Fail to prepare....prepare to fail

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Its been a hectic 2 weeks! Decided 15 days ago to go to Ghana and volunteer at a school in a small village 3 hours north of Accra.

I quit work on Friday at 8am (already had another job lined up), booked flights 4 hours later (Toronto>Manchester>Amsterdam>Accra), and then decided to actually look into the charity, and see if it still existed, as it had been over a year since I had contact with them.

Charity still exists. First success (y) There were a few other things to sort out, like getting a few immunizations, getting a visa, pushing back the start date for my new job by 2 weeks, and one or two more things I assumed would be pretty simple.

Turns out it wasn't very simple (n) 2 trips to the Ghanaian embassy, 7 shots (TB, polio, cholera, whooping cough, yellow fever, hepatitis A and hepatitis B), 58 day course of malaria tablets, a quick re-arrange of my passport (to ensure my Israeli entrance stamp is hidden - apparently there could be problems at the Ghanaian border), and $900 later and I am ready to go. Been a little bit more time consuming than I imagined. Also, who gets whooping cough in 2011!? Ffs Africa.

Had a massive stroke of luck on Wednesday though, as I got shit on by a bird, which as everyone knows brings you luck, so I'm sure everything will go swimmingly from here on in.

Things are not going swimmingly.

Started packing my back on Thursday and slowly realized that I had far too much stuff. Bearing in mind the only things in my suitcase that I am bringing for myself weigh less than 5kg and I could potentially wear it all to the airport if need be. Due to everyone being incredibly grateful, I had masses and masses of donations to bring over. From toys, to kids clothes, to footy shirts, boots, shinpads, pens, pencils, pads etc etc. Decided the job of packing was too stressful for a Thursday, so had a bath and went to bed. On Friday I still had 2 hours in-between finishing my final day at work and my taxi arriving to take me to the airport, so no need to worry.

Work went pretty successfully, said my goodbyes, and came back to pack. Realized that my suitcase is at least 15kg over the limit,, which means I would have to pay just under $200 excess baggage. As I am flying with 2 completely separate airlines, 1 to Manchester and back, and one to Amsterdam/Accra, I would have to pay the excess twice. $400 is a good motivator to work quickly. So decided to change suitcases to one thats a bit smaller, but at least 5kg lighter. I still had 30 minutes before the taxi was due, so I was making pretty good time. Suitcases swapped, albeit still too heavy, but not as bad, I could finally relax for the final 6 minutes before the taxi arrived. Just had to put one last thing in my hand luggage....then the zip on my hand luggage snaps off. FFS! That bird shitting on me has brought me NO luck yet. Cant open bag containing my passport, laptop, camera, and money. 5 minutes til I have to leave, Need to rip the bag open, ruining bag. Run around trying to find new bag to use for my hand luggage. Would a laptop fit in my pocket? Can you use a plastic bag from Rabba as hand luggage? Still, I have 4 minutes to go. Np. Find 2 bags that will hold everything, but I'm only allowed 1 carry on bag. Will sort out this problem later on. Pick up other bag. Handle on new bag snaps. Taxi is now outside. Np. Walk down to taxi with broken bags, too much luggage, and too many bags.

Ghana (y)

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Photos

Too much STUFF
Too many toys

Too much STUFF part 2
Too many clothes

Broken bag
Handle snapped. Sellotape helps.