Ghana Makes Me Smile, by Suzanne

I am too serious in the U.S.  I knew it before, but coming here makes me realize that I don’t laugh near enough.  Already, 9 days in, I have had several belly laughs, and lots and lots of smiling.  Including this morning – but first a little background.

When we were in Ghana 2006-2008, we had two Fulbright “daughters”, Sarah the first year and Ana S. the second year.  She was “Ana S” because our daughter Anna was just “Anna”, although at that point she began to be called "Anna B", which I still call her some to this day.  The two Annas were close.  At one point, Ana S had really mastered the Ghanaian way of saying “why” which I can’t really do justice to phonetically, but for those of you not familiar with Ghana, trust me when I say it’s different than how it is said in the US.  Anyway, Ana S was teaching Anna B how to say it, they had multiple “why” tutorial sessions.  At one point they decided to play a prank on me and recorded one of their sessions on my phone and set it as my alarm, so the next morning I woke up to:

Ana S: why   Anna B: why (attempting to repeat the sound she just heard Ana S make)

Ana S: why   Anna B: why

Ana S: why   Anna B: why

Ana S: why   Anna B: why  (then the two of them giggling)

I actually thought the recording was was quite fun and have kept it as my alarm (not ringtone) ever since.  The first few years when I returned to Ghana I would be surprised by it the first time I woke up (and smile), now I come to look forward to that first morning in Ghana being awakened by my two Annas practicing their “why”s.

So, this morning, I woke up to why why why why why why why.  That alone does make me smile.  But just then, a bird flew by my window and I could have sworn it said “WHY” (in a very Ghanaian fashion, by the way).  Ghana makes me smile!

View from the window where the bird asked, "why?"