Hospitals, Tro-Tros, Dates, Rhetorical Questions, Death, and Laughter

The past month has been filled with craziness. I finally ended up going to the hospital after having the worst abdominal pain of my entire life. I sat there all day, got my blood drawn, and ended up with a diagnosis of bad worms. After being given de-worming medication and pain meds, I headed home to chill. All seemed well and after de- worming with 4 magic pills, my energy returned.

Unfortunately, come Saturday night, I would be back to throwing up in the bathroom on the first floor of ISH. That bathroom floor became my second home for about three weeks. I have no idea why I got sick, but, unfortunately, I was stuck in the bathroom all night and most of Easter day. I was seriously bummed to miss Easter service and a wedding, but thankfully I got to hang out my friends during the Easter dinner we had on Sunday night. Sarah Worthing said a beautiful prayer and it was great to have community time:)

Being in Africa has really allowed to realize how important it is to make time for people and conversation. I am an extremely independent person and love doing things on my own, but being in Africa has really taught me the value of community and relationships. I have built relationships with some of the most incredible people in the world since coming to Ghana. It is going to be so hard to not see them every day. I know I will be calling, skyping, and texting a lot when I get home. The relationships that I have built here have really motivated me to work harder on my relationships at home. I need to make more time for my friends and work harder to really love them as Christ has called me to love.

After Easter, we had our last week of class and went to see our dear friend Caitlin(from Billings, Montana- she goes to school at UM in Missoula:)) in a play on campus titles "Through a film, darkly." She played a British woman married to a Ghanaian and the play explored various relationships between individuals of different races and the difficult task of assimilating into a particular culture. Perhaps the most entertaining part of the evening was the audience response to the play. When the actors asked rhetorical questions, the audience responded. When scandal occurred, the audience responded with suggestions as to what the actors should do. There were many funny comments throughout the night- including a line in the play “Do you think it’s fair that she used me as a specimen for her thesis in anthropology?”

My last several tro tro rides have been especially wonderful. I have had several men pay for my tro tro, talked to several amazing Ghanaian women, been proposed to around a dozen times, and gotten to ride in the front of the tro tro - just the driver and myself. I love hissing at the mate and paying my 30 peswas- such a simple action, but something that I will definitely miss once my time in Ghana has ended.

This week is revision week which essentially means that we sleep in until 10 or 11 every day, eat amazing Ghanaian food, read books, "study," laugh, and travel. With the beginning of revision week came the news that Osama Bin Laden was dead and the subsequent letter from the U.S. Department of State and US embassy in Ghana to be safe in light of recent counter-terrorism insurgency in Pakistan. I have never felt unsafe in Ghana and have no doubt that all will go well the rest of my trip. After hearing the news of Bin Laden's death and seeing some of the footage on CNN and the barrage of facebook statuses', I whipped out my journal and began to write. I was absolutely appalled at the excitement over this man's death. This MLK quote came to mind during my journalling.

“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

- Martin Luther King Jr.

I can't believe it is almost over.

The Prayer

Several years ago, my dad introduced me to the song "The Prayer" sung by Josh Groban & Charlotte Church. The lyrics of this song have been flowing through my mind these past several weeks as I prepare to leave the home I have made in Ghana to return to the United States.

"I pray you'll be our eyes

And watch us where we go

And help us to be wise

In times when we don't know."

I don't think it has hit me that I am going to leave this place three weeks from today. Ghana and ISH have become my home. I am scared to leave this place. I am scared that the person that I have become over the past several months is going to disappear and that I will once again become the person that I was before this journey. My time in Ghana has molded me in ways that I never expected. I have discovered more about myself and closer to God in 4 months than at any other point in my life. My journalling has certainly helped me process a lot of my feelings and emotions, but I have often found myself thinking too much and becoming increasingly disheartened. Having so much time to process and analyze has led me feel depressed some days. However, I wouldn't trade this time in Ghana for any time in the world. It has been hard to think this much, deal with this much, and realize this much about myself (both stuff that I like and stuff that is less than awesome). As much as I needed this time, I think there is a reason that time doesn't stop and wait for us to figure out who we're supposed to be. I think time keeps going, because if it were to stop and give us a break, there is a good chance that we would go a little crazy.

We are alive.

breathing in and out everyday,

struggling,

evolving,

changing,

moving,

not remaining in one place for too long

leaving..

"And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?

It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.

I want to repeat one word for you:
Leave.

Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn't it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don't worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed."

-Donald Miller