problem!

[sind0o]

i'm trying to code a pacman-like game for my school project and i'm stuck!
i made an array of strings and it looks smth like this:
x x x x x x x x ("M" is the pacman)
x M o o o o o x
x o o o o o o x
x o o o o o o x
x x x x x x x x (<-- tiny version of the whole grid)
now every time the player moves the pacman, i clear the screen and edit the array and then display it again.
eg: player presses right key and this is displayed, and he ges a point.
x x x x x x x x
x M o o o o x
x o o o o o o x
x o o o o o o x
x x x x x x x x
this part works perfectly.
the problem : i can't make the ghosts move because the array is displayed only when the player moves the pacman. i want the ghosts to move on their own, but i can't find a way to make them move when the man is stationary! i've been told to call the function using a timer but idk how i should incorporate that into my code :/
please help!!