She had come over to spend the weekend with us and we all were excited. Afua, my 12-year-old niece, whom we hadn’t been with since Lockdown in 2020 is one fun girl to hang out with. Very chatty and has a million-and-one questions to ask, plus an opinion on just about every matter under the Sun – there definitely was no dull moment with her.
Family time is rich
We had the weekend planned out to a T – Friday night was movie night with popcorn, plantain chips, baked spring rolls and pineapple juice with bissap (Efua’s idea). Let’s just say it was more of a feast night than a movie night, considering that we had all watched the Lion King more than once in our lives.
Saturday, we had a long lie-in and woke up at about 12noon, ravenous. We tucked into heavy portions of waakye with all its trimmings and lay about, wasted and very listless. (Eating too much food with little to no activity does this to you, lol!) Then later in the afternoon, we went out to the beach to people-watch, get sand into our clothes (and hair, oh no!), have some fruit and meat kebabs and drink tons of water and fruit juices as the Sun was mercilessly shining. By evening, we started making our way back home – in the car, we listened and sung along to Beyonce’s Lion King album – The Gift. The cacophony of our singing voices drowned out the unmistakable voice of Beyonce, what a feat! But we couldn’t be bothered; it wasn’t as though we were auditioning for Ghana’s Got Talent.
We got home, knackered but very fulfilled. After bath time, we nestled in the old couch- that had seen better days – regaling each other with colourful accounts of the weekend we had just shared. Soon, it was bedtime and we had to go to bed as the Sunday morning ritual of going to church had to be undertaken by us all.
A flurry of activities preceded our drive to church – where are my neon socks? I can’t zip up my dress! My shoe just gave way! The baby has pooed again and needs changing! I’ll finish up my breakfast in the car! I need money for Sunday School collection! My hair is in a mess, but I can’t comb it; I will wear a head scarf! Where are the car keys?!! – we managed to get to church on time, in spite of ourselves. One look at us and no one could tell the chaos we had created just minutes earlier. The sermon, incidentally, was about togetherness and bonding with God and one another – it summed up our weekend.
On the drive back home, we stopped over to get some ice-cream which we’d tuck into after lunch. Lunch was scrumptious – fufu with chicken-only peanut butter soup. That’s one crowd-pleaser of a meal! As she cracked her chicken bones and sucked out the marrow loudly, Ekua blurted out;” Auntie Mawuena, are you rich?” “My friends say you are rich”, she added. “Why would they say that?”, I looked at her quizzically. “They say you are popular, and so you have a lot of money and are rich.” “Really?’, I asked, chuckling. “No, I don’t have tons of money as they’re saying…,” “But are you rich?”, she interjects
I hesitate, and she dashes off to finish off her packing as her parents were due any minute now.
I cannot say I do have lots of money – Jeff Bezoz, Sara Blakely, Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey and Mark Zuckerberg are among some of the people with lots of money. You realise I didn’t say richest people; I am being deliberate because being rich cannot be limited to having tons of money. Cambridge Dictionary has as one of the definitions of rich as, containing a lot of exciting events or experiences and therefore very interesting. So
- Having a family
- Having a job
- Having a roof over my head
- Having good health
- Being able to cater to the needs of my family
Therefore, if you can count even one weekend in your life where you have spent time with your family like I did, with my niece Efua my niece and the rest of my family, then yes…WE.ARE.RICH!!
