Sorry!

I have been really bad these last few days with keeping up. Not much happened on Wednesday or Thursday. They were just usual days where I attempted in vain to finish my paper via the internet. I play card games while I waited for each page to load. It also doesn't help when one family member fails to send an important file. :) It was probably better anyways - I got to just take things slow. And while normally I would be going out of my mind with the pace of this trip, it has been good for me. I always knew I had kept a busy life, but I didn't realize how busy until I came to Ghana. Just doing one or two things a day is so liberating. You don't have to worry about something not working out or your plan not going the way you wanted it to.

And for me, this past year has been a slow change in how I view life. I have become much more relaxed not really trying to commit to things and just letting things happen as they happen. Ghana has sort of solidified that in my mentality. Sure you could argue that is not a healthy mentality, I would just say that it is different, not better or worse. Don't get me wrong, I still will plan, but if you told me today that I would be a flight attendant, a server, or a janitor the rest of my life, but I would be happy, then I am fine with it. I guess what I am getting at is that I have discovered that by slowing life down, by taking things in strides and as they come allows you to find the true joy in things. Everything I have planned so far in my life is meaningless. Trust me, nothing so far has worked out how I planned: I spent a summer at a monastery, I graduated college in 2 years, and I will probably be serving the poor for a good majority of my life. Everytime I have had something solidified, last minute there are drastic changes: IBI was literally a decision I made in a day, Livingstone was a decision made in a weekend, and Ghana was determined in a week.

You can find the most certainty and comfort in the unpredictability and apparent randomness of life.

I am in Accra, the capital city now. It is about 10 degrees C cooler here, but VERY humid, I have been a sweating machine since I got here. But there is always a nice cool breeze. Ghana is a different world from America. Tamale is a different world from Accra. It stuns me how developed and advanced the southern part of the country can be while the north is still chugging along in the 17th century. Another example of me not planning: I may be in Cape Coast tomorrow for the day and evening. If that doesn't work out, I will be going out to Cape Coast Sunday. See how my life is now?