Days 117 - 125, The Things I have Learned in Africa & My Surprise Homecoming

Well I made it home! A week earlier than I had originally planned, but I got to surprise my sister & all my friends so it was pretty fun! We had 3 weeks for finals & mine were all finished within one & I was pretty much completely out of money so I couldn’t do any extra traveling. Honestly, I could barely do any eating my last couple days because I was so broke so my mom had a friend that made a call (or several) for me & I came home a week early! I had a wonderful last week. I finished all of my exams & spent my last days with the awesome people I met. That doesn’t mean leaving didn’t break my heart completely though. It didn’t really hit that I was leaving even when I was on the plane home, & I still don’t think it’s hit me yet & I’m in Bozeman. My best friends that I met in Ghana took me to the airport & I held it together saying my goodbyes to everyone. I got a little teary eyed but didn’t actually shed any tears until I was in the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. I’m generally not much of a crier, but I thought I’d be a mess leaving so I’m glad I could hold it together a little bit at least. For my very last post I decided to share the things that I have learned over the past several months since I left in January & a video of me surprising my sister when I got home so here it goes –

Things I have learned:

-       I heard something on my last night in Ghana that just might stick with me forever, and that is that Americans could really take a lesson from Ghanaians on contentedness. These people don’t have much, but they are so incredibly happy. And if not happy, they are at least content. I’m not sure if I know many Americans that aren’t always looking for something bigger, something better, something more, and we already have so much.

-       Be proud of where you come from. Every country, state, and town is different. Take pride in that place & embrace the things that set your home apart from everyone.

-       Emerging yourself into a new culture, especially one that in underdeveloped, might be one of the hardest things you could ever do, do it anyways. It isn’t easy, but you will grow more than you know.

-       Never wish away the seasons, having all 4 (or close enough) is extremely lucky. Each season change brings a new excitement.

-       Listening to “I’ll be home for Christmas” is a quick fix for homesickness.

-       Potholes in Montana aren’t worth complaining about. And they will always be fixed. Eventually.

-       Be thankful that the US has driving laws & even more thankful that most drivers obey them.

-       We live with way more than we will ever really need. Life can be so much simpler.

-       Schools is the US are amazing. The organization & resources are something to be appreciated.

-       While embracing a new culture is tricky, keep in mind that what they do is now wrong, just different.

-       Not using your phone in social settings is one of the best things you can do for your life. It allows you to be present & in the moment.

-       If you have parents that love you, you have much more than so many others.

-       Diversity & acceptance of those differences is rare. A lot of the world doesn’t hold these qualities & I’m thankful that the US does.

Writing this blog has been a lot of fun for me these past few months. Thanks for keeping up with my adventures! It feels good to be home :) Love to you all,

Kasey

Days 100-116

Life here is starting to slow down, but it’s definitely keeping me busy. We are on our first week of finals right now. I had one Tuesday, Wednesday, & yesterday. Now I have two more left, one tomorrow & one next Wednesday. Then I have just a little over a week to enjoy my last moments living in Ghana before I board the plane & start my journey back home. I’m actually really nervous about being back home. When I got here there was some culture shock, but everyone expected me not to know my way around here. I was a foreigner so they gave me a lot of grace in adjusting back to life here. When I go home, so much has happened in my life & everyone else’s since I left in January & I know I am not the same as I was when I left that day. Everything that is supposed to feel so normal probably won’t anymore & everyone might expect me to be the same as I was before, but I won’t be. I guess dealing with that reverse culture shock really freaks me out. And I will be so sad to leave here. I have loved it so much. It has been such an incredible experience & Africa is a really amazing place. It is the complete opposite of home, but I love it. I think I have grown a lot here, I feel like I can do anything now. I’m still just in my 20’s trying to figure out where my place in this world is, but I have way more confidence in myself after spending half a year living here. I feel like after being able to handle of this, I can take on just about anything. And the best part is, I know I can do it all by myself. I had some guidance here, but for the most part I survived here all on my own, and loved doing it! I think that’s a pretty big accomplishment.

Last week I worked am event for the West African AIDS Foundation. We tested 100 people for HIV right on campus. I was just a volunteer, one of my friends put the event together, but it was pretty cool working something like that. We all tested ourselves as part of the event, even though I was pretty confident that there was no way I had it. But it’s nice to know for a fact that I am HIV negative especially after working at the orphanage where a few of the kids are HIV positive. 

Since I don’t really have a lot stories this time & my heart is breaking a little bit as I prepare to go home, I decided to make a list of things I will miss & things that I won’t.

Ten things I won’t miss:

1) The heat. I will absolutely not miss being constantly covered in sweat.

2) Being grabbed/touched/stared at by people all the time.

3) Cold showers.

4) Open sewage gutters & the smell they produce.

5) Having to make up fake boyfriends, fiancés, & husbands.

6) Not being able to drive myself places.

7) Paying for water & not being able to ever drink it from the tap.

8) Being covered in bug bites & always thinking they are crawling all over me.

9) Never having to get ready.

10) Hearing all the Ghanaian men SCREAMING at soccer on the TV throughout the entire hostel.

Ten things I will miss:

1) The adorable babies & the mothers that let me hold them all the time.

2) The African accents.

