_____________________________ ST. NORBERT CHURCH           RATES ________________________

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Local Teen to ‘Conquer’ Ghana this Summer


Note: Los Cerritos Community Newspaper and the La Mirada Lamplighter will be following local teenager Nathan Chou during the next several weeks during a working volunteer trip to Denu, Ghana.  Here is Nathan’s first column.  Good Luck, Nathan, and be safe.

 

By Nathan Chou


A little more than two months from today, a door will close, and another will open.

As time progresses I sit here, pondering, hoping, and dreaming about what waits beyond the doorway, what fantastic adventures and unknowns lie there? A little less than two and one-half months from now, I will travel to Denu, Ghana with WACV Inc. as that unknown world slowly reveals itself to me.

I imagine Ghana as a harsh and beautiful land, full of rivulets, flora, and fauna: A rough unexplored terrain with an entire culture developing apart from the Westernized world that contains wonders to behold. Like Dante, who journeyed through the inferno, purgatorio, and paradiso and learned much of the world unknown to himself, I hope to journey through the modern day inferno, purgatorio, and paradise. I will search for the inferno, I will look for purgatorio, and I will find paradiso in the sub-Sahara.

I anticipate that this trip will inspire me as it has done for others who have dared to venture beyond the lands known. Like Columbus and the Atlantic, I will discover a new world, for better or worse. And like Darwin in the Encantadas, I search for inspiration. I have hence found the thirst for adventure unquenchable; every indulgence in the fountain of adventure leaves me thirstier; every new revelation inspires me further. I possess an overpowering alacrity to explore the world around me.

Many people ask me a question which I only slightly consider: “Aren’t you worried about how dangerous Africa is?” And I often respond, “No, not at all.” I choose not to worry because I trust myself, and love experiential learning. Worrying hinders progressiveness.

Virgil the poet once wrote, “Fortune favors the bold” and I wholeheartedly agree. We must dare to challenge complacency. If we never allow ourselves to leave our comfort zone, how can we possibly hope to grasp the world around us? The world is a dynamic machine, constantly changing and moving across space and time. Every not in this grand sonata must lead the way for more. We must go out in search of self-evident truths, playing the song known as our life to its fullest. We must take the leap of faith, and fall into fortune’s adroit hands. The world is not waiting, why should we?”

This is how I feel.

This is why I choose to conquer Ghana.