Uncertainty is Bliss

On the eve of my departure from Ghana, I am plagued by many reflections. My time here has been an experience unparalleled by any other in my life. When I came to Ghana I unknowingly embarked on a journey that would teach me more about the world than I imagined possible. Everybody told me: You will change so much. Traveling is such a life-altering experience. You will come back a different person.

It’s not that I didn’t believe that I would change, but I had no idea as to how I might be different. Would I come home to America and scoff at the luxuries and commercialism, having gained a newfound appreciation for all things rural and poverty-stricken? Maybe I would find a deeply rooted passion for our Homeland Africa and reject the notion of spending my life anywhere else. Or perhaps I would learn that I am an American princess who cannot deal with lizards and insects in mud huts and the absence of running water in my home.

Instead, what I have learned is that I am independent and capable, curious and thrill seeking, but sensible and contemplative. I discovered these tools within myself that have enabled me to travel all around West Africa, a region of the world that is completely opposite from my home. I have befriended persons that would have previously been dauntingly foreign to me, and grown accustomed to relying only on strangers and myself.

I have learned the truth in the cliché: the world is full of possibilities. Moreover, I now know that I have the ability to take advantage of those opportunities. Nothing is too foreign, too uncertain, too far away. In fact, the experiences in which I have sought out the unknown have been by far the most rewarding.

Traveling to rural villages in the East of Ghana, to Burkina Faso, and the Northern Regions, I had a recurring out-of-body experience. I would look around at the villages, wild goats and cattle roaming the red-brown dirt on the roads. Then at my method of transport: at best, a visibly aged trotro bumping over the pothole-ridden roads; at worst, piled into the back of a van driven by a Burkinabe man who speaks not a word of English, feeling the burning heat of the malfunctioning engine as we speed down dark, deserted dirt roads in the bush. I depend upon and utilize these uncertain means, and survive.