About My New Family - 07/14/08

I was really nervous about going to Cape Coast and staying with a random family. I mean they were friends of my parents’ friends (yes, confusing, I know) but that didn’t mean my parents knew them and it meant I definitely didn’t know them. The worst part was that I had a nice family (between my dad, Nii’s parents, and various church friends) at home in Accra and was leaving them for a totally unknown one  Ok, I’m being a bit melodramatic so back to the point….I was nervous but for no reason at all b/c my family is AWESOME!

The Ntrehs actually went to the same Youth for Christ chapter meetings as my mum and have many, many other common friends than the ones who set up my living arrangement. We discovered this a few days after I arrived and it’d be an understatement to say that all parties were exuberant w/ thanksgiving to God and joy beyond imagination. AND, it’s like I came home b/c they speak Ga, I get to eat Ghanaian meals and basically get treated like a Ghanaian (they started off treating me more American but fortunately that ended swiftly). I get to help w/ chores and we all do daily devotion together as a family in the morning and it is so refreshing. They are very Christ-centered, simple, jovial, and super nice. It’s hard to totally describe them but I guess I can try to give little sketches of each of them.

My “dad” is a minister who is also a professor at the University of Cape Coast. He teaches Religion and Bib Lit as well as a class on Communication Skills and a Sex Ed class (for which the students actually call him “SEX” around campus – I died laughing when they told me the story). He’s really smart (obviously!) and he’s really hilarious too. As for my “mum”, she’s the epitome of Proverbs 31. She used to be a seamstress but is now studying here at the university to become a teacher. So her schedule is basically as follows: wakes up @ 3:30am, cleans the bathroom, reads until about 5:30, makes breakfast (many things including oats, porridge, pancakes from scratch), sets the table, calls us all for devotion around 6:30, gets us all the breakfast acoutrements as we eat and then washes everything once we leave, does whatever chores or errands she needs to get done and then makes dinner, and chats/discusses current events or watches tv w/ us all until her bedtime around 9. As amazing as that is, it’s more incredible b/c she does it w/ such vibrant energy all the time and a big smile on her face. She definitely tells everything like it is but she has a humorous sense – different from Uncle Ben’s but really funny.

Then there’s my “sister”, Ruth. She’s 26 and full of straight-up fire. Everything she does is sincere and whole-hearted and she is practically my twin (from birth order to life perspectives, it’s kind of creepy actually). I split the chores with her in the morning (sweeping, dusting, and curtain/window opening) and then after breakfast, we leave the house together to head to the taxi rank for a ride to work (she teaches 4th-6th graders Creative Arts – everything from textiles to painting – at a private school). In the evening our chores include doing the dishes, sweeping, and locking up the house, and fortunately for us, we do a lot of talking during the evening chores b/c otherwise, our nightly chats would go dangerously later than they already do (never ending before 11pm)…haha! You are NOT surprised I found someone to talk to for HOURS and HOURS :- P Basically, we get along fabulously and since her younger sister is studying in the US, I also happen to fit into the lil sis role quite well…LOL.

Finally, there is Stanley, another “foreign” student here. He’s an 80 year old Jewish man from New Jersey (I know! What are the odds that after leaving NY I’d be living w/ someone from my neck of the woods!). He mostly keeps to himself but during meals and sometimes in the evenings, we get to talk and he’s so sweet. He has a bit of a hearing problem so sometimes it’s like you’re yelling but he says the funniest and most random things. He LOVES taking all these trips around Cape Coast and Ghana w/ his class (he’s here for 5 weeks taking 2 classes in Sociology and Anthropology). On his first day here, I could tell he was looking at me funny but once we started talking I realized what the problem was. He had been trying to figure out why the girl speaking Ga just like and seemingly like a part of the family) had such an American accent…hehe. So when I explained everything from my Ghanaian nationality to my purpose for being in Ghana this summer, he was relieved for an answer. I think he was also glad for some sense of familiarity in a place very far from home. Anywho, so that is my Cape Coast family in a few generalized descriptions 