I used to pray the serenity prayer...

I used to pray the serenity prayer constantly.  I was dissatisfied with life and felt like I had a lot to change about myself.  I tried to take control and put my nose to grindstone.  I rarely was successful.  So I prayed.  I prayed, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”  However serenity remained elusive.  I was always stressed out and frustrated. 

Today however, I was praying at the Midway Airport chapel just before I returned to Ghana to begin my two years of Peace Corps service and realized the serenity prayer didn’t make sense anymore in my life.  I’m so happy and at peace!  I’ve found some serenity.  There is very little that I want to change about my life, how I’m sending my time, and who I’m spending it with.  I acknowledge that some of the changes that I desired a few years ago have come about and that has increased my peace and satisfaction in life.  However as I contemplate what else is going on in my life I realize that my focus of life has changed as well.  I believe that change of focus has been as important to my pursuit of happiness as some of the other more tangible changes I’ve made.  There is very little planning, worrying, or goal setting happening in my life right now.  I’m living present to the moment and grounded in the now, not the tomorrow, next week, or next year.  I’m simply enjoying the ride and facing obstacles and challenges as they come.  There are very few crises and mass confusion too because by living only in the present moment I am fully aware and able to address whatever is happening in the seconds that are going by.  Tomorrow cannot be dealt with today and that took a long time to learn.

A friend also helped me realize that already my time in Ghana has contributed to this change within me.  So much of my life is different here, from the littlest detail of eating with my hands, to big structural things like not having utilities of water, electricity, gas, or sewerage.  Most of these changes in lifestyle are small obstacles and they are occurring every minute of every day.  They were very noticeable and sometimes jarring, at least they were for the first few months here as you acculturate and become accustom to them.  However, rather than seeing them as challenges and letting them overwhelm me which I would have done in the past, I took them up one at a time, slowly in each moment of the day, and just remained as present to each one as I could.  This new style of living by just doing what I could in the moment, enjoying the moment, and celebrating it has consumed me and become a persistent and consistent way of being. So the serenity prayer doesn’t really make sense in Ghana because I’m not going to change any of the Ghanaian lifestyle, systems, or culture while I’m here, I just need to live in it moment by moment. 

I used to pray the serenity prayer and live in anticipation of the next minute, hour, or year; however, now I pray in gratitude for the now, for the awesomeness of living in Ghana, and the serenity that washes over me when I stay humble, present, and open.  Thank you Lord for this change within me and thank you for now.

External Facebook Picture Links - Click on them!

Any of you, regardless if you have Facebook or not should be able to click on the links below to see my pictures.  I have yet to figure out how to efficiently put pictures on this blog, but eventually I will.  Godspeed.  -Zachar

Final Training Album:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150794328250495.745642.705840494&l=7d9943f73c&type=1


Site Visit Album:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150747050810495.730665.705840494&l=e6295ce340&type=1


Offsite Language Album:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150731664215495.725280.705840494&l=ad2791b22e&type=1


Month One Album:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150717347680495.720815.705840494&l=658be84149&type=1


First Ghanaian Album:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150676524760495.713336.705840494&l=f1555abc85&type=1

Diare, Ghana

My home for the next two years:

Click Here for Google Map of Diari, Ghana

End of Training Blog Post

The second half of training has gone by significantly faster than the first half.  This is because of some days were experienced as a single “sick period”, we’ve travelled for four weeks straight, the developing of really close friends within my PC class to share the experience with, the intense focus on language study and practicing for the Language Proficiency Interview, and finally, being able to see the end of the tunnel which includes Swearing In and my trip home for Monica’s wedding.

Let me try to capture a bit of what has characterized my experience so far.  First off, the rules of life are different in Ghana.  The “rules” encompassing: expectations, goals, time, focus, and how anything gets done.  I eat differently, bathe differently, walk differently, speak English differently, travel differently, dream differently, hope differently, love differently, and pray differently.  So much has changed and I’ve been soaking it all in.  At times it has been uncomfortable, at times extremely exciting, at times I wonder what am I doing here?, but most of the time I sit within a content peacefulness and know I am exactly where I should be right now.

A few of the highlights are: in the three months I have been in the Greater Accra, Eastern, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Northern, and Volta regions.  I’ve spent most of my time in my home region of Northern and my temporary home at homestay in Eastern.  Every region but Northern are a lush green and really humid.  The Northern is dry, really hot, flat, and farmed as best as it can be.  I can’t wait to get back in order to be able to set up my house, unpack, practice and develop my language, and do what I came here to do, to inspire and teach!  Student teaching at OPASS JHS was absolutely a key turning point during training.  And I feel prepared just with those two weeks of practice to teach for the next two years.  The practicum was well observed and we were critically yet fairly evaluated throughout.  Our teacher training was much more extensive but quite boring and at times poorly executed.  Nonetheless the essential information was given to us about classroom management, discipline, and teaching when practically no resources are available to you.  I can’t wait to get started!  Unfortunately I have no idea what I’m teaching yet.  It’ll be some combination of Math (said Maths here), Integrated Science, and ICT (computer technology) across one, two, or three levels of JHS students.  I’ll find out just before the semester starts and go from there. 

Another highlight was my site visit during which I got a taste of what I’m in store for over the next two years!  I really wish it could’ve been longer, but I made the most of the short time I had in Diare shadowing the PCV that I’m replacing.  I’m itching to get back to site to practice my newly learned language Dagbani, to clean and arrange my house, and to begin my integration into the school and community.  I’m happy to report the food at my site is amazing!   There are road side “chop” bars (food vendors/restaurants) scattered throughout my village which are delicious and healthy.  I don’t think I’ll end up doing much cooking for myself outside of “American” food when I can get such good, cheap food in town.  During site visit I also received my Dagbani name from a local resident.  The man is a retired truck driver and now pounds the fufu at the best chop bar in town.  The chief didn’t give me a name during my ceremonial visit, and it wasn’t a village elder either, it was just your local joe.  And he nailed it!  Without knowing me at all he named me “chang-ti-wuni”, meaning, give all to God.  I couldn’t ask for a better name to remind me of why I’m in Ghana in the first place and to keep me motivated as I serve.  I think I’ll try to use it extensively in town because of its awesomeness and my need to be solely focused on a purpose in this adventure. 

The last thing I want to mention in this long blog post that I’ve composed over the course of a few sittings is my gratitude for my fellow volunteers.  The process of leaving the seminary, finding a new way of being in the world, slowly discovering career paths, and doing all this outside of my home country has been nearly all positive.  I’ve had some great discussions with my new lifelong friends.  We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve been bored out of our minds together, and it’s been spectacular.  I could not be doing this alone and I’m indebted to my 68 fellow sojourners.  Now that training is complete, let us together go have the greatest two years of our life!  Naawuni ti sung!  (God help us.)