Before I moved into my house, I was introduced to the Boy, named Kwame and also a 20 year old second-year student at my school. His uncle, who is at least three times his age, built the house that I live in.   The Boy had been living there for several years I guess just to make sure that the place did not fall down.

So I fully expected to see the Boy the day I moved in. But I did not expect to see the Boy's brother also living there. The Boy's brother is named Kome (I have no idea how to spell that, but it's pronounced Ko-may. So I had Kwame and Ko-may).   Kome had a speech impediment, which combined with the fact that English was his second language made it challenging to communicate with him for the first few weeks. Kome had failed his secondary school exit exam so he spent the summer holed up in the house studying. He left at the beginning of October to take his exams and live with his mother.

He was immediately replaced by the girl, named Ama and probably about 15 years old. The Girl used to live in the house on the weekends but became a full-time resident in September. I was not happy about this at all. Unlike Ghanaians, I value my privacy and my house is the one place in my town where I can sort of get away from Ghana. The more people going in and out, the harder it is to get away. Ama had failed her final year of junior secondary school, so she is in the process of repeating it.

Although her grandfather built my house and is a "big man" in town, the Girl's family seems significantly poorer. There are days when she complains that she has not eaten all day, so I either give her money to buy some food or cook extra food for her. It has not happened often enough to trouble me too much, but it may get to a point where I start to wonder why taking care of the Girl is my responsibility. Her grandfather can certainly afford to care for her, and if it continues I may go talk to him (he's also one of my favorite people to talk to in my town).

Then there's the Boy's friend. The Boy's friend is also a second-year student at my school. He comes from a nearby town. It's too far and expensive to commute every day, and it's expensive to be a boarding student, so Kwame generously offered to let his friend stay in our house. He was only living there for about a week before he went back home. I think because of the teachers' strike he has not bothered coming to school. I'm not sure if he will move back in if the strike ever ends.

And then there's the people who play Draft every day on my porch. I don't know enough about Draft or about American checkers to know the difference. There may not be any at all. The Draft players' schedule is somewhat unpredictable but they are there every day, and they are loud. There's often a morning shift from about ten to noon and then the older men come from about two to six. The skinny old guy who "manages" my house seems to run the show.

There's probably some calculation that can be done to determine the number of different possible games of Draft that could ever be played.   I'm sure it's astronomical, probably more than the number of atoms in the universe or something like that. But I'm also sure that the skinny old guy has played every possible game. Twice. At least. I just can't imagine checkers being interesting enough to warrant dedicating 3+ hours of my life to it everyday. I guess good for him that he has a hobby.   

Then there's my neighbor, who seems to be second cousins with the Boy, who comes over every day to use the latrine. I guess that's OK. Apparently his house does not have a proper latrine. And then there's every kid in the neighborhood (sometimes it seems like there are thousands of kids living next door) who thinks that my porch is their playground. I guess property is more communal here. Also, they're little kids, so the more I yell at them and tell them to go away the more they want to play on my porch. (When little kids watch white people, they want to see them doing stuff. Getting angry and yelling would only be entertainment to them.)

My house is busier than I would like, but I suppose that's how it is here. It's fairly unusual for someone to have a house to themselves anyway...

Addendum #1: A few new pictures. Just click on the link to the right. Me and my beard, my town, my school, the melted toilet, etc. Uploading pictures here takes a while and is expensive, so I could only post a few.

¶ 1:22 PM