In 75 days I will land in Accra, Ghana to officially begin my sabbatical. Why Accra? I guess we were gonna get to this eventually so, for those that don’t know the story, let me take you back to December 2019.

To this day, I can’t remember how I stumbled upon her page, but author Demetria Lucas was in Accra for the Chalewote Festival and was documenting her experience on Instagram. She seemed to be having so much fun and she plugged the trip coordinator, Kate Lynn & Adwoa (KLA), in her posts. KLA would be hosting another trip in December so I shared all the posts with my sister, Camille, and suggested we go. Camille is one of few people I can travel internationally with and she was just as excited as me. We got all our shots and all our paperwork together and joined 16 other curious nomads in the Gold Coast for a full-circle moment honoring the 400 year anniversary since the first slave trade. More on this in a later post!

Ghana’s Year of Return celebration of events were unreal and the other women on the trip were amazing! In December, the country comes alive! It’s when those that have roots in Ghana, but live elsewhere return home for the holidays. The food, the culture, the nightlife…unmatched! Coupling that with Year of Return festivities also meant celebrity sightings and elevated nightlife experiences. We danced on rooftops with Lupita N’yongo and ate in restaurants alongside Miss Tina Lawson (I HAD A CONVERSATION WITH BEYONCE’S MAMA, Y’ALL)!

Speaking of nightlife, we spent NYE at one of Accra’s hottest clubs, Bloombar. The food and drinks were flowing when this guy approached me. I was in rare form, thanks to a huge, strong drink that had smoke coming out of it and a steady flow of champagne at the table. When he asked my name, I replied, “I’m Ama.” Earlier in the trip, each of us was given our Ghanaian day name so as a Saturday-born girl, I was given the name Ama. Don’t ask me what we talked about, but before leaving to return to his friends before the clock struck midnight, he asked what I was drinking, eyeing my empty glass. “Champagne,” I said. He whispered to the waitress, said goodbye and walked away. Minutes later, the waitress returned with a bottle of Moet Chandon and the girls and I toasted to 2020! Before leaving, I decided to find him and say thank you. I mean, I was expecting a glass of house champagne, not a bottle from the top shelf. Once I found him with his friends and thanked him, we exchanged numbers. He’s been on my line ever since! If you hear otherwise, just remember this is MY blog so I get to tell MY version of the story.

Kwame is great. And I’ll tell you more about him later. But just know I found love (eventually) in the club, with man who lived in another country nearly 5,000 miles away. Hennything is possible! And then…the pandemic hit.

To be continued…