Jennifer's House
Chiana, Ghana
While I was staying in Chiana, I got to know a girl named Jennifer, who lived just down the road from where I was staying.
Her mother had just had a baby, and asked her to come home to help her out. Jennifer invited me over
to see the baby and her home.
Jennifer and I in her compound. Her grandmother is certain we are twins!
What do you think?
This is a partial view of her family's compound. Her parents, six brothers and sisters, her brothers wife and children, Grandmother,
uncle and his family all live here. The little huts past the wall there is where the animals stay.
The rooftops of the compound, where once the grain is harvested, it is spread out and dried on the roof.
This is Jennifer's younger sister, standing next to the doorway of the Grandmother's room. This doorway is so small, I had
to bend completely in half to fit thru, not to mention there was no way to do it with my camera bag on my back!
Once you duck thru there is immediately a little wall about half the height of the door to step over. It is amazing how
cool it stays inside.
This is the Grandmother's old cooking room, off to the side of her bedroom. Notice the small door again, but
this time I was pretty much on my hands and knees to get through it.
I was told that women in Northern Ghana keep their wealth in their pots. Which means that when they
do have money, they buy a pot which signifies their wealth. The more pots they have stored up in their
homes, the wealthier they were. I also learned that once they have passed away, the family goes in and
destroys all of the pots.