Ghana Time

 After almost five years here, I have very few "Ghana-moments" where I feel like I am so completely out of the loop or different or foreign these days. Well, the other day, I felt just that.

As the "proprietor" of Faith Roots International Academy, I am occasionally called to district meetings. Last Thursday was one of those days. Since our oldest kids are getting ready to take the B.E.C.E., a national standardized test required after JHS3 (or 9th grade) and a requirement before going on to senior high school, we were certain that the meeting must have been information all about that.

First of all, we arrived 15 minutes late, only to find that no one was there yet. I know I should be used to Africa-time, but seriously...the meeting started an hour and a half late. And the whole purpose of the meeting was to go over a 14 page document that would give them the current stats of our school, a form we have completed each year since the school's inception.

After arriving at 9:15 and waiting until 10:30 for the meeting to start, I left the meeting at 1:00 pm...no break, no water, no electricity. We were only on page 9 at that point. 

Page 9. Painfully going through each point of this statistics form until I felt like every limb was numb from the hard benches we were sitting on.

And when I got up to leave, the obvious white lady in the midst of a crowd of Ghanaian-school leaders,  I felt so out of place, so completely other.

Sometimes, I wonder if there will ever be a stop to the new and different and foreign feelings that come living here in Ghana. 

Sometimes, I am so glad for the wonder of the newness.

Other times, I crave the timeliness and knowing that somehow, I fit in, those feelings of home that being in the States brings.

Oh, the joys of living cross-culturally.

T.I.A.