My Second Family

I was so blessed to be able to live with a wonderful Ghanaian family during my stay in Ghana. They were amazing people, and I miss them so much! They took a place in my heart, and I will forever think of them as my second family.

My host Mom is Lizzy. She owns a “chop bar” (later post), waking up long before I got up each morning to go to the market, and going to bed each night later than I went to bed. She worked hard for her family, and to have a nice place for volunteers to stay. Her husband, Prince, was away with his family in London while I was there. 

The oldest of Lizzy’s children living at home was Eunice. She was around my age and worked an hour tro-tro ride away in Accra. I spent some of my evenings in her room watching movies with her. Somehow, I did not get any pictures with her!  :( But I did steal one from her Facebook to post on here!

The next child was 16 year old Sam. He was away at high school (all high schools in Ghana are boarding schools), but I did spend some time with him on a couple of his visits home. He was even kind enough to show me another internet café when the one I usually went to broke down.

Then we have my dear Emmanuel. We called him Emman (pronounced ee-muh). Emman is 15 and such a great kid. He helped me out a lot in my first few days especially, showing me around town, and helping me get tro-tros when I still was unsure how to. And even sometimes even when I knew how he still went with me in the mornings as I waiting sometimes close to a half hour for a tro-tro. Much of our conversations were filled with my girl advice for him. So basically, they were great conversations. :)

Cobbie was the next in age living in the house, but actually not one of Lizzy’s kids. He was her 10-year-old nephew. His parents were divorced, and his mother could no longer financially take care of him. In the goodness of her heart, Lizzy took this adorable boy in, but sadly could not pay for him to attend school. School in Ghana is incredibly expensive as it is not government funded and instead run as a business. A previous volunteer that stayed with Lizzy extended her charity to Cobbie and has been paying for his school for about 5 years now.

Now we’ve got 8-year-old Calvin. This kid is a stud and could do a killer Michael Jackson dance! Better than anyone I know in America for sure. He got really shy when I tried to get him to perform it for my brother and mom, but we got him to do it! So maybe I can get that video on here one of these days. The below picture is when we were playing around with Princess's fake yarn-hair. He's such a goof. 

And finally we’ve got the adorable Princess. I absolutely adore this 6-year-old girl. She is just about the sweetest, cutest, funniest thing ever. She really loved me too, and would tell everyone that I was her mother, or, as she would say it with her accent, “muddah.” And when she wasn’t calling me “caa-trin” (Katherine) she was calling me “Mom.” Lizzy thought it was hilarious too and said I had better tell my family I have a Ghanaian daughter. If I could have taken this girl back with me, I would have in a heartbeat.

I love my second family.

I will never forget them.