Journal Entry 15: Killer Ants and a Tough Goodbye

This weekend was full of adventure. I visited Aburi botanical gardens, (the oldest cocoa farm in Ghana) and a wood carving village with other members from my exchange program. I must admit that I’m not really into looking at trees, but the creatures made sure the trip was more interesting. One girl from the program stepped on a little ant army, and the soldiers were NOT pleased. The ant army was coming for us.  All you could see was a bunch of people hopping up and down screaming, slapping their legs and feet and me of course trying to catch a photo (which I failed at). One girl even managed to get one of the predators down her dress, and yes it was as amusing as it sounds. I was fortunate enough to get away bite-free.

But there was also a very touching part of the trip. I expected seeing the village to have more of an impact on me, but it was actually meeting the kids I saw at the Aburi gardens that stuck with me. Me and a couple of friends saw two young boys walking around alone and asked them if they wanted to take a picture. They didn’t talk; they just smiled. After taking the photos and moving on with our journey, they followed us all around during the rest of our visit there. Whenever we made a stop to observe something, we would look back at them, and they would smile. The older one would wave and then nudge the younger one to do the same. It was almost as if he was saying to him, "Come on, you'll have to learn how to do this eventually too". My group finally stopped to have lunch in a cabin. I made eye contact with them, as they stood at the window of the cabin smiling, hoping they might have a decent meal that day. I was forced to look away, as I knew that once I gave something away, it would only lead to more begging, which I already had difficulty handling. It made me wonder how many other kids are in a similar situation. "Where are their parents?” I kept thinking to myself. As we were heading out, one of my friends gave the kids gum. “Don’t swallow it—just chew” she said. The bus pulled away as they waved goodbye—a painful goodbye for them, and for me as well. Who knows what impact we could’ve had on them, and who knows when they’ll have that interaction again.