The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

Chillaxing stands for chilling and relaxing. It's like relaxing but doing something fun. Yesterday, I joined the Rancard team on a corporate outing to visit the Holy Trinity Spa in Sogakope in the Volta region. It's about a 2 hour drive from Accra. Loved being there . Before we get into the tweets, let's learn about the 10 pillars of health. Regular and appropriate physical exercise Scientific relaxation and restful sleep Healthy diet Detoxification (including fasting) Management of sress and stress disorders Supplements Positive attitudes Christian disciplieship Health through water (SPA) Medical, surgical & dental treatments Now to the tweets :-) Yes, cos I was blogging while there. Holy Trinity Spa things. Today's work day is going to be a lot of fun. #ilovemyjob #teamrancard #rancard — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) October 14, 2013 If I had taken the day off, I would have had a 5 day weekend with the Eid-Ul Adha holiday being today. Can...

I love massages . I love giving them and receiving them. When I used to play football aka soccer regularly at Stanford, I'd feel really tired and in some good amount of pain. I'd long for a massage but normally, I wouldn't get it. I should get massages more often like I got today in Ghana. 2:33pm in #Accra . Getting a free massage courtesy a blog post I wrote promoting my neighbourhood salon. http://t.co/J790ZYl1OJ #233moments — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) July 14, 2013 I believe the very first massage I got was delivered by my first girlfriend. Maybe this is a false but if there were any before that one in the summer of 2007 in Baltimore, they were not that memorable. That was the day I learnt about the art of drumming while giving massages. It was sweet roff . I took some tips from Phelele and administered them back. From then till I left the US in 2011, I gave and received massages, and sharpened and ironed my skills lol. When I was in Addis Ababa for the f...

Since I had to turn my off phone during today's What Do You Know quiz or have it in airplane mode because I am so fly, I couldn't tweet or post updates. Trust my tweeps to do so though. So here's their collective account :-) RT @Abocco : Blood donation what do you know quiz compt'n live on GTV yet to start. Prod giving tips. #wbdd #giveblood cc @nbsghana #ghhealth — Ghana Health Nest (@ghHealth) June 16, 2013 The producer of the show Alfred Hughes gave many tips to the audience on audible clapping, etc. I had thought the quiz would start at 1, we started at 1:30. So whichever minutes of watching the Black Stars take on and beat Lesotho's national football team in a World Cup qualifier were gone. So what do u know is on with @Abocco on GTV. He will be repping @BloggingGhana on World Blood Donor Day festivities — ragyare (@ragyare) June 16, 2013 I repped Blogging Ghana - the association of Ghana bloggers in this quiz. I showed up at the quiz venue...

Earlier this month, I was nominated by my buddy +Edward Amartey-Tagoe  to represent Blogging Ghana in a special What Do You Know Quiz to celebrate World Blood Donor Day . I donated blood for the first time in my life but biology has always been my least favorite subject since Presec , I don't follow current affairs even a 233rd of what I used to do in KNUST JSS and I knew very little about blood in general. I clutched at straws looking for what material to focus on in this quiz and looked for motivation via prizes available. In fact, it became too late for me to but I would have likely backed out. I had won 2 What Do You Know quizzes while in Presec but this was different. I stayed the course, but still didn't study anything until the wee hours of the night before for like 23.3 minutes. Today, I participated in the quiz and emerged victorious. #Winning! When I was in KNUST JSS , I represented the school at Kiddie Quiz where we lost in the semi-finals. I got my nickname...

Yesterday, we heard news that Bill Gates was coming to Ghana today. He had announced it on his blog:  The Gates Notes  and was oohing and aahin over how Ghana has handled immunization. The Bill Gates of Microsoft. No, the Bill Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Still one of the richest men in the solar system though. He tweeted ... In Ghana to learn more about the amazing progress this country has made: b-gat.es/ZPSI1b — Bill Gates (@BillGates) March 25, 2013 Bill Gates was coming in without much media fanfare, unlike his fellow American Chris Brown did just before Ghana's 56th birthday. Chris Brown's face was all over billboards, Bill Gates' name was reduced to a number of tweets. Chris Brown was in town to give hope to Hope City and make the evenings of many Ghanaian women. Bill Gates was in town to check on the progress of Ghana's health care system and remain anonymous. Because the best way to really assess how well something is running is...

