BITTERSWEET

After traveling 26 hours back in time I am home back in the U.S.A, and am going through culture shock all over again. It was very difficult saying goodbye to Ghana, as well as all of my friends. We boarded our plane after standing in a line for 3 hours, watching a fist fight between husband and wife, been frisked like you would not believe (people would be thrown in jail in the U.S, if they ever touched someone like that haha), and then witnessed a verbal cat fight between two women on the airplane. To say the least it was a series of great events before the plane actually took off for out 12 hour flight. I was so exhausted and fell asleep before our airplane even took off to NYC…. I woke up with 2 hours left to go. We arrived to the NYC and all embraced the fact that we were back in America, but trying to understand why nobody was running up to us and asking for pictures or waving. We hopped back on the plane and headed to the good old Utah to see our families that were so anxiously waiting for us.

It was so great seeing my mom and sister waiting at the airport for me with open arms for big hugs, which were well overdue. We loaded into the car and headed strait for a LARGE diet coke, may I add with ice. What do you know I come home to house that is so clean, cool, and smells wonderful. I walk up to my room and my mom has decorated it while I was gone. She said she was cleaning it the night before I came home and felt like it needed some help. Well help she gave it because it is so cozy and welcoming. It even has little accents of Africa. Talk about culture shock I was planning on coming home and sleeping in my cocoon in 100 degree weather. How lucky am I to have a family that loves and cares so much for me.

My mom and sister had prepared café rio salads for dinner. All I wanted was lettuce since I was not allowed to have any there. After being waited on hand and foot for dinner I went and took the most amazing shower yet… I could not even believe it. Hot water, that had more than a trickle, or that was not from a bucket, was this real? As soon as I finished showering my family started to show up. My cute mom and sister had a little African themed party. Everything was just so perfect.

Unfortunately you know what comes home with you when you traveling….. REALITY! Time to figure out the bank account, school, clothes since many of mine were given away) and the list could go on and on…………

As hard as our reality can be I am forever grateful that it is my reality and Africa is not. I am so blessed to live in a land that has so much freedom and hope for the people. I am so blessed to have a family that loves and cares about me more than I will ever understand. I am Grateful for what is in my bank account although there may not be much, my education, friends, clean environment, paved roads, clean water, and the list could go on. I believe it will not take too long at all before I am back in the swing of everything here in the US, but do know that the African people will always hold a special place in my heart.

I have been missing Africa terribly since I have been home and today it has by far been the worst. I look at pictures of the little kids that need and desire so much, and I feel so overwhelmed not being able to help. I am staying in contact with some of the people in hope to help as much as I can from the U.S. I will never forget the people
A village we visited outside of Mole.

Moses and I... One of Bonzie assistants.( no my shirt is not see-through, i just have a white tank on underneath it)

Bonzie our wonderful cook

Charley AKA my boyfriend who worked at the font desk.

Beatrice on the left, who was our cleaning lady.

My mom made me throw my pillow away when i got off the airplane.

Almost the End....

Early this morning I went with four other girls to the Accra, Ghana temple. It is an absolutely beautiful temple on the outside, and even more beautiful on the inside. This temple was dedicated in 2004 by President Hinkley. As we were walking on the temple grounds we observed a building that looked like a hotel. Many children fled from the hotel to come and greet us as we were walking into the temple. The children spoke French so we were not able to understand what they were trying to tell us. One of their parents explained to us that they are from the Ivory Coast and the closet temple to them is the Ghana temple. When they come to the temple their families are able to stay in this hotel free of charge. Usually they will stay for at least a week because the trip is expensive and far. This is when it hit me that I am so fortunate to live within an hour of eight different temples. What a sacrifice many of these men and women make so they can attend the temple. We then went into the temple where they were already waiting our arrival. We had to make prior arrangements because they are not use to people coming unexpectedly.