3) Never being in a rush & not having to be on time.

4) Those moments where it just hits me that I am actually living in Africa.

5) Being able to buy water or food off of peoples heads on the side of the road when you’re hungry or thirsty & stuck in traffic.

6) Watching my drumming teacher dance.

7) Spending my days with the children at the orphanage.

8) The concrete sense of culture that Ghana has.

9) All the friends that I have made here.

10) The lack of rules & guidance here that should make life so chaotic, but it’s all so simple.

There are many more things that I’ll miss. I love it here & leaving is going to be very hard for me. I already know that, but I’m just focusing on the fact that I get to see all my friends & family again. I miss them a lot so in the end it’ll be good to get home & I think part of me is getting ready to be back. I’m also pretty much completely out of money so I need to get home & start working again. Montana will always be my first love & I have definitely missed the lifestyle there. Even my friends that I’ve made here from America just aren’t the same. I think everyone has a sense of pride for their home, but I think Montana is the best home. I’ll be on my way to those mountains in exactly 2 weeks! Love to you all,

Kasey 

Days 86-99

I apologize (mostly to my grandma ;) that I haven't posted for awhile. You might assume that I have been too busy to post, but in reality it's kind of the opposite. I have grown so accustomed to life here that it doesn't really feel like a big exciting vacation anymore. It just feels like life. I'm ok with this because in exactly 1 month from today I'll be heading to the airport to get on a plane home and I will be facing a whole new set of excitement & challenges trying to grow back into my roots in Bozeman.

Since I last posted there have been a few exciting events happen though. The first week I ventured out to grab some dinner. I ended up buying it from a woman who sells meals & treats out a plastic bin in our parking lot, the same lady who describes all of her food to be "tantalizing." After picking out what I wanted I handed her 10 cedis & told her to keep my change because it was one 2 cedis & I figured she needed it more than I did, little did I know how correct this assumption was. She looked at me with tears in her eyes & gave me a huge hug. She told me that I had paid for her daughter to go to school & that her father is never around so that's why she comes to sell food to us every night. Two cedis is not even 1 US dollar so I got a little teary eyed myself when she told me this & went back to my hostel feeling very grateful for how fortunate I have been throughout my life.

That Friday I was on my way home from the post office with my friend Erin when we were in our second African car wreck. I had never really been in a real car accident before, that is not to say that I haven't added a dent or two to any vehicles because I happen to have a tendency to run into parked cars, but I wouldn't consider any of those incidents to be car accidents. We were rear ended pretty hard, quite a bit harder than the last accident. I was with the same friend on the way home from the same place when we had our first one so it's a good thing the semester is almost over and we won't have to make that trip anymore. We even made a few jokes on our way there about getting in a wreck & then it actually happened! I guess that's what I get for getting so spoiled by all my family.

The next night we went to a little Italian place in town. When we walked in all I could think of was how many white people were there. Race has never really struck me before but when I have spent the last four months in Africa I was definitely taken back by how many white people were in one place. That will be a very strange adjustment when I get home.

The next week was filled with the usual classes & trips to the orphanage. Thursday morning we woke up at 3:30 am & ventured towards the airport for a safari weekend in northern Ghana. After we were issued our tickets I made a small scene in the waiting area when there was a cockroach climbing on my bag. I got it off safely & ended up making a few new friends in the airport because of it. We traveled on a Ghanaian airline which was very different. There was hardly any security & the plane had open seating. The flight was barely over an hour which definitely makes the extra cost worth is because it is about 12 hours by bus.

Up early waiting to catch our plane.

Once we arrived in Tamale, I met a woman named Maggie who is a professor in Michigan and here for only a couple of weeks who began the conversation by commenting on my incident with the roach on my bag. We also met  a man from Australia named Jimmy who is doing some volunteer work & opening his own orphanage here. They both caught rides with us to the park & went on our adventures with us.

Once we got to the hotel we had some lunch & then set out for the afternoon safari on top of the jeep. We mostly just saw some baboons, monkeys, warthogs, deer, & antelope on this trip. Unfortunately Ghana doesn't have a ton of wildlife. There used to be lions but they don't hang around the park anymore so the only other exotic animals they have are elephants which we didn't get to see on the afternoon safari.

We woke up bright & early the next morning for a walking safari where we got to see our elephants. We learned that elephants actually have black skin but they cover themselves in mud to protect themselves from the heat. We got to see the darker skin when the bathed in the watering hole.

After our elephant adventure we had some breakfast & then decided we had seen about as much as we really cared to see here. We were starting to a little restless & the front desk was after us because six of us stayed in one room. There were three beds, but they were small beds. We cuddled up close anyways & they were trying to get some extra money out of us. While avoiding them we found a man who told us all about a nearby village that we could go stay at so we quickly made a unanimous decision to head out to the village & leave the park behind us. We got in the bed of a truck & rode off.

We landed in the village of Larabonga and it ended up being the best 24 hours I spent in Ghana. There wasn't running water at the park or in the village so we hadn't showered since Wednesday night and didn't get the chance to until Saturday night. We luckily had a pack of baby wipes that we used to sponge bathe ourselves but it definitely made me appreciate showering.

