Slowly but surely, a little less confused
I came across this quote in another Medium post*:
These moments where nothing makes sense is where you get to explore. We’re not born with a meaning for our life. Meaning comes from learning who we are and growing as a person.
- Tim Denning
This quote is both inspiring and very relatable to my experience thus far. I think a large component of being a Global Fellow is your willingness and desire to grow as a person by pushing your boundaries. Throughout the past couple weeks, I have definitely been challenged while getting used to a completely different culture. Nothing really makes sense yet. In fact, the slogans of our trip so far should be “Wait what’s happening, I’m confused?” or “What did they say?” — followed by a nervous laugh, of course — because we don’t go a day without saying that at least three times each. As much as we try, we still don’t know enough Twi. But, we do know what “oburoni” means though because it’s what Ghanaians call foreigners and we’ve heard that plenty of times. It’s oddly adorable when little kids start singing it.
But, what does make sense to me right now is why I’m here and how grateful I am for my life and what I have in the states. I’m slowly getting used to frequent yet random power outages and lack of water flow for days at a time and hand washing everything and having less freedom since we’re confused. Though, as I reflect through journaling so far, I find I am much more appreciative of each day and am soaking in every moment and interaction. I know this experience will continue to help me grow and find some sort of meaning. As the trip continues, slowly but surely I know all three of us will be less confused all the time.
Now, for some actual updates as to what I have done in this beautiful country!
When we arrived in Accra, the capital of Ghana, we were greeted by our cab driver and taken to our hotel for the night as we would embark on a very long (6 hour long but surprisingly comfortable) bus trek to Kumasi the next morning. We finally got to Kumasi and made it to Bernice’s home. Bernice Dapaah is the executive director of Bright Generation**, the community foundation and social enterprise I’m working with this summer. Over the weekend, I unpacked and played with Akua, Bernice’s sweet, adorable daughter, before getting ready to start work on Monday.
Fun fact: Ghanaians traditionally name their children after the day of the week they were born (each day has a few names for each gender). Akua actually means “born on a Wednesday” and is pronounced A-kwe-ah!
My first day of work consisted of meeting Solomon, Bernice’s second in command, and starting to work on my project. I’m designing a hydroponics system with a greenhouse to provide a controlled environment. Ghana is in need of a more sustainable and year round farming system and I’m so excited to help Bright Generation come up with affordable ways to help the community.
I absolutely love my project and its impact, but the work days do go by slow. I think after years of balancing academics, athletics and everything else, the “go-go-go” mentality was almost engrained into my brain. But, Ghana time definitely moves a lot slower, which has been one of the hardest adjustments thus far.
Even though the weekdays go by slow, there is always something to look forward to for the weekend. We’ve planned at least one adventure for each weekend so we can fully experience what Ghana has to offer. We first visited Bonwire, where the traditional African cloth, kente, originated. The intricacy of each strip of cloth is incredible the weavers go so fast it’s hard to keep up with what they’re doing. After purchasing some beautiful kente for my family, we adventured into a small forest of cacao trees and ate freshly cracked open cacao pods (they taste like candy!)
The next few weeks include visiting the bike factory, traveling to Kintampo Waterfalls and making the trek to Cape Coast! As the weeks pass, I will continue to post updates… in a much more timely manner!
*https://medium.com/the-mission/15-typical-life-problems-and-how-to-solve-them-c56838f49738 A very interesting read if you want to check it out!
**http://www.brightgeneration.org/ if you want to read more about Bright Generation and their incredible accomplishments!
