GHANA

I can't wait for Ghana! There's so much going through my head right now. I can't wait to drive into this village where no one speaks English, no one has seen white people, and actually make a difference while living there for three days. We're taking duffle bags filled to the max with school supplies and soccer balls, etc. I can't wait to sit down and talk with the Chief and the Queen of the Village. It's all so crazy!

 

It sucks because people decided they wanted to jump onto our trip and not tell us. A water project from a class is going to purify water in the village for the people. Sounds awesome, right? It would be if they would actually communicate with us since, well, we are in fact doing everything else together. Oh yeah, everything that my group planned, so you're welcome water project people? Don't get me wrong, I'm more than willing to combine groups, in fact I want to. It'd be awesome. We'd be changing the village from two different perspectives: health & education. It's just sad that they're losing the sight of why we're there. If you don't want to get along, then fine. Swallow your pride for three days so we can do something amazing together.

 

Classes are crazy. It's very difficult to readjust to lectures after traveling for ten days straight. We had an environmental expert as a guest lecture in Global Studies. I wish I had my notebook with me to give all the facts I wrote down, but I guess I'll just dedicate a post to the environmental people at the good old ITH :p.

 

Tonight was our first interport lecture from a business man in Ghana (I wish I had listened to his credentials more rather than draw, but I'm way behind in art class!). Ghana sounds like an amazing place. It has the cities, villages, rural areas, and rain forests. So much to do! Their currency is the Cedid and they recently cut down their monetary system. As the speaker put it, they simply "took out the zeros." After talking to the Assistant Dean she said at one point people were walking around Ghana with trash bags of money because they had so many bills since the currency was so large. Haha. I've heard nothing but great things about the people. I guess the village is anxiously awaiting our arrival. I keep imagining a big welcoming cermamony (which is what we're supposed to get, actually. Music and dance and all). I can't wait to see all of the kids. We're going to go into a farm and help a family for part of a day and during the school day we're going to visit the kids in the house because we've been told that will get them excited to go to school. We're going to buy textbooks along the way since the biggest problem in the education system is that kids in the villages don't have the proper reading material to pass the national exams. Many kids just leave school in the middle of the day or simply don't go and instead help their families on the farm.

 

Now that I'm jumping back and forth between topics, Semester at Sea is probably one of the greatest opportunities possible as far as education goes. No where else can you eat meals with your professors (or even Desmond Tutu!) on a daily basis. This is the place where they really get to know you  because they can't escape you. You constantly pass them in the halls. No where else will you be studying and look out to see whales, sea turtles, jumping fish, sharks feeding on the fish, or dolphins. It's just incredible. The ocean is so majestic and it never gets old. I've always heard about those old tales of people going crazy while at sea for extended periods of time. I really don't understand how that happens. It's always so relaxing. Where else do you babysit your professor's kids or have your "extended family" father be the incumbent of the seat of Thomas Jefferson in the Virginia House of Representatives. No where else will you have a range from sophomores in high school all the way to 90 year old British women sitting in on your college level classes, all the while contributing knowledge and learning themselves or hangout with 12 year olds like it's no big deal (definitely beats Happyland, sorry guys ;) ). I invite you to try to find another place where you can be learning one day and the next wake up in a foreign country where you can go out and put what you've learned to the test. It's beyond "hands on" activity. It engages your mind. I'm also in awe of how many different kinds of potatoes and pasts they can make on the ship. Every single meal is salad, pasta, some mystery meat, and some form of potatoes. At points they'll try to pull a fast one and put potatoes in everything like the stew, their premade salads, etc. We're starting to notice their tactics.

 

The greatest thing that happened today: They had Mac&Cheese at lunch AND apple pie at dinner. It was a nice break We had to sneak down to the other dining hall to steal some more pie since ours ran out upstairs.

 

Needless to say, I've got Ghana on my mind!