Hey yall!!! I know I’ve been MIA for a looooong time. My bad (I’m sorry). I had been traveling every month from Sept. through January. I even went home for Christmas; I surprised my family for the holidays. They were soo happy to see me. All the little kids came running up to me, each one of them were about 1/3 taller than what I remember. I thought when I went home I would have been overexcited with the amenities and comforts that I was missing being in Ghana like a washing machine, running water, warm water, friendly customer service and other stuff; but, I just slipped back into life as I knew it before I left. It was easy to throw my clothes in the washer machine, take hot showers, reverting back to an almost-exclusive fast food diet.

Being home allowed me to see and compare the differences between my culture and what I had been exposed to and living in Ghana. The first thing that drew my attention was the parent-child relationship I saw in the airport. On two occasions, a mother called her child (I would say about the age of 4-6) to come back and the kid disobeyed. The mothers ended up running after the children, catching them, and carrying them kicking and screaming their heads off. It was the complete opposite of what I was used to seeing in Ghana; when an adult calls a child to come, whether it’s your child or not, the child is to respect and obey the adult. So when the children were kicking and screaming, my reaction was to call out to the child to behave like I would have done in Ghana, but I had to stop myself and realize things are different here.

Another thing that caught my attention was the seemingly coldness, unhappiness and individualism of American culture. As I was sitting at the airport waiting for my ride, I scanned the faces of the other waiting travelers and they looked so distant, worried, and unhappy. They didn’t interact with one another, just looked straight ahead looking out for their ride. I’m used to people making eye contact with one another, whether they know you or not, and greeting them. Somehow, it satisfies the validation and attention we all as human beings crave. It makes you feel like a person as opposed to an individual object enclosed in a bubble with no contact with the outside world.

I’ve also observed some changes within myself; my perspective on things is different as a result of learning and experiencing another lifestyle. The first change in perspective was very surprising to me. Before coming to Ghana, I felt like I could do the same thing a guy did; I can do everything for myself so why shouldn’t I. After living in Ghana, I’ve seen and realized that yes men and women can do the same things; however, each one has their own role and responsibility that contributes to society and interpersonal relationships. A perfect example of this was when my mom wanted me to rake the leaves in the yard. When I started doing it, I felt weird because I felt like this is the role of a man; a guy should be doing this. It goes vice versa too. Before, I used to think cooking for a man made me seem like his slave but now I understand that it’s not being a slave, it is part of my role and responsibility in taking care of him. Go figure, eh? I’m learning, I’m learning.

Driving myself around showed me another change in my mental perspective: it’s not as liberating as I once thought. I thought getting in my car and driving anywhere whenever I felt like it was going to be such a fascinating and liberating thing. It wasn’t! I was broke (you know, since I’m volunteering in Ghana, I’m broke as a joke). Just going to the store and back was always an inventorial process- Do I have enough gas to get there? Do I have any money to get enough gas to get there? It was more restricting than liberating this time. Of course things would have been different if I were working but it was just the complete opposite of my expectation.

In general, going back home put a lot of things in perspective for me. Spending time with family and friends reinforced the fact that I want to go back home to live with the roots of my life – my family. I’m missing a lot being away from them. Going home was a wake up call that soon I’d be returning home and I need to decide and start taking steps in preparing towards my future back there- school, job, personal life, etc. I gotta get on the ball.

Now I’m back in Ghana. I’m actually happy to be back- back to the simple way of life. This year, I plan to do more life skills, health and HIV/AIDS education in schools, extend computer training to Hospital staff, and coordinate self-support projects and activities for our People Living with HIV/AIDS support group. I also want to coordinate a “Take Your Daughter to Work Day” to give our orphans exposure to the careers fields they are thinking of entering and make those dreams tangible in their minds. I’ll keep you updated. In the meantime, your letters, calls and love is still welcome at the same address and telephone numbers. Until next time.

Ciao!

P.S. Please forgive any errors, I typed this so quickly I didn't get the chance to reread.