(7/12) “My father is not an emotional man. But when I gave him...

(7/12) “My father is not an emotional man. But when I gave him the news, I could see the pride in his face. He was proud of the scholarship. Proud of everything I’d overcome. I was proud too. Oh boy, the things I was thinking! I felt like an important person. I was going to America to study at a famous school. ‘When I come back to Ghana,’ I thought. ‘Everyone in the country will know me.’ My mother was so excited that she burst into one of her hymns. But afterwards she prayed with me for hours. Because she knew how worried I was about my daughter. The program would last for a full year. I was scared for Ella’s wellbeing. Scared for our relationship. She would be with her mother and grandparents, but I was the one who helped with her homework. I was the one who picked her up from school most days. She loved when I picked her up, because her classmates would scream: ‘Your dad is here! Your father is here!’ But now I would be arranging a driver, from the other side of the world. During my final days in Ghana, I stopped everything to be with her. We unpacked a lot of things between us. She asked me questions that she’d never asked before: mainly about her mother, and the reasons we weren’t together. I tried to cover in a certain way. I focused on my own mistakes. I explained that we were two different people, and we didn’t understand each other. Eventually she asked why she couldn’t come with me to America. I told her that it wasn’t possible, but that I was taking the trip for both of us. And when I came back home, I’d be a proper photographer. I’d be making real money, and we’d have time to be together. We’d have a proper home. She could have a room of her very own. We could get a dog. And we could travel. That was always the biggest thing between us—travel. Ella wanted so badly to travel. Before I left for New York, I bought us two tickets on an airplane. It was just a 45-minute flight, from my hometown to the capital. But it was enough for her to see the skies. She was so happy. She was taking photos of the clouds, and taking photos of me. And it gave me some peace, because I’d been making promises her entire life. At least I’d been able to fulfill this one.”