4 days and counting

12.30.08
it truly seems like not that long ago that i started thinking about quitting my job and shifting the direction i was headed...of course as we all know, time flies. i have finally succumb to the realization that i am going to africa and that i need to start packing. the good news is when it's 90+ degrees every day and you're in ghana, fashionable clothing isn't high on the priority list. the problem is i am so paranoid about getting eaten alive by mosquitos or being burned to a crisp that my pile of deet and SPF 50 is growing rapidly! in my vast spare time i have been reading up on my temporary new homeland and just in case you are wondering, i have been assured that buying sunscreen in western africa is next to impossible! here are some other exciting facts for you to ponder
- ghana has over 1000 species of butterflies
- there is a green monkey in ghana who is grey and white (not green) but the male does have blue gentials (really, this is in my guidebook, i couldn't make it up if i tried)
- it's home to the world's largest artifical lake (lake volta)
- there is a city in ghana called tamale (chips and salsa, anyone?)
- 1 USD = 9267 ghanaian cedi

ahhhhhh!

12.28.08
ok, well my post-christmas blues have set in (somehow the older i get the more it seems like there is all this hype leading up to the holidays and then boom! it's over) and my stress level is slowly building. i cannot believe that (weather and airline permitting) i will be in ghana a week from today. that's crazy! i have done a lot but still have a ton to do and i feel like i am really running out of time. i am also starting to wonder how i am going to manage being away from everyone for 10 weeks and having no running water or electricity. for sure, it will be an amazing adventure but i just have to get there first. fortunately, i've been in contact with some former volunteers as well as 2 volunteers who will be in the same general area around the time i will be there. that makes me feel a little better i think. in case i forget to send this out here's my mailing address for while i'm gone (letters from home are always appreciated!).
c/o Holy Hills School Complex
PO Box 38
Mamfe
Eastern Region
Ghana
alright, well off to finish packing and start the trek home from charlotte - hopefully only a 6 1/2 hour drive and not 10 1/2 like one year after thanksgiving...

time is running out

12.15.08
wow, hard to believe i will be in ghana in less than 3 weeks! i took my GREs last week and was really excited with how well i did. then on thursday night i headed to charlotte with carrie and kory to visit meg and run a half marathon. it was a course with lots of rolling hills and despite some unfortunate chest pain, i managed to PR by 16+ minutes, finishing in 2:03:11! now i am finishing up christmas cards, christmas shopping, and grad school apps and then back to charlotte with mom for christmas on the 23rd. at some point SOON i guess i should get packing for ghana :), maybe later this week :). i hope everyone is well and i promise to continue the updates...if anyone has any last minute advice on things i should take, not take, etc please let me know :)

bucket showers and toilets, oh my!

12.4.08
ok, so i actually meant to write this last night, but i confess that after a 9 1/2 hour flight back from london (longer due to turbulence) i was exhausted but managed to stay up until almost 8pm (which is 1am in london). in any case, yesterday was my official one month mark till i leave for ghana - in which i have to take the GREs (wednesday!), finish my grad school applications, run a half marathon, christmas shop, and oh yeah, get ready for my trip! which brings me to my post title - i found out earlier this week where i will be going and whom i will be staying with in ghana. i will be in a region called the akuapem hills. it's about an hour north of accra, and i will be staying in a small farming community (kwamoso) of about 2000 that has no electricity or running water. my host (her name is gifty) has been hosting volunteers for a few years and from what the program director explained, she seems really nice. she is the cook for the local school children as well as the volunteers. i will be in a room that i will probably share with another volunteer and we also share a bucket shower and toilet with the family which are located on the side of the house. i have no idea what to expect and have wierd images of showering naked outside trying to pour a bucket of water over me...oh well, it should be interesting and very entertaining at the very least. the good news is all of our meals as volunteers are shared at gifty's uncle's house, so i won't be totally alone in these adventures. as for my placement, i will be working on the kawmoso housing project, helping to make mud bricks, construct buildings, paint, landscape, etc. i will also have the opportunity to help at the local village school and play sports with the children. it's a lot to digest but i am very excited (albeit a bit nervous). hope everyone has a good rest of the week!

