My First Post

It's Christmas day and as I soak up the comforts of home I can't help but let my mind drift away to where I will be in just a short period of time. In 48 days I will be embarking on the journey of a lifetime. "Why are you going to Africa?" is a question I get asked almost daily. Well, here is my response..."why not?"

During the summer of 2005 at age 17, I went on a mission trip to Belize. I worked in orphanages, fed sick babies, and gave food to poor villagers. More than anything, I learned something. I learned that giving is always better than receiving. No, I didn't learn this by giving bags of beans and rice to those poor villagers and thus being able to relish in the sweet feeling of humanitarian accomplishment. Instead, during one of my visits to a village, I was fed by one of the villagers I was trying to "help." I have never experienced true hunger. She had. But she had also come to learn the importance of giving instead of always receiving. This, my friends, is why I'm going to Africa.

I want to give until I have nothing left to give. And then I want to give some more. Last semester I met with ETSU's director of the Study Abroad program. She asked me where I wanted to go and then described beautiful European countries and the wonderful universities that can be found there. I shook my head and said that I want to go where nobody wants to go. I told her that I wanted to experience the other side of life. The corners of her lips curled up and she said, "Well, there is the University of Ghana." A smile came across my face and my eyes lit up. "Sign me up," I said.

Now in just 48 days I will be boarding a plane to Ghana, a small country in West Africa. Am I nervous? Not really. I'm more excited than anything. I'm not saying that everything will be just peachy when I'm there. I am sure there will be times when I will miss the comforts of home, my friends, and a certain boy. But the experience that I will have in Ghana will be something that I will carry with me throughout life. So this is it, my first blog. : )