Traffic Jam

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Maybe it was the sight of the truck on the George Walker Bush highway with its cargo tilted at a 45 degree angle, and being able to appreciate how close it was to disaster, but yet it still hummed along in the shoulder-to-shoulder traffic just like everyone else

the insanity of a nightly traffic jam caused by one turn-off to Accra Mall and the thousands of cars and guys on motorcycles weaving in and out without regard. only the radio barking in Ewe or Twi or Nga what you assume must be some reason amongst madness.

the common jeep broken down by the roadside and always a small team of people giving it enough juice for a few more weeks of life

the face of a tired man in the sardine trotro with the best seat, his head out the window, and wondering where his day took him and if/where he was going home.

To be an outsider is to admire how people here just make it work. To be an outsider is to be able to love that which we think is insane or unliveable. If you take away the admiration or empathy for being able to navigate a tough life, what's left is... values.

This reality I don't care to leave just yet. I don't care much to turn back and remember life before I knew  these things, like there's risk in losing what's been gained.

'This Must Be the Place' is a new place, new meaning. I live in different people, different steps, different paces, different memories. I'm a different identity and image to others now than I was since leaving my country. 

Home is what you claim, what you decide to invest in, the people you invite in, and the person you build in order to ask others to invite you in. Home is in the streets you walk, the sights that become familiar and therefore comforting, the desires at present. It's in the layer of skin you build to protect yourself and the layers you feel ready to shed. Loneliness is a home we live in, like an apartment with little furniture and decor. The comfort is in knowing that you chose this empty space, had a future vision, and could see that it would be filled in some way over time. 

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