Last days, hours, minutes... for now.

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In the last few days of work at the Chronicle before my trip to Kenya, I covered a protest march to stop the violence in the Gambia, I went to a climate change symposium that was more like a 5 hour Nokia promotional meeting and a lecture from a journalism 100 class than an actual symposium, I went to a grant contract signing ceremony at the Embassy of Japan, and I got caught in a mob during a 2,000 person march to protest the recent spike in utility tariffs in Ghana. Just another day at the office 😊
I was sad to finish with my work at the paper, and I have a feeling I am going to find it quite difficult to sit in a classroom “learning” about the job I have been living for the past three months.
I was also sad to say goodbye to my co-workers, and I already miss all of the friends I made along my route home from work everyday - the shopkeeper’s baby Emmanuel who greeted me with a smile outside of the office in the mornings, the girls who sit outside the hair salon on the street next to the office, the girl who sold me grilled corn on the cob every day, the boy whose mother owns the shoe stand and who went through hell and high water to get me a pair of sandals that I love, and the ladies who sell clothes in the La Paz market and who have asked me 20 times if I can pack them in my luggage and take them back to America with me.
I had an amazing last weekend in Ghana spent in great places with even better friends.
I am leaving this country tomorrow, and as I’m sure it’s apparent, I really wish I had more time.
Being here for the second time has shown me all this country has to offer, again. The experience I had this time was vastly different from the experience I had last time and I wouldn’t change either of them if I could. I didn’t travel hardly at all (save for my Kenya adventure) and I actually had to take work seriously (unlike most of my classes last year.)
Being back here has brought my memories of the first time I came to Ghana so close to me and has allowed them to come alive for me again.
It was very difficult for me to adjust back to living here without all of the people that made my experience what it was last time and I struggled a great deal with not knowing if I came back to this country for the right reasons.
I have cried more times in the last 3 months than I care to count and they have been frustrating, exhausting and heartbreaking, yet, it’s still impossible not to find beauty in every day I spent.
Ghana has carved it’s own place in my soul and I carry both the good days and the bad days with me. There’s always something you can learn.
Working here was an invaluable experience for me and life will bring me back here, I already know this. What I will be doing here, I haven’t the faintest clue. Of course, I have a few ideas about what I would like to be doing, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, shall we? 😊
I’ve come to crave the chaos and the craziness of Ghana in my life once again and I will miss how music is so much a part of living here. It puts a soundtrack to your life and I believe you need that to sustain yourself.
I will miss constantly finding myself being the only American among the people I am surrounded with. I’ve come to thrive on such diversity. I became a part of a community completely separate from the university in the last three months and in doing so, I got a much better idea of what it feels like to live here. Even things as simple as listening to the local radio stations on the way to work made me more aware of the processes of daily life.
Once again, Ghana has taught so, so much. There were so many times when I felt like I simply couldn’t go on, simply couldn’t get into another hot, bumpy tro tro, simply could not wait for one more conference to start an hour late, simply could not deal with being called obroni one more time... but, life goes on, and you go with it, and you remember that patience is a virtue, tro tros really are too cheap to pass up, and sometimes you kind of like all of the attention 😊
I already know that tomorrow morning I will feel the now familiar ache of stepping on the plane to fly away from Ghana. But, it truly is a small world, and I just have to remember that.
Meanwhile, I’m missing you all.
Much love,
Cari

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Comments

[Sandy]

Affect
I hope you have contact information for all of the new people who have affected your life and can stay in touch with all of them. I had to look up the word "affect" to make sure it was the proper one to use. Webster's defined it perfectly: 1. to produce an effect upon. 2. to stir the emotions of. I feel that life will lead you back to Africa some day. I can only hope that I can be with you!