so long, farewell...

3.15.09
being in ghana has been an assault on my senses, for better and for worse. the sights, smells, sounds, tastes - everything is so different from home and from anything i've experienced before. here's some things i will/will not miss when i leave:
i will miss:
- playing with the children at daycare and the local kids and hearing them laugh and seeing their smiles
- working at the orphanage and knowing i was making the childrens' lives better - especially since i got to see the first group move in
- having lazy afternoons after a hard morning of work
- cheap travel and a cheap lifestyle - i could actually go for days spending little/no money
- bonding sessions with the family and volunteers over card games by candlelight
- being tan and blonder without much effort
- lots of free time to read and think
- the silence that comes from a lifestyle without electricity, running water or modern day conveniences
- fan ice (ice cream)
- the yummy bananas, pineapple and oranges
- the availability of random things when you are in the bus/on the roadside - snacks, toothpaste, shirts, coffins, furniture
- walking home by moonlight without a flashlight
i will not miss:
- waking up in the middle of the night wrestling my way out of my bug net trying to find my flashlight so i can go to the bathroom/outhouse
- finding large crickets, lizards, spiders and cockroaches in the toilet in the middle of the night
- roosters crowing at ALL hours
- being crammed in tros (mini buses) with a bunch of sweaty strangers on a hot afternoon
- a general lack of personal space
- bucket showers and never feeling truly clean
- a lumpy mattress
- being called obruni and hissed at on the street by random locals
- lukewarm drinks
- rarely getting a good night's sleep and sleeping through the night only once or twice in 10 weeks
- seeing trash everywhere without garbage cans, throwing trash on the ground, and the stench of open sewers

i leave tomorrow evening for the airport and head to morocco. i hope you all have enjoyed my insights into ghana and i will try to post more as my travels continue (i get back to reston on april 3rd). have a great rest of the weekend!


ps - sorry that i haven't posted any more pics - either it's the camera or the computer (i think it's the computer) but i'm too lazy to spend the time to figure it out :)