Sitting here in a comfortable but dimly lit hotel room in Accra I am forced to deal with the fact that my time in Ghana is rapidly drawing to a close. I have four more nights and to wrap up the trip Mom and I are heading to the coast for some relaxation and to give me the space/time needed to write up reports.
The past three weeks with my mom have been great but we have covered a lot of territory, seen some amazing things, and did some really great work with KAS (a Ghanaian colleague) to set up next year's study tour. I have met wonderful people who are incredibly helpful and welcoming but have also seen things things will take days, months, or years to fully process. Over the last few days we've had more office meetings which are always an open window into the intricacies and oddities of Ghanaian hierarchical power structures. We also visit the Eastern Region where the difference between the haves and have-nots was much more pronounced.
Yesterday mom and I sat and watched the opening of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa - while sitting there in the smoke filled room, dinning on the most amazaing Lebanese food every, we realized that we were part of history! This is the first time in the history of the World Cup (80 odd years) that it is being held in Africa and the people here are buzzing!! When we walked to dinner last night we passed people who were stopped in the streets to watch the games on huge outdoor screens - Accra (heck all of Ghana) will be nuts on Sunday when the Black Stars finally hit the field! Mom and I will be on the coast but are ready with our Go Ghana Go signs! We picked up jerseys yesterday but there are for others back home!
This has been and amazing trip and I'm sure that as I sit and ponder the state of the world while sitting on the beach and drinking a Savannah Dry I will think of more random thoughts and feelings to share! For those of you following our path, we will be leaving for the coast today and returning to Accra on Wednesday but will go directly to the airport (where I'm sure Amanda will meet up with us so I can pass off a lot more stuff to her!). From here we fly to Genoa Italy (via Amsterdam and Rome) where we will be residing for 2 nights, then we're on the Med for 7 days, back to Genoa for two and then finally I will be returning to the island!
Watch for more updates as there is a lot more adventure to come!
Aggie
way cool Ags! How are your ears from those traditional blow horn things ? All kidding aside it must have been an amazing experience.
ReplyDelete