By Leslie Acta, Semester at Sea, Spring 2017
This country is the first one where I truly felt out of my comfort zone. From cat calls to being walked alongside of for multiple blocks it was just something that as a woman traveler it made me nervous.
Then I had a planned overnight stay at the Torgorme Village and I got to experience what it is like on a daily basis for a Ghanaian person. While there, I spent numerous hours playing and dancing with many of the children of the village. It seemed the simplicity of a small soccer ball, a Frisbee, and a simple game of follow the leader could get the kids all wound up and their excitement from the simplicity of the activities filled me with so much endearment.
During the night I slept in a room that was more on the luxurious end of the rest of the group’s room. I had a fan, electricity, and a Television; no air condition but that is to be expected. I was constantly sweaty and never dried off until we got back to the ship and kept thinking about how my mom had been through this when she started dating my dad when he still lived in the Dominican Republic. I asked her, how in the world would you be able to sleep being constantly drenched in sweat and she just replied, “Exhaustion takes over the heat” and that is just what happened. I only spent one night there, and I assume it gets easier or it just is easier being born into it.
Our host family told us that groups from Europe come at least once a month to see how they live during the day and every few months a group comes to spend the night. This is something I recommend to travelers, if you can find a way to do a homestay in Ghana to be able to experience the true life, do it. I was out of my comfort zone and now I feel like I know more than I did before I got there. Have you ever felt out of your comfort zone while traveling? What was happening and where? Let us know in the comment section below!
