Thoughts on a Plane

I have not had internet access for the past week, so this post is long long overdue. Take a minute, remember what you did last Monday night, imagine you are there again. It IS last Monday.

Now you may continue reading.

I have just finished an intense week of pre-departure learning in Toronto. The past week was full of workshops, debates, and discussions with the other Junior Fellows. We were all living in the EWB house in Toronto - it was a house full of talking, laughter, music, and very little sleep. I went into pre-dep feeling very excited but somewhat unprepared for the next three months. I am leaving pre-dep feeling even more excited and much more comfortable with the unexpected.

As our final activity in pre-dep we all made a commitment for our placements. I have committed to staying present throughout my placement. This is something that I struggle with as I am forever planning/writing to-do lists/thinking about what I need to do next.  I am in Ghana for such a short amount of time and I really want to commit to being present in order to take in as much as I can over the next few months. I want to experience Ghanaian culture, learn more about what development actually looks like, and ultimately by being present I hope to be able to recognize opportunities so that I can have some sort of impact during my placement, or at least I hope to fail gracefully.

So you may be wondering to yourself: where am I now. Well, there is an interesting answer to that question. Our original flight plan involved us flying to Newark, then Washington, and finally Accra. Here is what actually happened…we ended up being very delayed in Newark and missing our connecting flight to Accra, though we tried dreadfully hard to catch that Accra flight. Picture 18 people sprinting through Dulles airport carrying multiple laptops and many motorcycle helmets hanging from backpacks…a truly ridiculous experience. After our epic journey through the Dulles airport, we were given the news that our plane had already left. Although incredibly disappointed we set up camp on the floor of the airport, hanging out, singing, snack eating and awaiting news of where we were going next. Eventually we received the news that we were staying in a hotel for the night and then flying through Frankfurt the following day.

The group of us were split into 3 flights in Frankfurt. My flight was not until 10 pm so a few of us went to check out DC today. We only had a couple of hours in DC so we hit a few of the touristy spots and wandered by some of the government buildings. There are some very incredible buildings which house the (apparently infinite) branches of the US government. Personal side note: I have now added going to the Smithsonian on my life to do list. After that it was back to the airport for our second attempt at going to Accra.

That brings me to right now, so far so good with Operation Accra Part Two. I am currently on the flight to Frankfurt. Pretty soon I will be able to stop imagining what Ghana will be like and replace those thoughts with experiences. This just in: I can now express the countdown to Ghana in terms of hours.