By Francis O’Leary

Each summer, SOJC students travel to Ghana to immerse themselves in hands-on fieldwork. This is the final in a series of posts chronicling the Media in Ghana program through the eyes of student intern Francis O’Leary.

For the first time since I left for my internship in Ghana, I have the apartment to myself. My 19 former housemates have all dispersed. Now I’m sitting in the dining room, trying to come up with some way to summarize six weeks in 500 words or fewer.

During the Media in Ghana program, I met scores of people; traveled to a continent I had never seen before; worked in broadcast journalism for the first time; took thousands of photos; lost my way in the labyrinthine Kumasi Market, the third-largest open-air market in the world; swam beneath the highest waterfall in West Africa; and so much more. How can I adequately sum up everything I learned?

I can’t. I could write this post 15 times in 15 different ways, and each would paint a different picture of my time in Ghana. I know already that it will be a long time before I’ve fully unpacked everything that happened. I feel like right now I bring up Ghana in every conversation I have because it’s such a presence in my mind.

I’ve noticed myself making little comparisons quite often. Flying in to Dallas-Fort Worth, I looked out the window and saw the big box stores. “They don’t have many of those in Ghana; they go to the market where commerce is more human and personal,” I thought. The first time I got behind the wheel of a car again, I remembered how chaotic traffic was in Accra. The rain summoned images of being trapped in an immense storm the first day of my internship and showing up to work soaked.

I know I can’t stay in the United States forever. I will return to Ghana one day, and to other parts of Africa. I’ll be sure to see Eastern Europe and the Middle East on the advisement of my father. I’d like to practice journalism in the Spanish-speaking world. There’s no place I don’t want to learn about, go to and meet the people of. Though Ghana wasn’t the first country I’ve been to abroad, it’s the first one I’ve been privileged to experience so deeply. And it’s just the beginning.

C. Francis O’Leary (they/them/theirs) is a journalism major at the UO School of Journalism and Communication. They also work as a music journalist for Oregon Music News. You can follow them on Twitter at @CFrancisOLeary and on Instagram at @CFrancisOLearyPhoto