Re-entry process has begun... Air conditioning and chocolate cheese cake!

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Right now I am sitting at an internet cafe on my second last day in Ghana. I fly out tomorrow evening. I am using the fastest internet I have in all of my time spent here!!!

Once again I will reiterate how fast all this time has flown by. FIve months is nothing in the grand scheme of things. All the projects have been completed and final reports are almost finished. All that is left is a meeting tomorrow before I leave for calgary and my week of debriefing. I am quite excited to come home and start the whole re-entry process!

I have to say, we have jumple a little ahead of ourselves and have somewhat already started that process in Ghana - reacclimatizing to Western culture. These past five days, I have definitely not tripe to remain immersed in Ghanaian culture. I have visited the new Accra mall (twice!) to wander through the stores, be amazed at the variety of foods in shoprite and revel in the air conditioning. I have sat in a theatre and watched a recent hollywood film while sitting in western quality stadium seating and experiencing the typical freezing temps of a theater. (I was actually thankful for the heat seeping into my body outside when we left!) I also have not eaten any true Ghanaian food - sticking mainly to salads, burgers, mexican, etc. (Okay, I had chop bar once when I didn't want to pay western prices for a meal.) I have been out late every night these past week (unusual for my Ghanaian time schedule back in Agogo) hanging out with other expat friends of friends - drinking at a beach side bar, going to kareoke night at a typical sports bar, and eating gooey desserts at a friend's valentine's day (night?) party. Yesterday, I also spent the entire day at Labadi beach hotel sitting by the pool and on the beach soaking up the last of the sun's rays I will get for awhile. It has been a good past couple days - getting ready to leave and go home to Canada, but still having time to spend in Ghana.

I am definitely going to miss so many people here. We had a sending off ceremony at our school last week to say goodbye to teachers and students. Some of the hardest goodbyes were to the family who lived beside us - especially the children with whom I had grown close. (The family hired a photographer to take "family" pictures with us last weekend!) It wa also so hard to say goodbye to Alison and Betsy - our American ladies - who came to Accra to spend our last weekend in Ghana with us. Fortunately, I know I will be able to see these individuals so much sooner than Ghanaian friends as they will be coming home this summer.

It is funny when I look back at how far I have come nda what I have experience and learned - it seems like it should be longer than five months, but feels like less. This is the last blog I will write in Ghana. I plan on putting up some pics soon when I get home and letting you all know about my next adventures... very soon to come!

(Skiing in Banff and backpacking Peru this April!)

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