Funny Sayings

I wanted to write down some of the funny sayings from Ghana while I remembered them. Most people speak English, but to varying degrees and there are some funny little things make you laugh (on the inside!)

My favourite was "I want to urinate" - meaning "I need to go to the toilet". People are very matter of fact about it - no use trying to be discrete! In fact, quite often you'll see men (and occasionally even women) having a pee on the side of the road. There are little concrete public "toilets" dotted along the roadside saying "Urinate here". I can't say I ever ventured inside, so I don't know exactly what they were like!

"I'd like to take my leave please" - people will say this when they are at your house and want to go home. At first I felt like I was holding them hostage or something, and they wanted to get away from me! Our equivalent expression would be "I'd better get going" - which is probably equally weird.

"On the down" - means "on the bottom". At first I thought this was just Rita's funny version of English, but then I noticed that everyone says it. For example, baby Jacinta's mother would say "Jacinta has got a new tooth on the down" or Rita would say "I'll wear a t-shirt on the top and short knickers (that's shorts) on the down"

My all-time favourite saying would have to be "Madam your buttocks have come!" which I have written about in a previous blog. Usually it would be Latifa saying it to me - meaning that your clothes show off your hips and butt! I never thought that was a good thing, but in Ghana the bigger your butt the better!

And one last saying which Rita said last week when she was upset that we were leaving. She said "But everyone knows that I walk beside you". I thought it was a very sweet description of our friendship - because pretty much where-ever I would go in Konongo, Rita was there right beside me.