Friday, April 23, 2010
FYI
So, I just want everyone to know I just spent the last three hours of my life attempting to upload about 50 awesome National Geographic caliber pictures from my travels over the past month. Lucky you, the only one that actually uploaded was a picture of my dirty feet. I apologize for the lack of pictures, the internet works at snail's pace on a good day so I will continue my efforts. In the mean time, enjoy my feet!~
Monday, April 19, 2010
SOME STEREOTYPES ARE TRUE: WHITE MEN CAN'T DANCE (or at least this white man)
Just a Little Background
Today was the D-Day of performing arts here at the University of Ghana. I had two back-to-back final examination performances in front of two separate panels of judges. As luck would have it, they scheduled my Traditional African Drumming final at the same time as my Traditional African Dance final. So, immediately after dancing I had to run over to the music department and take the drumming final. Those of you know me well know anything music or dancing-related is simply not my forte'. I can’t even clap to a beat, so as you could imagine, I was pretty nervous for my performing arts examinations. Just when I thought I couldn’t feel any whiter in Africa – I did.
Setting the Stage:
DANCE FINAL
The clock struck 7AM and I put on my dance uniform and went over my three dances and reviewed for my drumming performance. When I arrived at the examination room, the setting was exactly like American Idol. One of the judges called, “Next... Jaaassson Holley," and placed the number three on my shirt. I was told to enter the room. My heart raced as I entered. There were just four other people and myself standing in a line. The room was dimmly lit and in the front sat 5 intimidating judges and about 6 professional drummers that provided the music for the dances. At that moment, it hit me. What in the hell am I doing here? Have you ever felt that feeling that you are not at all where you are supposed to be – completely out of your element – completely out of place? Here I was about to give a performance for 3 real semester units of transferable grade and I was about to be graded on the one thing in life I am worst at… dancing. All of a sudden without warning the drummers started pounding away and since I was the first group to go I had no idea what to do – do I start dancing or wait for some sort of signal? After an awkward pregnant pause I decided I should start dancing… so I began. For some unknown reason, maybe it's genetics, I can never stay on the same beat as everyone else. I definitely have "White Dancer Syndrome." I just can’t stay on rhythm no matter how hard I try. After I completed the first dance and made several mistakes I knew I had to step it up for the second dance. I danced harder than I ever had before and even saw a few of the judges laugh. Hopefully a laugh of approval but not likely. Overall I knew I gave it my all – a valiant effort. I’m taking the course pass/no pass so I just have to get a C or above in order to get a Pass grade so dance class doesn’t ruin my GPA. On the way out of the examination room the professor placed her hand on my shoulder and said, "Great effort but you looked a little tense." This is the same professor last week that asked me if I was just walking around or dancing – so I was glad that she knew I was dancing this time.
DRUMMING FINAL
Immediately after my dances I ran over to the music department and prepared for my drum final. This setting was even more intimidating than the dance because I was told to enter a small dark room in front of 3 judges and immediately was asked the origin of the music "Gota" that I was performing and when it was used. Luckily, I prepared for questioning so I spoke for 4 minutes about the piece until one of the judges interrupted me and said, “Just play the song.” in a frustrated voice. So after that rough start it was game time. I thought I performed flawlessly because I had practiced it about 400 times prior. It sounded correct to my ear but at the very end of the performance the professor said, “Son you are very good, but you left your babies behind.” I don’t know what in the world that even means. Maybe, I played too fast. Possibly I was off beat from the other 4 people in my group and doing my own thing? I’m not quite sure. Anyway I was kind of disappointed in myself for playing off beat because I had practiced so much but I had to keep it together and move on. Next, I had to play the bell. The cow bell mind you is the bain of my existence. It makes it very loud and clear that I don’t have rhythm. The only problem is that the drummers depend on a good bell rhythm in order to stay on track. I thought I was doing just fine until one of the judges shook his head, stood up from the panel, walked over to me – took the bell out of my hands and started playing. I just hung my head. I’m sure this didn’t help my overall grade. I tried to finish the rest of the music the best I could and hold it together with the supporting drums, etc. All the judges looked angry. One judge answered his cell phone during my performance and I’m pretty sure one judge was asleep. That was definitely one of my rougher final examinations. I just pray I performed well enough to get a pass on my transcript. At least I can say I faced my greatest fear of dancing and performing a musical instrument in front of judges for an academic grade.
