Humanity is puzzling. I have felt an overwhelming confusion about humanity a few times throughout this trip; the first being at the Cape Coast and Elmina slave castles. How is it that this incomprehensible tragedy happened in the first place, and for hundreds of years? How did people do this to one another? How does someone come to believe that another being is less worthy of basic human rights than they are? And how are we still fighting this battle against people who simply have different levels of melanin in their skin? It is frustrating, confusing, devastating and frightening all at the same time.

I also experienced these feelings at the ARHR when learning about sexual and reproductive health rights in Ghana. It makes no sense to me that women, who ensure the future of the human race and do most of the work when it comes to childbearing, are treated so poorly. How is it that the women face so much oppression and violence? How did the world come to this and how are people still not willing to acknowledge these issues? It seems humans are so malleable and gullible that we do not know how to think until someone tells us. This makes me anxious, sad, scared. What injustices are we committing now that we do not realize? How did humanity become such an oppressive force? Though I am struggling with these questions, I am also left with a newfound sense of importance going into the fields of communication and psychology. There is immense power in communication, and maybe with the right messages someone can change the “human nature” we have become so accustomed to blaming for our sins.