About This Blog

Random thoughts of a global citizen. Two parts cross-cultural musings,
one part medicine, a dash of cynicism, a pinch of feminism. Stir, and
voila, the essence of moi.

– Original Byline

When I started blogging in 2006, I was a third year resident in Internal Medicine at Brown University’s Rhode Island Hospital about to embark on a self-designed two month rotation at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana, my passport home.

I was excited and nervous to be staying in Accra without parents around and this blog was a means to keep my sisters and close friends abreast of my activities.

I used a pseudonym, KChie, to guard my privacy and instructed my close
circle of readers not to use my real name when leaving comments. Yet I
left the blog open for the public to see. My posts for the most part were bereft of identifying information of myself and others around me and carefully crafted to leave out all the juicy bits and any other incriminating stories much to the chagrin of my sisters and close friends who desired the print form of those stories I would only tell them in person.

I wrote the initial post “The Most Dreaded Question: Where Are You From?” rather harriedly one oddly quiet night on call in the cardiac care unit (CCU). I felt that I had just bared my soul to the world and my sisters’ responses confirmed that. To date it is one of my favourite posts. Letting it all out set me on the journey of accepting myself just the way I am. It was the beginning of realizing that I am a unique individual, as are all others of course, and that I must stand in my truth.

I had no other purpose for this blog and thus I am myself surprised that seven years and over 400 posts later, I am still writing. It has become a mish-mash of thoughts and opinions from the medical entries most ignore and over which I fret that I may have said too much HIPAA-wise; the picture filled logs of my travels; the intellectual forays into history, customs, traditions specifically as they apply to Africa, Ghana, and Nzema people; and of course food, chocolate, music, and books. Dispersed throughout are occasional personal exposés, which though frightful to my psyche having exposed to the world some of my deepest secrets help in whatever healing process is needed at that time.

I already am less shy on this blog than I am in person actually, but my hopes are to comment on all things around me as truthfully as I can without regard to my pride or what criticisms may come my way, as after all others’ opinions of me are none of my business.

Thank you for reading!

KChie
August 2013