Ghana, My Home: What Made My Top Ten Missed Items?

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!

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
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).
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"
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.
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.
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!
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.
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?
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!

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"