Family Dinner

With my daughters (and their nephew)

The students

My sons and me

A few weeks ago I planned with my daughter Linda for her to come to my house one Sunday after church to cook groundnut soup and rice balls.  She asked specifically if she could cook could that for me because it’s more special to her than eating TZ which she eats every day.  The day before she was to come my son Michael was over at the house with his friend Chris just hanging out and I invited him to also join us.  The next day it turned into a family dinner when Linda brought her sister Grace and my other son Edward happened to drop by and I also forced him (it didn’t take much) to stay to eat with us.  

I should explain that when these students call me mother (or “Mommee” as Linda pronounces it) and I call them my sons and daughters it can just as easily mean aunt and nephews and nieces which makes more sense given my age.  It’s always a matter of clarification in English since there’s no words in Ghanaian languages for aunt/uncle, nephew/niece.  Everyone in your family is either your grandmother or grandfather, mother or father, sister or brother.  If my student says “She’s my sister” I usually follow up with the question “Same father?” If no, then she’s really a cousin and that’s that.  If she’s a sister I can usually then ask “Same mother?” The answers to these questions aren’t really important to my students but I find it fascinating.  I digressed...back to family dinner time.

Linda and Grace cooked up a wonderful dinner and then we all enjoyed it together.  I thought it was pretty hilarious that they all decided to try and use forks or spoons to eat with while I used my hands in the proper Ghanaian fashion.  At home they of course eat with their hands so I’m not sure if they were trying to be fancy since they were at my house.  Any way it was funny and an epic evening for the books.  I think we will all look back on our family dinner with fond memories.