Robert Peprah-Gyamfi
It is Book Number 2 of the Kiddy Kiddy Books series. The series follows the life of Kofi Mensah, a little boy growing up in Kookookrom, a tiny village in Ghana, West Africa. In this book Kofi Mensah is four years old. He goes out to play with his best playmate, Abenaa Foriwaah.He comes home very sad indeed.'Why are you weeping, my dear?' his mother asked, very worried.'Abenaa has been nasty to me!' Kofi replied, wiping the tears from his eyes.In short, Abenaa is mocking Kofi. Why? Because of his tattered clothes.'Don’t be sad, my dear. Lets hope for a good cocoa harvest, which will enable us to replace your clothes at Christmas' his mother consoles him. Kofi is too young to remember the previous Christmas. 'What is Christmas?' He inquired.Christmas is a festival to mark the birth of Baby Jesus in a little town called Bethlehem many years ago.' Kofi is told.'Where is Bethlehem; is it far from Kookookrom?' Kofi enquired.Bethlehem is indeed nowhere near Kookookrom.' Kofi is told.Kofi is confused. What has a festival marking the birth of Baby Jesus in Bethlehem to do with the need to replace his tattered clothes?Kofis parents are poor. Their only source of income is from the sale of cocoa beans from the their small cocoa farm. By coincidence they usually harvest the cocoa beans not long before Christmas. Since Christmas is generally associated with giving presents and gifts, they like every other resident of the community wait until Christmas to replace the old clothes of their children.'How long do we have to wait till Christmas?' Kofi wanted to know.Well, the conversation took place in the middle of September. Kofi’s mother told him he would have to wait a little over three months for Christmas!The other members of Kofi’s family could only wish the conversation they had with him concerning the coming of Christmas had not taken place! It was too late for them to change anything though!From that very day on, almost everything Kofi said or did had something to do with the coming Christmas and the new ntama he had been promised to replace his old one.Indeed, starting from the very next day, Kofi kept on bombarding the family with questions as to when Christmas would arrive.Were Kofi’s hopes and aspirations met? Well, the reader wil have to find out. 3