A Look Into My Last 4 Weeks
I’m now officially done with classes and am about to embark on finals month. Yes, finals take an entire month here. I have about one final per week and then depart on May 16th. Since my last final is May 10th I intend to travel for about four days. Maybe out of Ghana and into some surrounding African Countries. Thanks so much as always for reading the blog.
J
Today was the D-Day of performing arts here at the University of Ghana. I had two back-to-back final examination performances in front of two separate panels of judges. As luck would have it, they scheduled my Traditional African Drumming final at the same time as my Traditional African Dance final. So, immediately after dancing I had to run over to the music department and take the drumming final. Those of you know me well know anything music or dancing-related is simply not my forte'. I can’t even clap to a beat, so as you could imagine, I was pretty nervous for my performing arts examinations. Just when I thought I couldn’t feel any whiter in Africa – I did.
Setting the Stage:
DANCE FINAL
The clock struck 7AM and I put on my dance uniform and went over my three dances and reviewed for my drumming performance. When I arrived at the examination room, the setting was exactly like American Idol. One of the judges called, “Next... Jaaassson Holley," and placed the number three on my shirt. I was told to enter the room. My heart raced as I entered. There were just four other people and myself standing in a line. The room was dimmly lit and in the front sat 5 intimidating judges and about 6 professional drummers that provided the music for the dances. At that moment, it hit me. What in the hell am I doing here? Have you ever felt that feeling that you are not at all where you are supposed to be – completely out of your element – completely out of place? Here I was about to give a performance for 3 real semester units of transferable grade and I was about to be graded on the one thing in life I am worst at… dancing. All of a sudden without warning the drummers started pounding away and since I was the first group to go I had no idea what to do – do I start dancing or wait for some sort of signal? After an awkward pregnant pause I decided I should start dancing… so I began. For some unknown reason, maybe it's genetics, I can never stay on the same beat as everyone else. I definitely have "White Dancer Syndrome." I just can’t stay on rhythm no matter how hard I try. After I completed the first dance and made several mistakes I knew I had to step it up for the second dance. I danced harder than I ever had before and even saw a few of the judges laugh. Hopefully a laugh of approval but not likely. Overall I knew I gave it my all – a valiant effort. I’m taking the course pass/no pass so I just have to get a C or above in order to get a Pass grade so dance class doesn’t ruin my GPA. On the way out of the examination room the professor placed her hand on my shoulder and said, "Great effort but you looked a little tense." This is the same professor last week that asked me if I was just walking around or dancing – so I was glad that she knew I was dancing this time.
DRUMMING FINAL
Immediately after my dances I ran over to the music department and prepared for my drum final. This setting was even more intimidating than the dance because I was told to enter a small dark room in front of 3 judges and immediately was asked the origin of the music "Gota" that I was performing and when it was used. Luckily, I prepared for questioning so I spoke for 4 minutes about the piece until one of the judges interrupted me and said, “Just play the song.” in a frustrated voice. So after that rough start it was game time. I thought I performed flawlessly because I had practiced it about 400 times prior. It sounded correct to my ear but at the very end of the performance the professor said, “Son you are very good, but you left your babies behind.” I don’t know what in the world that even means. Maybe, I played too fast. Possibly I was off beat from the other 4 people in my group and doing my own thing? I’m not quite sure. Anyway I was kind of disappointed in myself for playing off beat because I had practiced so much but I had to keep it together and move on. Next, I had to play the bell. The cow bell mind you is the bain of my existence. It makes it very loud and clear that I don’t have rhythm. The only problem is that the drummers depend on a good bell rhythm in order to stay on track. I thought I was doing just fine until one of the judges shook his head, stood up from the panel, walked over to me – took the bell out of my hands and started playing. I just hung my head. I’m sure this didn’t help my overall grade. I tried to finish the rest of the music the best I could and hold it together with the supporting drums, etc. All the judges looked angry. One judge answered his cell phone during my performance and I’m pretty sure one judge was asleep. That was definitely one of my rougher final examinations. I just pray I performed well enough to get a pass on my transcript. At least I can say I faced my greatest fear of dancing and performing a musical instrument in front of judges for an academic grade.
A Look Into My Last 4 Weeks
I’m now officially done with classes and am about to embark on finals month. Yes, finals take an entire month here. I have about one final per week and then depart on May 16th. Since my last final is May 10th I intend to travel for about four days. Maybe out of Ghana and into some surrounding African Countries. Thanks so much as always for reading the blog.
