And with one exam left, I am pretty much done with school here in Ghana. I have no idea what my grades look like or how I am going to be graded, but I will worry about that in February once my transcripts come through.

Over the past four months I have had a lot of highs and a lot of lows. A lot of adventures and misadventures. After my experience in Scotland, I felt as though I did not get as much as I wanted from a study abroad experience. Don’t get me wrong, Scotland was an incredible experience. People ask me all the time which one I liked more, and I can’t answer because they were both very different experiences. I’m not sure what exactly I was looking for from my study abroad year, but Ghana definitely gave it to me. After finishing finals, Here is a compilation of the most valuable lessons I learned in Ghana:

1. Go with the flow

Sometimes in life everything goes wrong. Sometimes rain starts to pour out of nowhere, or for some reason it feels as though everyone you talk to does not understand a thing you are saying. It is going to be okay. Things do not always work out and that is just a fact of life. Instead of getting upset by everything wrong that is happening, sometimes it is just better to just go with it because something good can come out of it (or at least a funny story).

2. You need to appreciate the differences instead of making comparisons

As I said before, many people often asked me to compare my time in Europe to my time in Africa. I can’t. Plain and simple. I even find it hard to compare two countries in the same continent. They each brought their own joys and sorrows and a lot of interesting people. At times I focused way too much on the superficial differences and that made things harder for me at times. As I get ready to leave Ghana, I now realize that it was not in my best interest to constantly compare my difficulties here with the difficulties that I don’t face every single day back home. Ghana isn’t the reason why I struggled at times, I was- I was just raised in a different environment and my lifestyle is just different than mine. Every place has its own unique identity and that is what makes it special- it isn’t our home.

3. Laughter can fix a lot, and so can your imagination

Even when the power would go out and we would be cooking in our bedrooms (see no. 5 for further details on the heat), or Ghana would just be winning too much, laughing was always a solution. We would all just laugh about the insanity and the incredible situation we found ourselves in. I want you to just picture this: Three adults sitting on a twin bed playing with a lamp to make finger puppets on a weeknight. At the age of 20 I never thought that I would be doing that out of the blue with friends in the dorm- but I am glad it has happened. I also have a few friends who have built whole stories surrounding the people around us- the cooks in the kitchen, and even the lady who sells food outside of the dorm. It is the little things like this that help us understand the differences in culture the best.

4. Self-Care is important.

Although we probably shouldn’t have joked about it as much as we did, every single time someone said they were sick someone would automatically shoot back jokingly saying it was probably malaria or cholera. Although there were a few bumps along the way, we are all flying out of Ghana with a pretty descent level of health. The fact that we were exposed to a completely new environment made us start paying attention to every single aspects of our body. If we started to feel unwell we took care of the problem. We were too afraid of potential consequences to let things like that slide. Because I started paying more attention to my body, I payed more attention to what I put into it, and how I treated myself. I drank so much water this semester to prevent dehydration too. I also took multiple opportunities to just rest when my body needed it (for the first time in my life I had enough time to do that).

5. West-Africa is hot. So hot.

Before this experience, I was just a girl from the desert where humidity is not a word in my vocabulary and for the most part my life is filled with air conditioning and kept at a cool 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius). Now my life rarely goes below 90F (30C) and I constantly find myself sweating. I didn’t even know that my body could produce this much sweat. I am constantly dehydrated even though I drink My body is more than likely going to freeze when I take a little detour through Germany and Belgium on my way home.

6. Expect the unexpected

Ghana always had a way of keeping us on our toes. Even when we thought we had a place, or a solid game plan, things always had a way of switching up on us. Today I did a ropes course and it pretty much summed up my time in Ghana. At times things were easy, I felt like I was in control and could do anything. Then at other times I was slamming into wooden posts and bruising my arms. 

7. Life is incredibly complex, yet beautiful and has infinite worth. 

• There is a lot to complain about here in Ghana. It’s too hot, there are mass amounts of poverty, and the list goes on an on. But there is also a lot to smile about. One of the little girls I worked with, Mary, doesn’t have much but you should see the way her face lights up when she tells a joke or kicks a soccer ball. Life is an incredible thing and your environment doesn’t completely decide your happiness.  

8. Most learning happens outside of the classroom.

To put it simply, the education I received in the classroom at the University of Ghana was not a world class education. Most of the knowledge and mental growth that I gained here happened outside of the classroom. Kinda like how I’ll learn once I finally decide to finish school. 

9. Friends are the best.

I have said this before and I say it again- the people you surround yourself with can either make your experience better or worse. The people I met this semester are so incredible. We all laughed and cried together, we all sweat and struggled together. I’m grateful for the people I met and the experiences they shared 

10. Studying abroad in a developing country was probably one of the better decisions I’ve made. 

• Although it wasn’t a good time every single night and we weren’t living a glamorous life style, this semester has taught me a lot. A lot about myself and a lot about the world. I wouldn’t change a thing about where I chose to do my second semester abroad because when else will I have the opportunity to just try and live in a developing country for the heck of it and just do what you want to do with your time? In coming here a lot of my preconceived notions of developing countries were shattered, while others were reaffirmed. Although I’ve had a lot of internal struggles, I’ve learned a lot about how far my limits can be pushed. 

Thanks for the memories Ghana. It’s been an adventure to say the least. On to the next adventure. Until next time,

-L