had it, power-packed and spirit-filled one - unforgettable.

The song ministration, the worship and praises session and the sermon from the pulpit made it particularly memorable.

The young guys danced and danced till you could see their clothes drenched in sweat; as if they had fallen into a pool. I enjoyed it, and I am sure the guys did too.

Let our expedition into the Tema Township in search for food, begin!

Every spot, pub, bar, club and food joint we went past, was buzzing with activities. An opportunity for operators to cash in and make a few cedis this season, no?

Boys and girls ran all over the place, fired crackers, young men and their boos had fun on the dance floor, couples and their children ate together at a table, and extremely loud music blasted  out of the speakers – these were activities that greeted us.

We looked alien, for we still had our church clothes on, but who would care? We were observer - partakers.lol

One exciting feature about activities at this community (7) was those of the food joints. While we were at it, looking for what we thought would be the best food for the night, I got fascinated.

Fascinated, first, at the numbers of food joints there were in every 50 meters of space and then those who ‘manned’ them.

All but two, of the about twelve joints, were manned by young guys. I had barely seen young men so interested and involved in fast food and restaurant business until then.

From ‘my chef fast food’, through to the salad joint to the left of the taxi park, to the jollof chef across the street, adjacent the fuel station, you could not but be fascinated and intrigued by what looked a spectacle that night.

There, my memory immediately turned to flashback mode. Back in Accra, at least in parts that I have lived and continue to live, I rarely saw young men doing this.

The irony was this; ladies had queued too for the food sold by these guys – when traditionally and conventionally it was to be the other way. But who said the cooking business was reserved for only women? This time, the men had taken it over, over so much that out of every four joints you would find, two are operated by men. The shift in paradigm was interesting.

I was curious to know why the numbers. Jason, one of the guys operating the joint, about fifty meters off the taxi stop, told me he had a job he did during the day, and joins his colleagues later for the evenings session .How smart! He has a paying job on the side, and does the fast food thing on a part-time basis. It made a lot of sense to me. I felt inspired and motivated.

The queues at these joints told me one thing; perhaps these guys are good at the whole cooking business, which was once a female-oriented activity. On face value, I thought to myself; this must be quite lucrative, and I was not far from right.

If there is one thing I learnt from that night’s outing, it has to be the initiative taken by the young guys to do the unusual. Maybe it is common in Tema to see men operating food joints, but for a visitor like me, it is novel and truly inspiring.

If you are not as good a chef like me, then you may not want to try this, before you get everybody running to the hospital.haha!

Now it was time to have our food. That day, we had jollof, but from a female-operated joint, with the plan to try those of the male chefs the day after.

An important lesson was learnt, the other guys I was walking with did not really mind, all they knew was the food and the food to satisfy their hunger.

We trekked to the hostel to meet the gate under lock and key. It was just half past twelve midnight, and the overseer had stepped out. He only returned after twenty minutes to open up the place, with a stern visage – like to say, where the hell are you guys coming from at this late hour?

After all, it was Christmas day, and he will not begrudge us for returning from town late – for the day before, we returned after 04:00 am.

A last-minute gari soaking as aftermeal was not out of place, before we retired to bed.

That was “Christmas”.

 Pictures of the squad here .Second picture has Joshua (extreme left 8f the first photo), Gabriel (next to Joshua ), Philip (in the black jacket), Moses (to Philip's right in the second picture),

First picture has Joycelin (with styled rasta like tower on the head..lol), Dorcas (dress with purple patch), Emmanuella ( standing behind Moses), and Selasie (obviously in lemon green patch ).