When I was in the second grade, I went to live with my Dad while my mom went to live in Ghana for her studies. I remember being so envious. She sent me postcards and coins, my first purse, and lots of stories about this country I couldn't really quite picture. I mean living in predominantly White communities doesn't lend itself to imagining a world that is all Black, on all class levels in every area. My mom has traveled all over Africa, east, west, south, and north and has come to conclusion that our ancestors were probably Ghanaian. There is no evidence of course, as we can only trace our roots back to Iowa, but she did say there was something special about it, and those childhood memories have always stuck with me. Perhaps that's why Ghana was on my top 3 countries to go to next. I wanted to finally see it for myself.
So here I am, having blown all my savings on this 30th b-day trip for myself and I can already say it is money well spent. In another few hours my mother will arrive. She is presenting at a conference on the Black Diaspora, some of which I will be attending. I have already met several of the other presenters and it sounds like it's going to very interesting. My mom will be talking about Madame President (refer to Feb blog post), the conference she held with the women of color who have become presidents of their learned societies. I've also met people who plan on discussion gender roles in the Diaspora and the psychology of race.
I just arrived this morning, after a brief layover in New York and a very long flight where my Ghanaian seatmate woke up just in time to ask me for my number. Sorry folks, I'm not Stella and I don't have a visa for you...just putting it out there. As the plane cut through the clouds and I got my first glimpse of Accra, I was reminded a little bit of Japan. It was the the green landscape and the colorful roofs. Then as we got closer, you could see how red the ground looked, just like Georgia, but flat and with palm trees. It's funny how every place leaves it's impression. The more I travel, the more similarities I see between landscapes.
I managed to get my luggage and navigate customs with ease. It helps that everyone speaks English. This is already turning out to be a much different trip that my last time in Africa...which was my trip to Senegal when I was 16 (my French is not great and my Oulof really sucks, so communication was not very fluid). I was relieved to meet up with people from the Hotel where the conference is being hosted. The drove me on a magical mystery tour to find an ATM that takes visa. NOTE: Do not bring a non-visa ATM card, every ATM here is all about visa. Would have been nice to know before hand. We found a bank that takes mastercard and then I met some other people from the conference and had lunch, worked out, and discovered the hotel pool (which has its own bar with a happy hour with live music :) )
So far everything is lovely. It's cloudy and humid, with very little sun today, but 30 degrees cooler than Portland yesterday. The land is very flat and the buildings are walled and have a Caribbean feel. There are palm trees and traffic is kind of insane. I am totally afraid to cross the street. Now I'm going to go crash a private party at the pool (saw some cuties) and then I'm going to check out a jazz club. I met this woman named Toni who is a US ex-pat who has lived here since 97 and runs a jazz club and a spoken word open mike night (which I might be rocking later this week). Yup, I could probably live here. Can't wait to see my mom and meet up with her friends.
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