back in the united states

I suspect this will be my final post on this blog, although this certainly isn't the end of my Ghanaian experience. Every day since coming back to the United States, my experience in Ghana has affected me in some way. I am not a completely changed person, but I am certainly more willing to take risks, more willing to try new things, and more confident about how my own culture is defined in comparison to Ghanaian culture.

This experience has been unlike anything I ever could have gained from a classroom--rewarding, impossible, heartbreaking, indescribably valuable--and I'm so glad I stayed for two semesters.

For now, it's back to life in the United States. But, they always say "you never know what you have until it's gone"--and having been gone from the U.S. for nine months is certainly making me appreciate every moment here, now that I am back.

a change for the better

As I said in the previous entry, I will soon be moving out of my wonderful host family's home, to a new home in a new part of Accra.

Here's the short version of why:
1. There is a guy from Sierra Leone who is a homeless drug addict, and who loiters around the trotro station in my area.
2. Consequently, that is the station that I have to use twice a day to get anywhere, whether to my internship, out, or anywhere.
4. He has been harrassing me verbally and, on one occasion, has assaulted me physically.
5. I reported it to the local police and they did nothing.

Unfortunately, because of some complications, my program was not able to move me out as quickly as they had planned. Unluckily for me, I encountered the guy on four separate occasions this past week. I did, however, finally move out of my host family's place yesterday. I am sad to leave them, but more than anything else I am relieved to be away from the guy.

I don't want everyone to think that this experience is representative of my time in Ghana--it's a great country. This guy isn't even a Ghanaian (he's from Sierra Leone). There are always bad nuts in the jar. And, now I will have the opportunity to experience another host family. This family is Ewe (my last family was Akan), which means they are from a different ethnic group in Ghana. They speak Twi (the language I have studied), Ewe, and English.

Alright, that's all for now...on Sunday I am going to the shelter, and after that I'm on spring break for two weeks...and during the second week, here I come Italy!!

moving out...

Well, my friends, I am officially moving out of my home tomorrow afternoon. This week I had to tell my family (ghanaian family) that I would be moving out, and I almost broke down when I did it. It was just me and Pastor sitting in the TV room, and we were both in a good mood and talking like normal. A silence came in the conversation, and I knew I couldn't put it off any longer, so I just breached the topic. He knew from my program staff already that they were looking for a place for me, but I was the one who had to tell him the official "I'll be moving out on Sunday." When he started to talk, his voice caught ever so slightly in his throat, and that's when I felt my own throat getting tight with emotion. He said that he is really sad to see me go, and that their home is still my home, so anytime I want to come over I am welcome.

To make things even harder, the next evening I was in the kitchen with my host mother, and the moving out topic came up. As we started talking about it, I realized that Pastor hadn't yet told her that I was moving out this Sunday...so I had to have that whole conversation for a second time. She too was saying how much they will miss me, and that it is still my home. Man, I really am going to miss living with them.

Other than that the only other update is that I officially have a plane ticket to Italy. I am planning to visit a friend, Caroline, who is studying there. We will spend time in both Italy and Switzerland. And let me tell you, I am SO FREAKING excited for the food there. Most of you know that I have a keen taste for Italian dishes...and to get the authentic Italian food will be next to paradise.

And Nana Yaw is doing well. I know I haven't mentioned him in a while, but he has become a large part of my daily life here since I started dating him last year. I've been learning a lot more about Ghanaian culture through him, which is great. But mostly, he's great to be around, because he is one of those human beings who is so full of happiness, energy, and wisdom that I walk away from every interaction with him feeling like I am lucky to know such a person.

I hope that you are all doing well. I love getting all your emails! I miss you all and can't wait to be back in May!

p.s. The entry before this has mysteriously disappeared...it had more updates on why exactly I am moving out...hopefully it can be recovered.

godiva chocolate=amazing

Well. My parents just left Saturday evening (New Year’s Eve) after a week-long visit here in Ghana. It was great to entertain them for a week, although, let me tell you, Ghana is not exactly a tourist destination. Traveling around the country is difficult to say the least, as the roads are bad and nothing is straightforward (at least from a foreigner’s perspective). But, the opportunity to just visit face-to-face with them for a full week was great. Plus, I mean, they brought me Godiva dark chocolate. Does life get much better than that??

Anyway…I had my first day of classes for second semester today. It got me pumped for the research I am going to be doing this semester. It’s really a pretty unique opportunity, because I am going to be able to do primary research as an undergraduate. It will give me a great basis to work from when I’m pursuing a PhD.

