the sky is blue again

hanging out with richard and some of our new friends, the weekend before exams started

oh man. how do i describe this feeling? i've got one more day of exams left, and despite feeling grumpy, sleep-deprived, sinus-y, with a sore back and sore throat (more than you needed to know, right?), i also feel like i'm finally confortable in this country. yes, you heard me right. not that i wasn't comfortable before...sort of. i can't explain it well with words. but it's like i've spent so long thinking about the phone calls i can't have, the people i can't see, the places i can't go, the food i can't eat and the coffee i can't drink. now that i have the clock ticking down, only 3 more weeks here, i think of all those things and a voice says...i can wait to experience that. i've had so much going on this semester, and have so many reasons to want to go home. and i still miss people dearly, for sure. but i guess what i'm trying to say is i feel as if i've broken through a barrier. maybe the barrier of my dependency on western comforts? on familiar routine, familiar places? so now here the sky is blue again, the palm trees are gorgeous and the earth is red. i can see the benefits of staying here a whole year. in 3 1/2 months, we've barely gone to our "favorite" places more than once. we havent really experiences enough to gauge "favorite" places, actually. i have a comprehensive knowledge of this country, but i could scratch way deeper. i've made some ghanaian friends, but our friendship has only begun to take hold, and i'm still meeting wonderful new people that i just will not have the time to invest in. even within our calvin group, i've made solid friendships, but i believe 5 more months here would cement us irreparably.
so...i'm still excited to come back. yes, most definitely. but i can also say...i could see why someone would want to stay longer. i couln't see that before. so this is my breakthrough for this week, my new perspective. i've got only a few short weeks to cram in as much ghana goodness as i possibly can!