Help us Celebrate More 5th Birthdays! - 35 Days Until Departure!

The hardest thing about a child's 5th birthday in the United States is usually the realization that your baby...is not a baby anymore!  They are on their way to Kindergarten, have thoughts and opinions of their own, and are rapidly outgrowing their first pair of jeans you just bought them for their first day of school.  But!  For many children around the world, it is a true struggle to live to see 5 candles on their cakes.  It is the unthinkable, the unspeakable - childhood mortality.  There are many and varying causes of death among children, but most of them in the developing world are preventable.  Won't you support UNICEF as they work towards getting children to their 5th birthdays healthy and happy?

http://www.globalcitizen.org/Content/Content.aspx?id=990c247a-5e42-4190-9843-103f751baaab&rby=fe79f9fe-76f2-4a52-a0de-a47975876102

Photo of the Week - 36 Days Until Departure!

One of my favorite experiences on my last trip to Ghana was a peaceful boat ride on Lake Volta.  When you are on the lake you begin to realize the great strength and work it must have taken to create the largest reservoir (by surface area) in the world! ... and to think before 1961-1965  78,000 people and 200,000 animals called the land below the lake their homes.  I wonder who calls this dwelling nestled in the rocks their home?  A fisherman perhaps?

Won't You Be My Neighbor? - 42 Days Until Departure!

Some of my favorite neighbors in Ghana were children.  We would visit with them and play soccer, dance, sing, and most of all be reminded that life is joyful!  Their laughter, energy, and spirits always made any rainy day a bit brighter!  People always say that children are the light of our future worlds, but truly Ghanaian children offered a sense of hope for a lot of adults who had the suffering of others weighing on their minds.

Photo Time! - 45 Days and Counting Until Departure

Ok, so I am starting to get really hyped up and excited for my departure in just a few short weeks!  What better way to get excited than to reminisce with some of my favorite photos from my last trip to Ghana.  This is a good one to start off with.  It's a picture of the City of Elmina (near Cape Coast) and the fishing boats there.  Those boats are hand carved and used for oceanic fishing in the Atlantic.  Not your average cruise ship that's for sure!

What Made My Top Ten Missed Items? - 51 Days Until Departure

Ok, so I got a lot of funny suggestions over the last few days of things that HAVE to go on my "top ten things I'll miss" list for when I leave for Ghana.  Sorry folks, no people!  The truth is, I already know I'm going to miss all of you - so what would be the fun in guessing if I will?  So, with people out of it, and, "things" only, in the mix here are my guesses.  The real fun will be to see how accurate they are once I am gone!  Here goes...Pictures included!

1. My dog - I didn't cheat!  She is not a person!  I will miss her dearly!  She is the best friend anyone could ask for, and I'm hoping she'll miss me a bit too. 

   

   Bubbles aka "Bubbie" - Best Dog and Friend on Earth

   
   
2. Picnics - I'll miss spending time in the summer with my family and friends.  It keeps me centered and reminds me that all the stress and hard work that goes into earning money is really just so I can use that money to spend quality time with the ones I love (and topping that all off with potato salad never hurts).
3. New Way Lunch Hot Dogs - Or as locals call them "Dirty John's, Dirt Dogs, or Dirts" for short. If you don't know why they are called that, it's best not to inquire...but seriously these hot dogs with meat sauce are by far the best I have ever had, and I consider myself a bit of a hotdog connoisseur or sorts.  YUM!

   

   "Dirt Dogs"

4. Cheetos - seriously I can find Pringles in Hohoe and looked everywhere including the Shop Rite in Accra and NEVER found Cheetos while I was in Ghana.  Is anyone starting to see a trend here??  Food might be my biggest comfort here at home and definitely not of the healthy or Ghanaian variety.  
5. Volunteering - I pride myself on devoting my free time in part to organizations that I feel make a real difference in our world (Girl Scouts (you rock!)  The Legal Project, Community in Action for Self Help Projects, and Cross Cultural Solutions) and those will have to be on hold for a while.  It's hard to say goodbye, and I know that they were the people who grounded me at the end of hard days and allowed me to just be...while I was volunteering.  So as much as I might have given a small amount of time to those organizations, I'll miss the great experiences they gave to me while I am away.
6. Holidays - Fourth of July parties, my birthday, my husband's birthday, birthdays of my brother and sisters and nieces and nephews.  I live for that stuff, and unfortunately this year, I'll be missing about half of them all.  I love you all!
7. Thanksgiving! - Sorry that needs a separate line than the holidays one.  That's it's own special beast.  I won't really miss the food because honestly it's not my favorite and I'd much rather go down to my favorite dinner Peppermill and have their hot open face turkey sandwich any night of the week.  It's more so the fun of thinking about what people would like, carefully shopping for all of the ingredients  cooking, and serving it all in some a kind of way that makes it feel a bit like an artform.
8. Road trips - Let's face it - I'm from Upstate New York and 8 months out of the year the snow and cold weather make me want to hibernate.  When summer and fall are here I like to put my windows down, open my sunroof, blare some music and drive all day until I find somewhere fun to stop.  There's always next summer?
9. Baseball - not that I really pay attention to baseball that much anymore with life being so crazy, but it's just so perfectly American.  No one, and I mean no one in Ghana seems to really know what it is...it's like it never existed and so I think if nothing else even though I won't miss my favorite team or be worried about the score I'll miss it because it's so perfectly about home!
10. Last but not least, my slippers - I'm a big fan of my house shoes as my grandmother used to call them.  Frankly, I just don't think fuzzy sheep skin lined knitted wool slippers are going to do in the hot Ghana heat.  Don't worry "slippies" - winter will come around again and I'll be searching for you when I come back.

