bryanjazz

I went to the beach yesterday.

The ocean. The sea. That large body of water connecting two continents. Old world. New world. Middle passage. Ancestors. Descendants. Centuries. Leaving. Separation. Pain. Anguish. Unspeakable horrors.......

Generations.......

Knowledge. Yearning. Acceptance. Understanding. Reconciliation. I am returning. I have arrived. I am back where I began.....I am home.

I went to the beach yesterday.

The journey to Burkina Faso was an amazing experience. Initially, the people are a little guarded, but that quickly fades into beautiful smiles. Once connected to someone, true friendships are easily formed, with an openness and level of intimacy that often takes years to develop in America.

The town I went to, Dano, did have an internet cafe, but had no access yet. And , in contrast to Ghana, cell phones were not prolific. In fact, few people had phones at all, but rather used public telecenters...when they had need to make phone calls. I saw one TV, which had one station, in the hotel i stayed in...which had no indoor plumbing or running water. Definitely a small town. :-)

After a couple nights there, we moved two miles outside of town to the village. The experience left me with a deep understanding and appreciation of the transition a village/small town goes through moving into "the modern age', and the differences between village life and life in the small town. More later...

Ghana has been wonderful for the past day and a half. I have met wonderful people.

Leaving Accra today to head to Burkina Faso for about 10 days. I will be visiting a village about 5 hours south of the capital city of Ouagadougou. I will probably be out of contact until my return to Accra. Spirit awaits.

PEACE!

i have arrived. upon exiting the airport, after passing through immigration, i found dozens upon dozens of beautiful black faces waiting to greet loved ones returning home, holding signs looking for people they didn't know, or looking for a way to help out a traveler and make some money. overall, the air was full of the anticipation of meetings, and i felt like i was meeting them all, as well as the land and the air and the sky. in some ways it reminded me very much of my first arrival in jamaica several years ago.

it is a cool night in the dry season, and am enjoying riding around with the wind blowing in my face, looking at the people and the places of ghana. my first meal was fried chicken and fried rice...a classic ghanaian dish. delicious!

one week from today i'll be heading out. this will be my first extended stay outside of the country in 16 years. then, i was a college student studying abroad in France. i think it's safe to say that this trip will be a whole new level of experience. during my two month stay, not only will i be spending time in Accra, Ghana, but i will also be going to a remote village in Burkina Faso for a week. this will be a consciously spiritual journey, one in which i will be open to gaining new insights into myself and the world. i also hope that the offer of my spirit and positive energy, in whatever small way, will bring good things to those i encounter; a beneficial exchange for all that i will receive from the land and the people.

as i have shared plans of my journey with others over the last few weeks, i have received many, many words of encouragement and support. (much profound thanks and appreciation to all of you.) one of the things some have said to me in various phrasings is that i am being courageous. thank you. my own experience has not included thoughts of courage. (which is not to say i have not had a couple of moments - i think maybe 3 - of "oh my god, what am i doing?") i feel strongly supported in this world (thank you friends and family) and in the spirit world (thank you ancestors). i feel that i am being called to do what i am doing, that i am moving toward my higher self, closer towards who i truly am. is this courage? perhaps it is the element of the unknown involved that brings the concept of courage more into consciousness. but does it not take courage to act based upon the "known" and "secure"? sometimes people wake up and courageously go into the office to find out that they have been laid off. sometimes people courageously return home after a successful day at work only to find that their partner has left, or that a loved one has died. the current situation in southeast asia comes to mind. was it courageous to walk onto the beach that morning? or to go to the market that afternoon? i guess the way i think about it is not in relationship to courage, but, if a tsunami was to hit the east coast this afternoon, would i want to live my last few hours as my true self.

well, if my act of courage means anything, may it inspire those of you who read these words to act courageously yourself, listen to the wind, and follow your heart and spirit.