Still reading my book, not looking up, I shook my head no. "They act like I just got here yesterday," I said half to myself and half to the remaining passengers in the tro-tro. I was rather surprised (and pleased) when the tro-tro filled with laughter.
The funny part is, back in June, I can actually remember telling an inquisitive taxi driver, "I just got here yesterday." And now I am left telling those around me, "I leave Ghana tomorrow." It's hard to believe that eight weeks have passed since leaving the U.S., but it's true. Tomorrow I'll load up and head to Accra to catch my flight home. Two other Global Mamas are leaving this weekend, so we have plans to rent out a 15-seater Ford van, bring our own DVD and snacks, and turn it into a party van of sorts - you can still call it a party van at 7 in the morning, right?? Either way, I fly out of Accra at 11:30pm on Friday (7:30 EST), and if all goes well, will be back in the tri-state area around 10am on Saturday.
This last week has been a bit chaotic. On Friday, Aunt Tubbs arrived in Ghana to visit both me and her friend Renae (the original Global Mama). From the airport, we headed east to Aylos Bay, which is located on the river on the way to the Volta Region. We had a wonderfully relaxing weekend consisting of reading and kayaking and eating. On Sunday, we headed back to Accra, where we stayed until Tuesday. Monday, we celebrated Tubbs' birthday in Accra. We went to a beautiful silver jewelry shop and out to dinner at a great Lebanese place.
Tuesday morning we headed back to Cape Coast. I had a date to have lunch at Auntie Mary's house, and Tubbs wanted to help out at the Global Mamas office. During the last week of school, Mary and I planned for me to come over for a traditional Ghanaian meal - fufu. When I arrived at her house, two of the other teachers were there, too, and we had a great time together. I will definitely miss them, and I think they will miss me too. I guess that's what Facebook is for..
Yesterday, Tubbs and I took a trip up to the school so she could see the building. Even though the kids are on break, we were able to peek in the windows so she could get a feel for what the school is like. In the afternoon, I headed to Takoradi to visit Bridget's family one last time. They were kind enough to have some traditional Ghanaian outfits made for me, which I tried on and brought back to Cape with me. I made it back to Elmina just in time for dinner at Eli's.
Naturally, I waited for the last minute to do most of my souvenir shopping. I spent most of today, my last day in Cape/Elmina, walking around Cape and shopping. It was a cloudy, almost misty day - I think the weather could sense how I feel about my upcoming departure. Although there have been times recently that I have been itching for the comforts of home, today was not one of those days. It is very slowly sinking in that I will actually be boarding a plane to the U.S. this time tomorrow. That I'll be leaving the country I have called "home" for the last eight weeks. Although two months is not a very long amount of time to live somewhere, I do believe that "live" is the right word. Our routines, comforts, and ways of life have been turned upside down. Slowly, we learned how to survive and eventually thrive in our new lives here. And it has been wonderful. Ghana is such a wonderful, welcoming country. I feel so safe here, that I sometimes forget I am in Africa. From the start, I figured this would be a special summer. Now that my time in Ghana has come to a close, I'm happy to look back on all of my days here and see that suspicion confirmed. And although I'm sure the reverse culture shock will be great, any adjustments, discomfort, or frustrations that I might experience were completely worth it for the new perspective that spending two months living in here has given me. And although I will go away from Ghana tomorrow evening, it will be a long time until Ghana has gone away from me.