I also gave a bunch of Christmas gifts to people here…my host family, some of the MSID staff, Chris…and it was kind of fun to see them all get excited about gifts from the U.S. At least I feel that I have made people happy in some small way.

Alright, I have to go start working on my research proposal…

why study abroad is worth the trouble!

Recently I was reading a book that I own called Maximizing Study Abroad. The book has sections on pre-departure, in country, and returning home. I’ve flipped through the entire book several times, but just recently I noticed something in the section on re-entering your home country. There was a long list of potential gains from studying abroad, and I was pleased to find that most of the things on the list apply to me already, even though I am only halfway through my time here in Ghana. So, I have included 17 points from the list that apply to me—the things in parentheses are my added comments.

(1) I now have a new sense of autonomy. (If I can figure out the trotros in Ghana, I can do anything!) If I can be independent in a culture in which I don’t always understand the language around me, I can be comfortable and confident almost anywhere.
(2) I now feel more responsible about my lifestyle choices and their global consequences.
(3) I now feel more focused about my career interests (and what I want to research in graduate school).
(4) I now have more concern for international politics (and a realization that people in other countries are much more aware of international politics than most people are in the U.S.).
(5) I now have a greater awareness of other eating patterns.
(6) I now know that dating can mean different things and know about different patterns of male/female relationships.
(7) I now am more in sync with the real world and the harsh reality of life
(8) I now have a greater sense of what it is like to watch out for personal security.
(9) I now know that I can hit emotional rock-bottom and come back up.
(10) I now feel connected to people across the world.
(11) I now have a new appreciation for the number of opportunities and material things that I enjoy at home and a keen awareness of how much more I have than people in other countries.
(12) I now have a greater sense of connection to family and friends (even if they don’t completely understand my new experiences).
(13) I now have a greater view of the possibilities in the world and in my life.
(14) I am now interested in a greater concept of justice and injustice as it is manifested differently in other countries.
(15) I now have a greater tolerance for ambiguity in situations. Now I can be in situations in which I don’t understand all that is going on and still feel comfortable in trying to communicate.
(16) I am now able to suspend judgment about people and their actions—sometimes you just don’t have all the cultural and language background that you need to make such judgments.
(17) I now have the ability to think more critically about political events and take a look at multiple sides of current issues.

eggs and sunrises

you know that you’ve been in Africa too long when scrambled eggs taste like the most delectable treat you can imagine.

Last night I was in the apartment alone. My host mom had of course left me some dinner, pre-made (she’s always good about that sort of thing), but I wanted to add a little protein to the meal. So, after I finished eating the dinner she had made me (rice and stew), I scrambled two eggs and topped them with some freshly ground pepper. While still standing by the stove, I took a taste of the eggs. They were so good that I couldn’t even bring myself to go sit down to enjoy them…I just stood in the kitchen and ate them as if I hadn’t been fed in days.

Yeah, food is a pretty big obstacle in my life here. I know I haven’t talked about it much, but food is basically a chore to be endured here. It all tastes the same…fishy, oily, and peppery. Occasionally I enjoy an amazing meal of fried yam, fried chicken, and Heinz ketchup. But that is only on special occasions. Other than that, mealtime is just not enjoyable.

But here’s something that IS enjoyable…my walks every morning at six a.m. I think I wrote about my walks while I was staying at the shelter…those were the best. But even here in the city I love walking while everything is still peaceful in the early morning. I wake up at about 5:30 every morning but purposely don’t get out the door until about 6, since that’s when the sun rises. And let me tell you, I love watching the sun rise as I walk. The sun itself is always bright red, but there are never any colors surrounding it. So, it is just this fiery red ball rising in a foggy sky.

Also, on my walks here in Accra I have noticed that it doesn’t take too much effort to picture this area as it looked before it developed. There aren’t many tall buildings, and there are all sorts of palm trees and other lush greenery, so if you just concentrate on the sun and the treetops, it is easy to imagine what the area used to look like. It’s really a beautiful area, actually. But then I have to look back down at the paved road I’m walking on, and I always think, “Is this really ‘better’ than the way that this area was before?” Tough question, and I don’t know that there is a ‘right’ answer.

