By Stella Zhang

“Is this your first time in Ghana?” “Yes.” The customs officer at the airport laughed and returned my passport, which meant my six-week journey in Ghana officially began!

From the tour of Accra, lectures at the University of Ghana, and visiting a private school in the Nima community to the tour of Elmina Castle and horse riding at the beach, the experiences in the first week give me lots of fun and lots of “first times”.

The campus of the University of Ghana is much bigger than I imagined and still has a lot of students during the summer. The lectures by Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo and Prof. Abena Yeboah-Banin gave me a deeper understanding of journalism and advertising in Ghana. When I saw ant hills on campus was unbelievable because it was the first time I saw one that big.

I was so glad to see many girls could study in school when we visited the private school in the Nima community. Even though the tuition fee is not cheap, their parents still choose to send their children to school to be educated. The teachers and children welcomed us with local music and dances, and taught us to dance. The principal studied in Taiwan for three years and could speak fluent Mandarin, I was surprised and delighted when he spoke to me in Mandarin.

As one of the most anticipated parts of the first week, Elmina Castle left me with complicated feelings. Even though we have already learned about the history of the transatlantic slave trade in the class, it was even more heartbreaking to see the dungeons and door of no return in person. The castle as a tourist attraction nowadays stands to remind us of this horrific history.

Even though it’s only a short week, I’ve already experienced a lot of differences in culture and food. For example, I had never eaten fried plantain before, but the plantain is really everywhere here. The funeral colors in Ghana are red, white and black, which is very different from Chinese tradition, because red color is used for the wedding in China.