This is the hardest job I’ve ever had. How do I know? Because I actually miss Florida. That was one place I thought I could do without, but I sometimes find myself thinking about how nice it would be if I was back in Orlando with my college friends, or back down in Largo having dinner with my family, or surfing at Coco Beach, or canoeing at Kings River, or just being lazy and playing video games all day.
I like it here, I really do, but sometimes I get a little homesick. It is just so nice to clearly express yourself and know everyone understands the words coming out of your mouth. That is something that doesn’t always happen here. I have so much more respect for everyone I have ever met in America who moved there with English as their second language.
Alright, let me talk about what I’ve been up to lately. I got back from Ghana last week. I was there for three days in the capital, Accra, with two other volunteers. Oh my god, that place is amazing. It is like America! All the roads are paved, they have trash cans, they have an overpass, and they even have a mall with a movie theater! The first day was spent at the mall. This place is seriously straight out of America. I had only known of Togo before this trip, so I had no idea there were places like this in West Africa. It was just so clean! I felt really out of place. I was still wearing my dirty clothes I had on me from when I left Togo that morning, and smelled from the four hour bush taxi ride over to Accra. I was also overly excited about the food court where I ate mall food pizza, a chicken sandwich, and ice cream. The evening was spent watching movies(plural) in the movie theater.
The first half of the second day was spent wandering the paved streets of Ghana. We found a nice place for breakfast, checked out a cool store called Global Mamas (you should look it up!), and found a nice bar where we watched Eastern European soccer matches.
The second half of the second day was spent doing what I had come to Ghana to do. And that was attending the QS World MBA Fair. It was this event held at a super fancy resort where representatives and admissions people from a bunch of different schools showed up to show off their school’s MBA programs. They are holding this thing in a bunch of the major cities all across the world. I found out about it a couple months ago when randomly looking at ‘up coming events’ for a graduate school. I figured this would be one of the few times I would meet with people from my potential future school while in Peace Corps, so I invited two other volunteers and got my visa in order.
It was really interesting and it gave me a chance to actually wear that pair of business socks I brought to Togo(I knew there was a reason why I brought them!). I met some nice people who seemed a little confused why this American was there. One person in particular put it best when she said “so you’re an Irish citizen, with an Italian last name, an American accent, living in Togo, but over here in Ghana”. That started to make me question who I am and if I even have an identity, but I’ll just stop here with that. I have dual citizenship by the way, in case you were wondering. Overall, I had a lot of questions answered, met a few good people, and have a pretty good idea about my future.
The third day was spent eating a good breakfast and then hitting the road back to Togo. I was still thinking about Ghana on my 7 hour bush taxi ride back up to Sotouboua. Being cramped between the door and a mom nursing her baby, I thought about the bush taxis over there. That was a place where a row with three seats only had three people sitting in it. I was currently sitting in a row with three seats but with five people(six if you include the baby).
We pulled into Sotouboua around 10pm and the moto guys all pulled up to see if they could get a customer. When they saw me they all asked where I had been, what I’d been up to, and of course where was the bread (it’s a tradition to bring bread back for your family when you go on a trip here). This instantly reminded me how much I liked Sotouboua and the people here. It was just so nice that I could feel so happy to see these people after such a long trip. I know I get annoyed over the whole language barrier thing here, but I really do feel like I am back at home whenever I get into Sotouboua. Sure it might not have a movie theater or spacious bush taxis, but the people know me, they are super nice, and they can make good foufou.
This was a really awesome post! Many of us sitting back here in the states can only dream of experiencing something like this, and despite the struggles, it seems you’re handling everything really well. And even more importantly, you’re humbled by it all. Good for you. Everything you’re going through now will certainly change the way you see things in this world, and it’ll be something you’ll never forget. Although, I’m sure you already know all of this
PS – I’m in some of Dr. Folse’s classes, who has told us about your blog. I promise I’m not a random creeper leaving you a comment hahah