A Found Farewell to My Host Family

When I first arrived I talked about Bless, my host sister who is “my manager” as one of my new friends calls her, but I haven’t talked much about the rest of my host family so I figured I would introduce some of them.

Where I am living is sort of like a complex with one main house being the “go to” house, this is where I am staying. Madame Celesting owns the house which is very much a western style house, it has running water, kitchen, small refrigerator, 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Within the gate is also 2 other buildings that houses many of her extended family with about 4 or 5 apartments in them. Though I have not been in any of the houses from what I can gather they only have a couple of rooms each. Most of the cooking is done in my host mother’s house or at the fire pit outside. In the middle of the yard is an outdoor sitting area and a well where we all fetch water.

After much time I think I have figured out whom all belongs to whom. In Ghanaian culture everyone is considered “sister or brother” even if they are not actually their sister or brother.

Celesting is the matriarch of the family; she has no children of her own but takes care of many of her nieces and nephews. She is one of 11 children of which 6 of them are still alive and 3 of them live within the gate and one right around the corner. Bless is actually her niece but when Bless was only 2 her father died and for most of her life Celesting has taken care of her. Also, Ester my other “sister” is her niece and though her mother lives within the gate she mostly stays here in the house.


Then there are my two cuties Pearl (on the right) and Forgive (on the left.) These two girls are 3 and 5 years old and love to follow me around. Whenever they see me coming they come running over and they always want to sit on my lap, pet my arm (I think they think my skin will feel different) and have me take photos of them. I can’t understand them and they can’t understand me but somehow we know how to communicate. The only thing Forgives says to me is “picture, picture” and Pearl just always tells me that she is fine. I am pretty sure they think they are leaving with me as for a little while it was a threat when they would misbehave that I was going to take them to America with me that was when they were scared of me, now I am afraid they are convinced they are going. I have also heard Forgive tell her friends that I am HER Yavous (at least that is what I suspect she is saying.) There are many others that come and go, mostly teens that are in boarding school and come home on the weekend but it is a very close family and they all rely on each other. Everyone has been very welcoming to me, I will miss them when I leave.