J
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Trip to Drum Professor's Village
Introductory remarks
I seem to be on the homestretch of my journey in West Africa. I have just about 5 and a half weeks left until I board United Emirates on May 16th and come back to the land of familiarity. I only have one more week of lectures, one week of revision, and three weeks of finals. What a journey this has been. If you have followed along with my blog you know full well how jam-packed my life has been with new and extraordinary experiences over the past three to four months. Though I am so grateful and lucky to have a positive and definitely life-changing experience this semester, I will be ready to come home. It wasn’t until this past week that I really started missing my life in the States. It’s strange that after being here for about 4 months, I no longer constantly think about back home. Interestingly, because I have been away and out of real contact with the States, my life in Ghana has become my reality and I started to rarely think about my life in the States. It wasn’t until just yesterday I remembered how I have a car back home and how weird it will be to go back to my old life with law, order, and most of all, efficiency.
Trip to Drum Professor's Village
Last Friday I set off with my professor and about 15 other students from my Traditional African Drumming class to my professor’s small and remote village called Jajabo in the Eastern Volta region of Ghana where he grew up. While you may be used to blogs jam-packed with weird experiences like baboon attacks or the brakes going out on our bus – my trip with my drum professor was exciting in its own way. I got to completely experience the rural village life for three days. Eat what they eat, shower out of a bucket, sleep on cement, and yes use the toilet hole…. everything!! Even though we were quite the spectacle, all the villagers were so nice and curious about us. While some of the places in Ghana I have visited are camera shy, the villagers in Jajabo loved their picture to be taken and then to see themselves on the camera, so I took about 200 very cool pictures. The most amazing part of the trip was how village life carried on as it would normally as if we weren’t there so we got a real taste of what life in an African villager's life is like. For one of the first times during my travels here in Africa I didn’t feel like an American tourist peering in from afar at African village life – I actually got to submerge myself in it.
What happened?
Day 1 Arrival
Once we arrived, about 50 village children ran out to greet us. My hair was quite a spectacle once again. We stumbled upon a traditional ceremony (which happens one Friday per month) which consisted of traditional drumming and African dancing. I didn’t know this but apparently my drum professor is a very big deal in all of West Africa and is a sort of famous man even in Europe where he has played for the royalty. He is known as "Master Johnson" or "Master Drummer." Once we arrived at the drum and dance ceremony the villagers were so happy to see the drum master. After he hugged all his family and friends he grew up with, all the Ubronis (white people) were pushed into a huge circle of about 100 villagers and my drum professor told us to dance. As usual, people took one look at my dancing and were overwhelmed with laughter but, it’s cool, I’m used to that by now. The ceremony was a very interesting experience because I didn’t think that part of African culture was still alive in Africa. I thought the ritualistic dances in circles and traditional drumming was only something we see in anthropological “stereotypical African movies” or learn about in school and not part of modern village life. But I was wrong. That aspect of African culture tracing way back to their roots and ancestors is very much alive. To my surprise, all the villagers were dressed in beautiful, ornate, and colorful cloths with traditional African designs. It was sort of a surreal experience because I had to take a moment and acknowledge the fact that I was in the middle of some rural village partaking in an ancient African ceremony. Life doesn’t get any cooler than that. After about 2 hours of dancing, our drum prof called us over to this small hut-like building and gave us alcoholic shots of Apateshie (the local spirit or alcohol). It did feel pretty weird taking shots of alcohol with my professor (especially when he said “it burns so good,” but I suppose anything goes in Africa. The sleeping situation was a bit rough both literally and figuratively. Thin foam mats and cement not to mention it was about 100 degrees with no air circulation and yes, cockroaches. A lot of them. All made for a rough sleep but it’s a small price to pay for the experience.
Day 2 The Funeral
For the first half of the day we pretty much just played with the village children and wandered around and talked to the locals. Since it was a rural village they didn’t speak much English so our interactions were basically broken sign language. Our drum prof. then took us to a nearby village where about 300 villagers were celebrating the death of the village elder. Yes, I said celebrating… surprising huh?. Apparently here in Africa when a person dies at an old age, the funeral is not supposed to be sad. There is drinking, dancing, drumming, and traditional festive funeral activities. I personally think that’s the way funerals should be – a celebration of life not a mourning of death. It was pretty cool that we got to partake in ceremonial funeral, something I’m sure not to many foreigners get to experience. Who would have thought that during my stay in Ghana I would have witnessed a wedding and a funeral?
