February 6-10, 2011

Ghana (Gah-nuh): a country in which the majority of people in the entire world: including Americans, Ghanaian themselves, myself, and many important public figures in world... have no clue how corrupt and demeaning the life of the people who live is; and a place in which I've learned to love and respect all at the same time.

Going to to Ghana, and better yet the capital, Accra, has really changed the way I perceive the life of people, and the importance of governmental infrastructure, while at the same time realizing the complete dis-importance of the government and what it does to its own people as a whole.  As sad as it is, the majority of what I've learned in this country, which is far more than my brain can collect in less than a week, has made me realize that I know less about what is going on in the world than I have ever imagined. It truly dug deep into my heart seeing the lives of some of these people, and better yet realizing that the world we live in (back at home), is simply a fairy tale.  I'm going to stop here on this subject, because I could write all day about it and I simply don't have the time...

On another note, Ghana was so much fun, had an incredible time, and it will be a country which I will visit again in the near future, hopefully for a longer period of time.  The two guys that took us around the country, whom names were conveniently both Eric, were a huge aid in our understanding of the country and we could never seen as much as we did and completed as much as we did without their help. 

Some people have emailed me asking me what I've done in Ghana... and besides: visiting castles and slave dungeons, climbing in a canopy in the middle of a forest, eating some of the spiciest/greatest food I've ever witnessed, hanging out with an abundance amount of locals, meeting people from the US not affiliated with Semester at Sea in bar's, walking the streets of the outskirts of Accra, visiting the mountains, seeing the amount of people who struggle to simply survive in their everyday actions, visiting many embassies, working with school children through Freedom in Creation and seeing the way they are being educated, talking to people who simply want to know why you are here(which by the way is evident that I wasn't a local, I always knew that Ghana was mainly dark-skinned, but I did not know I would be the only white person for miles), talking with local business men and women, riding on the intense(to say the least) roads, and simply living like a local for 5 days.......
       I got to learn more about myself and how privileged I am. Everything I do back home I take for granite, and I know more about myself through the lives of other people and this new land that I've laid eyes upon. 

I would really like to share more about Ghana, but I have got so school work to catch up on, and that's pretty important.

Thanks for everyone's emails, I can't explain to you enough how much it means to hear from family and friends from back home. 

Till next time my lovely audience,
Eric