Meet The Family

Memoadwe friends! I am writing to you from my new home in the AAK district of the Central Region of Ghana, which is house that belongs to the Queen Mother or Nanahima of New Ebu (see: Abakrampa, a short 2-km run from New Ebu with the added benefit of being recognized by google!).

The Queen Mother's house in New Ebu

However, for the last week I have not been in this house, but have rather been doing a village stay in a compound in New Ebu. In this post I will be describing to you the four family members I stayed with for my village stay. They are funny and amazing people, and I hope I can share a part of their shiny personalities with you through this blog post! (I asked their permission to do so before writing about them.)

A brief aside on “village stays”: Engineers Without Borders encourages Junior Fellows to spend a week or so in a remote village and live life as a farmer would for that week, so as to get a better understanding of what life is like for the people we are trying to help. 

Meet Joshua Amafi

Joshua was the very first person I met from New Ebu. Introduced by my office manager simply as Amafi (without any context, besides the fact he was from New Ebu), I didn’t imagine at the time that I would be spending the majority of the following week with him! Amafi introduced me to a many residents of New Ebu the night I settled into my new house, and I was happy that I would finally be able to stay in one place for a while after almost 3 weeks of transience. This was a short-lived dream though, since after a discussion with my Engineers Without Borders coach, we decided it would be best to start my village stay as soon as possible. In other words, another week of transience! On my second day in New Ebu, I told Amafi that I needed to find a place to stay where I could farm and do as farmers do. He had just a place a mind, and within an hour I was set up for the week with a place to live! Throughout the week Amafi accompanied me when I roamed about New Ebu, greeting community members (including the King of New Ebu!), buying household goods and fun foods (mmm Fanta!), and helping me learn Mfantse.

A brief aside on Amafi’s teaching style: After telling me the translation of a word a few times, Amafi will decide not to help me when someone says it. However, when I am fumbling for the meaning of a word I should know, instead of saying “I will not remind you,” he says “I will not remember you.” Although the two phrases are technically very similar, the latter sounds much more harsh than he intends (he will forget about me if I can’t remember the word!).

Also very helpful in my Mfantse learning in the last week was my host mother at the compound:

Auntie Juliana/Nanama

My host mother, Auntie Juliana

With just a moment’s notice, this woman took me into her house with few questions, and even gave up her bed for me. (She had another bed to sleep in, and I insisted again and again to sleep in the other bed, but she wouldn’t allow it and you just can’t argue with a Ghana mama!)

The compound (the view from outside of my bedroom)

During my week at her house, I incessantly asked to do small jobs to help with the cooking and cleaning, and she was very willing to allow me to embarrass myself by showcasing just how useless I was at these household task. For the first few days I learned a great deal about cooking in southern Ghana, but after that, Auntie Juliana was unable to suppress her good-hostess mannerisms and now insists on doing all of the cooking and cleaning herself. I sneak around to wash a few dishes or grind up veggies when I can! Also impeding my learning is the incredibly industrious 10-year-old grandchild of Auntie Juliana:

Nanama/Banana

Nanama or "Banana"

This chicky is amazing, and is often put to work by Auntie Juliana to do the things I want to learn. She can cook, wash dishes, and wash clothes way more efficiently than I can do any of the above, and can also speak Mfantse fluently, speak English decently, gets good grades and is just a really sweet kid.

You may have noticed her name is the same as her grandmother’s, and this is not because of any lack of originality in the family, but rather because of a cultural norm here in Ghana: people are named after the day of the week they are born on. Auntie Juliana (Juliana being her Christian name) and Nanama were both born on Saturday or Memenda, so they were both given the name for girls that are Saturday born. I can’t say I have the whole scheme figured out, but based on what I know, I think that there are a grand-total of 14 first names among the Mfanste people in southern Ghana.

A brief aside on my name here in Ghana: “Tanya” is unheard of in Ghana, and when I try telling Ghanaians my name they usually assume it is the second half of the name “Nathaniel”. Instead of having to repeat my name several times and having my new friends think my name is “Thaniel”, I have been going by “Abena” and “Alaba”, both of which mean Tuesday born.

You may be wondering why Nanama is sometimes called Banana, and the reason for that stems from this individual:

Esien/Monkey

Monkey!

This guy is a hilarious little rebel who is giving my host mother new gray hairs daily. His attitude earned him the name “Monkey” in my books, and the nick name has caught on with the family, which I’m sure he’ll hate me for if it sticks! When he’s called Monkey, he usually responds by saying Banana, which awarded the similarly-named Nanama a new nick name. This kid is especially cute in his school uniform and especially stubborn when he wants something.

And that’s the family! I hope you have gotten the impression that they are hilarious and intelligent peeps, because I sure have. In the next few weeks I’m sure I will share more stories about these awesome people, but until then, my friends, keep it very real!