About 44 days and almost an hour from when I first landed here in Ghana. It’s hard to imagine that I’ve spent this long in a completely different part of the world. Short chats back home, limited wireless connection, and plenty of questions for what the next day would hold for all of us. Ghana has changed our lives.

It’s hard to believe how fourteen completely different students could venture out thousands of miles away from home and expect to live together and get along. Somehow it worked. I can tell you that each student had some sort of fear coming into this program. Some might have never been to another country before while others have been to other parts of Africa. Whatever background everyone had, we all meshed together in some weird way. I think that’s something that we’ll hopefully remember when we leave this place.

Growth

An accumulation of six weeks doesn’t seem like enough time to absorb a new culture and feel like you can become comfortable with life here. I’ve learned so much as far as being more independent and talking to new people. I think sitting in a bus full of strangers and trying to think of where your stop is to get to work was something we were all unsure of at first. Now it’s become second nature. We’ve made new friends here and some we’ll probably never see again. It’s a bittersweet feeling of going home to your loving friends and family but having to leave the friends and family we’ve made in this strange house.

But I know when we run into each other in Allen Hall we’ll share a hug and a memory that’ll make the people around us scratch their heads. I look forward to that.