‘Ghana saved me’ – Learning curve for a teenage tear from London

When I said, when my mother said we went to Gana from the UK for the summer vacation in the age of 16, there was no reason to doubt him.

Just a quick trip, a temporary break – was nothing to worry. Or I thought.

On a month, I did not return to London until I did not reform the bomb – I did not return to London and continue my education.

I took the British-Ganiane teenager similar He recently sent his parents to school in Ganada to the Supreme Court in London.

They said that his 14-year-old son did not want to see a 14-year-old son to stab with death in London’s streets.

In the mid-1990s, my mother, primary school teacher, caused similar concerns.

I went to London’s two high schools in London Boruch, the wrong crowd (wrong crowd) and a dangerous road.

At the moment, my closest friends ended in prison for armed robbery. If I stayed in London, I almost been convicted of them.

However, although he was sent to the blood, he felt the sentence.

In the trial, I can be surprised by a teenager who said he feels like “living in hell.”

Again, I speak to myself, I realized what my mother was doing 21 years old.

Unlike the guy in the center of London – I lost – I lost – I did not go to Ghana boarding school.

My mother cared for the closest two brothers, they wanted to keep me an eye and felt that they could prove that the ones around the boards would distract.

Initially, Fiifi, a previous urban environment, remained in a city in a city near the capital, ACCRA.

It was hard to change the way of life. London had my own bedroom, washing machines and independence, even if I use carelessness.

Ghana, I wash 05:00 I was to sweep life and wash your uncle’s often muddy choice truck and aunt’s car.

It was a means of stealing later – something of water water.

I didn’t even know the right driving, I did not even know if I was treated as a high-level soldier to Mercedes.

I tried to escape the scene. But he caught me soldier and threatened to take me to an Armenian camp, to a notorious soldier that people disappeared in the past.

This was the last thing I saw really careless.

This was not just the discipline I learned in Ghana – it was a prospect.

Life in Ghana showed me how much I gave me.

Wash clothes by hand and prepare me to eat with aunt and appreciated the necessary efforts.

Ghana demanded patience, food like everything. Microwave microwave, did not have fast-food runs.

To make a food similar to the traditional dough, for example, is a hard worker and covers the cooked yams or Cassava to glue a paste with a mortar.

He felt like a suffering. Back looks, building sustainability.

First of all, my uncles thought to place me in high-level schools such as Ghana International School or SOS-HERMANN GMEiner International College.

But they were smart. They knew I had a new staff that caused chaos and strife.

Instead, I received private education at the ACCRA Academy, the State High School, which was attended by my late father. This said I often taught myself or in small groups.

Classes were in English, but I often spoke in local languages ​​outside of my surrounding school, and maybe it was easy to choose for such an immersive experience.

Back home in London, I learned to swear my mother in Fantas language – but it was far away.

Later, I received a private education in the Theme High School to stay with my favorite, Jojo Uncle Specialist.

The heads of the child in the UK, claiming that the Ghana education system is not standard, I found it to be accurate.

Despite the troubles, I was considered talented in the UK, but it was really difficult to continue in the blood. The students in my age were very ahead of themes such as mathematics and science.

The stiffness of the Ghana system forced me to learn more than I had in London.

The result? I won five GCSES with C and upper classes – something that is not possible once.

In addition to academic achievements, the Ghana society has been vaccinated to the remaining values ​​with me for life.

Respect for the elders could not be discussed. Throughout the neighborhoods I live, you greeted the older than you, no matter how to promote them.

Ghana did not make me more disciplined or respectful – made me fear.

Football played a great role in this transformation. Often I played in parks with two square door points that are two square door points from the tree and string.

He was very crying than the neatly protected pitches in the UK, but it was not surprising that some of the players in the English Premier League came from West Africa.

The aggressive style he played in Ghana was not only about skill – it was sustainability and endurance. Touching the rough ground, I meant to collect yourself, dust and take yourself.

Every Sunday, I played football on the beach – I will often let my uncles stay at home instead of participating in the church.

These services felt like they last forever. However, as a folk-fearing nation, it was a testament to be a deeply established in everyday life.

The first 18 months were the hardest. I hurt restrictions, things and discipline.

I even tried to steal my passport to fly back to London, but my mother was ahead of me and was well secret. There was no runaway.

My only choice was to match. I stopped seeing blood on the road, as a prison and began to see him as a happy house.

I know a few people who are sent back to Gana by their parents living in London.

Michael Adomu was 17 years old when he came to ACCRA for school in the 1990s, explains his experience such as Bittersweet. He stayed up to 23 years old and now lives in London working as a test worker in London.

His main complaint was the loneliness – kidnapped his family and friends. There were angry times about the complications of the feelings of misunderstanding.

This was greatly thought to have this parents taught the fish when they grow up in London.

“I didn’t understand GA. I didn’t understand Twi. I didn’t understand the pidgin,” he said 49 years old.

This felt sensitive to his first two and a half, for example, for example, is responsible for the abducted prices for increasing prices.

“I had to be sure I went with someone else,” he says.

However, he ended up to be fluent in Twi and in general believes that those who are positive are superior: “He made me a man.

“My gana experience has raised me and help me to identify who I am and who I am and understand my understanding of my culture, background and family history.”

I can agree with that. I have been in love with the culture for the third year and even lasted about two years after passing GCSES.

I developed a deep estimate of the local food. I didn’t think twice in London about what I ate. But the blood was not just a food – there was a story of every food.

I was excited with “Waacy” – a pot with rice and black-eyed peas made with narrow leaves that often give different purple-brown colors. Usually the fried plantain, spicy black pepper sauce “Shito” served with boiled eggs and sometimes spaghetti or fried fish. It was the last comfortable dish.

Music is the meaning of the heat and society. I just didn’t get stuck in Ghana again – I was developing.

My mother, the patient Wilberforce, recently and with a loss, was reflected in the decision to decide these years ago.

Saved me. He did not deceive me in the blood, my chances of serving me in prison or even prison would be extremely high.

Before joining the BBC Radio 1XTRA 1XTRA, I started to register 20-year-old North West London College to study media production and communications.

The kids you hang in northwest in London didn’t get the second chance I did.

Ghana re-changed my mind, my values ​​and future. Turned into a wrong threat to a responsible person.

Although such an experience was able to work for everyone, he gave education, discipline and respect for the community to reinegrate into the community.

To do this, I owe my uncle for my mother, my uncle and the country that saves me.

Mark Wilberforce is a free journalist in London and ACCRA.