Searching for the words to describe Ghana

Where do I begin? Ghana was so intense and amazing. I'm trying to gather my thoughts for this blog, but it's much more difficult than I anticipated. From visiting small dusty villages, beaches, walking through a canopy of trees in their national park, seeing the poverty, smelling strange and sometimes pungent things, to the most heart-wrentching visit to the slave castles and dungeons, each part of the trip was significant. Especially the slave castles... of all my life experiences, that was one of the most intense and powerful that I've ever had, so much so, that it brought me to tears hearing the details. We were incredibly lucky because we had an amazing historian, Ato, as our guide at the Elimina Castle. Before we actually entered any of the rooms, he stood with us in the courtyard in front of the church that stood between the slave dungeons, and he shared an amazing historical account of the elements within both African culture and European culture that contributed to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. He actually authored a book about the Elimina castle/dungeon, and was  extremely prolific. He gently painted the picture of the horrific scenes and practices in the slave dungeons, while reminding us of the story and lesson for humanity in the midst of all of this pain.

On another note, I also had the opportunity to visit a women's empowerment group in Ghana because one of the SAS students set it up before she left. It's called the Leading Ladies Network, and they are absolutley amazing (leadingladiesnetwork.org). Yawa Hansen-Quao is the director and founder, and she personally picked us up from the ship in a bus and gave us a tour and hosted our visit while they did a seminar at the University of Cape Coast. They have a development person who is from the bay area, and will be back in May, and they are currently working on applying for a Global Fund for Women grant - what a small world!! It was a great visit, we went to the University of Cape Coast, and attended one of their seminars, then got to have lunch with the Ghanaian women... it was very cool, and reminded my of the WCC's work. It was interested how similar the topics were to what we cover as well, and great to see global work with the same purpose and strategy that we employ.

These few paragraphs only begin to scratch the surface of what I experienced, and what we experienced as a community visiting Ghana. I will definitely post some pictures soon as well, and I hope to elaborate before we get to South Africa. Thank you for sharing in my journey!

Approaching Africa...

We are less than 24 hours away from reaching Ghana, and I can hardly contain myself.  My first time being on the African continent, I am bracing myself for what is sure to be an intense and amazing experience.  So far our plans include a Cape Coast historical tour, which includes a visit to the Kakum National Park, and some of the forts, castles, and slave dungeons along the coast.  We also have plans to visit a women's organization at the University of Cape Coast, called: Leading Ladies Network.  I'm so excited to visit this women's empowerment organization, it sounds like they have a lot of programs and offerings for their participants, and a good group of students are all planning to go.

It's a kinda crazy contrast because this past week we had the 'Sea Olympics' on the ship where the different 'seas' (areas on each deck that are separated into groups and assigned a color), competed in a series of events with the goal of building community and spirit onboard the ship.  My role on the ship is an LLC, aka Living Learning Coordinator, and there are 8 of us who are in charge of each of the seas, along with a specialty area.  My sea is the Baltic Sea, (go light blue!), and we actually placed 3rd in the overall competition!  The prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place are that they get to be first, second and third off the ship when we dock in San Diego at the end of the voyage. 

As for the actual work here on the ship, I love our LLC team!  Everyone has been great to work with, has offered creative ideas/solutions and we really work well together (while having fun), which is pretty great for only knowing each other for a few weeks now.  Here's a photo of all of us right after the opening ceremonies (thanks for the photo Bianca!)....

We have an all-star staff of motivated, creative, socially conscious, talented, individuals, and I'm so happy to get to work with them on this huge adventure.  It's been interesting to not only navigate the adventures of travel along this journey, but also navigate life on board a floating university with different folks from different places and institutions.  We have interport students and lecturers who join us for different stretches of the voyage to share their experiences from their home countries.  It's been great (but not without its challenges).  Overall, I continue to feel blessed to be here.

Now... onward to Ghana, let the adventures continue!