Going to the continent of Africa has always been extremely intriguing to me. The culture and history is so rich, I have always wanted to see it first hand. When I first to Westtown my freshman year I learned about the senior project that goes to Ghana and it immediately captured my interest. I decided I had to go.

When the time finally came for me to pick my project, I knew exactly what I would do, go to Ghana! Of course that would take some convincing of my parents because being the youngest my mom is somewhat apprehensive to let me travel to a foreign country without her. Once I finally convinced them though, I thought it would be smooth sailing and all I had to do was fill out the forms… I was completely wrong, over the summer Ebola started to spread like never before to countries surrounding Ghana, and everyone was scared that it would become a devastating and disastrous pandemic. Though it did become very deadly and technically became a pandemic it never made it into Ghana, but the school decided it was in our best interest to send the trip elsewhere.

We had the choice to go on another trip, or stay with this group and find another place we would like to visit. I decided I would stay, and we chose to take a trip to South Africa. This of course would require re-convincing of my parents because it was a new location, but they became comfortable with the idea fairly quickly.

So the day is finally here, and now I’m sitting in the Koomson’s apartment with the 10 other kids in my group waiting for a bus to take us to the airport at 1:00 in the morning so that we can make a flight that leaves at 7:30 AM. But it’s worth it because I know this is the beginning of a life changing experiencing.

-Caroline