It was a Muslim village & held the oldest mosque in West Africa. We weren't allowed inside but it was pretty cool to see the outside of it anyways. We spent the rest of the day at an orphanage hanging out will all the little children. They were absolutely incredible. They barely spoke any English but they warmed up to us right away. They made us meals & the older girls put on a tribal dance show for us that night.

This precious girl was my personal guide for the weekend. She was always with me & showing me around everywhere. Most kids barely had any clothes on their backs but I have never seen anyone so happy. 

This little guy is only 1 week old. We got to see the crazy way that the bathe him ending with a grand finale where he is thrown up into the air several times to be dried off. 

That night the guy that runs the orphanage set us up some mats & a mosquito net tent on top of a roof where we slept. It ended up falling on us in the middle of the night so I was trapped underneath nets & sticks until we woke up the other half of our group to fix it. We were woken up at 4 am when the village began their first prayer of the day. The prayer alone lasted almost 2 hours!

Panorama of the village from the rooftop. 

Our travel group taking a selfie on the roof.

After the prayers woke us, we had some breakfast that they prepared for us & then set out on the bus back to the airport.

We didn't have any seats so I ended up sitting on the floor for a lot of the ride because it was a pretty long ride. When we got to the airport we tried our best to make ourselves smell & look presentable because we were being picked up by our director for a goodbye dinner at her place.

The girls from our trip this weekend with a random village man.















We had a great spaghetti dinner that night at Auntie Theresa's house. It definitely became real that our time is almost up here & I was sad about it. I have met some awesome people & had an amazing experience. I am now in my last week of classes here & I can't believe it. We have next week off & then three weeks of finals & then I'll be headed back to Montana. I get anxious to get home some days & then there are others where I think I could stay here forever. But I miss my family like crazy & am excited to have a routine again with work & school. All in all I have had a wonderful time & I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.



Happy early Mother's Day to all you moms that I know. I will be reporting back soon! Love to you all,



Kasey

Days 72-77

This last week has been pretty eventful, so this post is one of my longer ones & it took me about 6 hours to upload the pictures onto it, but it was a good week for me here!

Wednesday morning I woke up & realized I was just about out of cash, in fact I didn’t have enough left to get a taxi to the orphanage. I ran all over campus trying to find an ATM that actually works & takes MasterCard. Most ATM’s here only take Visa so I had a little trouble but finally found one. I got a cab to meet the kids at chapel, but there was no chapel that day because it was spring break for the American International School where they go for chapel so I just walked to the orphanage instead. I taught the younger kids school that morning & then went to get some lunch. I ordered a cheese sandwich thinking it would be like grilled cheese, but it was just two slices of white bread with one piece of cheese in the middle. I ate it anyways & actually liked it, the oddest things taste good to me now since I’ve been eating food that I don’t really care for over the last 3 months. I ate while reading one of the books my grandma sent me about Chelsea Handler’s trip to Africa. It was hilarious. The end even had a part about her skiing at the Yellowstone Club in Montana so I could relate to it very well, not that I’ve ever been to the Yellowstone Club but I’ve been to Big Sky plenty of times & she accidentally ends up there too so it’s close enough. I finished it that night & laughed through the whole book. I finished my day with a night class & then tried to go to bed early again.

Thursday morning I woke up early for my class & got my usual breakfast on the way. This time on my way to class there was a man in front of me that kept turning around waving & yelling something that I couldn’t hear because I had my headphones in. I assumed it was to a person behind me so I just kept walking. Ghanaians walk at an incredibly slow pace so it wasn’t long before I passed him. He stared very intensely while I passed him & then began to follow me. I sped up my walking pace so it turned into more of a chase. He was carrying a bible & finally started to use words to try to talk to me. I don’t believe he was a danger at all but that early in the morning I’m not really up for having a conversation with someone who is most likely going to try to make me believe in a God that I already believe in. I don’t know why they seem to think that American’s here aren’t Christians. I’m always open to conversations about Christianity, but not the way they do it here. They remind me of the street preachers that go on campus yelling at people about how they will go to hell & need to repent & all those things. So, I told him I was in a hurry & couldn’t chat. Class went as it usually does, it was my finance class & today we were talking about checking & savings accounts. Ghana isn’t very advanced in their banking yet so I was the only person who had either of these things so it was more like 2 hours of the teacher asking me questions about them & the rest of the class half listening to us. When I got back to the hostel I got a message from my director saying I had a package in the office so I made my way back across campus again. When I set out it wasn’t raining at all, but within the first 10 minutes of my walk it began pouring rain. I had about 20 minutes left so I just decided to finish walking. I was absolutely soaked head to toe once I got there. It looked like I just jumped in a pool with my clothes on, but I had the sweetest package from my Aunt Shanna, Uncle Bob, & cousins Grace & Ryan when I got there so it was worth the rainstorm. I wasn’t expecting it at all & they very rarely come directly to campus so I was very happy that I didn’t have to go to the post office. They sent me some sweet treats & all wrote me a letter & added some extra goodies for the kids at the orphanage. I am so blessed to have a family that takes care of me when I’m so far away. One of our student guides was at the office with his car so he offered me a ride back to the hostel so that I didn’t have to walk all the way back in the rain. Class is cancelled when it rains, and I can see why. I have never experienced rain like this before. I just read & listened to the storm until it cleared up & then made my way to the orphanage. I read them books & we colored. One of the girls played with my hair the whole time I read to her. Her hair is so different from mine, I think the difference fascinates both of us. I always find myself touching them on the head & feeling their hair too. I talked with my dad that afternoon & he told me that I still have a job working for him when I get home. I was happy to hear this because I’ve actually really missed working & I enjoy my job at his office. I miss him too so I’ll be looking forward to getting to see him everyday again.

