Letter to Andrew H

Hello!

how’re you doing? It’s really hard to imagine that you’re in the full swing of Berkeley life again… how’re classes and roommates and singing and life?

it’s so crazy to be here with annemieke – I’m definitely getting to see a whole different side to our former prez and it’s really nice having someone here who knows some of the same friends and places and has some of the same memories.

we’re both taking bamboo flute lessons, and I’m really excited to get better and be able to bust out a haunting flute song kind of like you and your harmonica.

and, like always, there’ve been a lot of hilarious moments when I feel like Ghana has gotten the best of me. at the beginning of our semester here, our friend Kevin was invited out to dinner with this girl, and then ended up having to pay for the whole expensive dinner – Ghana: 1, Kevin (and the more universal Us): 0. Since then the score’s probably something like Ghana: 87547, Us: 3. lol. I tried to order tea for two friend and myself, but 15 minutes later only got one tea cup. only to discover that I did, in fact, get three teas – or rather, three tea bags all in the same cup! what a failure, lol.

or my friend and I were taking a tro tro (minivan converted into a public transport bus type thing) into the city and needed to get off. I yelled up from the very back, “ Mate! Mate!” in a pathetically pleading voice, trying to get the attention of the guy who controls the stops. “We need to get off here, please!” a pretty common request, but he leaned forward and turned off the radio in complete incomprehension. “We want to get off!” still nothing, and the entire tro tro full of passengers were now involved in our sad attempt to get down. Finally one of our fellow Ghanaian travelers turned and translated “The need to get off” in a more Ghanaian-esque accent. He nodded, put on the radio, and proceeded to drive five long blocks more before letting us out. Ghana scores again.

anyway, despite, and probably partly because of all of the humbling moments, it’s definitely starting to feel like this is exactly where I need to be right now. The learning curve about our/my place in the world is really steep here… still have a lot more to mull over and share...

with peace and love