Oh Mama (I'm Going to Ghana)

You read that right. Do you know how hard it is to plan a trip and land an internship during the end of the school year? Pretty hard. I pulled it off, as gracefully as possible, and will be heading to the lovely West African nation of Ghana in one week. Seven days.

In exactly one week, I will be just taking off from JFK heading to Accra, Ghana. Pretty crazy. How did all of this come to be? Well kids, let me tell you. Travel with me back in time.

It all started off in March 2010, when I went to the accepted student open house at Ithaca College and saw my current professors trying to coerce high schoolers to attend IC, specifically the Department of Environmental Studies & Sciences. They must have done a pretty decent job because I've been at Ithaca ever since. One of the most interesting requirements my department has is a Cultural Immersion requirement. Translation: you need to spend 40 hours or more in a place that isn't Ithaca so you can get out of your comfort zone. Great idea, but there's such a thing as time that is extremely precious as a science major. This limits me to summer and winter study abroad; there's absolutely no way I could go abroad for an entire semester and graduate on time. Around March of this year, I took a look into the future and tried to figure out my summer plans. After not getting the job I hoped for in Ithaca, I checked my email noticing one from our department's lovely administrative assistant Carol.

It was a forwarded message from the college on the other hill (Cornell) and short-term internships abroad through an organization called AIESEC. Knowing that I needed that cultural immersion and that having awesome summer plans could be formed, I sent them an email. And here I am.

I secured an internship with an NGO called Care Net Ghana. I'll be working with a few projects, including helping out with the current healthcare and environmental conservation ones. The healthcare project focuses primarily on maternal health care and educating women about safe traditional birthing practices because of the high infant mortality rate in Ghana. The environmental conservation project focuses on wildlife conservation and local education in the Agumatsa Wildlife Sanctuary.

Featuring West Africa's tallest waterfall, the Wli Waterfall
[amazingplacesonearth]

So, where is Ghana? For the geographically challenged, let me provide a map for you:

The internet never fails me.
[wordpress]

I'll be living in eastern Ghana, between Lake Volta and the border to Togo. I'll be staying in apartment complexes or in a host family situation, depending on how many other interns are there with me. Other than that, I'm not really sure what else I'll experience. I'm open to anything and everything. I heard the food is pretty spicy, but luckily I trained myself this past semester to increase my tolerance for spicy foods. How? I put more hot sauce on my eggs every morning. That's the trick, kids. Slow and steady wins the race.

Anyway, this will be the blog that I'll be posting everything on. Some posts will be long, others will be a quick little blurb to give people information. I'll be posting the big guys to Facebook, but if you want to stay tuned during the entire trip, I highly recommend following this blog through Google+ or the email listserve.

Also, I recently got an Instagram and I think the pictures I'll take will be pretty cool, so if you'd like to see Ghana through pictures, follow me (erosekrans). These posts will get more interesting as I travel. I plan on going to a few places around the country and hopefully you'll be with me every step of the way.