Ketchup and Magazines

During class on Thursday a student came in to say that the Class Prefect was to go to the office of one of the Assistant Headmistresses. He, and several other students, returned bearing school magazines and about 100 individual packets of Heinz Ketchup wrapped in groups of ten in plastic baggies. I was reading "Holes" to the class, so when we finished the chapter we were working on, I asked about the ketchup. It was to be distributed to the students. It expires next month (this the Class Prefect informed his classmates after examining them). I have no idea where it came from, why it was distributed in class rather than the dining hall (not just the issue of appropriate place for ketchup, but why interrupt my class time to distribute KETCHUP?!), and what the students were to do with it.

I was recently talking to a woman who has children in a private school elsewhere in Ghana who told me about a representative from a local beverage company who visited her daughter's class to distribute drink boxes (i.e. not fruit juice, but water and sugar) that this sales rep told the students cures malaria and other diseases! Not surprisingly, the daughter returned home asking her mother to buy this product, and cited its (fictional) curative powers. Maybe the ketchup is Heinz's way of imprinting that product onto the minds of young Ghanaians, or maybe I am being influenced by the other situation. However the ketchup distribution came to be, it remains a mystery to me.

The other item distributed was the school's magazine "The Achimotan." It features photos and summaries of the houses (dorms) on campus, pictures of all the Prefects (most are gone as they were Form 3s), and photos from Founder's Day (I will be posting my own photos soon). I was interviewed for the magazine, I guess for the June 2010 edition, since the results of the interview did not appear in this edition. Hopefully someone will send me a copy.

Since I am on the subject of food again, I thought I would provide some more interesting finds.

This is pronounced "sheeto" and is served with numerous foods here, including rice, as well as the samosas and spring rolls on campus. I photographed this in Shoprite, a South African grocery store outlet at the mall. Yesterday, I also saw and photographed a container of pistachios for 35 Ghana cedis (about $30). It was maybe 2 pounds of pistachios. Ground nuts (peanuts) are the nut of choice here, and much more affordable.

For those who live near me: Maryland cookies! I like these (chocolate chip with hazelnut) over the chocolate with chocolate chip ones.

Very descriptive and persuasive naming. These were purchased at Game also at the mall, Game is the local equivalent of Target.

Also found at Shoprite, and I have seen them being hawked on the roadside; I could not resist taking this picture. In case you cannot tell, it is a box of tissues, I do not believe them to be made from hemp.