GHANA PART 1

On Monday February 13^th, the MV Explorer arrived to Ghana. Ghana is located in West Africa and is a country of 25 million people. The country's capital is Accra. We ported in Tema which is an hour away from Accra. The night before arrival, I couldn't sleep at all! Since I can remember, it has always been a dream of mine to go to Africa. That is the one place that I would choose to go if I ever had the chance. Ghana is also one of the reasons that I chose to go on Semester at Sea in the first place. After my first African country....I LOVE AFRICA! Africa is one of those places that I believe every American should experience once in their life. This blog is hard for me to write simply because of the lack of words. Amazing, beautiful, sad, unacceptable, pure, dirty, refreshing, raw, none of these words explain what my eyes saw in a short 5 days.

Once we docked in Tema port, it took about 2 hours to clear immigrations and customs. During this time, a ship full of eager people were about to be slapped in the face with our first real “culture shock”. Ghana's culture is not like any American or familiar way of life. When we were still on this ship, there were dancers and drummers waiting to greet us! There were also people with their booths set up ready to sell us their crafts. We got off the ship and got straight onto a shuttle that would take us to Accra. The bus ride into town was absolutely silent, and my eyes were working over time. It took us just under 2 hours to go 18 miles. TRAFFIC.

The drive there was spent seeing first hand the way of life in Ghana. I remember when I went on the ELCA Youth Gathering in 2009, my most shocking experience was seeing a village in Mexico from the train, with just a wall separating me, a privileged youth from this rough way of life. My Mexico experience of this poverty was then multiplied by about 10 and I was thrown in to it in Africa. Village after village, dirt road after dirt road, huts after huts, I was no longer in America, Brazil, Dominica, or the Bahamas. I was in a whole new world. No amount of lectures, readings, and stories could have prepared me for what I was seeing. I did not know how to process all of this, and I didn't know what to think of what I was seeing. The 2 hours finally passed and as I exited the shuttle bus, I had my first interaction with local people. This is where the culture shock kicked in. As soon as the bus doors opened, every person was swarmed by 10 men, grabbing us and yelling at us to look at their things to buy. They seemed genuine though. Genuine to be welcoming, or genuine just to get our money? That I cannot fully answer, but they nevertheless seemed “genuine”. We were greeted with hugs, hand shakes, and they wanted to know me on a personal level. They asked for my name, and that, they would never forget throughout the week..

The men made us name bracelets, handed us their goods, followed us for hours. Of course, they wanted money. It was impossible to get “rid” of them no matter how hard everyone tried. At this point in time, my experience changed drastically from the experience that other people had. This is when many people became irritated. They became mad. They wanted their “personal space”. For me, I had never felt more comfortable, which is ironic, because a Southern California girl thrown in to Africa does not fit the definition of comfortable. A man came up to me and was instantly “in love” he wanted to be with me and he wanted to get to know me. I told him that he just met me and that I don't even know him. He told me that he would stay with me during the day to make sure that no one rips me off. This however was not the whole reason why I felt more comfortable. The city was thriving with culture. I was in awe of the people's interactions with each other. I was surprised, but not, at the fast pace life, the masses of people flooding the streets, the noises of the city. If I closed my eyes, I for a minute felt like I was in Los Angeles. But the difference was the people. The difference was the smell. The difference was the heat. The difference was the sound. It was nothing like I had ever experienced, but I felt okay. I felt safe. The day went on and I continued to spend way too much money, but the conversations that I had with people made it worth it. I love Ghana. I love the people, I love the culture, I love the change. I understand how many people had “bad experiences” in Ghana, but that was just culture shock. People were uncomfortable, and instead of embracing it, many people ran to the ship as a safe-haven. I can not lie and say that I do not enjoy the comfort of having a “home” in every country. It is nice to at the end of a long hot day, come “home” to my own space, my own bed, my own shower..but then again did I not sign up for this trip to experience the “real” way of life around the world? I did, and that is why I did a home-stay in a village in the middle of Ghana Africa. TO BE CONTINUED.