guiness and stew on turkey day

11.27.08
ok, well maybe not the stew - it's good but more of a very rare thing to eat, but i will definitely be celebrating with a guiness or 2...maybe some irish coffee as well! the weather has been what i expected, cold and some rain, though today (our last day in dublin) it's been warmer and somewhat sunny! i've done my fair share of drinking to be sure, and managed to visit the guiness and jameson factories - go me! i can even tell the difference now between scotch and irish whiskey (everyone is impressed right)? i was also surprised to learn how closely everyone here followed the election and how they follow our politics on an ongoing basis - everyone also wants to know what we think of our new president...it's been a definite learning experience. well, tomorrow mom and i are off to london and meg goes home. we'll be there for a few days and leave on 12.3.08. mostly i am super excited to see jen, my roomie from my switzerland days whom i haven't see since summer 2000. hopefully this time there will be less cows/troughs, crazy americans, more showers and more overall sophistication (if you have to ask, it's best you don't know :)). ok, well off to do some more shopping then meet up with the rest of the fam. happy thanksgiving wishes to everyone!

12.6.08
check out the slideshow - all 400+ pictures from the trip!

let the traveling begin

11.19.08
ok, so now i am officially in travel mode. actually, i've already done a bit of "mini-traveling" as i spent thurs-sun in charlotte hanging with meg. but later today i leave for ireland and england for 2 weeks, which i am VERY excited about! when i get back i should know where in ghana i will be going and more about the family i will be staying with. i am slowly getting more and more prepared for this trip - i visited the health department yesterday for my vaccines (yellow fever, typhoid, polio booster, malaria pills, and hepatitis A). sadly there is a rabies vaccine shortage for i only got 4 shots...and yes, my arms are both very sore today :)
i will try and update this while i'm gone...happy thanksgiving in advance to everyone!

endless saturdays

11.7.08
ok, so i think i might have written in my last post that i leave on 1.4, nope i leave on 1.3...this is one of many things i have discovered during what i am now (yes, after only 2 days) referring to as my endless saturdays. it's kind of fun right now, not having to get up, shower, rush to get ready etc and head to work but i can see quickly how it will lose its novelty/appeal. thankfully i have lots of travel stuff to organize/plan and am heading to my mom's house in the shenendoah valley this weekend and to charlotte next week, then it's off to ireland and england. it's still wierd to think i'm not working and even stranger to realize that i really am going to africa, but exciting all the same...

wow!

11.05.08
ok, well as of yesterday, i leave for ghana in 2 months and i start my placement 2 months from today...i really cannot believe it! i am so fortunate to have these opportunities and am getting VERY excited. also, today was my last day at work - which was very surreal. as i had transitioned everything to my replacement i had very little to do, and since i'm not good at goodbyes (is anyone really?) i ducked out before 1. my staff threw me an awesome potluck lunch yesterday and gave me a really nice (well thought out, useful, AND entertaining) going away gift :) thanks ladies! i will definitely miss my co-workers but have promised to come back and visit. in the meantime, i have already been very productive in my unemployment and started making my infamous to-do lists for my europe trip, africa trip etc. ok, well off to a very delicious dinner w/ kory at the cheesecake factory...

changes already

10.22.08

OK so a slight change in my flights (but cheaper which is always good!)...still leaving on 1.3.09 and coming back on 4.3.09 (which is a friday, not a thursday like i originally said).

03-Jan-09 Washington (IAD) to NEW YORK (JFK) 03-Jan-09
03-Jan-09 NEW YORK (JFK) to Accra (ACC) 04-Jan-09
16-Mar-09 Accra (ACC) Rome (FCO) 17-Mar-09
Mar-09 Rome (FCO) to Casablanca (CMN) 17-Mar-09
03-Apr-09 11:05 Lisbon (LIS) to Paris (CDG) 03-Apr-09
03-Apr-09 Paris (CDG) to Washington (IAD) 03-Apr-09

also, a countdown - only 10 working days left! yikes!

it's starting to sink in now

10.18.08
wow, now it's really starting to feel real - this morning i booked my flights! not the logical set of flights (going from ghana to morocco via germany), but the good news is i am going to earn TONS of airline miles!

