“You spent $2000 on a China trip?!” Emmanuel bellowed. He was livid and upset about how I had spent my money on my daughter. He continued with his idea on how if I had not spent that money on her that we would now have money to use. I’m not certain how he came up with this math. Since I met him he had not had a job and was not contributing. He had used up his savings on our wedding day and since then I had been paying the bills for everything. So, 0 from 0 and carry the 1…yeah, still zero.
My daughter enjoyed herself and it was a well placed investment of $2000. She got to visit China for a student program to learn about and volunteer with pandas while also exploring China. I was excited for her because she had been learning the language of Chinese for a few years, so this was a good program to place her in so that she could see the language in action. It helped that there were other teens on the program tour whom she bonded with and made friends with.
Emmanuel continued his sputtering about how Americans put money in to their children in a frivolous manner and that’s why they speak about us in such a demeaning manner. Mind you, he was referring to television shows as he knew nothing of what he spoke of firsthand. I reminded him where his daughter was: only exposed to the village, at a bad school, and peeing outside. In my book he was failing because he knew better and seemed to only keep the better things for himself while she lacked exposure which equated to true education. If I were to only listen to him I would think that all Ghanaians treat their children this way.
Still, with all of my thought process there was still the fact that Emmanuel was upset about how I chose to invest in my daughter instead of just giving the money to him.
You cannot do epic shit with basic people. I’m learning that. The book, Wanted: Green Card, is now available. Nothing that you read on this blog is in the book – buy it today!
Wanted: Green Card 