Can you imagine?

Karen and I are back on Canadian soil. (Steph traveled down to South Africa to visit her uncle.) After about 20 hours of planes and airports, we stepped into the land of being able to understand everyone's accents and we immediately went to the bathroom to change into our slit and kaba, traditional Ghanaian dress that we wore for the literacy graduation. A breeze through customs and baggage claim and we walked out into the view of our waiting families and showed off our braided hair and new outfits. I had asked my mom to bring my big, furry coat to the airport and I nearly had frostbite on my hands as I walked out to the car, parked in the garage. Canada is cold!

Silent tears slid down my face as we drove home. We could drive 110 km on the 401 on perfect paved roads that had no bumps in it. The towering buildings and the desolate, dull streets of grey and brown is uglier than normal compared to the deep green of the palm trees and the multi-coloured shops along the streets in Ghana. A Christmas song that had been playing in the airport was stuck in my head. I knew that the reverse culture shock would be hard, but it is proving to be incredibly more difficult than I anticipated. It's not just that I miss the people that I came to know and love; I miss the atmosphere of Ghana. I miss the sun, even though it made us all sweat out all our insides. I miss everyone welcoming each other as the pass by, even if you don't know each other. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I even miss the deafeningly loud music that would blare along the street and which could be heard from my room up on the hill. I miss people not being entirely overtaken by Christmas and stuff (although maybe I'm just not entirely in the Christmas spirit yet because I haven't been around it for long).

After a 10 hour sleep (which could have been longer), my mom, my sister and I went to Black Creek Pioneer Village. We used to go there every winter when I was a kid and I love seeing the historic buildings and listening to stories about life in the mid-19th century town. The first shop that you come to in the village is the tinsmith's shop and we stopped in (out of the frozen cold which I am not used to by any means and that is also adding to the shock of being back,) and talked with those working there. As we turned to leave, a group of kids and their parents walked in and the lady started to describe what life was like for the pioneers. She said," Girls had to wear dresses and there was no electricity. Can you imagine? That would be hard." Instantly, tears started to tumble down my cheeks and I hastily followed Mom and Alisha out the antique door. Yes, I can imagine what a life where girls wear dresses and there is no electricity is like. The kids who were listening today had no clue how the kids in Ghana are living. After those kids went home from Black Creek, they did not have to go draw water or walk into town with a bucket of something on their heads. None of them had to worry about helping their families to earn money and I'm sure that they had more than one or two sets of clothes. The mothers at Black Creek did not have to work today, selling fruit or drinks or cloths off of their heads in order to keep their families alive. They were probably all literate and, if they so choose, they could read the Bible themselves. Many of the women who were a part of the literacy class wanted to learn how to read so that they could read the Bible by themselves. It was quieting to learn of how many people cannot read, even in Twi, and how they simply want to know the truth that is in the Bible and be able to read it by themselves. The churches in Ghana are sold out to God, but there are quite a few things that they are saying and teaching that I do not believe to be correct and I wonder what reforms would happen if the people could all read the Bible for themselves. I wonder how many children would be able to bring their parents to Jesus if they had children's Bibles available to them to read in school. Education is important, but religious education and literacy that enables Bible reading is even more life-giving.

I will probably write at least one more blog post about the last few days in Ghana, but it will anything written now is written with fond memories and a desire to never lose the fruits of the impact that Ghana made on me. It will be a hard go, getting used to Canadian culture again. There's nothing wrong with the technology that we live in, but we are so dependent on it. Everything works properly and there are no delays, since we are an impatient people who value our time a bit too much. I took the back off of the toilet today and watched the water fill up. Sounds odd, I know and believe me, it's not a regular practice of mine, but the speed with which the water filled up was shocking. There's water pressure here. I don't have to pour a bucket of water into the toilet tank to flush it. There's more than a trickle of water that comes from the sinks and the water is hot! Hot water hurts my hands. My hands sting and burn every time they touch hot water since my body is not used to that. These are only some of the material differences between Canada and Ghana and I feel as though I must find a way to reconcile both of these cultures within me, since both have been part of my life.