Friday morning I woke up & got my usual breakfast again. I spent a couple hours reading at the coffee place & made it back to the hostel just in time for it to start raining again. This time the storm was even more intense. The thunder literally sounds like a bomb is exploding. I talked to my roommate through the storm & then did some more reading & watched Friends. You really can’t do anything while it’s raining here so I get pretty lazy on the rainy days. Once it stopped I got some crackers & peanut butter to take with me on my trip that weekend. We were set to leave at midnight that night so I did my best to stay awake until then but didn’t quite make it. Luckily I set an alarm & met everyone downstairs at midnight, but like most things in Ghana, we didn’t leave on time. The bus finally came to get us around 2 am & we had a 7-hour trip ahead of us.

We were headed to the village built on stilts. I quickly learned that I was the only one who thought that “stilt village” meant they walked on stilts, & was made fun of for it all weekend. I tried to sleep on the bus but didn’t have much luck. There were a lot of people & not much space. I have never been claustrophobic before but I definitely felt like it on that trip. It reminded me of when we went to New York over Christmas during my senior year of high school & my grandpa would get so claustrophobic every time we got in an elevator, all his comments were really funny to all of us who weren’t bothered by it but after that bus ride I can see where he was coming from. There are also a very insane amount of speed bumps on all the roads here & they are huge. I have theory that there used to be elephants all over Ghana & then when they built the roads they couldn’t move them so they just built them right over top of the elephants. (Totally joking, but the size is about right.) All the bumps can make sleeping very difficult. Being on the bus also reminded me of taking the ski bus up to Bridger Bowl in middle school with my friends Alex & Rachel. I think I also had too many memories going through my head to get much sleep. 

 Most of the way there was lined with houses looking like this, just pieces of trees & mud holding it together. There were several villages filled with houses like this. All the pictures we see of poverty in Africa come to life here. It’s crazy how real they are.

We arrived at the beach where we were staying to drop our stuff off. We stayed in huts made out of branches & leaves. We had no cell service, electricity, or running water but that was actually really nice. 

 

We ended up all napping on the porch for a couple hours before we set out for the stilt village. We had to walk pretty far to get the lake, then we loaded into a couple canoes & set out for an hour-long boat ride to get to the village. The beginning was more like a marsh, very shallow & extremely dirty. The water was close to the same color as coffee & we all have open wounds from our mosquito bites so we decided it might be a good time to take pills to get rid of any parasites we may have collected over the last few months. I haven’t bought one yet but probably should soon. They gave us little plastic water scoops that resembled the fry containers they give you at McDonald’s to try to keep water out of the canoe. It wasn’t long before ours started to sink so we had to go through a pretty extensive process to get rid of the water & switch around boats & passengers to keep us all afloat. Once we finally figured all that out we were on our way again & it turned out to be one the most peaceful things I’ve ever done. The lake was beautiful. I’m used to being on the water with a motor going & music playing so it was a nice change of pace to be in a tiny little canoe where we had to paddle ourselves to get anywhere. 

 

The village was another incredibly beautiful & humbling experience. All the houses there were just like the huts we were staying at on the beach, all branches & leaves without many resources. They were all built up on stilts obviously so it kind of felt like we were on a giant dock that had houses on it. The children were of course my favorite. They were running around in the mud having the time of their lives. I love that the simplest things satisfy them. Most were barely covered by clothes that didn’t fit them, some weren’t clothed at all, but they were all so happy. 

This is my favorite picture. These 2 sisters were so adorable, they made me miss my sister even more than I already did. Most people would think it isn’t appropriate at our age to hold each other like they are, but we do weird things. And if I remember our relationship correctly, I would probably be in the baby’s place & she would take the place as the older sister. 

All the little kids see our cameras & yell “Pik-chaw! Pik-chaw! Take my pik-chaw!” They don’t really get that you have to hold still for them to turn out right, but they’re too cute not to try.

Their chief spoke to us & we asked many questions about the village. It has been there since the 14^th century & they just now have a school for children through 6^th grade. The children were so proud of their school & showed us the classrooms, there were only 3 of them, that are shared by multiple grade levels. I have started to get stingy with my money here because I get asked for it quite a bit, but this village seemed like a good place to make a donation so I gave some to the church & some to the school. After our tour we made our way back by boat. We left during an incredible sunset & finished the ride in the dark. We walked back to huts in the dark too & for a second I thought I was going to pass out because I kept seeing all these flashes in my vision, but then I realized how stupid I was & that they were just fireflies, which added a little more beauty to a dark walk. 

