I've described my house before, but I'll just repeat that it has a lot of rooms (about 15). You walk into the Sitting Room which leads into the Great Hall. The Great Hall is surrounded by doors to about ten rooms. The Great Hall also leads to My Special Outdoor Area, which is a small courtyard that also has doors to about six more rooms.
When I first moved in I was told that the only residents of the house would be me and Kwame, a student of mine and nephew of the house owner. The other rooms would only be used in the case of a major event in the family that owned the house.
In September, the girl moved in. Her name is Ama and she's a student and is related to the kindly old man who owns the house. At the time, this intrusion into my space was upsetting because she was living in one of the rooms off of My Special Outdoor Area. BuT I learned to get over it, largely by pretending that she didn't exist. Then in January two men who are doing construction work at the school moved in. They also stay in rooms off of My Special Outdoor Area, so now "my" house has four permanent residents (plus my cat), and My Special Outdoor Area is neither mine nor special anymore.
More recently, guests have been arriving. At first, it would be a random relative. They generally stayed a night or two on the weekends and were mostly harmless. Some guests attract more attention. For example, a niece of the owner of my house is now visiting from the UK. She is a former resident of the town and she seems to have quite a following. From the time I wake up until past my bedtime various town residents come to greet her. This is mildly annoying, but tolerable.
A couple of weekends ago, I was blindsided by the worst types of guests imaginable: people in town for a funeral. A reminder that Ghanaian funerals are a celebration of life, so these people were here to have a good time. And that means food, drinking, lots of noise, and no sense of responsibility (because who's responsible at a party??).
A few bad things about guests in general:
1. They often call me "white man" or its local language equivalent. Even the most offensive person in New York would recognize that calling someone out by the color of their skin is absurd and unacceptable, but here it's considered normal. In my town I take the time to teach people my name, but I have learned to grit my teeth and deal with it (although not well) outside of my town. However, in my house, this is totally unacceptable behavior.
2. They use my water. I have gone weeks without running water, which means I rely on water that is fetched and dumped into my water barrel. Guests use this water, and then I either have to fetch more water or ask other people to fetch it for me.
3. They're noisy. This is a cultural thing. I would think that if you're a guest in someone's house you would try and refrain from screaming, particularly at night. But apparently this does not occur to many Ghanaians. This observation is based on repeated trials in multiple locations in Ghana, so I'm fairly confident about this generalization. I think it may be related to larger issues about public/private space and property. The notable exception is my current guest from the UK. She seems to get it, which further convinces me that this is a cultural thing. (Another cultural difference is views on the musical group Westlife. While I consider them the creation of record executives to cater to some teen/preteen demographic, a teacher at my school passionately explained to me that their vocal talents are unmatched.)
4. They steal my personal space. It would be nice to have a house of my own, as many Peace Corps Volunteers do, because it would be a place to retreat from Ghana and perhaps have some peace and quiet (plus I could walk around naked, if I wanted to). I have no peace and quiet in my house in general, and certainly not when there are guests around.
On this particular weekend, I had about 25 (!!) guests in my house. To make matters even worse, they were not directly related to the house owner, so no one was able to tame them. They were loud, ate smelly food at odd hours, quickly consumed all of my water, and they called me white man. And at least one of them peed on the seat.
At about 11:15 on Friday night, I decided I couldn't take it anymore, so I went for a walk in my town. No people are out at this hour, so it was just me, cats, and goats. I played in my computer lab for a while and headed home at about 1:30 AM determined to kill one of their small children in the hope that this would scare them into submission. Luckily, they had all gone to sleep, so I didn't have to put my plan into effect. The next night I ran away to a friend's house and by Sunday night they had mostly tired themselves out from two days of being noisy.
My house has also hosted three weddings (although I was not around for two of them) and I'm sure that there are many more simchas to come. And if anyone ever asks me, "Hey, have you ever shared a house with thirty Ghanaians?" I can look them in the eye and say, "You know what…as a matter of fact I have."
Addendum #1: Last weekend was the "world famous" Aboakyer Festival (pronounced A-bo-ah-chair) in the nearby coastal city of Winneba. I t commemorates the people's migration from the north down to their current home. Here's the tourist guidebook version of what happens: two teams dress up in traditional warrior garb. A deer (or antelope?) is released into the bush and the two teams go and chase it. A team wins by capturing the deer. There is much rejoicing.
Here's what really happened: Only one team showed up because of longstanding disputes over land, money, etc. There were threats of violence but a large police presence kept things quiet. The animal was released and the single team, which mostly consists of children wearing secondhand clothing and white face paint, go after it. The children are loosely organized by similarly dressEd men in their 20s and 30s. The bush is open grassland with random patches of bushes. The team surrounds a bushy area and hacks away with big sticks (I spotted a golf club too) in an attempt to scare out the animal. Eventually, they surround the right bushy area and capture it. There is much drinking. And the president of Ghana showed up too. Overall, I would go next year because who doesn't like drinking at 9 AM, but I'm not going to plan my life around it.
¶ 2:39 PM
