Long Live Country X!

Market Vendors and Hot Peppers in Ghana, West Africa

The foreign service invites a life of travel, a sense of adventure, and the ability to see and engage the world through multiple creative mediums.  I envision a life that will be filled with tremendous highs and lows, a sacrilege combination of mundane and marvelous, boring and frenetic, appalling and appealing, awful and awesome.  Basically, I imagine my upcoming life of travel as a way to encounter and experience the full spectrum of life on this beautifully imperfect planet o' blue.  

Market at Akatsi in Volta Region, Ghana 2009: raffia and gourd bowls.

In the coming future I imagine avenues of culture shock intersecting with moments of bliss and epiphany.  I imagine there will be countries I love, times I will love to hate, and scenarios where I will only be able to lift my hands magnanimously and shout to the sky, "Why universe, why?"  (Or perhaps that is a bit too dramatic?)  Needless to say, I am absorbed and enthralled with the expectation of world travel.  Whether my idealistic and theoretical visions will match, surpass, or clearly underwhelm the actual, feet-on-the-ground realities, well, I cannot yet say.  But I can tell you that as I write this lil' blog here my heart thumps deliriously as I conjure up all of the happy, crazy, socially awkward, physically fantastical, hopelessly unreachable, and culturally unimaginable moments that may spring forward and eventually become tangible, actual experiences.  

The amazing view from the public transport trotro on the way from Klikor to Aflao, Ghana.

Klikor, Volta region, Ghana, 2008

My life thus far has been blessed: I am a happily married seasoned traveler who has taught and trained in universities, loves reading, chuckling with good friends, and howling at the moonlight generally.  (If you howl at the moonlight 'specifically,' it means trouble!)  I have lived and studied in Ghana, West Africa; Salzburg, Austria; southern and central California; South Carolina; New York City; Connecticut; and Virginia.  I have visited over a dozen countries in Europe, a few countries in Africa, the Bahamas, Canada, Mexico, and nearly all of the contiguous United States.  I have come to recognize from these experiences that it is in the moments where I am pushed to my limits and am challenged to step beyond my self-imposed, liminally-defined thresholds that I have grown the most as an individual intellectually, relationally, and personally.  You come to know that who you are is indubitably connected to where you are at, whom you are with, and what you envision yourself to ultimately become. 

Good for soups and (my favorite) groundnut stews.

Being in a comfortable bubble of the familiar is nice, easy, pleasurable.  I respect the life that this sense of stability has to offer: there is substantive power in building long term relationships contextually embedded within the cultural continuity and local specificity of community.  There is also something quite magical about knowing a place, its movements and ticks, potholes and best-kept secrets.  To have a place where everyone knows your name, your story, your struggles, your history and where your own sense of personhood is enmeshed within community values and memories often makes for a happy, rewarding life.  Finding your niche in community is a rare and immeasurable gift.

Living in Nogokpo, Ghana 2008

That being said, my hope in choosing this chapter of exploration and experience of the new, the other, and the different culturally, linguistically, socially, and regionally, is to step outside of the 'myself' created within the confines and construction of assimilated cultural boundaries.  In other words, to see who 'I' am beyond the scope of the familiar, the known, and the expected.  Also, I would like to make a positive mark on this world in this life and I think travel will facilitate this developmental process.  I enjoy the potential to be challenged, to re-think cultural assumptions and community expectations, to step into scenarios where the skills I have previously acquired must be adapted and adopted to meet this yet-to-be-known encounter.  Plus, I am excited about the art (ooh la la!), the food (deelish), the sights, sounds, and smells (touche), the people (alas), the temples, shrines, and sacred monuments (aha), commemorations, celebrations, and community festivals (hurrah!) and the excursions, adventures, and inevitable daily surprises (oh my!). 

The local mascot for the Denu artist cooperative, Ghana.

Of course, I am nervous, thrilled, and anxious about letting go of the control and expectations over my own fate, social location, country of residence, language of interaction, availability of foodstuffs, accessibility to activities, and all of the other things encapsulated within externally-chosen world travel locations.  As a foreign service plus one I think it is an adventure in itself bidding on (and then living in) country X for the first two years and country Y for the next, all the while crossing our fingers as we reform and adjust travel bid lists over and over again for many years to come.  

An all-night walking procession, Klikor, Ghana

Dancers & Performers at the Sankofa Youth Inauguration ceremony, 2008.

Contemplating man after Muslim call to prayer, Lome, Togo.

Turtle Cove, Ghana January 2009: Breathtaking!

Village life in a western Ghanaian coastal town, 2009.

Visiting the mangroves and seeing our first toucan!

It is both liberating and exhilarating (as well as a bit fear-inducing) to accept travel orders under the auspices of worldwide availability.  So go ahead and close your eyes, take a deep breath, and see where the chips fall when, like a jester pulling your destiny from a tarnished bowler hat, you imagine hearing your name attached to country X or country Y for the next 700+ days.  Just put your finger across the globe and see where it lands.  Would you go there?  Would you like it?  I am sure when we hear the name of our first posting there will be a good laugh and a proper cry as we learn whether we will need to bring a scuba pack or anorak, flowers or combat boots.  At any rate, this is what I am currently dreaming about, thinking about, and envisioning.  And in just a few days, I can't wait to hear those two little words that will forever alter our destinies and current life trajectories: capital and country name of the notorious Country X.