These are just my thoughts ladies and gentlemen!
A little over two days before departure. I’m lying on my bed wondering who and what I will miss and how much. Drake plays in the background… I think back to the travel clinic when the white nurse told me that some African countries should still be colonies… HMMM…
How will Ghana look, smell, feel? Will it be like Kenya or South Africa? Or neither. I worked a Bar Mitzvah today at the Varsity Theater. I can only imagine how much money was spent on a 13-year-old boy. I’m not knocking tradition or religion by any means. I have been contemplating how many pairs of shoes to bring to Ghana. Which ones I don’t mind messing up or leaving at the end of my time in Ghana. Thousands of dollars on a Bar Mitzvah, multiple shoes to select from, and then the thought of people who don’t have food to eat and I’m worried about messing up a pair of shoes. I’m excited to witness the amount of happiness people with so little can have. It is amazing to see where and how people find happiness. I’m excited for the simple (maybe bad word choice) life.
I anticipate the 5 stages of culture shock; honeymoon, distress, re-integration/angry, autonomy, and independence. I am juggling how to deal with them myself and how to guide the group of students I’m traveling with through the staged. And often times it is worse when one returns home from abroad.
I watched the Ghana v. USA game today. I have to admit that I found myself cheering for Ghana until the very end when I realized it was actually going to be over for the US. I can’t deny that I espouse the notion that the US is the greatest nation in the world. I have yet to find a place that I’d rather live. Deep down I hope that I’ll find a place that can fill the void of not being home. But I often wonder why I miss home so much when I’m gone. Is it the city, landscape, definitely not the cold… If home is where the heart is, my heart is with my people. But how come I don’t miss Kenya and my parents live there?
Maybe Ghana will the place that I’ve been searching for. We shall see.
I’m tired, going to bed. Forgive me for the typos and bad grammar but consider this my journal for the world to read.
The life and times of amo…
