My Orientation Essay

I thought I may as well include the essay I just turned in today, for my avid readers. It was assigned as reflection on my first weeks here. There are some intricacies I've included in the essay that I haven’t gotten to write about yet, so enjoy. Oh, and the topic I chose was "knowing Ghana."

Knowing Ghana: Before and After

I will never forget my plane flight to Accra, Ghana. In an attempt to ease my nerves, I kept telling myself my decision to study abroad was, in fact, very well thought out, contrary to the opinion of some of my friends and family. In the months before my departure, many people that heard I was spending the fall semester in Ghana seemed to question my decision, as if going to Africa was a rash choice. But I knew I wasn’t going in unprepared. When the time came to board my plane out of the United States, all of the doubts that had surrounded me combined, creating an enormous knot in my stomach. I realized on the plane, I only had one remedy—remembering the simple fact that I had been thinking about Ghana for the past year. Through academic courses on Africa, study abroad fairs, online research, and talking to past EAP students I knew Ghana…or at least I knew enough about Ghana to step onto the plane.

All the EAP Ghana alumni I talked to were eager to share their experience. But with their enthusiasm also came a warning—that I would come back from Ghana with my own impressions, which may have similarities to their experience, but would still remain very distinctly my own sense of Ghana. Thus, I was advised to come into my Ghana with few expectations, so I could never be disappointed by my experience. So I tried to resist forming images of Ghana in my mind. However, there were times where I couldn’t resist looking up pictures of Ghana online, trying to give myself a mental image of a developing country. I saw pictures of paved highways and tall buildings, but also saw pictures of dirt roads and small children in villages. With such widespread information, by the time I stepped off the plane and into Africa, I only knew one thing: that my Ghana experience would lie somewhere in-between those images I saw online. Seven weeks later, and hundreds of lessons later, I’m still learning new things about Ghana. My insights concerning language, history, and time stand out as perfect examples of my journey in getting to “know Ghana.”

I knew Ghana’s official language was English, and I knew the most common language, in at least the area I would be studying was Twi (but, I didn’t even pronounce Twi correctly until the woman sitting next to me on the plane taught me the pronunciation was Ch-wi). I got the impression that traveling the country would be fairly easy for an English speaker, and with this knowledge I thought nothing further of language in Ghana. What I did not realize until I arrived in Ghana were the intricacies of the Ghanaian language system. Ghana has taught me the overwhelming difference between an official language and national language. Although English is Ghana’s official language, Ghanaian do not think, or yell, or cry in English. This has in interesting effect on the educational system. All of my professors spend much more time, than I am used to, clarifying statements and reiterating main points because not only because students are learning in their second language, but the professor is also speaking in his/her second language. In learning about these intricacies, I have become increasingly interested in literacy in Ghanaian schools, and have decided to devote my research project to this topic.

The one aspect of Ghana I felt self-confident in knowing was history. I knew about the origins of Ghana’s religious systems, Ghana’s historical roots in the slave trade, the fight for independence, and I even knew what the Ghana flag colors represented. But I got a whole different lesson in history when I got here. Though part of this lesson is thanks to our EAP liaison’s prominence as a Ghanaian historian, I have still sensed Ghana’s strong commitment to preserving history. The best example of this is the whatyamacallit bird, a Ghanaian symbol that represents the importance of looking back before proceeding forward. The same lesson came up in reflecting on slave castle trip. As we drove out of El Mina, I realized notability of the castles’ preservation. Although the castles are permanent reminders of colonial rule and painful memories of slavery, the Ghanaian community has preserved the castles, using the sites as an opportunity to warn future generations of atrocities our world can produce. Part of me thinks that if such a site existed in the US, our community would instead destroy memories of a painful history.

In my EAP application essay, I remember specifically writing how I was excited to experience Ghana’s slow sense of time I knew that time had a different meaning in Ghana: that things moved slower, that things didn’t work as efficiently, that people just don’t move too fast. Well, the phenomena of Ghana time has reached new heights since school has started. In retrospect, there was no way I could have prepared myself for the lesson in patience I am receiving here. There were so many times during registration, in trying to find my advisor, and at times without water and electricity that I found myself getting unreasonably frustrated. Since this point, I have forbidden myself to make ‘to-do’ lists, because what seems like a simple task like going to the market can take long hours and lots of energy. I have begun to understand the roots of the slower time system. I have noticed Ghanaians rise early and make it to bed fairly late, compared to American who throw a fit without their prescribed 8 hours, which helps explain why I have noticed so many street vendors and tro-tro drivers taking naps. In addition, just in being in a developing country, where public institutions are still being established—like the public transport system, or departments of energy and water—causes many other aspects of life to move slower. When it is time to leave Ghana, having learned the causes and value in a slower sense of time, I know I will not look forward to the fast pace of life in the United States.

Remembering my state of mind on my plane flight here, I realize that I really had prepared myself for this experience: I got on the plane knowing I would learn in Ghana, and that was most I needed to expect. The lessons I have learned in language, history, and time were all impossible to prepare for outside of Ghana. And these are just the lessons I have learned in the first several weeks. There are many more lessons to come, all of which I can’t completely prepare for. But I am prepared to leave my experience knowing Ghana, in my own unique way.