My Peeps

06/23/13

The Tremendous Twelve

            I want to take a minute to go over some of the people I have met on this trip so far, since I think they are all truly wonderful, kind people and everybody should know about who they are. First, I will introduce my CIEE brother and sisters.

Franz Essig, aka Stanford (that’s where he goes to school), can be clumsy at times and we already created an acronym for him to use for these moments (TMF>total Franz move). He is a great guy though and probably very intelligent. He’s majoring in international relations and has lived just about everywhere, including Japan, the UK, and the US.

Paige, who is my homestay sister, is from Texas, and she knows how to have a good time. She has been to Kenya before, and a week or two after she left the entire village she was living in got burned down (crazy). She has some strange genetic condition that makes it difficult to handle her eating sugar; that would be awful. Her mom at one time was a penis cake baker, which is pretty badass I think, and she also baked endowed gingerbread men for Christmas. Plus, she’s related to the founder of cysco foods.

Ellie is a fellow Madisonite, so obviously she’s pretty cool. Her grandpa is the creator of colgate toothpaste, which is also pretty awesome. She definitely knows how to have a good time, and her and Paige tend to feed off of each other as enablers, especially when it comes to ordering desserts.

Johanna is from I believe Arkansas, and she has a way of expressing things sarcastically and in a way that describes perfectly what everyone is thinking in a jokingly, friendly way. It’s hard to describe exactly, too bad she’s not here to work that one out for me. For example, she is the inventor of TFM.

Beth is from Texas as well and recently got married (woooo!) I believe less than a month ago, so she has had one transition after the other in the past month. She tends to say what’s on her mind. It can be refreshing though to have that level of honesty, as long as you can handle the truth ;). She has been to Uganda before, so Ghana is not as new of an experience for her this time around. She’s an international relations major and does some amateur photography as well.

Jamesia (Ja-mee-see-uh) tends to be very independent but still easy to get along with. She works as a model, but I’m not sure what all she has done with that. She likes to mess around with her hair, and it tends to be in a different shape every day. I believe she’s from New Jersey.

Zoey, who is originally from Minnesota, I thankfully met on the first plane going out from Minneapolis. She is a firecracker and always keeps things interesting.  The group has diagnosed her with a healthy case of ADHD. She is not very inhibited and not afraid to throw down when it comes to dancing or just about anything. We decided that by the time we leave, her ass is going to be famous. She is really friendly to just about everyone and despite being unafraid of independence, still socially oriented.  

Chloe lives in a homestay with Zoey and is yet another Madisonite (represent).  She ended up showing up a few days late and missing the orientation because of visa issues which made her transition that much harder (it was hard enough for the rest of us). She caught up though now and is having a good time. I think she’s a political science and something else double major (sociology?). She likes Indian food, which I can absolutely appreciate.

Emma is an anthropology major but used to be going for fashion design. Fabric is really cheap here (about $2.50/yard for some really cool looking stuff). She has a hidden evil side that her sister had a way of bringing out in her, but now that she’s older they’re cool with each other. She looks a lot like the girl who plays Hermione Granger (Emma Watson?) when she got her hair cut shorter.

Bailey is one of those people who’s not afraid to reveal anything about herself, which I find impressive. She told us about a time she literally crawled around while drunk and yelled at her friend that the room she was going in was her room not her friend’s (it was her friend’s). Hopefully I’m at liberty to say this, but she got a breast reduction, and she claims it was the best decision of her life.  She’s the third Texan of the bunch. She took an African Dance class at her university (University of Colorado-Boulder) as well, which made me extremely happy. She is a world traveler and has already been to 17 countries. 17!!! That’s like going to a new country every year starting at age 4.

Anna is on her first trip via airplane and guess where she decided to go.. Ghana! That takes some bravery I have to say. I’m not sure she had even left her hometown up until now. She went to college in the same town she grew up in and hasn’t really traveled much if ever. Obviously she is out of her element and is taking more time to adjust than the rest of us, but hopefully I can learn more about her soon. I do know that one of her friends is dating a professor that’s 20 years older than her though. :O

I truly do think all of these people are great and add something unique to the group.

Family

            My host family is made up of all wonderful people that have been helpful in this tough transition. I will go over each of them briefly.

Captain Ansah, my host father, has a very strong personality, and he enjoys pushing me and Paige into eating more food etc. He likes to give lectures about various topics, especially Ghanaian politics but also American and international politics. He gave us a speech when we first showed about commending us on having the bravery to step out of our comfort zone and study abroad in Africa. Captain has been in the military for a very long time and has been around many countries because of it, such as the USSR, Israel, and Egypt. He is very hospitable in a somewhat pushy but well-meaning way.

Mame (Maw-May) Ansah is the queen of the household and doesn’t have to lift a finger, except at Evans (I’ll get to that later). She expresses herself with sounds a lot (she’ll greet you with an enthusiastic AYY! or express sympathy with an expressive ohhh). She likes to get her groove on. Mame and I were dancing to the radio a little together today. She makes sure we have everything we need and everything in the house is taken care of. Also, she makes a mean fufu (a fluffy dough eaten with soup using your hands).

Evans is my housemate (the only other person that lives in the same guest-house as me. They call him their nephew, but he’s someone that they took in because he needed a place to stay and they heard about it through church. He does the bulk of the housework. It seems like every time I see him he’s washing dishes, doing laundry, cooking, or doing something for mame. Whenever someone wants something done, he’s the first one to be called for. Mame puts him to good use. He’s somewhat soft-spoken and shy but light-hearted and easy to get along with. I feel bad for him having to do so much work, while me and Paige are getting by with doing hardly anything. He’s basically our servant.

Emma (short for Emmanuel), is another person taken in by the Ansahs and given a place to stay for about 15 years. He has a job and works most days, but he took us out a few days ago still. He’s a nice guy and easy to be relaxed and friendly with.

Wofa is the resident old fart, and half the time we can’t understand him because he mumbles and speaks mostly Twi, but I’m sure if I could understand him, I would think he was a cool guy. He wore a Barack Obama t-shirt on the first day we arrived, and I think he has a cheeky sense of humor. He does a lot of sitting around chillin’.

Isha and Ofori are the mother and father of two kids and live in the house Paige is in. They are yet another of those taken in by the Ansahs despite no blood relation. They are both awesome people and very kind. Ofori is a real estate agent and is all about technology, cars, and working out. He has a bigger TV than any place I’ve ever lived in, and it has about 1000 channels. I have better TV here than in the US! Their two children are Paa and Eruwaduoa (eh-roo-ah-j-wuh). Paa is the cutest little 2-year-old boy I’ve ever seen (I’ll post pictures of him). He laughs a lot and is usually a happy camper. Eruwaduoa is about 6, and she has more energy than she knows what to do with most of the time. She likes showing me how good she is at jump rope (which is not very). She can do one or two before she gets messed up.

Lots of people to keep track of I know! And that’s just the beginning too. There’s our professors and CIEE staff (Kwasi Moto is a boss). I don’t have time to keep going though so I’ll leave it there for now.