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Quotes
Every now and then I hear somebody say something particularily humurous or insightfull. Here I will try and record some classic quotes.

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Amedzi quotes

Amedzi quotes are a little collection of funny things that my host father, Amedzi, says every now and then in Africa that I find particularly insightfull or hilarious.

Most of these sayings come from the dinner table, as we take a good hour to eat lunch everyday, and often up to two hours for supper. Hopefully you find them as entertaining as I have. I'm sure that I'll be adding to this section pretty regularly as the months roll on, as he always has something to say!


Monday nov 11 2003
"Il faut manger comme un homme, pas comme une femme!"

"You must eat like a man, not like a lady!

At one of the first meals that I ate with Amedzi, a large plate full of food was put in front of me. I ate all of it, and was very full by the time I got through it. Then, he piled another equally large portion on my plate. When he saw my eyes bulge out, he told me to eat like a man, not like a lady.


Monday nov 11 2003
"C'est terrible!"

"It's terrible!"

Something is lost in the translation here, even in writing it down because the energy that goes with it is important. Every time something is wacky in the world, like a moto-taxi driver forgetting the instructions I gave him, or a vendor tries to sell me something for 5x it's value because I'm white. He says this a few times in any given day.


Monday nov 11 2003
"C'est les formalités des femmes, elle faut le dire."

"That's the formalities of ladies, she has to say that."

This saying came about shortly after I climbed a coconut tree. I asked Amedzi if he could still climb a tree, he said “of course”. I then said I would like to take a picture of him doing it. Then Christine said that he was too old and couldn't climb trees anymore. Eventually Christine said that if Amedzi went climbing up a tree, then he would fall and end up in the hospital and she wouldn't do anything to help him because it was his own fault and she had warned him. At this point I was wondering if he was going to back down on his stand, but he wasn't fazed. He asserted that he would still do it, and he knew Christine had to say that because "It's the formalities of women" to try and stop men from doing the possibly dangerous stunts that men tend to do.


Monday nov 11 2003
"C'est le theatre"

"It's all a drama"

He says this whenever we are talking about the act that store owners put on when trying to barter and they tell me that they are giving me their "best price", or a soccer player on the TV gets "injured".


Monday nov 11 2003
"C'est la maison qui brule!"

"It’s the house that will burn!"

This quote happened after a girl had stopped me and asked for me address so that we could write correspondence letters. A few days after that we crossed paths and she walked with me to work (which I found rather uncomfortable). I told this to Amedzi, and he launched into a discourse about women and fidelity, and said that I shouldn't be giving out my address to any Togolese women, because one day a letter might arrive in Canada and Laura (my girlfriend) might find it, and if she does, "It’s the house that will burn!"

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On to proverbs...