Author Archives: Jessica

Wanderlust

Posted on by under Ghana, Notes on Travel

Zanzibar

“…leaving home means a loss of innocence, encountering uncertainty: the wider world has typically been regarded as haunted, a place of darkness.”

I love this, an excerpt written for a NYTimes piece by Paul Theroux. A great article. I’ve read some of his works, and immensely enjoyed “Dark Star Safari” after my first trip to Africa. Aside from an underlying arrogance in his writing, that sort of makes me want to punch him, I do actually quite like his writing and count him as one of my favorite travel authors.

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A Taste of Ghana

Posted on by under Africa, Food, Ghana

As I begin to prepare to leave for Ghana (t-54!), I’ve been of course reading the Brandt travel guide I recently bought (oddly, the only guide book exclusively made for Ghana). But, admittedly, I’ve been drifting to other sources, such as the New York Times-A Taste of Ghana. The NYT guide for “36 hours in Lima” proved as an excellent starting point for our culinary excursions, and I imagine this article to have a similar effect.

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Work Update/Revision

Posted on by under Africa, Ghana

University of Ghana

New Plan! After discussing my placement with my family, my Dad made contact with a colleague he knows in Accra, who works in infectious disease at the University of Ghana. Originally, the plan was just to meet him, and have a contact in country (which, is always a good thing!). But, after some thought we decided it would be a great opportunity to work there. After all, my prior training and other passions lie in the health sciences, and at risk of sounded even more like a gigantic nerd…I honestly miss both the lab bench, and academia quite a bit. So I jumped at this fantastic opportunity! The details have yet to be fully worked out, but I have been approved by the department head there. So, it’s a GO! This of course, greatly changes my plans. And while I would love to volunteer my time with building sites-and maybe I can during any spare time I have? But, I couldn’t pass this up. I’ll update as I know more.

Food Adventures

Posted on by under Food, Ghana

It should come as no surprise that a big part of traveling for me, is the food. I think there’s no better way to experience a new culture than to dive into it’s local cuisine. The unfortunate prevalence of western fast food was hard for me when I visited Lima, which has such a rich, deeply rooted food culture reflective of it’s history. Every dish there had a story, and I learned so much about the history of the country simply by culinary exploration. The diluted, flavorless western food is such a waste and I certainly hope it never causes a loss of such fantastic culinary history.

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