More Things I Understand as Normal in the US

4) Thinness equals health.
This is circumstantially true in Ghana, particularly on the University of Ghana campus where I work. Indeed, in my simple skirts and plain (UV-shielding and insect-repelling!) shirts, I sometimes feel like a naive country girl in the middle of a land of high-fashion supermodels when I meander around during my lunch break. However, in other situations, health is judged not by thinness but by having a little extra cushion, especially in the older generation.

Since coming to Ghana, I have been conscious about eating as healthily as I reasonably can when many foods are full of starch or carbohydrates and almost anything (fish, yams, chicken, rice, dough, plantains, cassava...) can be fried, and I have also be running 20-30 minutes most mornings each week. This, as well as the fact that the tailored dress and skirts that I bought soon after arriving are slowly becoming looser, leads me to believe that I have lost at least a little weight since coming to Ghana. However, on occasions when I dress up by braiding my hair or wearing some of my African clothing, without fail at least one of my host family members (and more likely two or three of them) will tell me, "Jessi, you look so nice and fat today!" Indeed, the following conversation took place between me and my 13-year-old host brother just last week...

Kwesi: "Jessi, you are looking very nice and fat today!"
me: "Hmm. Well, that is what you and Sister Adwoa [our house help] want, isn't it?"
Kwesi: "Yes!"
me: "Why?"
Kwesi: "So that when you go you will be big and you can sit on your brother's leg!"

Of course, this is not the most logical of reasons, but an alternative reason that my host family so vehemently wants to "make me big" is, as my host mother described to me, that when you become ill, it is usually helpful to have some excess weight as a buffer while you heal.

Regardless of the reason that being "big" is considered by some to be desireable, I suspect that all it really means when I am "looking nice and fat" is that I look pretty, me ho yε fe paa!

5) Making friends takes effort.
Most days when I am walking to or from work or my tro-tro stop, I make a new friend. People are pretty forthright, and so after approaching me and engaging in the usual pleasantries, they direct the conversation thus:

"Wofiri he?" Where are you from? (Mefiri America.)
"Wote he?" Where do you stay? (Mete Adenta.)
"I would like to take you as a friend. May I have your number?" / "I will take you as a friend. Give me your number."

More on social dynamics in a future post, but for now suffice it to say that this method of social interaction has been somewhat disconcerting for me, since I cannot predict who is genuinely interested in my friendship, who is just intrigued by my obroni-ness, and who has sketchier motives.

6) To buy food, you should go to the grocery store or a restaurant.
In Ghana, although I rarely do because I have either just eaten breakfast or am on my way home from work, I can buy the following things from vendors along the route that my tro-tro usually takes:
Chilly Yoghurt (a yogurt smoothie drink)
cashews
sachets of water
whole loaves of fresh bread
doughnuts (large or in doughnut hole form)
sugarcane
papaya
chocolate
FanMilk (either ice cream, yogurt, or frozen chocolate milk in a sachet)
meat pies
cornmeal scones
Malta Guiness
Sprite, Coke, or Fanta


The list is larger, of course, but where would the intrigue and suspense be if I revealed all the intricacies of my Ghanaian life in contrast with my American life all at once? (Plus, the internet cafe time I have bought is dwindling...)

So here I leave you in love and with many good wishes from Ghana. I hope you are all looking very nice and fat! :)