African semester life-changing

Sara Mettlen
Staff Writer
02/26/04, Page 3

Spending a semester on the other side of the globe is the opportunity of a lifetime, but it has its obstacles.
Senior Chris Howard, better known as Howie, spent last semester in Ghana in partial completion of the Doane Honors Program.
Life was much different in Africa, which is made obvious by the long journey it takes to get there.
"From my home in Crete to actually arriving, was about 30-32 hours," Howard said.
The six hour time difference was another thing to adjust to because it made communication with people in Crete difficult.
Other factors made the transition to life in Ghana awkward. In Peki, the village where he lived, the difference in technology was an obvious change from life in Nebraska.
"[There was] one telephone for the whole village," Howard said. "If there is a rain storm, someone has to walk out into the forest and reconnect it. It works about 50 percent of the time."
Howard said that in Accra, the capital of Ghana, the level of technology is comparable to that of the United States.
All things considered, Howard said that his 10 weeks away from home was not hard.
"People in Ghana are so friendly and accepted me into their homes and families," Howard said. "I missed some things but was very satisfied with what I had."
Howard attended a seminary school while in Ghana, but rather than staying in the dorms like the other students, he took turns living with the four professors who lived on campus.
Junior Katie Anderson, Howard's girlfriend, visited after she finished her finals at Doane. She brought money donated from churches to buy school supplies for middle school children. Howard and Anderson presented the markers, books and other supplies to the children in a little ceremony.
"As a thank you, they gave us two huge baskets of bananas," Howard said.
One of the most memorable moments from his time in Africa was with Anderson trying to get back to Peki from the city on a bus he said.
"The way people get around is on buses," Howard said. "The time came to pay and I didn't have any small bills so I gave him [bus driver] two big bills that I knew would cover it."
Howard said the driver failed to pay attention to what he was handed and just stuffed the bills into his pocket rather than giving Howard and Anderson the change they deserved. People on the bus saw this and began to talk loudly about how the bus driver was trying to cheat Howard. Eventually the bus driver gave them their change because of the other people on the bus.
"People have such a sense of fairness and looking out for each other that they were concerned about it even though we were strangers," Howard said. "It's hard to put into words, to go to a place and becoming part of a community changes who you are as a person. Your point of view is never the same again. I couldn't boil it down to one thing I learned. It's too big for that."