We sat in the waiting room and talked with the temple workers which was very fun. Many of them have actually been to the Utah, one women in particular has children that live there. We talked for a while and then went to do baptisms for the dead. As I sat there waiting for my turn I admired the beautiful architecture of the building. I love how no mater where you are in the world you can have the same feeling of peace, comfort, and happiness in the temple. This temple did have a little different way of doing things which made it very interesting. I was so happy to talk with some of the workers and hear a little bit about their life stories. I went to walk out of the bathroom when one of the women stopped me because she did not want me to leave with wet hair. She turned me back to the bathroom and fixed my hair as best as she could. For all of you that know my crazy hair it was pretty fun to see her try to style it. She did not know quite how to brush or fix it. About 15 minutes later she gave up blow-drying it and sent me on my way.

We left the temple grounds and walked down the street a little ways to catch a taxi. We got in the car and Willie our driver asked us if we were members of the church. We all said yes, and he asked “ are you sure?” we said YES! He continued to tell us he was a member and proved it to us by showing us his ensign and priesthood manuals in the front of his car. He explained to us that in 1987 The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints was abolished here in Ghana. It was because the president did not agree with the doctrine. It was not until 1992 that the church was allowed back into this country.

The whole experience of going to the temple and meeting Willie, reinforced how grateful I am for many things in my life. I am so grateful for my friends, family, religion, freedom, gender equality, and much more. I am sad to be coming home from this amazing experience, but understand all good things must come to an end too. Although it is sad to leave I am leaving with a good feeling in my heart. I have made a difference in the lives of others, and they have done the same for me. The people of Africa will always be a part of me. They have taught me so many things that I do not even have time to list them all. They have taught me patience, gratitude, love, acceptance, respect for god and others, optimism, happiness, critical thinking, to have more concern for others than yourself, will to live, the value of education……….. I truly feel like I have some very good friends over here that I will miss dearly! The Albrunies ( white people) and O baybay Neh (black people) are all one. They say we are like a piano we need to have both colors in order for the piano to work properly. I can truly say that I do feel like we are all one, and hope I can come back to Ghana again some day.

Some things I am looking forward to when I come home.

· Fruit

· Vegetables

· Throwing my toilet paper in the toilet

· Not having to sanitize my hands after washing them.

· Being able to sit on a toilet

· Taking a warm shower that is more than a drip or bucket bath.

· Clean air that is not so polluted

· My family and friends

· Not always being sticky and sweaty

All of these things that I have listed are only things I look forward to. These are not things that I have to have to survive, but have missed at one point or another on this trip. There has not been a specific time that I have wished once to be home. I could live like this for another 4 weeks. It is the people here in Africa and the friendships that I have made that I will miss. I know that when I get home I will begin to miss the chicken on the bone (which is really chicken off the road), polluted air, and not always being hot and sweaty. I would take all of these things and more to be able to stay. I will be forever grateful for this experience and all of those that have made it possible for me. I love you all and will see you in two days!

Kids staying at the hotel.

Accra, Ghana temple

Hotel

Some of us went to the daycare across the street and handed out last minute humanitarian stuff. I finished handing out my bracelets, toys, and some burp rags. They were all very grateful!

Isn't she beautiful?

She though she was so cool with her new bracelets! She was smirking because she got more than one!

Thanks mom they love the burp rags.

Holy Mole!

I seriously have not had a second to blog about my amazing time in Mole National Park. Here is my experience in a nut shell. We started out on Monday and headed toward Mole. We first saw a man walk out of the bush with a wild chettah cat, hit three goats and a pig and then finally made it to Mole 16 hours later. At one point in our travels we had to transfer from a large bus to two small vans, because of how bad the dirt roads were.We separated into our vans and were squashed in them like a can of sardines. We all expressed how we felt like we were on the Indiana Jones ride. We arrived late to our motel which is in the park and had dinner at about 11:00pm. While eating dinner outside we heard monkeys and cats in the jungle. Our plan was to set out at 6:00am the next morning for our safari.

