Sometimes, travel seems easier after returning home, when the pictures speak the truth of excitement, ruggedness, and magical experience, and gloss over the challenges, and the risks of confronting who you are and what you believe you need in a context so foreign. It is the challenges, however, that create openings, and this is why we travel. It is to come home changed. But this active perspective-shifting that comes with travel is a privilege, as well, one that inspires both a need for continuing perspective-shifting, and recognition that we have the luxury of asking for it and seeking it out, when many of those we left behind (and many back home) do not have the same opportunities. …

Adinkra symbols are everywhere in Ghana. The symbols are reflective of values originating in the Asante cultural group, and have expanded throughout Ghanaian culture. They are traditionally used in embroidery, cloth stamping, and other folk arts, and are often employed for their symbolic effect across various life activities. Several common symbols are Gye Nyame (“Except God,” implying the omnipotence of God), Sankofa (“Return and Take,” symbolizing a return to roots, and often adopted by African Americans), and Ntesie/Matemasie (“I have heard it and hid it in my head,” a symbol of knowledge and wisdom). …

A Scot, a New Mexican, two African-Americans, three Africans, and a bunch of once-and-future European-Americans walk into a… [no, this is not a bar joke] … slave castle. Notwithstanding the specific and varied ethnic compositions of the many people traveling as part of our group, the labels above warrant some attention. The mixed blood of the colonized, the colonizers, and those who remained all found their way into this hallowed ground, together, some 200 years after the last slaves were thrust through the Door of No Return. …

Akwaaba, Twi for “Welcome,” exemplifies the welcome we received throughout our travels in Ghana. …

Saturday Night Live has nothing on Ghana. For three weeks we are studying drumming, dance, and gyil with the ever-present and dulcet tones of cowbell as the “motor” of life in musical Ghana. Polyrhythms are everywhere. I hear them in the birds chirping, the bleats of baby goats, and the pounding of fufu. …