03-Jan-09 Washington (IAD) to Frankfurt (FRA) 04-Jan-09
04-Jan-09 Frankfurt (FRA) to Accra (ACC) 04-Jan-09
16-Mar-09 Accra (ACC) to Frankfurt (FRA) 17-Mar-09
17-Mar-09 Frankfurt (FRA) to Casablanca (CMN) 17-Mar-09
03-Apr-09 Lisbon (LIS) to Frankfurt (FRA) 03-Apr-09
03-Apr-09 17:00 Frankfurt (FRA) to Washington (IAD) 03-Apr-09

so, i leave on a saturday and get back on a thursday 3 months later! i'm coming up on the end of my time at ActiveHealth, and i am definitely feeling sad, but very excited and anxious to start this chapter of my life. the next step is to visit the health dept and find out all about the slew of vaccines to take (or decide not to take, i suppose). in any case, my life is so hectic and crazy right now, but in such a good way! anyone who has travel books on morocco, spain and portugal or travel suggestions, please feel free to share them...happy weekend everyone!

back into study mode

10.7.08
ok, well it has clearly been long enough since i have been in school that i have officially turned off the part of my brain that was good for studying...i have been trying on and off for the last couple of weeks to study for my GREs and i definitely have a LOT to relearn. i'm sure some of it (not the vocab) is shoved back in a corner of my brain somewhere but i haven't seemed to locate it all quite yet :). so if anyone has any study tips or tricks - feel free to share them!
on a totally other note - i could not have chosen to leave work at a more opportune time. things are just getting crazier and crazier by the day. more people are leaving and many more changes are in the works - not all of which i agree with. it makes me more resolute that as much as i have enjoyed working at ActiveHealth in the past, and grown so much as a person and professional in my jobs there, it is no longer a place i want to be. tomorrow is my 4 weeks left of work point (also calculated as 20 working days)!

updates part 2

10.4.08
go me...i finished the race in 44:38 and figuring it was a little over an 8K (according to kory's GPS) that's around an 8:56 pace!

updates

10.4.08
lots of updates to share since i last wrote anything....i turned in my notice at work just before i left for TN. that was kind of stressful - more than any other time i have left a job. it was really hard because my boss is the best one i have ever had and we get along well and it's been a great learning experience for me but in the end i just decided that the direction i wanted to go and the direction the company was moving were at odds. so, my official last day will be nov 5.
the good news (meg and mom can breathe a sigh of relief!) is that i know have a little more of a long term plan - besides heading off to africa. since i haven't yet been successul at the whole winning the lottery thing i thought i might need something to fall back on. so i am going to pursue a job in public health (possibilities include working with my friend christine at the peace corps in DC, the public health department, or a school nurse). i am also studying to take my GREs and looking to start working on my master's in the fall 2009. so there is a LOT going on in my mind right now - hence i am writing this at 6:30 on a saturday morning. though i actually got up early because i am running an 8k this morning in memory of tim susco http://www.susco8k.com/
more random thoughts to come, hopefully with some more secure travel and general plans in the next couple of weeks!

it's official

9.4.08
so, here is the biggest change in my life: i have applied to be an international volunteer through a wonderful international organization "Projects Abroad" and will spend 1o weeks working on the community building project and living with a ghanian family. (which would mean leaving my job of course). assuming i am accepted, the plan is to leave my job in early november - it's been just over 3 years and while i have stuck around for so many changes and challenges, it's not longer a job i enjoy or feel is the right one for me. i will be travelling to charlotte (3 times in 2 months!), ireland and england before the end of the year and will be travelling to ghana the first couple days of the new year. my initial thoughts are excitement, butterflies, fear, and the general thought of what in the world was i thinking ?!?! but i know that while i am off helping others i will have a lot of time for reflection and thought about the next chapter of my life. i just spent the last hour pouring through information that they have sent me (like i have to iron ALL my clothes after i wash them so that i can kill and eggs that bugs may have laid while my clothes were drying...great!) and have lots more to do. i will post more sometime next week, in the meantime feel free to check out their website: http://www.projectsabroad.org/