Bye, Lucky, I'll see you when I get back!
Leaving in one hour...
Emily
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Also...
I'm gonna miss this guy a ton.
Bye, Lucky, I'll see you when I get back!
Leaving in one hour...
Emily
Bye, Lucky, I'll see you when I get back!
Leaving in one hour...
Emily
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Gone Again
Hey there,
Wow, I haven't written a blog post in a while. In fact, the idea to make a blog for this summer didn't even cross my mind until my friend Claire said, "I'll read your blog while you're away!" What? What blog? I have a blog? Yes, yes apparently I do, and seeing as a few others have encouraged me to keep it up, I suppose I will. My posts from last summer are also on this same blogspot, just in case you're confused. This is the first post of my 2013 adventure.
So, let me explain to you what happened:
Last summer I volunteered at an orphanage and school in Eguafo, Ghana, a rural village which is about a 20-minute drive from Cape Coast. The details about all that are in previous posts so I won't go into it here. The main point, though, is that as cliche as it might sound, that summer was a life-changing experience for me. Although I have visited many countries, I have never felt more at home anywhere than I did in Ghana. I promised all the children and adults that I would come back and that I would see them again. After I reluctantly returned to the United States, I declared my major as International Studies with a focus on Development in Africa, with the idea that one day I might live in Africa and help the communities I've come to love. Well, I didn't expect that to be so soon.
I actually wanted to get a job this summer; earn some money. But my darling mother sent me an email one day with a link to an unpaid internship application in Cape Coast through Proworld. I lovingly placed that email into my "Read Later" folder, which I just as lovingly never open. But during winter break I decided to open it up and look at the application, because, why not, right? I saw that it was a fairly easy application, it didn't cost anything, so in a few minutes, off it went, into the cyber world, and I continued my intensive summer job search.
There was a bit of email and telephone correspondence between me and the Proworld organizers, but that all seemed like pretty basic stuff. Then one day I get a call from one of them, and she says to me, "We'd like to offer you the last spot on our internship program. You have three days to accept or we will offer it to somebody else". Thus concluded my summer job search. Special thanks to Mom.
So now I find myself on the floor of my bedroom, where my blogs always seem to start out, the day before my flight out of here. Spread out around me are jumbled medical bottles, new shoes, a mosquito net, a picture of my parents, among other things, and gifts for my host family and some of the kids I so love there in Eguafo. By this time tomorrow, I'll be on an airplane, taking me far, far away from this bedroom that I grew up in.
It's weird. You know, getting ready to go abroad takes a lot of effort. It sort of makes me feel special. Like, oh, I need a haircut and and I need a new coat and I need a physical and I need my teeth checked and I need sunscreen and I need malaria pills and I need a biopsy (what?) and I need to hug my parents... So... it sure does feel like a big deal. But in the end, after all the Emergen-C and Ibuprofen and Neosporin have been shoved into the crevasses of my checked bag, I'll be fully ready to re-immerse myself into Ghanaian culture - which makes me feel especially special.
Arghhh my dad just made me cry! Not his fault, but it's just hard always uprooting myself from my parents and my California home to go places like the Netherlands, Ohio, Ghana.... because I love my parents and my sister and I love the Cali sun and my friends here and all the restaurants and shops and movies that I'm so lucky to be able to enjoy... and I'm having so much fun right now! But part of me also wants to be in Ghana, and I know that after 2 months of being there I'm not going to want to leave there, either.
Hm. Okay, well seeing as I'm not even packed yet (!!!) and I want to listen to my dad sing and play guitar some more and my family is taking me out to dinner and I want to watch a movie with my sister tonight and all that good stuff, I think it's time to sign off. I'll have more constant internet access this time around so posts should be perhaps a bit more consistent, although I can't make any promises yet. Just check back when you get a chance and see what's up. Also, I'd love to hear how you all are doing, so send me an email every now and then!
Yoh, yen ko!
(I know I used to spell this differently, but it sounds more like the real Fante when I write it this way. It means, "Alright, let's go!")
Emily
Wow, I haven't written a blog post in a while. In fact, the idea to make a blog for this summer didn't even cross my mind until my friend Claire said, "I'll read your blog while you're away!" What? What blog? I have a blog? Yes, yes apparently I do, and seeing as a few others have encouraged me to keep it up, I suppose I will. My posts from last summer are also on this same blogspot, just in case you're confused. This is the first post of my 2013 adventure.
So, let me explain to you what happened:
Last summer I volunteered at an orphanage and school in Eguafo, Ghana, a rural village which is about a 20-minute drive from Cape Coast. The details about all that are in previous posts so I won't go into it here. The main point, though, is that as cliche as it might sound, that summer was a life-changing experience for me. Although I have visited many countries, I have never felt more at home anywhere than I did in Ghana. I promised all the children and adults that I would come back and that I would see them again. After I reluctantly returned to the United States, I declared my major as International Studies with a focus on Development in Africa, with the idea that one day I might live in Africa and help the communities I've come to love. Well, I didn't expect that to be so soon.
I actually wanted to get a job this summer; earn some money. But my darling mother sent me an email one day with a link to an unpaid internship application in Cape Coast through Proworld. I lovingly placed that email into my "Read Later" folder, which I just as lovingly never open. But during winter break I decided to open it up and look at the application, because, why not, right? I saw that it was a fairly easy application, it didn't cost anything, so in a few minutes, off it went, into the cyber world, and I continued my intensive summer job search.
There was a bit of email and telephone correspondence between me and the Proworld organizers, but that all seemed like pretty basic stuff. Then one day I get a call from one of them, and she says to me, "We'd like to offer you the last spot on our internship program. You have three days to accept or we will offer it to somebody else". Thus concluded my summer job search. Special thanks to Mom.
So now I find myself on the floor of my bedroom, where my blogs always seem to start out, the day before my flight out of here. Spread out around me are jumbled medical bottles, new shoes, a mosquito net, a picture of my parents, among other things, and gifts for my host family and some of the kids I so love there in Eguafo. By this time tomorrow, I'll be on an airplane, taking me far, far away from this bedroom that I grew up in.
It's weird. You know, getting ready to go abroad takes a lot of effort. It sort of makes me feel special. Like, oh, I need a haircut and and I need a new coat and I need a physical and I need my teeth checked and I need sunscreen and I need malaria pills and I need a biopsy (what?) and I need to hug my parents... So... it sure does feel like a big deal. But in the end, after all the Emergen-C and Ibuprofen and Neosporin have been shoved into the crevasses of my checked bag, I'll be fully ready to re-immerse myself into Ghanaian culture - which makes me feel especially special.
Arghhh my dad just made me cry! Not his fault, but it's just hard always uprooting myself from my parents and my California home to go places like the Netherlands, Ohio, Ghana.... because I love my parents and my sister and I love the Cali sun and my friends here and all the restaurants and shops and movies that I'm so lucky to be able to enjoy... and I'm having so much fun right now! But part of me also wants to be in Ghana, and I know that after 2 months of being there I'm not going to want to leave there, either.
Hm. Okay, well seeing as I'm not even packed yet (!!!) and I want to listen to my dad sing and play guitar some more and my family is taking me out to dinner and I want to watch a movie with my sister tonight and all that good stuff, I think it's time to sign off. I'll have more constant internet access this time around so posts should be perhaps a bit more consistent, although I can't make any promises yet. Just check back when you get a chance and see what's up. Also, I'd love to hear how you all are doing, so send me an email every now and then!
Yoh, yen ko!
(I know I used to spell this differently, but it sounds more like the real Fante when I write it this way. It means, "Alright, let's go!")
Emily
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