Years ago, I was very desperate to travel abroad. Everything within me wanted to experience the weather and also the lifestyle. When I spoke to my friends abroad, I told them how lucky they were and how I was dying to travel there.

I tried the US once, and a connection man messed me up and ran away with my money. The next one was the UK. I did it through an agency, and that also didn’t work. I lost my money. I didn’t even get my passport back. And then there was the France connection. By then, I’d gathered a lot of experience, so I knew how to spot a fake travel agency. I didn’t pay. Those who did ended up in Côte d’Ivoire.

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I stopped chasing the dream while looking for a credible opportunity to travel out of the country. A friend in Canada called one day. He said, “How about doing a fake marriage to get here? If that works, everything is assured for you.”

He said he knew a lady, Magdalene, who was willing to help me and gave me her number to talk to her. He sent me photos of the lady, and the first thing that came to my head was, “This girl looks like someone who would run away with my money.”

Maybe it was because of the tattoo on her chest and the piercings. For months, I didn’t talk to this lady. When my friend asked why, I told him I didn’t have money, so I was saving. One day, he texted to tell me that Magdalene was coming to Ghana.

I texted her, “Hey Magdalene, my friend gave me your number. He says you can marry me and take me abroad. How much?”

She called me on WhatsApp and said, “Please delete the message you sent and let’s talk. Or you’re not serious about the deal? You want IRCC to see this message one day?”

We talked extensively, and she named her price. I screamed, “Eeiiii, do you want me to rob a bank?”

She burst out laughing. She then told me I should wait until she got to Ghana. The amount she mentioned put me off, so I stopped thinking about it. She called out of the blue and asked if I was still interested. She was then in Ghana.

We met. The tattoo was the first thing I saw. She had another one on her left wrist. Again, the alarm bells rang.

When we talked, she was the sweetest soul I’d ever met. She asked why I wanted to travel so badly. She told me what could go wrong and what could go right.

We negotiated the price from $40,000 until we got to $20,000. I didn’t have even half of that. I asked my friend to add his voice to the negotiation. She said she wasn’t going to charge less. If everything went wrong, she could go to jail for five years, so she had to be duly compensated.

To me, the deal was dead, but when she posted on her status, I commented. I gave her new places she could also visit. I drove her and her friends to Akosombo. She wanted to pay me, but I declined.

When she was leaving the country, I was the one who took her to the airport. We didn’t talk again for several months. I posted a photo of a wedded couple on my status and congratulated them. She came to comment, “This could be us, but you say you don’t have money.”

We resumed talking. She asked me, “So your girlfriend was going to watch you marry another woman because of papers?” I answered, “Girlfriend? From where?”

“Eii, men. You mean a man like you doesn’t have any woman? By now you have about ten.”

The conversation got personal from there, and for some reason, we never stopped talking from that day. One day, she told me, “I can do it for you for free, but it has to be real. My only fear is that you’ll fake it, get here, and act nonsense.”

I asked questions. She did the same too. I asked about the tattoos. I told her they were the only things that scared me about her. She laughed and explained why she got them. The reasons were all personal and emotional.

She came to Ghana again. She whispered, “I’m here. Now propose to me properly.” I did. It was so dry that she coughed and said, “Make it a little wet. Add juice. Make me go awwww.”

I knew I liked her, but I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. If I knew then what I know now, I would have jumped into her love right from the word go.

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We got married a year later in Ghana. Four years later, she tells me I’m her biggest risk in life. She would thank me for making it work, but in actual fact, she made it work.

When she brought me to Canada, I didn’t work for a year. Just when I was getting something to do, she delivered our first child. I had to stay home and take care of the baby while she went out there to work to cater for us. She pitied me for taking care of a baby, something I’d never done before. I asked her, “Have you ever taken care of a man for this long before?”

I worship the ground she walks on. Those tattoos that got me scared, today, I kiss them every night before we go to bed. She made a dream come true and added a bonus: a good marriage.

—Magdalene’s Husband

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