Africa Update #8: Goodbye Familiar Unfamiliar - August 14, 2009

Here we are, down to the final day that I will get to spend with my Ghanaian family…. And really also the final day to spend with my American Nav family if you think about it, since I may never see any of you again either (yes there will be a plane ride and if we really wanted see each other again, all we’d just have to do would be take a road trip. That would be a shame wouldn’t it?). At this point I have mixed emotions. I will admit, I’m kind of ready to leave and sleep in my own bed, be around my original family and group of friends, eat American food, listen to my iPod, play my guitar, sit around with my friends and family and talk about all of the things God has blessed me with or shown me since being Ghana (although at this point may be difficult because it will take a lot of thinking). But leaving here, right now I’m just not sure what to say or how to put it into words. (I’m working on it and maybe by the end of this note you’ll have some small idea of how hard it is going to be to leave here).

I can honestly say that even with meds that would normally knock somebody out and cause them to sleep, last night they didn’t work to the best of their ability and I had a difficult time sleeping and I’m sure tonight will be no different (and tomorrow night will probably be worse yet since I will be in an airport in Cincinnati, not yet home to my family and friends like everybody else is). I’m not sure if all of this is because I’m restless because I don’t want to leave or if it is because I’m excited to get home and tell everybody about how much love people show to one another here, regardless of color or where you are from or who you are (except in the market place where all they want is for you to buy something……. Then they get a little bit pushy but that is a different story.)

I’m sad to leave the place that such a short time ago was very unfamiliar to me (it is still unfamiliar but not quite as much). I’m hesitant to leave the people who have loved me since I’ve gotten here and who have showed me their love in more than one way, whether that be through housing accommodations, or medical needs when I was ill, or food when we became concerned about my blood sugar and diabetes and I needed vegetables and fruits in my diet. I’m reluctant to leave those who were once unfamiliar, who I was uncomfortable around, who within a short amount of time have become a family 6000 miles away, a group of familiar faces, a sea of faces that (even if they are staring at me because I’m white) I will miss. I will miss being treated the way everybody is treated: with love, the way people should be treated. I will miss Nana running around the house yelling for me and Briana or when he doesn’t want a bath, or doesn’t want to go to bed, or doesn’t want to eat, yelling “I WANT TO GO TO SHARINA!!!!” Or when he looks at one of us and says the wrong name just so that we can correct him ;) I will miss the fruit…………. Oh the fruit in Ghana. I have dubbed it the best fruit in the WORLD. I’m sorry for those of you who love fruit and will never make it to Africa at some point in your life because they really honestly have the best pineapples and mangos and bananas in the WORLD (the best because I said so of course).

No offense to those of you back home (I knew I’d see you again) but walking through the airport tomorrow in Accra and boarding the airplane is going to be the most difficult, heart wrenching thing I will have to do at this point in my life. There are no words to describe how much I will miss this family and how much I don’t want to leave their love and hospitality. I look back and see how much God has taught me through being here, but that will be in my return letter, not this one. This is, in a sense, and letter of goodbye (only in the flesh of course) because God is our binding. Our partnership in the Gospel and in the Word of Christ is what will keep us together and one day blesses us again with one another’s company in Heaven. I have learned a lot from all of you who have been a part of this journey with me (the short one of 3 weeks and the long one 5 weeks). I’ve learned that even if I feel like God won’t be there for me just because I don’t have my “support system” around me or my iPod or guitar to run to, he provides me with sisters scarily similar to me in my roommate (although did find we are quite different) or with brothers who can laugh in and at just about any circumstance and then make you laugh right along with them (or 90s music: Savage Garden….. that is all I will say), or in Ghanaians who don’t care what people think and will hold my hand or lock arms with me as we walk down the streets of Ghana or on the beach for the world to see that we don’t care what color the other is but that we are the same and through Jesus Christ we are the same and are brothers and sisters created equally under the same God who love each other dearly.

The rest of the “What I’ve Learned From this Trip” will be written when I return home and have time to reflect on everything that I’ve just experienced. I am at a point right now where it is just NOW beginning to hit me that I’ve spent a month in Africa. I think when I return home will be the kicker; when there is pushing and shoving to get ahead instead of stopping and putting others before oneself. Thank you to my family in Ghana. You have truly blessed me with insight to life that I truly never thought you could find so much of in one single place. Thank you for how much you love not only us as the “American Nav group” but how much your love for Christ has shown through in EVERYTHING that you have done for us since we’ve come into your culture and now have become a part of your family. No words can express my gratitude to you, but I love you all and will miss you very dearly. Thank you for making this a trip I will never forget and I thank God for making you a part of the journey of my lifetime.

Love,
Sharina Marie Schaller

“Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.”~1 Peter 3:8