Also, I noticed right away that the way people talk in Malawi is different from the way people talk in Ghana. In the part of Ghana I visited, people speak Twi. Do you remember the name of the main language in Malawi? It is Chichewa. But it is not just the languages that are different. It is also how people speak. In Ghana, people speak in loud voices with lots of animation, which means they use their hands and laugh out loud a lot. In Malawi, people tend to speak quietly.
After I visited Ghana, I might have told you that cities in Africa are really crowded and busy. I might have also told you that people in Africa talk with their hands. But, many of the stories I would have told about Africa from my first trip would not be true in Malawi! Now that I have seen the differences between Ghana and Malawi, I think Americans too often talk about Africa as though it is one place. We should not do this. Africa does not have one culture or one type of people. Think about North America, our continent. North America has Canada, the United States, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama and others! If you went to one country in North America, it would be silly of you to tell your friend, “This must be how people speak in North America,” or, “These are the kinds of animals they have in North America.” On our continent, you can find grizzly bears in one country (Canada) and parrots in another (Costa Rica).
I think Americans sometimes think of Africa as one place because we do not know much about African countries. I wish that I had learned more about African countries and African history when I was your age. Now, I am trying to read more news articles, listen to more music and watch more movies from different African countries.
