Foreign Places, Foreign Feelings

Hello my dears!  As you should already know, I have arrived in Ghana and am safe and sound.  I'm not sure what the format of this blog will be, but I am just going to let it evolve as the time goes.  Right now, I just have a lot of info dumping to do, so I will do just that.  I intended to write many times this past week, but things have been crazy and filled with travel and meeting many many new people.  Ergo, friends, this will be a very long and rambly post.  I also tried to take a few photos to include in this post, but my iphone refuses to play nice with my PC.  So this is my warning for a long and potentially boring post!

A lot has happened this past week and my emotional journey has been up and down already.  I don't want to overwhelm this post with all the details as it feels like this past week was much longer than seven days.  This past month of preparation has been equally a part of the journey as my time here will be.  I said so many goodbyes, quit my first job, moved out of my cozy apartment, and prepared to step out of my comfort zone for a year.  The journey from DC, our nation's capital, to Accra, Ghana's capital, was long and rough.  The time differences made it difficult to adjust and I was a zombie the whole way there.  By the time I arrived I was exhausted and disoriented, but the lovely staff of Horizons Children's Centre hooked me up with a friend Gabby, a wonderful Ghanaian gentleman who is a principal at a local school, who picked me up at the airport and brought me back to my hotel.  Once I settled into my room, everything hit me.  It was as if I could see the wave of anxiety coming towards me without an escape.  I started panicking as I was realizing what I had committed to and where I was.  It was like waking up from sleepwalking and finding yourself somewhere totally unexpected.  I won't lie my friends, it was tough.  All these months of preparation and emotional readying seemed like empty gestures holding little meaning once I was actually away.  Going to sleep-away camp since I was little, I never experienced even the smallest bit of home sickness.  Going to university, I would spend months without speaking to my family and I would be fine.  But on this night, I payed back all the moments of missing I missed.  Tears were streaming down my face, but through them all I knew this commitment was not a mistake.  I knew this journey was mine to take and this was just an important part of it.  I talked a bit with some loved ones, took some sleeping pills, and drifted off.

The next day I was connected with a volunteer who was finished with her time and was heading back home at the end of the week.  She had spent the past five months in Sandema, the town I am living in, and was enthusiastic to tell me about this lovely place she had fallen in love with.  Her name is BB, and she brought me back to life.  We spent the next few days running errands, getting our hurrs did, eating some tasty local food, and sharing many laughs.  This girl is a gem.  She has an amazing spirit with an open heart, and at the end of our time, we were so sad to part ways.  It truly felt like we had known each other for years.  I'm scheming to get her back to Sandema so we can be a dynamic duo force of awesome here :)  We met up with a couple of the boys from the centre who were going to make the trip up with me and we also got along instantly.  Christopher is finishing his last year in senior high, and Jacob is starting his first year in senior high, and both of them are hilarious.  The last day that we were all together before we had to say goodbye to BB, we had so much fun even though BB was battling malaria.  Oh malaria, I'd be cool if we didn't become acquainted anytime soon.  On Friday, we said our goodbyes to BB then hopped on the bus to travel north for the next 15 or so hours.  The bus ride was long, but again, this is where I praised God for sleeping pills.  I definitely "freed myself" in some interesting places on the way...but, T.I.A. (This is Africa). 

Finally, I ARRIVED IN SANDEMA!  At about 4:30 am on Saturday, we pulled into town where Joe, the centre's local director, met us and took us back to my house.  I settled in a bit and slept some more.  I quite like my house!  It's humble and could use a bit of love, but it's cozy and has some wonderful energy (I suspect from amazing past volunteers).  It's got everything I need and is a bit like living in a country cabin/cottage.  Things are breaking down, but it's homey.

On Sunday night, I had my introduction to all the boys at the centre!  They greeted me with open arms and sang me a welcome song and strutted there stuff with some dance moves (they also made me dance...I was not quite ready for that!).  The smiles, the joy, the family vibes made me feel a bit like Wendy and the Lost Boys (from Peter Pan)!  They cheered as they heard I was staying for a year and they all came by to shake my hand one by one.  It was really lovely.

Today Joe and I went to the market and met some other important people in town.  The power's been out for the past 17 hours or so, so it's making it difficult to do too much.  I'm really excited to get started with whatever projects I will be doing this year, but it's hard to imagine what all of that will be like.  Trying to take in a year of many unknowns is hard to digest.  I am feeling pretty good about everything, but I'm still very much adjusting.  I'm getting used to drinking water from bags (rather than bottles), dusting bugs from my bed, and constantly sweating!  The one thing that I am still learning to get used to is the sitting.  What do I mean by that?  I mean just that.  People sit together a lot here and a lot of times without saying a word.  Someone might come over and sit for hours.  Or you might go somewhere and sit some more.  At first I felt really awkward with the dead space, and even antsy, but I am hoping I will be able to let go of my Western tendency to do, distract, entertain, and just sit.

I have a billion more reflections, and I'm sure I will post them as I feel ready to unpack them, but feel free to ask me questions and I'll enjoy answering them!  Thank you for supporting me, loving me, contacting me, and being interested.  I miss so much about home already, and I miss all of you something fierce.  Keep missing me too ;)

Love from Sandema,
Tippy (They all call me that here too!  Tiffany was too difficult and I kept getting Stephanie or Steppadie...so I settled on my family nick name :))