Page 74 - Obruni In Ghana | Amber Lockridge

72 EPISODE 9: COMING HOME – PART 1
another family and I’m only nineteen. I feel greedy and resentful and resistant to growing up.
But then there’s Mama whose fiercely protective mother-bird cloak welcomed me so fully into its folds. And Emmifa who so innocently implored me:
“Sister Umbrella. When you are going, put me into you’re suitcase and we’ll go.”
All right. My emotional numbness isn’t so encompassing after all. Small waves of panic rise up the back of my throat like bile. I swallow them back as quickly as they come but a bitter residue clings there.
“I can’t go back yet. I’m not ready. I’m still learning Fante. I want to learn to plait hair. I never finished those drawings for school. And I’ll never see another episode of the Ghanaian soap opera Things We Do for Love!”
But above all I’m afraid of who I’ll be when I’m “home”. It’s easy to change yourself in a new environment, to not even notice the difference until you’re placed against that old background. A black