Boyfriend?

Before coming Africa, I considered the possibility of finding myself an African boyfriend. Why not? I’m young, single, and it’s not like I left anyone in America waiting for me. I’m like every other woman... I love being romanced. I like being taken care of. I know what it feels like to be swept off my feet by American and European men... I wonder how African men do it? It would be nice to have someone to take me out on dates, to buy me things, to talk to me on the phone before I go to sleep, and to show me the affection I crave.

Having an African romance would make my life story more interesting, don’t you think? My friends drop hints in emails, asking me about my love life. Is there anyone special in my life right now?

I hate to disappoint, but my marital status is the same as it’s been for the past twenty-two and a half years... chronically single. No African boyfriend for me now, and after getting to know the culture here, I’ve decided that I don’t want an African boyfriend, ever.

African men only have one thing on their minds... marriage!

Really! They’re only looking for one thing: a wife. And not just any wife... the perfect wife, someone who would spend every day in the kitchen cooking Ghanian dishes with his baby strapped to her back, someone who will break her back sweeping the house three times daily and fetching water from the neighborhood pump a few door down. A good wife, they believe, is loyal and submissive to her husband, even to the point of putting up with his unfaithfulness and abuse.

Does that sound like the kind of attitude I’d be attracted to?

Since I arrived in Ghana, I’ve already been proposed to twice. Ugh. No Ghanaian boyfriend, and definitely no Ghanaian husband, for me. Sorry.