In the backyard, I sat on the edge of the drain channel with Adjoa while she washed the dishes in a big metal bowl. She passed me her phone to watch a video of a Ghanaian man interviewing a black (not sure whether Ghanaian?) woman with bright pink, long hair and very long nails about how she doesn’t know how to cook. Adjoa sort of tutted, "Ey!" Keziah also came over and watched it, commenting, "A pretty lady like this not knowing how to cook, ey!" Adjoa asked me if I know how to cook, and I said yes, but that both I and my boyfriend cook at home. Keziah called out (from back at her stool), "Laura? Yeah, she knows how to cook!"
Keziah came and sat next to me for a while, we talked about what hairstyle I could do for the wedding. Talked about braids, looked on my phone for styles. She suggested googling ‘wedding hairstyles’, I said I’d add ‘Ghana’. I found some pictures. I told her, "Actually, I don’t think I’ve told you, but our wedding is quite soon." – "Really? When?" – "In September." – "Oh wow." Later she asked me a few questions like ‘"Do you have your dress? Where did you get it?" and "Are you having a church wedding?" I said this because I was cautious about getting my hair braided if it would damage my hair before my own wedding. We discussed getting a style that would only use my own hair for the braids, wouldn’t be too tight, and would be temporary.
The others went inside and Keziah showed me food plants in the garden: first a shrub with little, pea-sized green berries called ‘adrebu’ (?), we had to Google it for the English name: turkey berry. She said very healthy, they give a lot of blood (as in, generate blood in your body; indeed: on Google, said rich in iron), cook them up into stew, blend them. Also cassava, plantain, pear tree, ‘basilikum’. About the basil, she said "We’re so lucky we can grow it here [in Ghana], in Germany we have to buy it."
Later, a friend of Anas’, Derrick, showed up. I recognised him from having chatted briefly to Keziah the day before at the market – in English, I noted. Keziah said to me at one point that Derrick’s family was really rich. "Why?" I asked. "They have a church," as if that explained it. But then, "But that’s not why, they have good jobs. His mum has a good job and his dad is an auditor." The father is also a pastor. "Pastors’ sons are the worst," Keziah said, shaking her head. "Why?" I asked. They think they’re "so holy", and they’re "so stubborn."
Later, Keziah was going to make Indomie noodles for Anas. I hung around in kitchen doorway, watching and chatting, and finishing my kokoo that, in the meantime, Keziah served me because her grandma had bought it for me. I asked if I could film, and she said something about "Oh, but the kitchen…" – "What’s wrong with it?" – "You can film later, when I’m preparing it."
