Viva Las Vegas

By this time tomorrow, I will be waiting to board my flight back to the United States. That's right...after four months on the dark continent I will finally be returning home.

It's crazy to think that this adventure is coming to an end. Last year, around this time, I remember talking with my family about my Africa related excitement, slowly starting to plan for a world 8,000 miles away that I couldn't fathom. I spent time in class day dreaming about what it was going to be like coming here, coming to a third world country that most people couldn't point out on a map if you asked them to. And now, I'm leaving.

I think about how far I've come in the past few months from that shell shocked fellow who was being grabbed and harassed from the moment I stepped off the plane (I hope we all remember the "I like your bodyyy" story). I think about everything I've done here...from seeing elephants and almost fighting a monkey, to dodging riot police in a soccer stadium, to watching a guy and his prostitute make sexy time on a bar stool. I've rode in tro-tros where you could see the road through the floor and been on others where some of the seats were taken by livestock. I've seen what many would call disheartening poverty and I've seen a country developing in the midst of the turmoil of a continent. I've met the pope of voodoo, canoed to stilt villages, and danced through more songs than I can possibly imagine. Not to mention the plethora of almost fights I've had with taxi and tro-tro drivers, horny guys bothering our girls, and drug dealers. I've made unlikely and fantastic friends here with people from three continents and almost every state in the union. I don't know how many of them I will actually talk to when I leave this place but regardless of if I do or don't they undoubtedly made this trip what it was. I can truthfully say that bribing people at the border without Rachel, dodging police batons without McKenzie, and doing just about anything without Sammy wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining.

I'm not entirely sure why I chose to come to Ghana. I could have gone to India and had better food or to Australia and had the comforts of the first world. But I came here and it was the right choice. I don't know what I set out to accomplish but whatever it was I think I've done it. If I hadn't I don't think I'd be ready to come home. I've definitely had a mind blowing experience here. What I've seen and done combined with the multitude of conversations I've had with people has changed how I perceive the world. And I've discovered a level of patience that I didn't know I had...but we'll have to see how long that lasts.

Although I'm not looking forward to being on planes for twenty four hours, I look forward to stepping off onto the good ol' Terra firma of Las Vegas and seeing my family. Getting back to America will be exciting. I have so much to do in the upcoming months...a whole other life to get back to. This has been an incredible journey, but I have a thesis to write, a degree to finish, a graduation ceremony to attend, and a real world I have to go meet head on, doing my best to ignore whatever trepidation I have. But I will approach it all with a confidence that I'm not sure I even had back in the states (which is saying something) thanks in part to my experiences here. I just have to hope that reverse cultural shock won't be too much of a pain in my arse. I doubt I'll be able to complain with hot water, good food, and clean sheets.

I've said jokingly for years that I am a man of simple pleasures. I don't think I ever knew what a simple pleasure was until I got here. And now going home, I look forward to all those simple little pleasures that make our lives as comfortable as they are. I just hope that after I get used to life back in America that I won't forget about how fantastic they really are.

I don't know if anything more will be written on this journal, although I'm sure it will be revived the next time I go abroad. But for now, I am signing off.

I love you all and I will see you on Sunday!

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