 

We had to bring our own food for this trip because there aren’t many places to get it there so once we got back we built a fire & ate our food. My friend Micah brought his guitar so we all listened to him play & the waves crash onto the beach until the rain came & we all went to bed. I slept on a mat that was about and inch & a half thick on the floor made out of branches of one of these huts. I used to be the queen of complaining when it came to sleeping on the floor at the lake & now it doesn’t even phase me. My way of living has changed so much since I got here. I can hardly recognize the way I used to live back home.

 

Sunday morning we hung around the beach until about 1:00 & then set out on our trip back home. Somehow the bus was less crowded this time, and we added a nurse from Spain who we met at the beach to our bus so I’m really sure how that happened. But we made it home safely later that night. I was exhausted from the lack of sleep & fell asleep pretty quickly.

I slept in again this morning before setting out for class. I got coffee & breakfast before class again but this time I got French toast instead of oatmeal. It didn’t quite measure up to my dad’s French toast, but it wasn’t bad. I used to love it when he would make it on the weekends. Even if I had already had something for breakfast I would still eat it. I thought about him the whole time I ate & then set out for class. I really did not like class today. We divided into 5 groups & were given topics to present to the class. My group’s topic was the legalization of homosexuality in Ghana so there was some obvious controversy between my beliefs & the rest of my groups. I kept quite while they gathered most of the information they wanted to present & then they tried to get me to present it all. I told them that I didn’t want to present because I didn’t agree with their argument & then made my points as to why. They still insisted I present, but I finally won the argument. When our presenter went up to share our information, she was asked to say everyone’s name in our group. When she got to me no one in our group knew my name so they just called me Obrani until I told them what it was. It made me a little upset that they practically begged me to present yet they didn’t even know what my first name was. After she finished, she mentioned that I didn’t agree with keeping homosexuality illegal so the teacher asked me stand up & say why, so I ended up presenting anyways with an argument that I wasn’t prepared to make. I mentioned that it has never once bothered me in the US that homosexuality is legal & that it doesn’t affect my life at all. I also mentioned that I’ve been to the castles where the British enslaved thousands of Africans & they were discriminated against for their skin color, yet they are still willing to discriminate against homosexuals for something that they did not chose. The class didn’t really listen to me so it was pretty awkward. It left me a little frustrated but I understand that I won’t be able to change their minds about it in one tiny little speech so my frustration didn’t last long.

I’m still regrouping from the weekend. I am definitely starting to wear down here. The heat & the traveling are starting to exhaust me so I think I will be ready to go home in 7 weeks. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be, but there’s really only one more trip that is on my list & then I’ll be ready to head home. It will be weird spending Easter here without my family. I haven’t been away from them for any holiday before so I don’t really know what that will feel like but hopefully I’ll come up with something fun to do over the weekend.

Love to you all,

Kasey

Days 66-71

It’s been a little slow around here since the last time I wrote, but thought I should update everyone so that you all know that I’m still alive & all is still going very well.

Thursday morning I had 7:30 class so I left my hostel around 6:30 am to get some coffee & oatmeal before class started. I’ve started to have this as my breakfast everyday because it keeps me full for a long time & gives me an excuse to get out of the hostel & go for a little walk. The place is called Coffee Cue & it’s about 20 minutes or so from the hostel. I always take a book with me & order the same thing every day – 2 iced coffees with milk & sugar and a bowl of oatmeal. Once I am either full or the oatmeal has made me too hot to eat any more of it I set off to start the rest of my day. Class was pretty simple on this day. We split up into groups to work on case studies. Normally I am pretty good about giving my input & even presenting the information to the class but here I honestly don’t know what anyone is saying through the accents so I just sat back & let everyone else figure it out. I normally hate doing this, but being the only exchange student in the class gives me an excuse, I think anyways. After class I went back to the hostel until lunch, then I got a cab to the good restaurant near the orphanage. I go there pretty often now so I’ve started making friends with the waitress that always seems to serve me. I would say she’s about my age, but everyone here looks so young it’s hard to say. Her name is Hannah & she is always very nice to me. After lunch I walked down to the orphanage & spent a few hours with the kiddos. I was starting to wonder what kind of an impact I was actually making on the kids when one of my favorite little dudes, Silas, came running up to me, gave me a hug, & hopped up on my lap. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing. He’s only 1 so he is pretty easy to entertain.

Friday morning I woke up around 5:30 am & waited until Coffee Cue opened at 7. I got some breakfast & read some more. I had finished an entire book before 10 am so I figured I had earned a nap & went back to the hostel. That night 6 of us girls went to a little restaurant called Chix & Ribs. It’s owned by a man from Chicago & definitely has some of the best food I’ve had here in Ghana. We sat around & talked for a while before going back to the hostel & gong off to sleep.

Saturday I slept in & actually slept in. I didn’t wake up until 9 & it was awesome. I got my usual breakfast & then went to the mall to search for earplugs & an eye mask with one of my friends. I knew living with a Ghanaian would be a little difficult, but I didn’t realize how much it would rob me of sleep. She stays up a lot later than I like to & likes to leave the light on. She also has a very old, loud, fuzzy TV that she leaves on until past midnight most nights. She likes to sleep half a night at night & the other half in the middle of the afternoon I’ve noticed. I can’t really do that so I thought these things might help me at night, but unfortunately they don’t sell them in Ghana so I’m going to have to figure something else out, or just wait another 60 days to get a good night of sleep. But if that’s my only complaint about her as a roommate then I think I’m doing pretty well! As babies they all spent their days on their mom’s back doing whatever it is she does for work. I don’t think that loud noises & other distractions really bother them because they are used to it. So I guess as part of adjusting to the culture, I need to get used to it too. Anyways, after my search failed we went and saw another movie. We saw Mr. Peabody & Sherman. It was a little cartoon movie but it was cute & I learned a little world history. I also got some air conditioning & had popcorn for lunch so it was a good Saturday!

