A few months ago my twin sister visited me. The following morning, which was a Saturday, she said I should give her my clothes to wash. I felt reluctant because the past still haunted me, it made me feel guilty.
But she insisted. And I obliged.
While she washed, I prepared some rice. So by the time she finished, the rice was ready and we ate together and chatted like real twins. We didn�t behave like twins when we were young. We quarrelled a lot and since I was the stronger, I always had the upper hand. Our quarrels were, however, difficult to separate; we judged the loser by who received the last blow.
But age has changed everything. Today we sat and talked like mature siblings. We talked about the family and then zeroed in on our lives.
�So when are you getting married,� I asked her.
She told me she would get married when she got a husband. But before I had time to accost her about the young man I thought I knew, she indicated that marriage was not her priority.
�I want to pursue my degree before I settle down,� she said. She had been teaching for two years after completing the teacher training college, or college of education, as teacher trainees would want to refer to their institution. Ghanaians and names!
We discussed at length and the conversation shifted in my direction. �I will also apply for my masters,� I told her. �Now a degree is becoming like a BECE certificate. I have to upgrade myself.� She wished me well, and an awkward silence reigned.
It was when I was reflecting on our conversation after she had left that I realised how insensitive I had been with the remark about a degree. I don�t know the degree to which she took it, but I still feel bad about that thoughtless remark. But it made me reflect, for the first time, on how we came to be wide apart in our education.
I went to the same school on the same day and sat in the same class with my twin sister. We were together in P1 Madam�s class. Madam Grace Owusua, the great educationist whose remains lie in the bowls Mother Earth at Worawora, was a wonderful teacher. So good was she at handling beginners that for so many years, she taught in the Primary 1 classroom. With time, many people in Krachi forgot her real name and joined the pupils in calling her P1 Madam.
Today if I�m able to swing sentences together to express a meaningful thought, I owe my beginning to the late Madam Grace Owusua of Kete Local Authority Primary School. May her soul rest in peace.
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