Day 3 The Chief
Before we set out to meet the chief my drum professor took us to his brother’s house where he said it was custom to drink alcohol before meeting the chief and to give the chief a bottle of brandy as an offering or gift. I’m pretty sure Master Johnson just wanted another excuse to drink with his students but in any event we sat there at 11am and drank hard alcohol with my professor. He sort of reminds me of our late neighbor Dalton Hudson. He is just the kindest and nicest old man you would ever want to meet who dedicates his life to making other people happy. He was so excited to show us around his village.
After, we got to meet the chief. When we showed up, the chief was surrounded by 2 village elders, some sort of guard in a toga, and a linguist who was an English translator. Interestingly, all of the “higher ups” were in exotic togas except for the chief who was only wearing a shower towel. I’m pretty sure he got embarrassed when we showed up because he quickly ran into his house to put on his chief toga and crown. On the way over, my classmates selected me to give the formal greeting as the ambassador on behalf of the United States. I must say it was a pretty epic moment when I bowed to the chief and said, “On behalf of the United States I extend my greatest gratitude for your hospitality and sharing the Jajabo village with us.” The chief then told his linguist to ask me if I could tell the royal council one thing that is unique about the United States as he himself had never been. I replied, “I come from a land of freedom and democracy. A place where all cultures come together as one. A place of hope.” For a brief moment I felt like President Obama. Even though my impromptu speech was a tad corny, it was still a very cool experience. After I gave my greeting to the chief, he stared at me for about 10 seconds and said, “Obama” and reached his hand out to shake my hand. I know it sounds silly now looking back on it, but everybody was dead silent and it was a really cool feeling. For some reason it really made me want to be in a position where I could have great influence in politics and law. After we met the chief we went back to the village and ate some fufu which is one of the food staples in Ghana. It is the smashed playdough-type substance that you swallow whole with a little sauce on it. I’m not the biggest fan of food you have to swallow without chewing because it tastes bad, but what are you going to do?
Anyway, the rest of our stay in the village was just free time. I walked around and played with the kids and spoke with the elders. I also saw a group of people making kente cloth with a huge wooden loom so I bought my mom a scarf and filmed the process. After another tough night's sleep we headed back to campus.
Corruption at school?
So, I know this story doesn’t really fit with the rest of the blog but I have to add it in. So a few days after we got back from the village I was in lecture and the professor started lecture by saying, “As you all know the professor evaluations will soon be administered. I need not remind you that how you rate my performance as a professor may very well effect your grade.” I laughed to myself and looked around thinking that the professor was joking. Apparently he was not. It’s a different world over here, his job must be on the line. I suppose I will never know if it was a joke or not but I suppose I am going to play this one safe and not give him a bad review.
IN CONCLUSION,
I have been thinking about this a lot lately so I thought it might be beneficial to my readers if I added this to my blog.
Changes
We are truly a sum of our experiences. That is, every single person and experience we come in contact with over the course of our life contributes in shaping our very existence on this planet. I never believed this to be completely true, until now. I thought I knew who I was yet also knew that I wanted to be more. I knew that I was a hard worker, had an exceptionally amazing family and friends, and lived a privileged life, but I knew that in a way I was living in a bubble. The privileged bubble of Fair Oaks and UC Santa Barbara is seeming more and more like a dreamworld which is simply not a reality for 99% of the rest of the world. Many of you had asked why I wanted to choose Africa, and in short I wanted to find the full potential in myself. I wanted my eyes to be opened to most people's reality. I know that sounds cliché, but I knew that there just had to be more to life than the suburban bubble. While studying hard and partying/having fun every weekend for much of my college life, UCSB has been a terrific experience and something I don’t regret but coming to Africa has opened my eyes to a different reality and further ignited in me the pre-existing flame to want to make a major difference during my short stay in this life. I know I want leave a major positive impact – and whatever that impact only the future can tell.
Thank you all so much as always for reading the blog. I will see most of you in just about 5 weeks. Anyway, enough rambling it’s time to get back to studying for finals.
