“Why do you have to keep leaving?” my brother Chris asked a few weeks ago in a complaining voice. I must admit that sometimes we wonder the same thing. It’s hard to leave friends and family, especially those growing grandmonsters. And tomorrow we do it again: this time for Ghana in West Africa for a total of 9 months – with a visit home for some weeks at Christmastime. This is my 4th trip to Africa, Bill’s 5th. (You can see the previous trips at our earlier blog, Under the Ugandan Sun.)
Bill received a Fulbright grant (yay, Bill!) to teach journalism at the University of Ghana in Accra, and I’ll be reinventing myself as well. More on that after we get there.
For me, each time we go I agonize over parting with things like that one particular plant in the garden, morning coffee with the New York Times, the front doorknob … it’s hard to leave home. We say we go to Africa because we know how lucky we have been in our lives and want to “give back.” That’s true, but there is another reason we go anywhere and often.
We have had a quote on our refrigerator for years and years – so long that it was actually typed on a real typewriter, which means it’s getting kind of faded. I can’t even remember when or why we cut it out and put it there.
It’s by Bruce Chatwin, the travel writer:
“The act of journeying contributes toward a sense of physical and mental wellbeing, while the monotony of prolonged settlement or regular work weaves patterns in the brain that engender fatigue and a sense of personal inadequacy.”
We know that sense of well being vs. monotony. New experiences! New memories! New adventures! New friends! It’s exciting – and we can’t wait. That doorknob will just have to get along by itself for awhile. We hope you’ll come along to Ghana via the blog – or come visit us. (No? Ah, too fatigued???)
We’ll try to keep the blog updated often – we brought it back because so many people asked. So please comment and let us know you are along for the ride.
