GRAMMAR CONFUSION

While unloading the rice, sugar, and other foodstuff, I gave one loaf of bread to someone for the group saying, ‘This is for you.’ ‘For me? Thanks!’ answered the one who received it. ‘No. I meant ‘you’ in the plural sense,’ I quickly corrected while the rest of the group expressed their disfavor at her error.

SUGGESTION STOPPER

‘How about going for further studies?’ Fr Vincent Owusus SVD, our Provincial Superior asked me one day. ‘I would rather go further into the bush than go for further studies’ I replied. However, he was persistent. So I added, ‘I will only go for further studies on one condition – that I will go and study tourism’. And that was the end of that.

ON COMMON GROUND

Last 26 February 26, the Philippine Consulate was opened in Ghana. The ceremony started an hour late. As part of his welcoming remarks, Mr Alex Quarmyne, the first Honorary Consul said, ‘Ghana and the Philippines have many similarities, one of which is time. Just as we have Ghana time, they also have Filipino time.’ Thunderous and humorous approval was given by the crowd of whom 95% were Filipinos. After all, he should know, he’s a Ghanaian married to a Filipina.

QUICK COMEBACK

The Knights and Ladies of Marshall paid me a courtesy call. Unfortunately, four big ladies sat on one long chair. It broke and came crashing down. I quickly said quite consolingly, ‘Oh, never mind. That is the weight of your contribution to the church. You have contributed much. That is why.’ Now, that wasn’t so embarrassing.