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Cookie's Bliss Kumasi

African Music

Last night, Bob was the catalyst that transformed an ordinary concert into an extraordinary experience by jumping onto the dance floor early into Vieux Farka Toure’s Kumasi appearance at the Golden Tulip. This was the excuse the small group of Ghanaians and mostly French ex-patriots needed to jump from observers to participants. A conga line […]

Categories
Cookie's Bliss Kumasi

When in Ghana

I live in Ghana now I drink cocoa in the morning I wear a thick gold ring I sit on a wooden chair At a wooden table I eat plantain and turn little red tomatoes into sauce I wear a skirt and walk along dusty dirt roads riddled with ravines I step over plastic water […]

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Cookie's Bliss Observations

Out of the Ashes, Saturday Morning Bliss Moment #1

This morning I received my first bliss moment when Bob pointed out that investigations into the construction of the fated Ahimota Melcom were already being called for. He had come across an article exposing the building contractor as a “night builder” in which the President of the Ghana Institution of Architects, Osei Agyemang was demanding […]

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Cookie's Bliss

Music Class

I’m pulling weeds on a cool grey-skied morning after a night of big rain. The weeds offer no resistance. I hear the elementary school children singing half a block away. The neighbor is cooking something pungent and a little sour, probably a porridge made of fermented corn. I’m wondering if the children will sing something […]

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Cookie's Bliss

An Elusive Song

This is the story of a mystery solved through team work by a pair of left-brained bird watchers. A tale about a common looking bird with an extraordinary song.  And another example of our incessant search for truth. Bob and I first heard the haunting duet of Vieillot’s Barbet a.k.a. Lybius vieilloti from our new backyard […]