The Journey Begins

'The journey to self is a solitary one'

As the Royal Air Maroc plane began to descend upon Kotoko Airport, I felt a rush of nerves flow through me. After a whole year of talking about and preparing for this trip, the moment was finally here. For the next seven months, Africa would be my home and Ghana for the next five weeks would kick start this experience. I began to question myself, why was I really here?  What was the purpose of this trip? What if I didn’t learn anything from it? What if I didn’t return home changed at all and most importantly was it all worth it? All these questions were buzzing through my head as I felt the familiar African heat begin to hit me whilst my nose became blocked because of the stuffy air.

I took a deep breath and assured myself that whatever happened I was in a better place than I was last year. I looked out the window and the first thing I noticed was that it was more lit up than when I had landed in Kinshasa’s Ndjili Airport in DR Congo which was where I was from. ‘The time is now 4:30am local time and the weather is 25 degrees’ the air hostess was announcing, ’25 degrees?!’ I thought to myself ‘At 4:30am in the morning? What will it be like at 12pm?’ I mused. ‘Welcome to Ghana’ the steward said to me as I walked down the stairs from the plane. I thought to myself ‘You better get used to it and put up with it!’. After all seven months was not tomorrow.