Auntie Joe: Advice 101

Today I woke up and did some laundry. I can tell that my hands are getting used to it because my knuckles didn’t bleed near as much as they usually do...progress!

We finished planning our vacation, with Auntie Joe chiming in and giving us lovely advice:

-“make sure you know where you are staying”

-“be careful. One time, this tourist was walking around Cape Coast and these people, they killed him! Yes, he is gone and dead now!” ...thanks Auntie Joe...

-“You will be okay; you are two. If you were one, I would be afraid.”

-“I am not afraid for you because Caro is hard. She is free and crazy. Petra, you are calm and quiet. Caro will take care.” HAHA.

That conversation turned into a 2 hour talk about families and boyfriends and marriage, and different cultural differences related to those things. Again, Auntie Joe had lots of advice to offer:

-she said I needed to find a boyfriend when I got home because Petra has one and I don’t.

-she was astonished to find out that my dad was younger than my mom by 3 years. She said marrying in your own age group even is bad. She won’t allow it for her children. She said the man must be older because men get weak when they grow old (hehe) and the woman must be young and strong and able to take good care of him and the house and the kids. Mom and Dad, your whole marriage is wrong...

-She also thought it was hilarious that my mom is taller than my dad. (I showed her family pictures). She thinks you two are just crazy.

-She said no man should bring a girlfriend back home to meet his parents while he is still in school. You should not be that serious until he can support her and a lot of children; he MUST “stand firm on his feet.” We told her that she should come and tell that to everyone at Redeemer and maybe help to slow down the amount of people getting married while still in school?

-She said you should check up on their history through talking to everyone they know. She says some men have short tempers and some men have long tempers. You need to know who you are marrying.

-She said you shouldn’t have lots of kids if you can’t take care of them all, but if you can, have lots. One of them is bound to go and “bring forth” (get pregnant) early and not go to school. Then they will have to stay home and help and there will always be someone there to welcome the other children if the parents are dead. She says that if their parents are dead and there is no one at home to make you happy, you will feel sad and then you will cry. Her words; not mine. She says that if you have 10 kids, you will get a doctor, a mechanic, a nurse, a teacher, an air hostess, one that doesn’t do anything with their life and they will all be happy and famous. Oh Auntie Joe, how I love our conversations.

-She said women must be good at cooking if they want to be good wives.

This trip to Africa has made me realize how bad of a wife and mother I am going to be: I suck at cooking, I hate cleaning and hardly make an effort to do it, and I despise doing laundry. Yup, world’s best housewife right there. I need to find me a cooking and cleaning kinda man!

This afternoon, it poured. Literally poured rain. I honestly, without exaggerating, thought we were having a tornado. My windows were close to breaking from the wind, the trees were bent over to a scary angle and there was a dust storm before the rains came that made the whole sky brown. Kinda freaky. Petra napped through the whole thing.

Belinda made us this pudding cake thing today. It was delicious. Petra didn’t care for it so she didn’t eat very much. I downed 3 pieces before Belinda left the room. Whoops. We didn’t realize that that was our supper for the night...no wonder we are getting fat...

It is the one year anniversary of Auntie Joe’s late husband’s niece’s death today. Yup. Funerals are a big deal here. The son-in-law of this woman who died a year ago is a pastor, and he is staying in our house for the night. They had a celebration of her life today and Auntie Joe and Belinda are distantly related so they went to the cemetery and the family gathering.

When he got back, he chatted with us for the better part of the evening. His English is really good. He was excited to inform me that the lady who had passed away, her name is Caroline (or Caro) and was VERY excited to tell me that I was her name sake. At least he can remember and pronounce my name...

He was reading an English Ghanaian newspaper and the foreign news page showed a European 19 year old white girl with her 97 plastic dolls. They are all hand crafted and have real human hair. They are replacement children since she can’t have kids. Weird.

He said, and I quote, “look at this article. You people are very strange.” HAHA. Not alllll white people do things like that...and not all white people are European. Especially not the ones who already told you that they are from Canada...

haha

We leave for vacation tomorrow after class, or Monday morning really early. Haven’t decided yet. We suck at getting going, so it’ll most likely be Monday morning.

We are going to the Presby Church tomorrow with Auntie Joe and this Reverend for the final celebration of Caro’s 1 year anniversary and then I teach business class in the afternoon.

After that, Petra and I will be offline for a week. We aren’t taking laptops with us. The day we get back will mark our 2^nd month being in Ghana! Crazy!!

BUH BYE!!