Comments on: Ghana memories – an introduction https://thesupercargo.com/ghana-memories-an-introduction/ Words, Images, Speech Thu, 11 Dec 2025 05:57:02 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.1 By: John https://thesupercargo.com/ghana-memories-an-introduction/#comment-38040 Thu, 11 Dec 2025 05:57:02 +0000 https://thesupercargo.com/?p=11597#comment-38040 In reply to Helen Baumer.

Dear Helen,
Thanks so much for your comment. How wonderful to read it!
Since you were a child in Ghana for so much longer than me, the memories you have will be that much more, but I am happy if my little essays here have brought some of it back for you.
The return trip in 2018 was indeed fascinating, for so many reasons. I discovered, for instance, that fresh Ghanaian pineapple tastes completely different from shop-bought pineapple here in Europe (even if it claims to come from Ghana), and it is redolent with memory.
While there were things that I remembered, there were so many things that were completely different. So much has changed in 50-odd years. Some things for the better, some things for the worse, but mostly there were just so many things I saw differently, experienced differently, either because they are truely new, or because I was seeing them with an adult’s eyes.
Ghana is a different place now. I would love to return and explore more. Maybe one day.
Achimota is a name I recognise, though I can’t put any memories to it, but I don’t recognise the Teshie Pool I’m afraid.
I’ve lived in Sweden now longer than I ever lived in England and think of myself as, if not exactly Swedish, then certainly Swede-ish. It is indeed a lovely place.
Thanks again for the comment.
With my best wishes,
John

]]> By: Helen Baumer https://thesupercargo.com/ghana-memories-an-introduction/#comment-37161 Fri, 28 Nov 2025 09:15:09 +0000 https://thesupercargo.com/?p=11597#comment-37161 Dear John, I chanced upon your blogs about living in Ghana as a child and your trip back there in 2018. What a find! What a delight for me! Why? Because I lived in Accra as a child from 1955 to 1964 (when I was ten) and look back on my time there as maybe the happiest of my life. What’s more: I nearly went back for a trip in early 2019 but unfortunately had to abandon the project for health reasons. So it was wonderful to read your memories.
Our family lived in Cantonments in a traditional colonial bachelor bungalow on stilts (all of which seem to have disappeared in the meantime). I and my two brothers went to school, first, at the Ridge Church School and then to the Services Primary School in Burma Camp, Accra. Like your father, my father was also an engineer, in his case in the field of telecommunications. He was the Principal of the Telecommunications Engineering School in Achimota (where the zoo is!), which seems to have been swallowed up by one of the university institutions in the meantime. We returned to London when a Ghanaian candidate was found to take over the position.
As a child, I did not spend time in Tema, but we made several trips to Akosombo to see the dam under construction. We also went to the Aburi Gardens. A most favourite spot (which you may or may not have known) was Teshie Pool. The pool has since been abandoned but I can just make out the outline of the unused pool on Google Earth.
In one of your blogs I read that you live in Sweden. I’m sure it is a lovely place to be. I have been living in Switzerland very happily since 1978, apart from ten years in New Zealand where I have family.
Wishing you all the best, Helen

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