Last Saturday, I donated blood to save 233 lives in #Ghana . #giveblood #savealife #233moments cc @ nbsghana twitter.com/Abocco/status/… — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) February 27, 2013 Last weekend, I donated blood for the first time. Well, my blood had been "pulled" before but for checking if I had malaria, etc. I had traveled to Lagos last week but I made sure I was back in Accra before Saturday so I could join the Blood Donation Drives happening. 2 events happened on 23rd February, both supported by Blogging Ghana. 1 happened at the Accra Mall (Clinic) run by the National Blood Service and another at Block A of the Pentagon Hostel at the University of Ghana run by the Rotaract Club of Adentan. STACC was also involved. I had a lot of work to do on Saturday. So sometime, after 2:33pm, I headed to the mall. 2:33pm in #Accra , #Ghana . Heading to the #AccraMall to donate blood. Hope it doesn't take long though. #GiveBlood & save lives. #233moments — Ato...

I first heard about Farida Bedwei when Edward Tagoe emailed our Barcamp team asking for her contacts and encouraging us to bring her to Barcamp Ghana 2010 at Ashesi. This is the news story he read . It was about the inspiring story of Farida Bedwei , overcoming the challenges of having cerebral palsy to become one of the top software engineers in Ghana and writing her own book ' Definition of a Miracle '. Cerebral palsy refers to a family of neurological disorders that appear in infancy or early childhood and permanently affect body movement, posture and muscle coordination. Speaking on Joy FM’s religious programme A Walk with Jesus , Farida said she has never allowed her disability to limit her ability. “All my life I’ve been told by my mom to remove the word ‘I can’t’ from my vocabulary and replace it with ‘I’ll try’ and so whatever I’ve done my entire life, I’ve tried and by the grace of God everything that I’ve tried, I’ve been successful at,” she said. Farida entered ...

This weekend, a friend of mine who I really respect, Ashifi Gogo, sent me an email saying " President Clinton recently commented on the challenges of counterfeiting in front of several world leaders in business and politics attending the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting ." Ashifi, the famous Kwabeef man, was being introduced by the former US president, Bill Clinton. Level! That was all I needed to see to do this blog entry. I am so proud of Ashifi, he's under 30 and he's doing big things. A revered odadee.org ! He is behind the website anyway :-) Ashifi Gogo has been working on a start-up Sproxil , which is a service that fights counterfeit drugs. For his work, he is winning awards and going into high places. He was also the featured speaker at BarCamp Diaspora . He was also a panelist at BarCamp Ghana 08 . I also blogged about his story earlier . Bill had this to say about Ashifi's work. "This is a genuinely remarkable accomplishment...(it's) e...

I was notified about the website for REACH-Ghana today and I must say I am impressed with how far this organization has come in the last 4 months following BarCamp Diaspora at JHU-SAIS in Washington, DC. A few young passionate Ghanaians with interest in the health sector came together after a healthcare breakout session during July's BarCamp Diaspora and started investigating how they could contribute to Ghana's health sector. Their enthusiasm has given birth to Representatives for Equal Access to Community Health-care (Ghana). I love the use of the Adinkra symbol in the REACH logo. After my previous experience with Kasahorow, Museke & GhanaThink, I am a big fan of incorporating Ghanaian symbols in every way. REACH's logo uses the Adinkra symbol "Boa Me Na Menboa Wo" (Help me to help you), which represents cooperation, interdependence and community. You can see the tenets of REACH's vision in this symbol and the name itself. The symbol embodies the organ...

I've known Ashifi Gogo for a long time. He was two years my senior in middle school (KNUST JSS) and was one of the top students. I followed him to Presec and there too, he was making a name for himself. Every junior student needed a guide for academics or school father to protect from bullies, Gogo was one of those to me. (not the bully, silly!) After Presec, he went to Whitman where he balanced an excellent academic record with working on the online home for Odadees (old Presecans) - odadee.org . His work on this site ignited my passion to help my old school and reverse the pronouncement I made at the end of my three years there 'never to help Presec in any way'. Recently, Gogo has been busier with his start-up Sproxil (& Mpedigree ), which is a service that fights counterfeit drugs. For his work, he is winning awards and going into high places. This weekend, he'll be a featured speaker at BarCamp Diaspora . I am truly honoured to present Ashifi Gogo as one of the...

When a female soldier in a Ghanaian movie (Scorned) was shot in the line of duty and taken to hospital, she wasn't taken to Korle Bu. She was taken to Lister Hospital , a modern healthcare facility in Accra, not very far from the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange. Lister's website says the Lister Hospital and Fertility Centre is the most technologically advanced private hospital in West Africa. From the movie and the susequent scenes in and around the hospital, it looks modern, clean and high-class. Basically, the healthcare costs there will be high. I wonder if the National Health Insurance Scheme would suffice for costs there. In the era, where countless government personalities have to fly abroad to get excellent medical care, it's refreshing to know about institutions like Lister Hospital, however small they are. There should be more Listers and the public health system should catch up with the needed state investment. How many world-class hospitals are in Ghana? Last time, ...