an insight on development from a peace corps volunteer

“And perhaps it was just as well Ilunga and the others weren’t in a hurry to become the kind of producers I wanted them to be. They might develop along Western lines with time, but why push them? The local system worked. Everyone was taken care of. Everyone did stay afloat. Besides, there were already plenty of myopic, self-enriching producers in the world—entrepreneurs and businesses guided by the sole principle of increasing their own wealth above all else. So many were there in fact that the planetary boat, battered by breakneck production and consumption, was in ever-increasing danger of sinking, taking with it the ultimate extended family: the species. There seemed to be no survival strategy at work for the planet as a whole as there was for this small patch of Africa; no thread of broader community interest that ensured against total collapse. Indeed … the thought occurred to me more than once that, in several important respects, African villages needed far less instruction from the West than the other way around.” (Mike Tidwell, Peace Corps volunteer)

nana yaw

meet nana yaw. his English name is chris. he is the reason that I'm
able to think about the prospect of staying in Africa for another five
months. no, seriously. seeing the rest of the people from my program
leave for the U.S. this past weekend was so ridiculously hard. I wrote
in another entry about how lonely things can be at the shelter…so if I
had to go five months without someone to talk to and share my life
with…I mean, you can just imagine. so, anyway, he is really great. he
challenges my thinking, he makes me laugh, and has a really winning,
extroverted personality. not to mention that beautiful smile.

pics

alright. so here are the pictures that I’ve been waiting to upload. the first is of a bead market in koforidua. this bead market is widely known to be one of the biggest and best in Ghana, so one day I went with my friend Carolyn to check it out. the second picture is of me doing my laundry at the shelter. let me tell you—-washing machines are a luxury that you never fully appreciate until you have to wash all of your clothes by hand. every time I do it I get cuts on my fingers from scrubbing the clothes. it’s really one of my least favorite parts of life here in Africa :-(. anyway, the third picture is of the farewell dinner that we just had Friday night. from left, it’s melony, me, nan, caroline, Carolyn, and in front is eric. it was actually kind of a sad night for me, because, well, I was the only one not saying farewell. but a memorable night nonetheless.

life at the shelter

so, it has been quite some time since I have given a lengthy update on life in Ghana. For the past few weeks I have been living in the Eastern Region of Ghana. My organization has a domestic violence shelter in a medium-sized town in a rural area of Ghana. And keep in mind, when I say “rural” it means a very different thing than the cornfields you might think of in the rural U.S. In southern Ghana, rural means stunningly beautiful, with mountains, all sorts of lush greenery, palm trees…in fact, one of my favorite parts about working at the shelter is taking a walk every morning and just breathing the fresh air and taking in the beautiful surroundings. The mornings are especially nice…because of the altitude, it is always very cool, and there is almost always some light fog that makes everything seem a bit mystical. Plus, the road that I walk down is a dirt road filled with people carrying things on their heads and wearing traditional dress, so I am always struck by how much the area fits into the image that people might hold of stereotypical Africa.

But, life at the shelter isn’t always as delightful as the walks in the morning. In fact, at the shelter I have at times felt more lonely than I can ever remember feeling. There isn’t really a “family” at the shelter…there are just two social workers who are only older than me by a couple of years. And even they are on a rotating basis, so I have seen four different social workers come and go since I’ve been there. So there’s not as much of a sense of continuity or of “coming home,” which makes it hard. Also, since we are far away from Accra (the capital), there is a lot less English spoken. I know that no one means to exclude me, but sometimes you just sit there while people converse in Twi and think, why am I even here? I am not contributing anything. Sure, I understand basic Twi, but when it comes to long conversations, there is a lot that I of course don’t understand. Plus, it’s really difficult to work with clients, because only one of the clients speaks decent English. So I feel a bit handicapped in doing work at the shelter, because I either shadow the social workers or else have to have one of the social workers translate for me if I want to work with a client.

The other frustrating part about living at the shelter is that I never get time off. Every day of the week I’m going somewhere during the day, running errands, doing work—and then in the evenings I work with clients on either their English skills, reading skills, or computer skills. In essence, I have had no break for four weeks. And let me tell you, when loneliness and frustration compound with no time to rest, life is HARD. So, I have actually been re-evaluating what my second semester will look like…it might be that I spend more time in Accra working at my organization’s main office than at the shelter.

One other thing about the shelter that has bothered me…since it’s in a rural area, I spend a lot more time riding in trotros (those crazy vehicles that I described in some earlier entries). Well, the other week I got in a trotro accident, and while no one got hurt, it was still a big reality check. The vehicles themselves are dangerous, and the way some of these men drive them (yes it is always men who drive trotros) is just out of control. But, there is really no other way to get around. So it’s one of those things where you can deal with the risk, or stay at home and never go anywhere.

Anyway. I think that is about enough about the shelter…I am back in Accra for my break now, so at least for a few weeks I won’t have to deal with all of those stresses.