Nicknames in Ghana.

In Ghana, there's a thing where men and women get a name based on the day of the week that they're born on, like "Kwame" and "Kweku" for boys, and other names for girls and whatnot.

Lately at work at my one resthome job, a few of my (Ghanaian) coworkers had necklaces with that name on their neck, and since it wasn't their name that they used at work, I asked one of them about it.

She said that they all have "Christian" names now, but that the day name is their second name, then there's their family name, and that the day name is what's used at home.

I then asked her and another coworker who walked up what would happen if there was a family with a few kids of the same sex all born on the same day, like let's say the family had seven kids and there were five girls and three of the girls were all born on Saturday.

She then said that they'd then all get their same day name, but people might call the oldest "Queen [the day name]," the next one "Mama [the day name]," and stuff like that, to keep them separate.

Later, the (Ghanaian-American) manager said that she was the first one at work to get that kind of necklace, and afterwards everyone else began imitating her.

A sighting of the reclusive cat.

The other week at the resthome, I bumped into the one resident who has the cat who likes to hide and who we couldn't find that one time, and he invited me to come into his apartment and see his cat, since she had been out lately and I could probably see her.

So, I went in with him and walked in, and he laughed and said wouldn't it be funny if his cat wasn't there at all again and I thought he was crazy, and I said that that would be hilarious if he was just some crazy guy who had a cat carrier and bowls out and whatnot and everything and who every time people came by he said his cat was hiding, and he got a chuckle out of that.

Then, we finished passing through his apartment's main room and went into the second room, and there his cat was sitting on the couch in there and she was looking at me as I walked in, then she hopped off, slowly walked forward, looked at me, and then turned around and went back to where she had been sitting.

"That's all you're going to get," the one resident was like, laughing.

Comment of my one (Tibetan) coworker, about perspectives.

The other week at the resthome, we were short-staffed, and my one (athletic) (Tibetan) coworker and my one (blunt) (Tibetan) coworker were talking for a while and then were saying that we should go to the head of the resthome and ask for a paybump for that shift.

I demurred, and then they spoke in Tibetan with each other, and then my one (blunt ) (Tibetan) coworker laughed heartily, and then she asked if I was born here, and I said that I was.

"Look at you, you are white and you are born here, and you're afraid to talk to the boss," she was like.

At that, I shrugged, and demurred again some more.

Idea for a title for an ad seeking an adult diaper fetishist.

If I was ever seeking an arrangement with an adult diaper fetishist, my personal ad would have the title:

SPOILING FOR SOILING?

. . .

A tale of children with animals (2 of 2): A snake.

After that story by the one resthome resident who wants to die, her one (Ghanaian) private aide said that back when her sister was a baby, her mom took her sister to visit their grandmother in the village, and she was playing on the floor and they left her for a second and then they came back in, and she was just sitting there playing with a big snake that was just going around and around her, and she was laughing.

"And my mother, she jump up and down, she scream, because she does not know what to do to make the snake leave the baby!", the one (Ghanaian) private aide was like.

And, she said that while her mom was doing that, the snake just slithered off, and her sister was just sitting there all as happy as could be.

Neither her mom or her grandmother had ever seen a snake in the house like that, too, or a snake behave like that at all.

"They know fear," the one (Ghanaian) private aide was like, "And my sister, she did not fear."


She also said that years later, her sister was on a trip and there was someone who had large snakes that you could take a picture with, and she went right in there and did it, and was like, "I love snakes, I loved snakes as a baby," and she laughed, because she did, and because she still didn't have any fear of them, she just loved the big yellow snake sitting around her shoulder, and she took a picture with it.

A tale of children with animals (1 of 2): A puppy.

The other week, the one resthome resident who wants to die was telling me and her (Ghanaian) private aide that back when she was a little baby back in the 1920s, her parents bought her a little white puppy and would wheel her around in the perambulator with it.

And one day, they opened up the perambulator, and she had smothered it.

"Did they ever let you get a dog again?", I was like.

"No," she was like.

. . .

Since then, too, when I see her and she asks me how I'm doing, a few times I've been like, "Eh, I could be better, but at least I accidentally didn't kill a puppy today."

She laughs at that.

A dream of food.

The other week I dreamnt:

I have the blue-lidded tupperware container that I keep my garbanzo beans in that I eat for breakfast, and I'm standing there with it open in front of the refrigerator, and I'm scooping out the last of the beans from the very bottom corner of the container, and the beans are getting finished and done, there's just a very little bit left and I keep eating them...

And then, I wake up.

. . .