Changed Forever

As I sit in our new little home on Vashon on a cool, gray fall morning, I am struck by how much hot, steamy, far-away Ghana is so close to my heart.  For a few more days, I am still managing the work there, and have had one trip back to Ghana since moving to the US and another coming up in a couple of weeks.   It's been a strange time of keeping one foot in Ghana and another here, getting the kids into school, soccer, playdates and all that fall entails for a 7 and 11 year old.  There's hardly a day that goes by when the kids and I don't somehow end up talking about Ghana.  The country, the land and its people have left an indelible mark on each of our hearts.

Sophie has been able to express her time in Ghana through her stunning photos.  She displayed some of her photos during an art show on the island in August.  She sold several and her photos were able to tell stories that no words can describe.  During the opening night, I watched as Sophie, who just started middle school, walked every person around the gallery, describing each photo, where it was taken and who it was of.  In general, Ghana seems to have helped her turn into a poised, confident, worldly and compassionate human being.  So beautiful.  The other night, after reading the kids a story about a woman whose uncle had told her she must do something beautiful in the world, I asked Sophie what beautiful thing she wanted to do.  Her response:  "take photos of poverty so I can show people and they will understand".  Wow. 

Xavier talks about Ghana all the time and is begging to go back.  Other than gaining some serious soccer moves, he seems to be practically "color blind".  People are people and he has this amazing way of just seeing straight into the heart of a person, regardless of what they look like or where they came from. When I asked him what he missed most about Ghana, his immediate response was "The people.  I wish they could all live here, the way we do, but be Ghanaians".  It's the purity of heart and soul that he so connected with and can see how much harder that is to find in everyday interactions in the "developed" world. 

As for me, I'm still very much processing it all.  I knew from my Peace Corps days in Mali that Africa is in my heart and it's a place that I feel pulled to.  My job was enormously challenging and often felt like triaging the various crises was the best I could do in any given day.  As hard as it was, I learned a lot.  I learned that I'm strong.  Really strong.  I learned that I love soccer, but only when it's tied to hope, God, love and country.  I learned that racism runs deep and in unexpected ways and that history plays itself out over and over and over again in very fascinating ways.  I learned that the issues we face as humans are a dance of enormous complexity and stunning simplicity.  I learned that my children are wonderfully, amazingly resilient, compassionate and aware of the world on many levels. 
So, life continues.  Right now, it's filled with cool days, soccer games and practice nearly every day, Sophie's middle school locker dramas and Xavier's endless playdates with all his old friends.  Despite the routine we are starting to get back into, we are all profoundly different than we were the last time we experienced fall and we feel so very blessed for the ways in which Ghana has changed us forever........