Sunday I was up really early again so I went for a run & took a cold shower. I set out across campus to try to find somewhere open for breakfast, but everything is closed on Sundays I came to find out. I haven’t spent a lot of Sundays on campus because I’m usually traveling so this was news to me. Luckily I had a couple eggs left so I just made myself breakfast back in the kitchen at the hostel. There really isn’t anything open at all on Sundays so they are extremely boring. I found myself reading some more & watching 2 movies. I watched When Harry Met Sally because it is a great movie & then I watched the Parent Trap. I hadn’t seen that movie for years but it was always one of my favorites growing up. I thought about my Grandma the whole time I was watching it because we went to see it in theaters twice together when I was little. I think I must have been 5 or 6 when it first came out but I still enjoyed it just as much that day.

Monday I slept until 7:45 so I got a little extra sleep twice in the last week! I had class at 11:30 so I took my time to get ready & out of bed that morning, stopping at Coffee Cue for breakfast on my way to class again. My mom called me in a panic at what would have been about 4 am her time. She was half asleep & had the news on. She heard something about an accident in Africa & something from Montana so she was all freaked out but not to worry because I’m still alive & breathing & all is going perfectly fine here :) Nice to know she still worries about me though. It was incredibly hot yesterday so I was thankful for only having one class. I had a notification to go the post office on campus this time & they are much more pleasant there than at the one across town. I didn’t have to pay for my package & they didn’t look through it. I got a card from one set of grandparents & a couple of books from the other. I really have the best family ever! I finished another book last night & then went to bed early again.

This morning I got up for drumming & then spent the afternoon at the orphanage. We took them down for swimming lessons again & it started to cool off a little this afternoon. I started reading one of the books from my Grandma & I have a trip set up for this weekend with 7 hours of travel each way so I’m sure both books she sent will be well read by the end of the weekend. We’re going to a village that is built on stilts in the middle of a lake. When I first heard “stilt village” I assumed that all the people living in it walked around on stilts, so I’m glad I got that cleared up before I got there or else I was have been very disappointed.

It sounds like spring had sprung back home so I hope everyone is enjoying it while it lasts :) Love to you all,

Kasey

Days 60-65- half way there!

I can’t believe that my time here is already halfway finished. It has gone by way faster than I ever anticipated, but I’m glad that I’m only at the halfway mark. I believe it was about 19 weeks that I’d here, around 130 days, and now I just have 9 and a half short weeks left to go. I guess that means I better hurry up & make sure I get everything out of the experience possible.

Friday morning I had yet another package at the post office. It was a cool morning (for once) after it stormed all night so I walked across campus to get my package slip, grabbed a cup of coffee, & made my way to the post office. It was another 4-hour trip but it was car accident free & in the end I got a nice care package from my mom. I got some more granola & protein bars which I am so thankful for because I don’t know what I would do if I ran out of those. She also sent me clothes & candy. I think it just might be the first candy I’ve had since being here besides the packs of fruit mentos I get occasionally. I normally have a huge sweet tooth so I’m not even sure how I made it that long. She also sent me some anti-itch cream, which is so awesome for my mosquito bites. They are vicious little bugs. At one point I counted 35 bites just from my knees down to my feet. That afternoon we set out for a weekend trip. We spent it a little “resort” area at the beach. We were at Kokrobite and stayed in a bungalow type of house for a couple days for one of my friends’ birthdays. We had a pretty good dinner that night & then watched the drumming & dancing show. It was amazing! The dancing was very cool and they did some crazy acrobatics too. They did tricks with fire and all kinds of crazy stuff. 

After the show we talked to one of the dancers who had a little baby boy. He let us hold him and asked if we would adopt him and take him back to the states with us. It’s so sad to me that they would want to give their little angels to total strangers just so there kid can grow up in America. The states may have more opportunity but I think Africa has more happiness.  

Saturday morning we started off with breakfast. The restaurant there had actual brewed coffee! And it smelled so good. The instant stuff doesn’t have the same scent. I could have sat there with that cup all day just to keep smelling it. That makes me sound like a total freak, but I have some good memories attached to coffee so I guess that’s why I love it so much. When I was growing up I’d always wake up early & have a cup of coffee with my parents while my dad read the paper & my mom watched the Today Show. It’s such a simple thing, but I guess I miss my mornings with them now that I’m all grown up & don’t live with them anymore. It’s hard to justify why I drink hot coffee here when it’s a million degrees outside but every time I do I think of my grandma & grandpa sitting on the dock at the lake in the middle of August around 2 or 3 in the afternoon with scorching temperatures drinking a giant mug full of hot coffee. I’ve always thought that was so weird but now I’m doing it too. I guess my family just loves our coffee :)

That afternoon we didn’t do much. There were some little stands on the beach selling clothes & jewelry so I did a little gift shopping for my cousins & just hung out on the beach reading another book for most of the day. That night there was some reggae music on the beach and a huge crowd came out for that so we danced along with everyone else. It was dark but I saw a girl that looked very familiar so I started walking towards her & turns out it was my friend Brianne from back home! Such a small world that I’d run into another Bozeman person all the way in Ghana but pretty cool at the same time.

