When I got out, I wondered if anyone would recognize me. I didn’t wear flashy clothes, just a gray T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. The only thing that stood out was my long, unkempt hair, which you almost never see in Ghana. It made me look like a hippie. It turned out I was the one who didn’t recognize things: the village had changed completely since I’d left. Houses there burn down on a regular basis, and then they’re rebuilt, sometimes in a different place. Plus, it rains heavily, and everything gets covered in mud. The village is constantly shifting. And I had been gone for a long time.
