Come one, come all...

Welcome to my first blog post! I guess this better be a good one...

Obviously I do not have much to say yet, as I am still at home, in Thornhill, trying to organize my life together (into 2 bags!) for my time in Ghana. Just as a briefing, I am leaving for Ghana tomorrow, for about a year. I will be working as a research assistant at the university where I studied 2 years ago, the University of Ghana. I will be working for a research center, called the Center for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA) - I will probably be referring to that quite a bit this year! If you are interested, the website for CEGENSA is: http://cegensa.ug.edu.gh/

I am really excited about this opportunity, and the organization seems very professional, and well orchestrated. I am super excited to finally get there, meet the staff whom I have been in contact with for the past year and begin. Something that I also want to emphasize is that I have no training in the field of gender studies, but it has been something I wanted to pursue and learn about for a while. As a social work student at McGill, we did not have the opportunity to choose a 'minor' subject of interest, whereby making it difficult to group the courses of my choice into a category. I am taking this year to explore some options for my future as a professional - whatever capacity that may be. Gender studies and feminist thought and analysis have been a major component of my thought process for quite some time now, so I am really looking forward to learning from and working along side the staff of CEGENSA to see if this is indeed a direction I can see myself in in the future....the future! So ambiguous, i know.

My time in Ghana two years ago was so unbelievably spectacular, and upon my graduation this past Spring, I knew I had to go back. To me, Ghana is a place of such warmth (both the people and the climate!), generosity, lure, culture, stress, frustration, activity and beauty. When I left last time, I felt like I was just getting settled with all of this and it was time to go. It was easy to get caught up with the heat, traffic and cultural differences, but once one learns to cope, the rest is simple. The people are amazing and will go above and beyond to help. If you are lost, they will go out of their way to walk you where you need to go. As cheesy as it is, I learned so much about myself, patience, respect, resourcefulness, common courtesy, and the simple kindness of saying 'good morning' to strangers, things that I hope I will never forget. And these are the reasons I am going back.

Many people have asked me why I am going back to Ghana? Why not go somewhere else? And truthfully, I decided to go back the day after my arrival back to Canada. There are defenately moments where I question if this is the right decision. Should I have decided to stay home and work? Or why am I not going to India, somewhere I do really want to go? But the more I think about it, the more I know I made the right decision. I feel as if I made so many connections in Ghana, I (on my own level, to a certain degree) understand the culture, am familiar with common practices and traditions, have learned how to interact with people, feel safe, learned (after many many trials and tribulations!) to get around on my own and to basically just live. So these are the reasons I am going back. I feel lucky that there is this small country, 17 hours away from home, with a culture and religion so different from my own that i feel so comfortable in. It took a year to get to that point, so the thought of doing it all over again, somewhere else, sounds downright exhausting! So these are the reasons why I am going back to Ghana. I'm not going to 'help Africa', or 'save Africa', i'm going because I love the country, am not ready to go to grad school yet, and have an internship that I am super stoked about!

Sorry that this entry has a journal vibe, but i'm new to the blog world! I will try not to spill my guts for the next entry!