First of all I wanna thank everyone who made this exchange programs even possible and to all the people in Ghana who made me instantly feel welcome.

I haven’t experience a lot until now but still I want to share some approaches I found completely different over here and also maybe some more surprising facts or inputs I got.

1.) no matter where you go people will great you, ask you how you are and also if you have eaten. Sharing food is really part of the co-living experience here. If you go out for lunch with 2 friends they will rather give you a bigger plate where you all eat together out of than 3 single plates for each one. Friends often paid for my taxi or drinks/food.
2.) a deep understanding of faith and religion. I think I can speak for most of us, religion and faith in Europe is something for the older generation and often considered as old fashioned due to various POV. Here you will encounter the name Jesus on cars, T-shirts, houses and wherever you go. I had a hard time getting this, since colonialism (in Ghana under the British) came up with this ideas here. I had a talk with a friend and he said that the Ashante people always had a strength connection with the spiritual world and that it’s hard stopping something that you got used doing and that you found out is working for you. Moreover church service over here is much more alive than in Europe, it’s popular among every age group and a true meeting point for social life. It’s in fact a mix of older rituals, songs, dances and bible analysis, trance prayers that at first sight doesn’t even seem to be christian. If interested check https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DPIVkXlFrgbU&ved=2ahUKEwjvhq-s9reNAxWRUkEAHb4wHG8QtwJ6BAgOEAI&usg=AOvVaw3IRNuzQDNKca0w8XyVStLL
3.) A history I’m only about to learn. Was shocked when I discovered that the Ashante were really excellent fighters and had a truly impressive empire built up among the Westafrican countries. The massive amount of gold combined with their unique way of discipline and organization made a one hundred years resistance against the British possible! They even had guns thanks to trades with the dutch. Sadly europeans burned most of their literature down, eliminating also hundreds of years of history. If interested something to read:
4.) Education. Could attest a short meeting of a group of Estonian students coming to Kumasi for an 8 days exchange. Felt a bit awkward when they presented Estonia to the local students, displaying a very childish power point presentation. However, Ghana displays a remarkable education system and even the university I’m studying in is highly known among the african countries and over. Kwame Nkrumah was an amazing personality who made a lot of things possible here. That’s also why they named the university after him. Then afterwards the Ghanaians showed them how to hold a good presentation about their country without getting boring nor childish.
5.) Music: since rhythm and music is inevitable when coming to Ghana. There’s sometimes no hour passing where silence could spread. On the streets in the houses and cars around is always something to listen to if you want or not. Even in the nighttime (got quite used to it now, wonder how it will be like sleeping in complete silence when I’m back) I’m sharing some artists with you:
Black Sherif (the Ghanaian Taylor Swift)
Dr Paa BoBo (sings in Twi, influenced with guitars from colonial times)https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DKPDYVftmPfg&ved=2ahUKEwjZpL7L_beNAxXxBfsDHVpONuoQ78AJegQIGBAB&usg=AOvVaw0jGd4HAnz8IWY-XcYEgWfv