"You are welcome"

"You are very welcome" is a phrase everyone hears alot of around here.
Anytime someone enters a room they are greeted with a warm 'you are welcome' and meeting people usually involves a heartfelt 'you are very welcome here'. So I have been welcomed many times in my new temporary home.

I am currently in the village of Walewale, a small town about 100 kms outside of Ghana's big city of the North, Tamale.

The buildings looks exactly like you'd imagine. Along the highway little shacks support just about any business you can imagine in a chaos of traffic of all types and sizes.



Buses, transport trucks, shiny NGO pickups, overloaded taxis, donkey carts, motorcycles, cyclists, and pedestrians with absurdly large loads on their heads all compete for road space. The bigger you are, the more priority you get.




Off the highway mud huts circle to form compounds. Children of like ages run around alternately helping their parents when requested and otherwise getting into as much trouble as possible.



Tucked in the heart of the village off the road is the family I am living with. The man of the house, Salifu, is the district water and sanitation engineer, so I basically don't stop bouncing ideas off him when he is home. His wife Agata (Ah-gah-ta) has taken me on as her Canadian sister, even going so far as to say the neighbors are mistaking us for each other. I do love my Ghanain sister, but I think the neighbors may be a little short sighted.



Agata promises that Jason will be very happy when I am returning, because I will be a good cook. She is pretty shocked at what I don't know, like how to make Fufu, the most basic dish of boiled maize flour made into a paste. For my part, I'm hoping to come home with some mad cooking skills, and I'm very happy cooking with Agata in the evening after work.



Even when Agata is cooking, she is taking care of the gaggle of children in the family home. Her oldest daughter Julie-Anna is 17 years old, and about to start the final year of high school. Like most new Moms, Julie is more than a little tired, but her two month old baby Malick is happy and healthy.



Agata's brother's nephew Aquesee will come back from the remote village he lives in to go to school here in Walewale. Alahssam and Fushina are two 5 yr. old twins, who are most easily told apart because Fushina refuses to keep her dress on in the heat of the day.



Agata's last child is called Junior, and at two years old he definately rules the roost.