Coffee shop advice

While sitting at a coffee shop I overheard two guys talking about texting:

Guy 1: "Hey, what's the etiquette on if someone writes 'LOL' do you have to respond?"

Guy2: "No... you don't have to respond to LOL or smiley face."

Solid advice for us all... LOL :)

Loss and Joy

I named this blog “Joy in the Journey” because I firmly believe that through Christ, you can find joy in all things, whether it be happy or profoundly sad, easy or seemingly insurmountable. But how do I find joy in this journey-a plan that I wish God did not have for my life? How do I find joy in losing my mother, the most amazing person I know, the person I have so continuously strived to be more like?

I find joy in the knowledge that she is a believer in Jesus Christ and so I can know, without a shadow of a doubt, that she is in heaven and that I will get to see her again one day. I find joy in what a huge lost this is, because it would not be quite such a big loss if my mom was not quite such an amazing woman. I find joy in watching how many lives she has touched and that even in her death, she continued to teach me. I find joy in, and am thankful for, the time, memories and many lessons that she was able to leave me with. I am joyful that there was nothing left unsaid and nothing I regret about my relationship with my mom. I find joy, mingled with sadness, when something reminds me of her or when I act like her because it means she is still with me. I find so much joy in the relationship I have with my dad; it has changed and grown through this experience into such a beautiful thing- he is an amazing man. I find joy in growing closer to the women in my life- my sister, aunts, and friends, who each fill a little of the void left by my mom. Above all, I marvel at my God. How can I fail to be joyful when the God of the universe cares enough to envelope me in his arms when I don’t have the strength to reach out to him. When he showers me with blessings during this time, though I am undeserving. When he gives me a peace that is beyond understanding.

So I do not have to be happy about losing my mom, I’m broken. But I can be joyful and trust in my God, that he will “work all things for the good of those that love Him”. I can move forward, one step at a time, I can invest in relationships like my mom did, I can continue working towards my degree, and I can take comfort in the knowledge of how very proud of me my mom was.

Reflections

Tuesday, September 7

Growing up, we always had a time of reflection following a family vacation. I always looked forward to this time where we would all go around and say what our favorite part of the trip was. This would inevitably turn into laughter as we all brought up some of the funnier moments of the trip. I thought it would be fun to answer not only that one question, but a few more, in order to sum up my trip.

My favorite part of the trip: Holding the infants! The ones that weren’t scared of me were just so cute and cuddly!

The most frustrating part of the trip: Feeling like I was taken advantage of because I’m white. This was mostly financially-getting charged way more because of the color of my skin.

What surprised me the most: Ghana has a big population of amazing Christian men and women. What a wonderful culture of kind and generous people!

Scariest moment: I was taking a taxi home one night and the traffic was crazy, with cars going in every direction-complete chaos! My taxi driver went to drive around another car that was going slow and the car blocked our way. The driver got out and came up to the taxi driver’s side and started yelling at him and punching his arm and head. I was terrified that he was going to pull out a gun! The taxi driver stayed calm and didn’t retaliate and the guy went back to his car and drove away. It was definitely scary though!

What a great experience this was! I am looking forward to hopefully visiting more African countries in the future!

Leaving Ghana

Monday, September 6

Today is the day I leave! There are ups and downs to every trip and today was definitely one of those “downs”! The entire day was spent running around getting the nitrogen shipper ready to take back my samples. This included taking the shipper to get filled, taking our paperwork around to multiple offices to get signed and stamped, and finally taking the shipper to the lab to put the samples in. When we opened the shipper to put in the samples, a couple of the lab techs used wooden sticks, to try to submerge the boxes (filled with samples) below the liquid nitrogen. As they were shoving the boxes down into the shipper, I got really concerned as the whole thing just didn’t look right. I told them to stop so we could read the manual and email a couple of people, since it just didn’t seem right that we would be submerging the samples in liquid nitrogen. While they asked around, I went back to the hotel to eat (I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was 5pm by then) and pack up to head to the airport for my 11pm flight. It turns out that the shipper is supposed to sit for three days following it being filled with the nitrogen so it can evaporate into the walls of the shipper. Needless to say, I ended up just heading to the airport sans shipper! By the time I got to the airport I was praying that my flight wouldn’t be delayed since I just couldn’t wait to head home. Thankfully the flight was on time and I even had two seats all to myself! I took some niquil and slept for the entire 11 hour flight! When I got to my next flight, they didn’t have room for my bag (carrying all my very fragile souvenirs that I didn’t bother packing very well since they were going to be with me the whole time) and said they would have to check it through to my destination. I tried everything to persuade them to allow me to have my bag but the curmudgeony lady didn’t listen at all and took it away, without even a fragile sticker! I was so upset and drained at this point that I found my seat and burst into tears. Thankfully my next transfer was uneventful and my carry-on arrived in Davis unbroken! Lacey was waiting for me at the airport and it was so wonderful to see a friendly face!

Bed Net Envy

Sunday, September 5

Brie and I had a relaxing morning including a leisurely breakfast at the guesthouse restaurant. Around noon we went to the mall to have lunch and catch a movie with my friend Robert (he took me to the market last weekend). We watched the movie Salt, which was good, but kind of a bummer ending. After the moving we walked over to the market so Brie could see it and do some shopping. Since it was Sunday it shut down pretty early and Brie and I headed back to our room. What a fun night of laughs! Brie and I get along so well and we were cracking up about the difference in our two bed nets. Mine is all army and hard to get in/out of. Hers looks like a princess bed. Mine was all slumped over on my face since it only had one anchor point, whereas hers was hung from the ceiling and was awesome! Every time I had to get in or out of bed we cracked up all over again!

Aburi Gardens

Saturday, September 4

Aburi Gardens is a botanical garden set in Aburi, about 45 minutes from Accra. One of the drivers from the study picked us up in the morning and we made the beautiful drive up the mountain. Felix, our driver, took us around the gardens and acted as a sort of tour guide, telling us the history of the garden and about the different plants and flowers. While we were walking around, I felt a light smack on my arm and turned around to see a little boy walking back to his friends, with an expression that said “see, told you I would touch the white lady!” A couple minutes later he came up and asked if he could take a picture with me. I said yes and as we posed for the picture all the other little kids came running up to be in the picture too.

In the middle of the gardens, there is an old, broken down helicopter. One of the first presidents of Ghana used to go to the gardens to pray and one of the times he went his helicopter wouldn’t start back up again, so they just left it there! Now it is a sort of jungle gym for the many kids who are there on field trips. Brie and I climbed up in it and took pictures. I wish there were more things like that when I was going on field trips!

Saying goodbye to Kpong

Friday, September 3

Today was our final day of the study and my last day in Kpong. It was a whirlwind of trying to wrap up some of the action items that I needed to accomplish before heading back to Accra. It was weird to be done with the study. Initially three and a half weeks seemed like such a long time, but it really flew by! After the whirlwind of getting everything together to leave, the two-hour drive to Accra was a welcome quiet time to process and reflect. I’m going to miss being out in the rural area of Africa. I’ve come to appreciate being removed from the crowded, dirty streets that come with being in a larger city.

After getting into Accra, Brie and I went for dinner and then just hung out in the room reading our books and chatting. It has been so wonderful to have Brie here with me for the past week. We discovered that we are actually quite similar and have had a great time chatting, laughing, and just sitting quietly reading our books. Tonight felt like a girly sleepover, but instead of talking about nail polish and boys we delved into politics, religion, and our families/growing up. Our opinions on things are similar, but different enough to make for a really interesting conversation.