Since my trip to Ghana, West Africa my outlook on life has been very different. I’ve noticed that I am willing to walk more places and I feel like the things that I have wanted in the past seem irrelevant to my life right now. Before I left I was convinced that a car would change my like and make it easier for me to do things with my friends and that I would be a complete teenager.
In Ghana the children walk to school which is an hour away. They leave their houses around six when school begins at 8:00. Parents want their children to receive the best breakfast that they can, so heading to school early in order to get breakfast is a necessity.
The parents fet most of the housework done before eleven because it is so hot out. They are up around four or five in the morning to get things done. Once we asked a boy who wasn’t at school on a weekday why he hadn’t gone. He answered that his father had asked him to stay home to help out with the crops. They had all the work done by noon and the boy and his brother started playing a card game with the cards that my mom had brought.
They didn’t complain at all about having to stay home to help and they didn’t ever complain about school. To them each is a part of like and not a burden. Work is what brings benefits and school is what leads to accomplishment, and they thank God whenever they can. The people are always smiling, always waving. They are excited to live! Sure they want things and they will work to get them, but they are never depressed because they cannot have what they want. Their lives don’t stop because they are unhappy about a thing they want. They simply work to get it and they smile as they do it.
So the most important thing that I have learned from the Ghanaians is to be happy. I have my family, I have God, and I have my thoughts; I am blessed beyond belief! Wanting things that I don’t have and being depressed that I don’t have them does nothing for me, and I really don’t need them anyway! So I invite you all. Let’s be happy.