    

    My Best "Ole Faithful" Slippers
    aka my "slippies"

Will I Miss Home? - 52 Days Until Departure

So there were tons of things on my last list that I'm looking forward to when I get to Ghana again, but will I miss home?  Sure!  Of course!  Everyone gets homesick now and then, and why wouldn't I miss the great people I've surrounded myself with here in the States... but the real question is what do you think will make my top ten list of things (not people - sorry folks this is not a competition *wink*) I will miss while I am away??

The Countdown Begins - 54 Days Until Departure

It's been a long 2 years since I last was in Ghana.  Some days I wonder how much will have changed when I go back.  I know that many of my friends in Ghana have moved, started families, and started businesses.  That I will be excited to see!  I also know that many things will not have changed.  There will still be people suffering in poverty, women working hard to raise their children and provide for them, and organizations still in dire need of resources.  I suppose upon reflection it is not much different than my home here, as much as things change they also seem to stay the same.  I am really looking forward to being back in Ghana though - here are the top 10 things I am looking forward to seeing, having, or experiencing again in Ghana.

1. The people - I miss the hospitality and love of the people of Ghana many of whom I consider dear friends.
2. The children - Yes, they are people too, but their giggles and laughter are a special kind of happiness that deserve their own recognition!
3. The volunteers - I can't wait to see the volunteers from all over the world who come to this great place called Hohoe to make their mark on the world with hope and enthusiasm.
4. Wli  and Gbledi Chebi - Two of my all time favorite villages, Wli for its breathtaking waterfall and Gbledi Chebi for its strong women who want to make the world a good place for their children to grow up.
5. Alvaro - I love that stuff.  It's a delicious non-alcoholic carbonated drink that kind of simulates beer...sort of I guess.  It comes in lots of great flavors like passion fruit, and pineapple is my favorite!
6. While we're on the topic of drinks...Vita Milk - It's this weird reconstituted sweet rice and milk drink.  Not sure exactly what it's made out of, but I think it's produced in South East Asia.  Either way, it's delicious and I've never been able to find it in the US.
7. Fufu and Akple - They are sticky balls of glutenous cassava mixture, and frankly as weird as they are are quintessentially Ghanaian and a major favorite of mine.  That's a good thing I think because I hear we will eat a lot of fufu at the orphanage.
8. The equatorial sun - We don't see a lot of the sun here in Upstate New York, and I for one am really looking forward to the warm weather and happiness the sun in Ghana brings.
9. Chocolate! - I don't even like chocolate, but Ghana has some great chocolate.
10. Taking walks - We take for granted that we drive everywhere in the US, but it's so much more fun in Ghana to walk places.  The streets are full of people interested in talking and having a good time with family and friends, and you get to notice so much more about the people and places around you when you are not speeding on by.

Returning Home

Life is a journey!  It's hard to imagine what life was like for me before my trip to Ghana.  I know it sounds so strange to most, but being in Ghana changed me in such a significant way.  I had always felt a tug on my arm to travel, but never had I thought I would find a second home.  Almost 2 full years ago I traveled to Africa, Ghana, for the first time.  Last month, I took a risk and applied for a 6 month position in Ghana.  I dove into the idea, excited, happy, elated, nervous if I would be chosen for the position.  A month later, I have given notice to my full time job, purchased plane tickets, begun to say my goodbyes to coworkers,  and while I'm still a bit nervous about finances (that's just my type A personality for you), I have never been happier.  Ghana...my home again!  Departure date: May 31, 2013!