Divine Inspiration...

I had a bit of a philosophical moment on the way into work this morning. Here in Ghana, it is the done thing to carry some kind of a slogan on the back of your vehicle, be it a tro-tro, a taxi, or an enormous articulated lorry. Often, these slogans have a religious edge to them, like ‘Trust in God’, or ‘still Jesus’, or, my all time favourite, ‘Jesus is my Lawyer’.

This morning we drove behind one I have seen before, a big cattle-wagon with it's hopeful slogan emblazoned diagonally across the back doors, in text reminiscent of an Olde-English-Circus performance. My ‘moment’ came when I realised when it was I saw it last.

It was around November time last year, soon after I had left Accra to live in Kumasi, leaving some friends I had made there, and was struggling to get used to life in Ghana’s very-second city, where I knew no-one my own age. What’s more, I had just been broken into in my house, and was struggling to cope with how relationships back home inevitably change when you move to the other side of the world!

Anyway, so on a particularly bad day my driver was driving me from work into the city to do some shopping for the houses we were setting up, and we came up behind this wagon, telling me that I should look for ‘Help from above’. Well, if I wasn’t already on the verge of tears, this pushed me there! I remember feeling silly that it took an old, falling apart truck wobbling along a half-dirt track in Ghana to give me hope that this venture of mine would turn out OK, and to remind me that I was not, and never would be, alone! I text a friend and her reply was ‘ha! I know – prophetic little suckers aren’t they?!’

So, this morning it got me thinking how different I am feeling now and how much has changed in those nine months. I’m settled here, I am used to life, used to all Ghana’s little frustrations, I know the city a little better, I know a few people. I still struggle, of course I do, I still miss having like-minded people around, but my attitude is so much more positive. I almost sometimes think ‘eh! Only a year left!’ and so much still left to see – how will I fit it all in?!

It also made me think how the most bizarre things can stop us in our tracks and make us count our blessings…!