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All right. Today is I don't even know what... The 18th. The 18th of May.

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Yes. Today is May 18th. We are here at Africa on the Avenue. Could you please... do I have permission to record this

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interview? Yes. Perfect. And could you please tell me your name? Javon Smith-Latey.

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Javon Smith. It's nice to meet you, ma'am. Thanks, same. Thank you.

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Um, could you tell me, where are you from? I'm actually from Washington, D.C., however, my husband is from Ghana. Okay.

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Yes. How did you two meet? Um, we met through a friend six, six years ago. Um, a friend of mine.

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She was dating a gentleman at the time who actually had a friend, and she asked me to come out with her just for, like, a little, you know, blind date. I never spoke with him.

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I didn't see his picture. She knew of him through her boyfriend. So I said, okay, and I went and I met him, and we're here. We're down six, six years later.

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Well, congratulations. Yes. Um, do you know about when he came to the area? Yes.

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Um, my husband came here as a, um, a diplomat, um, in 2000, and I think it was 2000 just before 2016. So 2015 between 2015, 2016. Yeah.

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And are there any specific ways that you guys kind of, um, honor his culture in the house or within the community? Yeah, definitely. Um, we go to a lot of, um,

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organizations. He's a part of an organization and they have functions, and we go to those functions. And of course, we practically eat all African food I haven't cooked

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in years. So we have kids, um, together, and I haven't cooked in years because he does all the cooking. And now that his mother is here with us, she does all the cooking.

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So we just keep, um, the, his tradition because we do share kids and, um, to make sure that they understand his culture as well. We do a lot of things that his culture, um, permits us to do as a family.

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And we go out to a lot of functions that his culture has so that we can not only focus on black America. Me being African American and from

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Washington, D.C., we also can focus on his culture, which is West African. So yeah. What are.. or what is one of your favorite authentic traditional

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African dishes? My favorite dish is okra stew with banku. Most people may eat um, fufu. But my husband, he's not a fufu eater.

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He loves banku. So I love banku, which is crazy because our daughter, she's a fufu eater and she prefers fufu just like her, um, grandmother, she prefers fufu.

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Our little baby, he eats whatever. Our son, he eats whatever, whatever we eat. But I prefer okra, okra stew with

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banku. Yes, I do like gravy too. Ghana, they make this nice gravy. It's like gravy stew.

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I like that too with yam. But I'm not going to lie, Nigeria has the best jollof rice period. Hands down.

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I tell my husband all the time. He gets mad, nut Nigeria has the best jollof rice. Okay.

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I'm taking notes. He gets mad. And you said your mother in law has recently... Yes, she's here with us now.

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She recently moved. Um, it's been about a year and a half. And she moved from Ghana? Yep. Um, how is she liking it so far? She -It's - I think it's still of

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a culture shock to her because she's older, so, um, the the the bus, the public transportation system is still new. She refuses to get on the escalator. Um, but she has to get on the escalator if you're going in the

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subway. So it's a lot. It's still new to her. And, um, even though English is

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not the first language, she's still learning because she's used to speaking her native tongue. So it's still a culture shock. But she she loves it.

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She loves it here. She says it every day. She's thankful that she's actually here.

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That's amazing. Um, we were outside. You mentioned your friend had. A clothing line.

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Yes. Do you wanna talk a little bit about that. Oh, the the one that I had. Okay.

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This is this is my girlfriend. She's actually from Washington, DC. Um, her clothing line.

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Is do something is love yourself first. But she has t shirts, sweatshirts, all types of items. It's called "Do Something Different". So I wear her stuff because she also support my my venture.

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I do have a um boutique as well of authentic African clothing that's made by my my husband's cousin. So she makes everything I send, her designs, I design, she makes it for me and we ship it back here

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to America. So yeah. And that's what the booth is here? That's what my booth is here. Yes.

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That's amazing. How long have you been doing that? This two years. This going on.. this is our second year. So it's "J Lartey Boutique".

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So if you look online look at JLarteyboutique.com it's authentic African clothing and accessories. Perfect perfect. And is there anything that I

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didn't ask you that you would like to touch on. Oh no I just I just want people to know that I truly love how my husband has introduced me to something different. And like I said, being a girl from D.C., I've traveled all over the

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United States, but being connected to my husband, I have seen Africa in a different light than what I have seen growing up in school. So it's it's wonderful, wonderful people. It's definitely have different cultures and everything is just

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it's a blessing to be a part of. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking your time. Thank you.