I’ve been here a little over 6 months. Stanford SEED was very generous and bought me a round trip to go home and see family, take care of things, and just decompress. This was above and beyond the contract I signed, and I was very grateful. Even though Linda came out to Africa a month or so ago when I needed her most, my apartment is a temporary place. There’s no place like home.
However this time it’s different. Boise is where my heart and my love are. But for now, it’s not where I live. I’m a tourist in my own neighborhood. Linda now very capably runs the show. I have projects, friends to see and lots of things to catch up. But I have to leave to live somewhere else again. Bonnie described it well: it’s like coming back from college for Christmas. You’re home, but really you’re not.
About 30 hours from there to here. No long boring travel saga. I ate, I sat, I whined. I still hate flying after all these years and miles. But the flights weren’t nearly as bad as I’d expected and the Senators’ Club in Frankfurt is the best way to kill 8 hours in any airport. Sean & Mandy met me in San Francisco.
We went to an Italian restaurant on the way from the airport. I was overwhelmed. Things were disjointed and, well, foreign. I can best describe what I felt as “reverse culture shock.” The restaurant seemed huge. Everything was in motion all the time. My face didn’t stand out like a glaring light – in the Bay Area, everyone is a different color. They hadn’t changed. My frame of reference had. Familiar things like drinking fountains would make me flash back to West Africa, where I’ve yet to see one, and wouldn’t use it if I did.
Returning to Ghana was more difficult than I expected. The comfort of my American life, my wife, family, and old friends made me want to stay. My commitment, my passion, and my new friends pulled me back to Accra.
My time here is winding down. October is just a couple of months away and I’ll be saying a lot of difficult goodbyes. But I’m looking for my next opportunity to work here in West Africa and know that I’ll always have a home in Ghana.