A Day in the Life — Ghana
Our days in Ghana had pretty consistent mornings, often followed by a rather unpredictable agenda after we hop on the bus around 9 am. Every morning we start with “African Dance Exercise.” This sounds a little different than what it actually entails. It is essentially a really fun Zumba exercise to Ghanaian and American music. It is generally 20 minutes of core exercises, squats, and arm lifts performed to pretty lively rhythm, followed by 10 minutes of stretching on our exercise mats. I’d be lying if I told you I showed up every morning, but there were a few members of our Dialogue who were extremely consistent with their attendance.
After exercise, we were provided breakfast — eggs, toast, oatmeal, and juice — from the guest houses. Once we were all composed and showered, we hopped on the bus to head out for the day. This is when there was some variability to our scheduling. Many days we would have lectures, so we would head to one of the universities or hospital facilities where a lecturer would meet us. On other days, we would head out to various locations from children’s homes, community health centers, hospitals to artisan’s markets, beaches or even national parks. We’d often eat lunch near our afternoon location, at our in-country coordinators’ restaurant of choice. I haven’t been on a different Dialogue, so I’m not sure about the exact setups, but apparently our trip has been far more structured than usual.
We students owe a lot of credit to Dr. Johnson and our in-country coordinators, Eddy and Michael. They organized the trip really well so everyday we had something to do and didn’t have to worry about the logistics. Overall, our daily schedule was anything but consistent so it’s hard to give a “day in the life” for this trip. There was so much to do — from learning about healthcare to hanging out on the beach — that our days have all been packed with different experiences.
