There’s no place like home

Around 5.000 miles away from his home, Fuoad Saliou-Sulley was studying for his exam in a cozy little coffee house in Fogler library at University of Maine. Already experienced life in America 2 years ago, he knew this was the place he wanted to come back for college.

“I miss my family the most. At the beginning it was really hard, but you have to consider what is best for your child. Apparently, this was the best for me; they just had to let go.”

As a pre-medicine student, Fuoad is an undergraduate at UMaine, but is planning on going to graduate school here, also. “School is structured differently back home; you study a lot of everything. Here, it’s more narrowed down, more specific.”

He was talking about two major things which took the most getting used to: climate and food. Weather here is much colder than weather in Ghana, “I just wasn’t used to it.” For someone who hasn’t seen much of snow in his life, Fuoad loved every activity that included snow: “We don’t have snow in Ghana. My favorite activities while being here are almost all related to snow, like snowmobiling, for example.” He pointed out the difference in food, and how food from back home was much spicier than American food. “At first, Mac and Cheese was my favorite American meal, but I think now I’d rather settle for lasagna; it’s basically the same thing, just with more stuff in it.” His favorite food from Ghana is a rice and beans meal called “waakye.”

For Fuoad, while being home, it wasn’t hard to imagine life in America considering the fact that media is pretty much ruling the world nowadays. The first time he came to Maine he was expecting big cities and bright lights everywhere. “And then I got here- no bright lights, no skyscrapers…” Fuoad laughs and adds “I was thinking…Am I in the right place?”

As an exchange student he did a lot of presentations to American students about his home country. Fuoad is also going to show up as a participant in Culture Fest, going on at the University of Maine on November 6th this year. “If I were to cook something, I’d have to practice first, and I’m not sure I would have time. But I will definitely be a part of the style show; I will model in my traditional clothing from Ghana, background music included. ”

The longest pause followed the question “If you could live here, would you?” It was raining outside and Moon lighted up the big green Mall towards which Fuoad’s eyes wondered, while he was playing with beads on his handmade African bracelet. Finally, he sighted and said “I might have considered it a couple of times...But, you know…There’s no place like home.”