Best,
J
I seem to be on the homestretch of my journey in West Africa. I have just about 5 and a half weeks left until I board United Emirates on May 16th and come back to the land of familiarity. I only have one more week of lectures, one week of revision, and three weeks of finals. What a journey this has been. If you have followed along with my blog you know full well how jam-packed my life has been with new and extraordinary experiences over the past three to four months. Though I am so grateful and lucky to have a positive and definitely life-changing experience this semester, I will be ready to come home. It wasn’t until this past week that I really started missing my life in the States. It’s strange that after being here for about 4 months, I no longer constantly think about back home. Interestingly, because I have been away and out of real contact with the States, my life in Ghana has become my reality and I started to rarely think about my life in the States. It wasn’t until just yesterday I remembered how I have a car back home and how weird it will be to go back to my old life with law, order, and most of all, efficiency.
Trip to Drum Professor's Village
Last Friday I set off with my professor and about 15 other students from my Traditional African Drumming class to my professor’s small and remote village called Jajabo in the Eastern Volta region of Ghana where he grew up. While you may be used to blogs jam-packed with weird experiences like baboon attacks or the brakes going out on our bus – my trip with my drum professor was exciting in its own way. I got to completely experience the rural village life for three days. Eat what they eat, shower out of a bucket, sleep on cement, and yes use the toilet hole…. everything!! Even though we were quite the spectacle, all the villagers were so nice and curious about us. While some of the places in Ghana I have visited are camera shy, the villagers in Jajabo loved their picture to be taken and then to see themselves on the camera, so I took about 200 very cool pictures. The most amazing part of the trip was how village life carried on as it would normally as if we weren’t there so we got a real taste of what life in an African villager's life is like. For one of the first times during my travels here in Africa I didn’t feel like an American tourist peering in from afar at African village life – I actually got to submerge myself in it.
What happened?
Day 1 Arrival
Once we arrived, about 50 village children ran out to greet us. My hair was quite a spectacle once again. We stumbled upon a traditional ceremony (which happens one Friday per month) which consisted of traditional drumming and African dancing. I didn’t know this but apparently my drum professor is a very big deal in all of West Africa and is a sort of famous man even in Europe where he has played for the royalty. He is known as "Master Johnson" or "Master Drummer." Once we arrived at the drum and dance ceremony the villagers were so happy to see the drum master. After he hugged all his family and friends he grew up with, all the Ubronis (white people) were pushed into a huge circle of about 100 villagers and my drum professor told us to dance. As usual, people took one look at my dancing and were overwhelmed with laughter but, it’s cool, I’m used to that by now. The ceremony was a very interesting experience because I didn’t think that part of African culture was still alive in Africa. I thought the ritualistic dances in circles and traditional drumming was only something we see in anthropological “stereotypical African movies” or learn about in school and not part of modern village life. But I was wrong. That aspect of African culture tracing way back to their roots and ancestors is very much alive. To my surprise, all the villagers were dressed in beautiful, ornate, and colorful cloths with traditional African designs. It was sort of a surreal experience because I had to take a moment and acknowledge the fact that I was in the middle of some rural village partaking in an ancient African ceremony. Life doesn’t get any cooler than that. After about 2 hours of dancing, our drum prof called us over to this small hut-like building and gave us alcoholic shots of Apateshie (the local spirit or alcohol). It did feel pretty weird taking shots of alcohol with my professor (especially when he said “it burns so good,” but I suppose anything goes in Africa. The sleeping situation was a bit rough both literally and figuratively. Thin foam mats and cement not to mention it was about 100 degrees with no air circulation and yes, cockroaches. A lot of them. All made for a rough sleep but it’s a small price to pay for the experience.
Day 2 The Funeral
For the first half of the day we pretty much just played with the village children and wandered around and talked to the locals. Since it was a rural village they didn’t speak much English so our interactions were basically broken sign language. Our drum prof. then took us to a nearby village where about 300 villagers were celebrating the death of the village elder. Yes, I said celebrating… surprising huh?. Apparently here in Africa when a person dies at an old age, the funeral is not supposed to be sad. There is drinking, dancing, drumming, and traditional festive funeral activities. I personally think that’s the way funerals should be – a celebration of life not a mourning of death. It was pretty cool that we got to partake in ceremonial funeral, something I’m sure not to many foreigners get to experience. Who would have thought that during my stay in Ghana I would have witnessed a wedding and a funeral?
