Alaska to Ghana

In December of 2015 I applied to an exchange program called YES abroad which stands for Youth Exchange and Study.  The mission of this program is to bring Muslim kids to the US, but also to send kids from the US to countries with a prominent Muslim population.  The YES abroad program has 11 countries in which they send kids, these countries are:Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, when I applied Turkey was also on the list but has since been removed because of how dangerous it has become.  In the YES abroad program applicants do not get to choose there host country so it is an mystery until you are accepted.  The YES abroad program only sends 65 kids from the US to these countries and all of them get a full scholarship so when I applied I did not think that I would be chosen as one of the few kids in the entire US to get to experience this amazing opportunity.  In March of 2016 I got the email saying I had been chosen to go to Ghana through YES abroad, I was very exited and nervous.  At the time I was away at Junior Nationals for skiing so I could not really talk with my parents about what I should do.  Especially when I was in the middle of so much skiing with all my friends and awesome coaches I did not know if I was willing to give up skiing for a whole year.  After calling my parents and some good friends back home as well as talking with my ski coaches I decided a year abroad in Ghana was worth missing skiing, and know I am so very glad I made that decision.

 

The orientation in DC

         I am now one week away from leaving home for 10 months and living in a country where I don't know a single person which is very exiting but also scary.  I have been getting ready for this all summer and am very impatient to get there already and strangely enough I am not nervous (I am guessing my nerves will kick in when I'm on the plane).  In preparation for this trip my program had an orientation in the beginning of the summer in Washington DC with all the out going(as in leaving) kids in the YES abroad program, including all the kids I'll be going to Ghana with, who are all really awesome people.  Another big thing I did this summer in preparation was I cut all my hair off which was really fun, but will also be really helpful.  In Ghana almost all girls my age wear there hair really short so maybe with short hair I may stick out less, but probably not much since I am white.  Another bonus to short hair will be I will hopefully get less overheated, but again probably not because I am from Alaska and it is an average of 80 F in Ghana.  I think I have organized all my stuff that I will need in Ghana, but really my clothes are not really made for Ghanaian weather so hopefully I will get some cool new clothing in Ghana better suited for the weather.

 

         With all this getting ready to go I have also been learning about where in Ghana I will living, my host school, and my host family.  I will be living in a city called Cape Coast, which is about the size of anchorage maybe a little bigger.  I also have my school which is called Aggrey Memorial it has 2,300 kids which will be shocking for a kid like me coming from a school of 250 kids.  I will also get to wear a uniform to school which I am very exited about because it means there is one less thing I have to think about.  The uniform will be a dress but I am not sure what it will look like yet color wise, though the school colors are purple and gold.  The most exiting news for me came four days ago and that is about my host family.  I will have a host mom and dad and two sisters, one sister is my age and the other is 7, my family are poultry farmers, which I think is so cool.  My host moms little brother also lives with the family and goes to college in Cape Coast.  I am so exited to meet my host family and learn about a culture that is so different then mine.  My biggest adventure will start in 6 days and I can't wait to begin.