Having been in Ghana for nearly 11 straight months, I’ve definitely fallen into a food rut. Cooking no longer excites me and I can’t muster up the smallest hint of excitement for the local staples that I normally prepare. Well, with the exception of fufu. I’m still solidly in the butterflies-in-my-stomach, stars-in-my-eyes, hand-holding stage of… Read More The Scrooge and I
It’s that time of year again – election time! And we are going NUTS here in Ghana reminding ourselves to BE PEACEFUL! PLEASE OH! We have peace prayer rallies. We have peace tro-tro slogans: GH Politicians We Need Peaceful Elections. We have peace signboards. We have paint companies advertising peace (and paint): We have only… Read More Why the US 2016 post-election riots REALLY matter
The first time I meet Nisa, she and her two little girls have been staying on the second floor of the children’s ward for six weeks. She is, as she later puts it, “like a mad woman.” Little Need Glory Thank God, 9 months old, has been suffering from an acute case of hydrocephalus, caused… Read More Motherhood: Mortuary at My Back
(continued from Part 1) To be thankful for language barriers: African English and American English are not the same oh! I’ve lost track of how many times we’ve carried on an entire conversation, only to realize at the end that both assumed the other was speaking of something else. Usually, the disconnect can be traced… Read More 6 Lessons I Have Learned from Falling in Love with a Nigerian (Part 2)
I’ve been traveling ever since my parents first strapped me into a car seat in the back of our blue VW Camper and headed down the road for a weekend getaway at a California campground. From there, the trips just kept getting longer: cross country, sharing the backseat of our Mitsubishi with my younger brother… Read More 6 Lessons I Have Learned from Falling in Love with a Nigerian (Part 1)
After living in Ghana for a year – one of the best years of my life, by the way – I thought I knew the culture and the people. I compared myself to short-termers I met along the way – Westerners who measured their time here in mere weeks or months. There was no doubt… Read More Mamanu
Written with Wisdom Ifeanyi People may believe most West African countries are the same but they’d be wrong. It’s all about understanding and getting to know the differences. When you do, you’ll realize most the adjustments you have to make are small ones – not that difficult at all. But once in a while,… Read More 9 Differences between Ghana and Nigeria (Which prove that not all West African nations are the same)
“Sometimes he tells us, ‘I can walk! I can walk! One day you will wake up and not find me here. I will just be gone to our home.’” Joseph’s eyes are bright with tears and I glance away to give him a moment. The waiting area outside Surgery at 37 Military Hospital is packed… Read More Amazing People:Nobel
“This is my favorite part,” says Carrie. “I love watching the mothers together.” “So do I!” I say. The weekly Wednesday morning physiotherapy at Trafalgar Hospital has come to a close. We’re still inside the air conditioned physio room but all the mothers and children have gone out. We are standing at a window… Read More “I thought I was the only one.”
One of my FAVORITE parts of Ghanaian culture is letter writing. Thanks to the lack of computer access (especially in the house), it is anything but a lost art. I have two binders full of epistles from Ghanaian children and they are full of misspellings, short on punctuation, and brimming over with love (with a… Read More I love you very and so much
