..there is no easy answer to that question..but I do.
perhaps the answer gets lost in time for i've been here for 551 days (tho, again, who's counting) but to not know why is copping out.
I like it because...
i like it well compared to...
it's different and new and i'm young and therefore i like it.....well, that one isn't right!
I came here, as opposed to there, because i wanted to see if i could hack it in the heart of Africa and also based on the experience of the last few years, i wanted to help and to try make a difference.
Even if i didn't know what 'help' or 'making a difference' really meant here i thought that it was worth a try.
I had the confidence of Romania and Itaca in Napoli to convince me that if the opportunity was really there then i would be able to grasp it. And that is basically how it has worked out. And that, of course, is hugely encouraging when i contemplate the future (argggghhhh!...the future..does one have such at your age, RWK?)
Life here is, of course, very different from Maine and the USA and one's daily life is laughably so sometimes.
You think to yourself sometimes as you haul water from the well to 'flush' the toilet or to take your 'bucket bath', can this be me? Then you remind yourself..yes, this is you ,and every day for 2+ years it is one of your daily chores.
After Romania, I had figured out that it isn't the privations that get to you..it's things in your head. So one can get past the heat, the bugs, the power outages, the lack of running water, the lack of good diet variety in available food, the Spartan accommodations ..because these are just how it is a small rural community in Ghana and you can't change it. From Romania, i know what destroys one's resolve is not being able to actually do anything useful and that, I learned, is partly luck in one's assignment but largely, it is whether or not one finds good, local people to work with which may well be related to the approach that one takes to one's Peace Corps asignment. For the first 8-9 months on site here, I was carried by having a good site with a clear set of 'To-Do's' but for the last 7-8 months it has been finding some really good people to work with.
In truth, I've never had any of the bad times here that I had in Romania..given that i am allowed to forget getting mugged in Tamale and getting robbed of my Macbook..and getting attacked by my lunatic counterpart, Cephas, in the library here in Whuti one morning....all so last year now!
And i have a lot of really pretty good days here..like one after another.
It is hard to properly describe them and i doubt that i can do them justice but there are simple, unique, heart-warming, funny, childish, laughing, encouraging bits to every day here..not just an occasional Tuesday or Saturday, but every day. and although each day has many, many bits that are the same as yesterday each day also always has completely unique bits that make me laugh out loud or think or cringe or simply not understand and so go on the 'think about this sometime' list.
It's hard to describe or explain though.
I am not integrated here..not really. The gap is too massive but i certainly feel that i am an accepted and enjoyed part of the community. The community, for example, seems to know when i'm gone for even a couple of days and welcome me back when I return. That makes me feel good because surely it means that they know why I am here and what I am trying to do at the Community library and in the schools. And all the daily greetings from people of all ages say the same thing.
And too, at the level of my 'sponsors', there is now a clear recognition that I am doing my best and working hard for the community - which is a substantial change after the 'difficulties' of the Cephas era.
Do I love Ghana, the country..its colour, its culture, its geography? Nope..i don't but I do like the friendliness of the people and in trying to understand the country and its people, i've tried to understand the complexities of independence and the struggle to keep up with the competitive world. And in the course of that, one develops a lot of sympathy for the country and more importantly its people.
I can not honestly say that i ever really developed much sympathy for Romania.
So what is it exactly that i like so much?
Well, it's the people and my daily interactions with them.
It's a life I've never known before and it is fun. Cautiously we'll say that it is good, and it certainly make me feel good.
Some of the interactions in the Library and the Schools are serious, trying to help or trying to understand...but others are just informal and fun but I believe that fun interactions with children are actually good for them and for me also.
This amount and this variety of interaction is simply something that i have not had before in my life...and I like it very much.
The huge change is that for the last few months and for the foreseeable future, i will be working with a diverse group of Ghanaians on community projects ..the two new libraries and raising funds to make the Community Library sustainable.
For me, that makes life a whole lot easier..not fighting city-hall all the time, and it means that others who also have choices, understand and are willing to involve themselves and to support in many different ways, the work that WE are trying to do in this area.
...and yes, that will make it doubly difficult to walk away in 7 1/2 months.
I think liking it here as i do also relates to why i came here, why i signed up for Peace Corps again but this time with only Africa in mind.
I still want to think that my life still has purpose (small 'p') and Peace Corps gives me both the opportunity to 'help' if i can and if i'm lucky and the situation wherein i can gain a unique perspective and even insight into life in Africa by the way it sets up assignments...2 years
in a rural setting, living as a sort-of ordinary person.
With that in mind then, being 'productive/helpful' as i have been here makes me like being here more and affording me the opportunity to meet and interact with many, many people, often on an everyday basis, and to be in homes and in the schools on almost a daily basis, and in Whuti's workplaces-the Library, the fields with farmers, and on the beach with fishermen, also make me like the place more.
And i am getting that unique perspective on what it is really like here...though i am a long way from understanding it.
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