Sunday morning we got up, had some more breakfast with more coffee, & made our way back to the hostel. I took a nap & worked on my second ever Ghanaian homework assignment. I got a “tantalizing” vegetable curry for dinner from Auntie Louise & it was actually pretty good! Not even spicy. The one at the kitchen in the hostel has some spice to it but I’ve really been trying to broaden my meal choices here so I’ve been getting that for dinner every couple of days. Maybe by the end of the trip I’ll be able to finish it without chugging water after every bite.

Monday was rainy all day & it was amazing. It was finally cool and I loved it so much. Walking to class in the mud was another story, but the rain itself was great. Growing up in Montana I am used to dodging patches of ice and keeping my balance when I have to walk on them, but I didn’t expect that I’d have to maintain this same balance here in Africa. We don’t have sidewalks here, just dirt paths, so when it rains that all turns to mud and it can be really difficult to walk on if you’re not careful. Luckily I made it all the way to class & back without slipping. Class was another interesting couple of hours. We were learning about getting careers after college so we learned about writing resumes & job interviews. In the US most of us have been doing these things since we were in high school so it’s kind of crazy to be sitting in a classroom where you’re the only one who’s ever had a real job before. My favorite part was that when she explaining job interviews, she gave us this piece of advice: “keep your cool.” It was written up on the board & everything. I laughed at this a little on the inside but I guess it’s probably decent advice in the end. I did some more work for my homework assignment that night & then went to bed early.

Yesterday I got up at 6:45, which is sleeping in for me here, finished my homework & registered for my fall semester back at MSU. Then I got some dinner & got ready for class. I had to turn in my homework assignment and that was a whole adventure in itself. Printing in the library here is definitely not a simple process. It took me 20 minutes just to find a printer that worked. Everyone literally moves at snail pace here so when I was in a huge rush to get it all printed out & to class on time, they weren’t much help. I rushed over to my class after it finally printed only to arrive in a classroom where there was not yet a professor. Once he finally did show up everyone literally pushed and shoved their way to turn in their paper. You’d think that the first 10 people to turn in their papers got a million bucks by the way they were trying to get theirs turned in.

This morning I took the kids to chapel & then we had class. I taught the younger ones again today, going over a little math & writing letters. When they broke for lunch I took a cab to a little café/bakery type of place one of my friends told me about. I got a sandwich & some coffee and began reading another one of my books. Before I knew it I had wasted a whole afternoon there & finished another book. It seems too easy to get lost in these fictitious worlds, but I love it. By then it was around the time I normally eat dinner & I spotted some cupcakes in the bakery. I grabbed one & ate it for dinner. It’s not a normal dinner but I don’t see a lot of sweets around here so I guess I make a meal out of them when I do. After I ate I found a little bookstore & walked around it for a little while. They had a lot of books but I only recognized 2 authors in the whole store: Tony Robbins & Nicholas Sparks. I didn’t buy anything and then I decided to navigate myself back to campus by walking. I saw the top of the library so I just started walking towards it & eventually found my way back. It’s pretty cool when you realize you can get around in a foreign country, a whole new continent, 7,000 miles away from home all by yourself. I remember being a huge mix of emotions the day that I left. I was happy but sad & excited but terrified. Now I don’t really feel much. I’m happy here, but that’s really all. I’m just here & I’m enjoying every moment of it. I listened to whatever random songs my iPod played as I walked back breathing in the smell that Africa has (which is honestly not a very good one, although I’ll probably miss it one day) & I caught myself dancing as I walked. Then I wondered if I’d ever be able to listen to music like a normal person. Whenever I listen to music I hear it in movement. I always picture some dance in my head & I can’t help it. I don’t know if this is just a dancer thing or if everyone listens this way. Anyways, now I have to make my way to the night class I don’t feel like going to. Love to you all,

Kasey

Days 56 (and a half)-59

These past few days have been slightly more eventful than the last, more in an emotional sense than any adventures I set out on, beginning with Monday shortly after I made my last post. My friend Erin asked me to accompany her to the post office since that seems to be one of my areas of expertise here. On our way back to the hostel we were on a road with multiple lanes driving in the left lane. Our cab driver decided to take a left turn & we were then T-boned by a tro tro (a bus).  Luckily it hit the back end of the car so no one was injured. I was honestly surprised that this was my first wreck considering the way people drive around here but I am thankful that it wasn’t a very bad one. Both drivers got out & yelled at each other for a couple minutes, hit their vehicles a few times in attempt to get the dents out, & continued on their journeys.

