There is a point when traveling- sometime after I stop caring if I wear black and brown together, quit wondering why I am not with my fellow English majors on luxurious London study abroad programs, and finally embrace freezing bucket showers, that I stop waking up in the middle of the night wondering where I am and what the heck I am doing.
I’m not there yet.
At my honors thesis orientation the instructor told us that "every adventure looks like a mistake somewhere in the middle". I think I somehow managed to forget how hard field studies are. I got so used to simplifying my Ghana experience when I got home, like a Band-Aid wrapped too tightly around a wound with no oxygen. Some things were never given space to heal, or room to just be! People would always ask, “How was Ghana?” It was not necessarily an invitation to really talk about it (not because they didn't care, just because it is hard to relate to), and I became so accustomed to the typical “it was good” answer that I also started to over simplify the experience. Especially this part.
Don't get me wrong. It was good. It was amazing! But it was also really hard.
Don't get me wrong. It was good. It was amazing! But it was also really hard.
Getting integrated into a community and gaining access was my biggest struggle in Ghana. Turns out, it is also my biggest struggle here. I am beginning my third week and it is about time to feel a bit more adjusted. These things cannot necessarily be planned, but I did some social situation triangles to help brainstorm some ideas for how to find the people I need to meet in order to write the creative project I was planning on. Social situation triangles are just ways to think about different social situations that I could encounter as a way to generate more ideas about where I can get more material.
Side 1- Subjects
