Apparently this website crashed and erased my previous entry. So...I will begin again:
Less than a month until I leave. I fly out September 4th, which is coincidentally the first day of school in Renton. Poetic, I think. I fly straight from Seattle to Amsterdam, with a five hour layover, then straight to Accra, the capital of Ghana. I will be picked up by one of the volunteer coordinators, and will likely stay at least a night or two in Accra before boarding a bus to Kumasi, a city about five hours away. From Kumasi, I will take a "tro-tro," which is a taxi/van and finish the last two hours to Ejura.
I found out today that I'm going to be teaching art to all the kids at the school (kindergarten through 8th grade). I am really, really excited about that! It's funny; I got my master's in "Integrated Arts and Performance Learning," (or as one of my friends says, "finger painting"), which basically taught me how to use the arts in my classroom, but I never even considered teaching art in Africa. I'm not an art teacher, per se...but now I can't wait to teach it in Ghana!
I'm nervous about my work visa. I sent the application off a couple of weeks ago with a rush order and I still haven't heard anything. I bought a one-way ticket and since then I've heard that it makes it harder to get the visa when you can't prove your departure date. I hope I find out soon whether it was approved or denied so that I can figure out what to do next.
I've started making "the rounds." I drove to Bend this weekend to visit my best friend and her husband. On the way, I stopped and had lunch with my grandma in Yakima, and on the way back I met up with my aunts, uncle, cousins, and my parents in Vancouver. It was great to hang out with my family and friends over the weekend, but at the same time it's sad to know I won't see any of them for almost a year. The goodbyes suck.
I need to start packing up my apartment, and it's only been three months since I unpacked! I've loved living in West Seattle and definitely hope to return to this neighborhood when I get back.
That's it for now. I'm off to pack some plates!
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