Update on family compound details

10/10/08

So we’ve found some clarification on Kosi, Grace, and Jessica’s immediate family. Their mother is the pregnant Cassandra, due in December. This compound belongs to her aunt and uncle. Cassandra came here 12 years ago with Kosi and Grace, from Liberia, after she and her husband divorced. He is still in Liberia. She remarried to a man in Ghana several years later. They have a 6 year old daughter, Essanam who lives with the father’s mother in Ho, 3 year old Jessica, and the soon to be born December child. Some time in the last 6 months, he left her with the children, and he now lives in another village nearby. He was apparently very close with Kosi and Grace. One week before we came to the village, Cassandra’s father died. This could explain some of Grace’s erratic behavior lately. We also found out that the guy who we thought was Jessica’s father, here in the compound, is actually Cassandra’s cousin. When we saw him hit Grace the other day, it was because Grace threw all of her dresses away in the garbage and had no dresses to wear, other than her school uniform. This is also why we’ve seen her draped in a large piece of fabric, like a robe, lately, and why her mother didn’t let her follow us when we took Jessica for a walk with Divine the other day.