Kevin Coriolan | Staff Writer
Most Tack readers will agree that the life of a college student can be rigorous at times. Partly because those Tack readers are, in fact, college students, but also for the reason that academics are flat out difficult to juggle among all the other beanbags life throws in the air. To see an impressive balancing performance, place yourself in the ever-working shoes of Mavis Tretu.
Born and raised in hustle-and-bustle of Accra, the capital city of Ghana where business is boss, 22-year old Mavis is a student training to be a gynecologic nurse at the Ghanaian Military Hospital. Five days a week, she devotes to commuting via tro tro (a crowded minibus used as a local form of inexpensive public transportation) to the hospital where she is in her second year.
During her adolescence Mavis had aspirations to be a lawyer, similar to many children, before wanting the profession of a doctor. What attracted her to these vocations were the designer suits and professional colors. She has also considered her academic decision to be devoted to her future career.
“I considered the many years required to be a doctor,” Mavis said. “We study everything medical: psychological, emotional, physical.”
Now she’s content with being a nurse with possibilities of more schooling later to further develop her knowledge in the medical field.
The professional daydreams of the young girl started at the Night Market, located on the University of Ghana campus. The Night Market is a grouping of over thirty stalls selling toiletries like toothbrushes and cocoa butter or food as savory as fufu submerged in groundnut soup. Mavis’s first and current employment was at stand #11 when she was a toddler.
After the family’s first son was born, Mavis’s mother and grandmother started the business to maintain finances. From this entrepreneurship, the hardworking and only girl of four children has learned how to run a business.
“Business is business. I’ve learned how to manage interpersonal relationships and communication among many people,” Mavis said.
Later on, Mavis would add jobs teaching kindergarten at an Accra school and nursing through the Ghanaian government run NYEP (National Youth Employment Programme). Incredibly, she is currently maintaining a long-distance relationship with a fellow from Boston. She’s not shy to discuss her romantic status as she excitedly anticipates his arrival to visit again in January 2013.
Although her plate is full, Mavis kindly offers her time to converse with customers at the Night Market even on the eve of one of her significant exams. This trait is one that many young American adults lack: compassion. One wouldn’t guess that she’d been studying all morning prior to work.
Mavis’s compassion plays a role in her desired profession as well.
“I care about people and don’t care who it is. I don’t discriminate,” Mavis said.
The future nurse practices her passion even while cooking up an egg sandwich for waiting customers. “Why are your eyes so dark? Have you been getting enough sleep? How did you get that limp on your right leg?” Take note of this active example of humility.
Mavis is a symbol of the hardworking Ghanaian student and the supporting daughter of a family. She plans to graduate next November.
Photos courtesy of Kevin Coriolan
