Ghana Day #52:
My Name is Abénaa, And I Am An Addict

 

I don’t have an addictive nature. Or, at least, I didn’t think I have an addictive nature.

 

Have tried (sensored*), (sensored*), (sensored*) and even (sensored*), no problem. (*In case my parents are reading this.)

 

But the sheer desperation with which I pursued a Nice Cup Of Tea, on my fourth day in Ghana ( See Day#4 ), has made me re-evaluate my perception of myself. And I have to admit it…

 

My name is Abéna Chenél Ferreira, and I am an addict. This is a list of my addictions:

 

 

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Surfing

 

The fact that this is on the list ahead of the Nice Cup Of Tea, should tell you exactly how severe this addiction is. And it is not just in my head. Literally.

 

“Your body’s amazing reaction to water.”

 

“Scholander had documented one of the most extreme transformations ever discovered in the human body, a change that occurred only in water. He called it the Master Switch of Life.”

 

 

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Nice Cup Of Tea

 

As I mentioned on Day#4, I come from a tea-drinking people. In my parents’ house, an hour does not pass without someone saying ’Hoe lyk dit met ’n koppie tee?’.

We drink tea when we are happy, when we are sad when we are thirsty when we are hungry, when we have nothing better to do. We drink tea all day.

Not being able to have a Nice Cup Of Tea for four days taught me a lot about myself.

 

It also taught Richard and (other) Richard a lot about, while they accompany me on (unsuccessful) kettle hunts and put up with my requests for midnight gas-bottle refills for the stove.

Not to mention the Jumia operator who had to explain to me why the overnight delivery of my kettle was going to take 20 days

 

I like tea. A lot.

 

 

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Ideal Milk

 

One can not have a Nice Cup Of Tea without Ghana’s Favourite Milk ( See Day#8 ).

 

 

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Nutella

 

I used to keep 7 jars in the cupboard. One to eat. And six in-case that one ran out.

 

Until somebody (let’s call him Karel), informed me that Nutella contains Palm Oil.

 

Now I can not have Nutella because of the poor farmers, the poor orangutan and the poor Sumatran tiger.

 

Which is creating problems for me:

 

In Ghana, 95% of dishes in Ghana contain meat or fish. And the remaining 5% (including my two friends, Jollof and Ideal Milk!!) contain Palm Oil.

 

Seeing as I am eating Palm Oil already… now would be a good time to send me some Nutella.

 

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Helvetica

 

The most perfect font ever created. If that makes me a Lazy Designer, so be it. Haters will hate, Chale man oh.

 

Haha. This is quite funny though: “I think Kayne West secretly designed Helvetica. “ — msampersand

 

In my very first design job, at DeKat magazine, my mentor/hero Anton Sassenberg once told me: “If you can not design in Helvetica, you can not design.”

 

I’m with Guru Sassenberg.

 

Which reminds me: Repairing the ‘Crease Where I Do Not Want A Crease’ has meant no more Helvetica on my surfboard! (See Day#47 ) This is an Akzidenz Grotesk! (Please tell me someone got that.)

 

 

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Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Ghana has not discovered the sheer glory that is ‘Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups’.

To quote my friend Cristal: “They were made in heaven. By Brad* Pitt. Naked.” (*River Runs Through It Brad, not Sad Brad.)

 

But, to make up for this shortfall, Ghana has Groundnut Paste.

 

It is almost Brad Pitt. Almost.