I spent the summer in Accra, Ghana, as a student at the University of Ghana’s main campus. It’s a pretty large campus, with about 30,000 students taking classes in person. Accra is a city of around 6 million people, which means there’s no shortage of excitement and high energy at any point of the day. My favorite part of living in the city was taking the public transportation. They drive these old rickety minibuses called trotros, and a ride usually costs about 50 cents. Everything is manual, meaning there is a guy hanging outside the window shouting the destination to anyone on the side of the road who wants to board. I used trotros to get around to many destinations within the city but also around the country. I was told you can take them all the way north to Burkina Faso, but I stayed in the south of the country during my time there. My friends and I used our weekends to explore rainforests, mountains, waterfalls, beaches, and all the destinations in between. There’s no shortage of things to do in Ghana if you’re willing to ask, and maybe spend some time waiting.

My studies in Ghana consisted of African politics and the continent’s relationship to the global system, as well as French, drumming, and a local language (Twi) class. My classes reshaped my understanding of African political perspectives. Much of the current ideology is shaped around attaining self sufficiency, using African solutions for African problems. It was inspiring to hear these ideas bounced around between professors, local students, and international students during my time at the University.

I connected with a local rollerblading influencer, which allowed me some opportunities to find the city’s best skate spots and connect with skaters from the area. Weekday nights I would often find myself on the back of a motorcycle charging through tight lanes of traffic while holding a pair of skates. Skate culture is growing rapidly not just in Ghana, but across the African continent. I feel extremely lucky to have been able to make friends with some of the people at the front lines of growing the sport.

For the fun of it I decided to spend some time each week helping out at the local zoo, specifically in the primate center. This meant that I got to spend a lot of time hanging out one on one with mangabey monkeys. I was fascinated by most everything they did, like their wide range of different calls, their social structure, and their impressive parkour skills.

Easily my favorite part of the trip was the friends I made. Our dorm was a mix of local Ghanaians, people from around West Africa, and international students from all over the world. Most nights some assortment of us would have dinner together, sharing details about wherever it was we were coming from. This meant that at a single table you could have someone from Nigeria, Finland, Canada, France, Togo, and Reunion Island debriefing their day over local Ghanaian food. If I learned anything on my trip it’s that people are all fundamentally the same no matter our origins. The similarities between the way we laugh, cry, and work through our stages of life far outweigh the differences between us.