Spring Break
Winbush takes summer trip to Africa after father's death
Sam Hitchcock
Issue date: 8/26/08 Section: Sports
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An Ohio native from a suburb in Cleveland, his parents raised him with strong morals while always emphasizing academics. During the school year he goes to class, does his homework and takes exams-just like everybody else.
However, Nick did not spend his summer like most college students. After his father's death in the spring, he traveled more than 4,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to Ghana.
He visited the country once before with his mother and although he was excited to go for a second time, he admitted that his father's death made this trip much different.
"All Nick ever talks about are his mom and dad," Miami associate head coach Jermaine Henderson said. "His dad was his heart, his guy, his best friend."
According to Nick, the trip was a journey of self-discovery; one where he could visit his roots and get a deeper understanding of his origins. He decided to record his observations in a blog, documenting his journey in the hopes that it might help him better process through all of his experiences.
Nick traveled with his uncle, Ray Winbush, who visits the country once a year. Both were hoping that this experience would provide not only provide a time of personal reflection over the family's tragedy, but an educational and relaxing experience.
Upon Nick's arrival in the country, he realized it evolved significantly since his 2001 visit. The country's economy is bursting with activity, and Nick immediately recognized the large amount of construction as well as a stronger currency.
"When I first went to Ghana, the U.S. dollar was about five to six times the cedi (Ghana's currency)," Nick said. "This was a real problem for Ghana because to carry around anything real substantial you would need to have an envelope full of money. Since then, they have made considerable changes to reduce the inflation, to the point where it is practically equivalent to ours (in the U.S.)."
Nick noticed the Westernization of the country.
"My first meal was at a mall that could have very well been in any town in the U.S.," he said. "They had very similar restaurants such as McDonald's fast food, as well as other materialistic stores like RadioShack."
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