Day 3 The Chief
Before we set out to meet the chief my drum professor took us to his brother’s house where he said it was custom to drink alcohol before meeting the chief and to give the chief a bottle of brandy as an offering or gift. I’m pretty sure Master Johnson just wanted another excuse to drink with his students but in any event we sat there at 11am and drank hard alcohol with my professor. He sort of reminds me of our late neighbor Dalton Hudson. He is just the kindest and nicest old man you would ever want to meet who dedicates his life to making other people happy. He was so excited to show us around his village.
After, we got to meet the chief. When we showed up, the chief was surrounded by 2 village elders, some sort of guard in a toga, and a linguist who was an English translator. Interestingly, all of the “higher ups” were in exotic togas except for the chief who was only wearing a shower towel. I’m pretty sure he got embarrassed when we showed up because he quickly ran into his house to put on his chief toga and crown. On the way over, my classmates selected me to give the formal greeting as the ambassador on behalf of the United States. I must say it was a pretty epic moment when I bowed to the chief and said, “On behalf of the United States I extend my greatest gratitude for your hospitality and sharing the Jajabo village with us.” The chief then told his linguist to ask me if I could tell the royal council one thing that is unique about the United States as he himself had never been. I replied, “I come from a land of freedom and democracy. A place where all cultures come together as one. A place of hope.” For a brief moment I felt like President Obama. Even though my impromptu speech was a tad corny, it was still a very cool experience. After I gave my greeting to the chief, he stared at me for about 10 seconds and said, “Obama” and reached his hand out to shake my hand. I know it sounds silly now looking back on it, but everybody was dead silent and it was a really cool feeling. For some reason it really made me want to be in a position where I could have great influence in politics and law. After we met the chief we went back to the village and ate some fufu which is one of the food staples in Ghana. It is the smashed playdough-type substance that you swallow whole with a little sauce on it. I’m not the biggest fan of food you have to swallow without chewing because it tastes bad, but what are you going to do?
Anyway, the rest of our stay in the village was just free time. I walked around and played with the kids and spoke with the elders. I also saw a group of people making kente cloth with a huge wooden loom so I bought my mom a scarf and filmed the process. After another tough night's sleep we headed back to campus.
Corruption at school?
So, I know this story doesn’t really fit with the rest of the blog but I have to add it in. So a few days after we got back from the village I was in lecture and the professor started lecture by saying, “As you all know the professor evaluations will soon be administered. I need not remind you that how you rate my performance as a professor may very well effect your grade.” I laughed to myself and looked around thinking that the professor was joking. Apparently he was not. It’s a different world over here, his job must be on the line. I suppose I will never know if it was a joke or not but I suppose I am going to play this one safe and not give him a bad review.
IN CONCLUSION,
I have been thinking about this a lot lately so I thought it might be beneficial to my readers if I added this to my blog.
Changes
We are truly a sum of our experiences. That is, every single person and experience we come in contact with over the course of our life contributes in shaping our very existence on this planet. I never believed this to be completely true, until now. I thought I knew who I was yet also knew that I wanted to be more. I knew that I was a hard worker, had an exceptionally amazing family and friends, and lived a privileged life, but I knew that in a way I was living in a bubble. The privileged bubble of Fair Oaks and UC Santa Barbara is seeming more and more like a dreamworld which is simply not a reality for 99% of the rest of the world. Many of you had asked why I wanted to choose Africa, and in short I wanted to find the full potential in myself. I wanted my eyes to be opened to most people's reality. I know that sounds cliché, but I knew that there just had to be more to life than the suburban bubble. While studying hard and partying/having fun every weekend for much of my college life, UCSB has been a terrific experience and something I don’t regret but coming to Africa has opened my eyes to a different reality and further ignited in me the pre-existing flame to want to make a major difference during my short stay in this life. I know I want leave a major positive impact – and whatever that impact only the future can tell.
Thank you all so much as always for reading the blog. I will see most of you in just about 5 weeks. Anyway, enough rambling it’s time to get back to studying for finals.
Best,
J
Friday, April 9, 2010
Quick update (more coming soon)
Hope everything is going well. I am in the process of writing a new blog update but in the meantime I wanted to let everyone know I am still doing well. The semester is coming to a close and I will be coming home in 5 weeks!! Its amazing how fast time went by. I have tried to upload more pictures but as you know by reading the blog, sometimes things just don’t work properly here. Ghana has definitely d taught me the virtue of patience. I am going to really miss this place when I leave, but at the same time I am about ready to go home and see my family and friends. Its been too long. Please stay tuned in the next couple of days for a new update.
Best,
J
Best,
J
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