By Mawuli ZOGBENU
Finally, January has come to an end after one million days of endurance! Herh! What a month! I think if one wants to get married, the best time to start negotiating a bride price is in the notorious month of January. Some Families will accept any amount. No stress! I should have done that but I did mine in August when there was ‘bumper harvest’.
This Saturday I will be attending a funeral at Odorkor. The deceased was a very good friend of mine, a medical doctor and a man of God. We met on Wednesday November 13 to discuss normal things about life.
Then exactly a month after, i.e 14th December, 2024 he is gone…at age 37! Sad! Never defer meeting or calling your friends and relations – it may just be the last opportunity to meet the person. But for this funeral, I would not bath. Bathing on Saturdays is not easy especially if you have nowhere in mind to go.
The same principle applies to my style of fasting. Anytime I am broke, I convert it into fasting! Indeed, if you don’t use your head, your body would suffer! I cannot afford to lose two things at a time – the physical food and the spiritual food too.
I only got to know recently that when you are fasting don’t say because it is dry, you don’t have to take water. NO! It is wrong, a Methodist Superintendent Minister friend of mine, Very Rev. Samuel Glover! Indeed, he explained that many people have developed some health complications as a result of this ignorance.
Some were men of God. I nearly said ‘the Clergy’ but thankfully I don’t think it would be appropriate to place some of these other ‘ones’ in the revered category of the Clergy. The Clergy means serious business. ‘Men of God’ is honourable enough for some of the ‘road side mechanics’.
They should manage it like that! Very Rev. Glover advised that when fasting whether dry or wet, drink water because it cleanses the toxins from your body as well during the period you are fasting and opens up the intestines.
Dry fasting without water is dangerous, he advised. This was confirmed by my best friend, another ‘Samuel’, Dr. Samuel Amoah, Chief Executive Officer of HealthStar. He advised that dry fasting without water can be injurious to your health especially if for long periods exceeding 6 hours. Be advised o, Yevu. I don’t know what you want from God that you want to ‘kill’ yourself before you get it!
All my friends who are called Samuel are good guys, real gentlemen. Dr. Samuel Amoah, Very Rev. Samuel Glover, Samuel Eshun, Samuel Tindanbil, Samuel Obeng, and Chief Supt Dr. Samuel Sasu-Mensah of the Police MTTD are just great guys. I don’t have any Samuel friend who is bad.
If you are a ‘Samuel’ and you are bad, abeg, change your name to ‘Kindness’! I know one such guy called Kindness. Even the devil fears him. Name your children wisely. Sometimes what you mean may be the opposite.
For various spiritual purposes, we fast and pray. My first fasting experience was in 2002 when I was crazily looking for a job in a company that didn’t exist – a company that would pay me twenty million cedis (old Ghana cedis in 2002). Plentey money! What a dream!
It was after my national service. The average young corporate manager at the time was earning something in the region of two million cedis and five million cedis. Not only did the dreams tell me I would earn that huge amount of money o but also added that I would be given a car and a bonglo!
Ahaaan! How many of us knew that Nelson Mandela was a lawyer? I bet, you didn’t know this one. Meboa?
Okay, back to this profitless stuff. I wanted the job instantly so didn’t even consider a half day but full day 6am-6pm intensive fasting – dry! I was not used to it and still not and won’t try again. What kind of crime have I committed!
When I started, by 11am, I started ‘seeing diamonds’. At that point, I was tempted to eat something but ‘the devil is a liar!’, I consoled myself. I persisted without food and started feeling very light! Wey can matter koraa be this! ‘Ah well, maybe God is working’, I consoled myself again especially when it was 2.30pm without food and I started shivering. The clock became a close friend. When would it hit 6pm! I tried to pray but could hardly hear myself pray– no energy!
I stopped thinking! I went to get a ball of kenkey at 4pm in wait of 6pm to strike. The tendency to prematurely break the fast became apparent! “Eat, eat, eat”, the devil tried but I resisted.
I had to keep vigil over the kenkey when it was 5.40pm. Though close, 6pm looked farrrrrr awaayyyyy, like 10 years. Ei! Is this what they call FASTING?
It’s 10minutes to 6pm and I couldn’t wait to see 6pm strike. At that point I realized I was losing my sight. I was keeping very vigilant so I could pounce on my kenkey and soup as soon as 6pm struck.
While seconds inched closer to 6pm, I couldn’t anymore. I descended on the food and ate it virtually with both hands – in haste.
The following day, I was rushed to the hospital for stomach upset. What did I do wrong?, I soliloquized.
I narrated my ‘ordeal’ to the doctor who further annoyed me with the fact that I should continue fasting and that it was good. Me? Fasting again? Lailai!
But there was a miracle. I was called for a job interview a week after the fasting. The venue was GICEL Estates, Weija. As part of the interview, I was to go round to see if I could sell 20 spoons in 2 hours. I did that in less than an hour since there were some restaurants in the area.
I had passed the interview. I was to report the following day to my new branch office. That was the end of my career with them. What happened to my car and bonglo dream? Selling spoons may naturally not get me these dreams! Take your job. I declined the offer. Need I fast again? I quickly discarded this ‘negative’ thought.
In fact, my first fasting fell on the wrong keys. Kai! But I was later advised that when you want to break fasting, you take porridge or a fluid of some soft slowly. After that you can now eat your kenkey but before it settles in your stomach, you have to push the morsels of kenkey into your mouth slowly. Ehern, at that point, you would have achieved your spiritual and health desires.
Ei talking about spoons, I was in one of the finest cities in Ghana last week and slept in one of the finest hotels in town. Before I checked in, I simply asked the hotel attendant “please can I use your WASHROOM’? to which she responded “mepaw ky3o, y3nsi nniama woaha”. To wit “please we don’t wash clothing here”. Please whoever decided not to call toilet, toilet but a ‘washroom’ is not helping some people at all oo. yooo! Annoyingly, my late father used to call it “private” especially when the location is public toilet! Ah! Maybe that is how public-private-partnership started.
When you send a dirty car to the workshop, it is treated differently from when you send it washed clean. This is not about cars. Just drive!
Have a nice weekend and remember the fact that problem no dey finish. Read James 1:2! Bye byeeeee!
