Making ourselves at home

About two weeks ago we moved into a house in Akropong where we will stay for the foreseeable future. It feels good to get to know our neighbors and start to feel settled. We came with our clothes and some books in suitcases, so this feels like starting fresh to furnish a house and figure out what we need.

A truck loaded with our stove and suitcases,

with some curtain rods tied on top

One of the projects before we moved in was finding a refrigerator and stove. After visiting several places and feeling overwhelmed by the options, we were grateful to have those basic appliances and very grateful for the friends who helped us transport them from Accra. At least we can make and keep food now! Just before we moved in, we bought a few plastic chairs and a small plastic table (which will eventually be used on our porch). Those have functioned as our only furniture thus far while we are waiting for a local carpenter who is making us a table and chairs, sofa, desks, and some other things. We did get a bed before we moved in, which involved multiple trips to the big city of Accra and asking for advice from several people. We also discovered the convenience of Jumia, an online store that will deliver items to our town so that we don't have to go into Accra.

The carpenter in Accra taking apart our bed to load it into the truck

in our living/dining room

While living without running water in the house for our first week or so and then having challenges paying our electricity bill, we have experienced some of the ‘drama’ of the utility companies in Ghana. We are thoroughly grateful for the simple gift of having water and electricity in the house, when they are there.

We are living at the edge of the town of Akropong, which sits along a mountain ridge. When we take walks in the neighborhood, we get some beautiful views of the valleys and forests in the areas around. We were specifically praying for a place to live that would be quiet and where we could see some nature around us. God has answered that prayer abundantly, and we are grateful for God’s provision.

One of the views while on a walk near our house.

Many new houses are being built in the area, so the

view may be different in a few years.

Learning Twi - a good start!

Learning a new language is humbling. We feel like little children again, stumbling over words and not understanding what is being said. It has happened more than once in the last few weeks that we try out a sentence in Twi with someone and they give us a quizzical look and then say in English, “what are you trying to say?” Ooops…so our pronunciation or word choice is off, but most of the time the person is willing to show us our mistake and help us get it right.

 

These are our flashcards. akɔkɔɔserade literally
means "chicken fat", and is the word for "yellow"

There are some interesting challenges in learning Twi. It is a tonal language, so high and low tones can change the meaning of words. For example, the word ‘kakraa’ can mean ‘very few’ or ‘very big/huge’, depending on the pronunciation. There are also some nasal sounds and some consonant combinations that are difficult for us to imitate. And then they have two more vowels than English that have distinct sounds. In English the same vowel can make different sounds in different words, so at least in Twi they identify the different sounds with a different symbol!

 

Us with our language teacher, Mr. Osei Kwebi

We have been meeting with a language teacher three days a week for the month of June. After our language lesson, we review what we learned and then go out to practice. We talk to shopkeepers who are waiting for customers. We talk to children walking home from school. We talk to people we encounter on the road as we wander the streets of Akropong. We say the same thing, ask the same questions, over and over. It is intimidating, speaking our halting words in a new language, particularly when some of the people we are talking to are fluent in English. But it has also been such a gift to get to know some wonderful, patient, gracious people and to learn about history, culture, and life in this region of Ghana.

One man who has been particularly patient and helpful is Kwadwo (pronounced Kwadjo). One day, we encountered him on the road walking with a woman, on their way to a funeral. He introduced the woman as his mother and then explained that she is actually his mother’s sister; in this culture, all of one’s mother’s sisters are considered one’s mothers. It was striking because just that morning we had learned about the matrilineal family systems in this region and learned how to say in Twi, “the sister of my mother is my mother.” This encounter was a perfect confirmation and connection over the important issue of family.

We have made good progress for our first month, and we are very grateful for your prayers in the process. Learning a language is a very long road, so we are asking God for the time, perseverance, and relationships to continue to improve in our ability to hear and speak Twi.