Tuesday morning I woke up in a little pain, I think I just got some whiplash from the wreck. I took some Aleve & tried stretching the pain out as much as I could but still had a pretty bad headache so I spent the majority of my day relaxing, which tends to mean reading for me here. In fact I have completed 7 books now, and some I’ve read more than once. This may not seem like much to people who read a lot normally, but I think this more than I have actually completed since starting college almost 3 years ago. I hope that this is a habit I keep up when I get back home. There was a section in this book about giving up all of your comforts in order to do what you feel God has called you to do. This kind of struck me considering the fact that I’m in Africa at the moment. I may not be on a mission trip or with any religious program over here but I know that there was something calling me here when I first decided to come last year. I am not exactly sure what my reason for being here is yet. I may not know until my last day here or years after I leave, but I know that I do feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. There have definitely been things about home that I have missed (food being a huge one) but until reading this section of the book, I hadn’t actually given it that much thought. There are countless things that I enjoy at home that I don’t have here, but most I haven’t even taken the time to miss. I wonder how I will adjust when I am back home.

I walked my 30 minute walk to class that night but the power had been out for a lot of the day so I didn’t have high hopes for class since it was already getting dark when I left. Sure enough class was cancelled so I turned around for another 30 minutes back. I don’t mind the walking though. I usually just put my headphones in & listen to country music to pass the time. It feels a little odd listening country while I’m in Africa, but to my surprise they like country here! I remember being on the bus to the Volta region a few weeks ago & one the guys started playing Boys Round Here by Blake Shelton. And he couldn’t get enough of that song the entire trip.

Wednesday morning I met the orphanage kids for chapel. I was feeling a little better that morning so I decided to go on with life as usual. After chapel we went back for school. I worked with the younger kids that day, learning numbers & letters. While the kids worked on writing their letters I had a side conversation with one of my friends who also volunteers there. We were discussing how some of the kids there are HIV/AIDS positive when she started telling me about her brother who died from AIDS a few years ago. I was in shock about how little I really knew about it. I wish there were many more hours in the day so I could do some work for the AIDS foundation here & educate others as well as myself, but unfortunately I just don’t have a lot of free time during their open hours.

That day I was sitting in the volunteer office responding to one of my grandma’s emails when it hit me that I only have 10 weeks left here, and I think it hit me pretty hard. I think that was the moment that I fell completely in love with this place. I have never been in love before, but I imagine that’s kind of how it goes, very slowly at first & then out of nowhere it just happens. I couldn’t imagine my life without Africa & I don’t really want to. I can’t even recall who I was before I came here or what my everyday life was like & my heart breaks a little for the people who haven’t experienced it. 10 weeks is not a very long time & I’m afraid it’s going to fly by faster than I want it to, but for now I’m going to enjoy every second I have here & soak in everything it has to offer.

I was supposed to go fill out a few forms to extend my visa that afternoon. For some reason when we arrived they only granted us 60 days until we basically had to go pay the government for something we already had paid for before we left, but I guess that’s how it goes in the developing world. My director wasn’t back from an errand when I arrived back at campus so I got some coffee & did a little more reading while I awaited her arrival. Just as I was getting ready to leave, one of the workers came up & handed me a pineapple juice & told me my friend bought it for me. I looked around & didn’t see anyone I knew, I think the confused look on my face gave that away to her as well. Then she told me that he had already left but handed me a piece of paper the read “Andy” followed by a Ghanaian phone number. I kind of laughed at this, feeling slightly embarrassed. While I was a little flattered by his silent approach, it still didn’t break me. As part of my nature I wanted to thank him for the pineapple juice, although I didn’t drink it, but I know better by now than to let these men have your phone number so I continued on with my day after it had been made just a little bit brighter. I filled out my paperwork & dropped off all the materials needed to have my visa extended through my stay & then went back to the hostel to begin on the second homework assignment I’ve been given since my arrival here. I actually sat at my desk for the first time that day & it made me feel quite accomplished.

That night I had a long talk with my roommate for the first time. This probably seems extremely weird that it took 2 months for this to happen, and honestly it’s really weird to me too. She told me that I was her favorite roommate that she’s ever had & that this was a big deal because she was really nervous about living with a white person. She told me I wasn’t anything like she expected me to be & that she liked how my parents raised me, so mom & dad – good job :) I think it’s really cool that we have both broken each other’s misperceptions & stereotypes. We discussed our families with each other. She asked what my parents did & I reciprocated the question. She told me that her mom worked in a school & her dad had been a preacher but that he died a couple years ago. She started to cry when she told me this & it brought tears to my eyes listening to her talk about it. I am so incredibly humbled by my experiences here each & every day. It blows me away how blessed I truly am. I have an amazing family. Not only do I have my mom, dad, & a sister who is my very best friend, but also I have incredible grandparents, aunts, uncles, & cousins on top of that. They have all been so great supporting me throughout my entire life & now I know more than ever that a lot of people never get to experience that. I have so much more than I could ever ask for. I don’t know how else to put how it feels into words other than that my heart feels so full, like it could burst out of my chest. I talked to my sister on the phone for a while that night before I lost connection & then went to bed feeling like a different person than I did when I woke up that day.

I had class this morning followed by another cup of coffee with a book on the side. Now I’m back at the hostel waiting until it’s time for me to head to the orphanage for the afternoon. I am going on another trip this weekend so will report back when I return. Love to you all,

Kasey

Sorry for the lame photo booth picture, I had a lot of requests from family members for a picture of me on the blog so here I am, living life under my mosquito net.