Laughter in the Darkness

I have become very use to the darkness of Ghana since I have been here. Traveling in the dark, walking along side my fellow Ghanaian in a pitch black sky. No city lights, no moonlight, no distraction of illumination from a porch light from a local home. In Ghana, night is as dark as black can come. Last night, after my visit and teaching with the local town of Ho V/R, I had an experience of joy that I have become familiar with in all my trips to Ghana. My experience was being surrounded with the sounds of laughter of young girls and women. Just as the night had become late, and I was certain that we were all exhausted as we departed, two little girls reminded us all of what is the most important. It was the carefree simplicity of being a child. They reminded me of what it was like to be a girl and look at one another and giggle at absolutely nothing and being in the joy of your best of friends. You see, laughter is my favorite sound of all. It can create a new friendship or renew the day of an old friend. Laughter can overshadow everything and anything. You can be in laughter with another person and forget that there is a whole world around you that is happening. It can replace time as you get in the moment of hearing the laughter of another person. You can simply be in the joy of laughter with another person and create a carefree moment that will be in a capsule of the moment. Leaving last night, the Freedom Hotel van came to pick me up. As I saw those two little girls and all the women surrounding them, we offered them a ride to their road. In the van, all the seats were taken out of the back, so on the floor we went. I was in a van full of Ghanaian women, two girls, and I in the darkness of Ghana. Those two little girls would not stop giggling, and soon before I knew it we were all laughing. In the darkness of the night, I couldn't see their faces and they couldn't see mine, but we could hear each other in our sounds of laughter. I could hear their giggles and feel their joy. It was the best sound the world could offer me at the moment. Between English and Ewe, it was a mutual laughter of understanding. It wasn't laughter that was in the awkwardness of being crammed in the back of a van without seats with two cultures of Volta women and one American woman. It was a unity of laughter that expressed happiness of just being girls together sharing a ride, just being who we are. As much as I love laughter, they did as well. We shared that in common. Leaving them at the end of their road to take their walk home, they were still laughing, but waving good-bye. They were all laughing, jumping, and waving farewell. As we pulled away in the thick darkness, I could still hear their laughter.