It was time to wake up for the safari. I went outside to brush my teeth when all of the sudden I made eye contact with a Baboon that was about 15 feet from me. I was scared because my professor had warned us that they are not the most friendly animals. I then went back outside to find Wart Hogs, Baboons, and Gisele’s. I could only imagine what was going to be on our safari if all of this was already right outside of my motel room. As we were sitting waiting for our guide to come, I looked into the jungle and spotted a man in green come out with a riffle as big as him. This man was Adam our safari guide. Adam was going to take us on a walking safari.It really did not hit me that my life was on the line until we were in the middle of the jungle standing face to face with the second fastest mammal on earth…the elephant. Adam said that if an elephant charges there is no hope to escape it, the only way is if he has time to shoot it. We literally walked all around the jungle trying to find animals, it felt like a scavenger hunt. For example we found a fresh mud pond that you could tell the elephants had just been in, we then found a tree some mud on it so we knew they were close, we continued by following some of their tracks and finally made it to them. We continued to walk and seem 5 different species of monkeys, alligators, water buffalo, Gisele…… It was absolutely amazing.

In-between our first safari we went to a village that lives on the outskirts of the park. When I saw and met the people of the village I was very happy that I had brought some humanitarian items. This was a very intense village unlike any of the other ones we have visited. During our visit we climbed on top of the chiefs hut which overlooks the whole village. We met the chief, medicine man, danced with the tribe, and learned how they make their famous shae butter.

After the village there was another safari that evening which was much different then the morning safari. We had a different guide Christopher who took us through other areas that we had not seen earlier. . At one point we were standing in a grass land that was surrounded with trees.Christopher stopped and listened, he informed us that just last week he saw a lion in that area(yes all we had for protection was a gun). We continued on our safari and found a huge turtle. Christopher wanted to keep this turtle and put it back in the museum because their last one died. We all took turns carrying the turtle because it was so heavy. To say the least both of these safaris were very different but so fun. O gosh I almost forget to tell you about how the Baboon attacked one of the students. When they see a plastic bad in your hand they think it is food and will come and try to get it from you. One of the Baboons jumped midair and started fighting Ben for the bag. The Baboon actually ended up drawing some blood. A short while later Ben had a knock on his door and before he could get to the door 2 Baboons decided to let themselves in. These are smart little animals and now you know why I was nervous to be around them.

We left Wednesday morning at 5:00am and only drove for 15 hours this time. We made it back in time for bed, so we could wake up early to finish the rest of our college course. Today we went through the rest of our lectures ate some lunch and then I went and picked up my skirt from Olivias. The skirts is so adorable I cannot get over it. I came home and started to study for my final but could not help but think how I wanted another skirt. I finished my final and rushed back to Olivia’s picked out some fabric and am having her make me another one. I am so excited to see how this one turns out! Some of us went out to dinner tonight and celebrated being done with our class. When I came home I had to do some data mining with a partner on the information we had gathered through our pre and post testing on HIV. Now I am sitting here blogging at 3:15am. What is sleep??? Sleeping is for the dead.

Tomorrow I am going to the temple early in the morning, to the market to pick up some last minute items, and then to the day care to play with the little kids. We will be celebrating tomorrow evening by heading into town to a very nice restaurant. I will be leaving Ghana around 11:00 pm Saturday night and will arrive home in SLC at 2:00pm Sunday. I am so sad for this journey to be coming to an end but am so excited to come home and share all of my experiences with everyone.

Please forgive me for this crazy blog post that is all over the place. I will post pictures and hopefully that will give you a better idea of what my adventure was like. See you all in a few days, until them I am living it up in Ghana.

beautiful face!

Yes we shower with a bucket. In the motel there are buckets of water and that is what you use to shower. It is definitely a different way of showering. You never feel 100% clean.

I love these trees

Kids in the village

welcoming us by dancing

medicine man

part of the village from the chiefs roof.

Cutest little boy in the village outside of Mole

My favorite picture of the elephant..... look at his legs

Just taking a drink at the waterhole.

In the middle of our beautiful safari

Mama and baby

Family of Baboons

Standing in an Elephant foot print

Elephants after taking their mud bath

Adam and his gun

Last sabbath day in Africa and it was a great one!

Sundays are always so great here in Africa. I took my friend Charley to church in hopes that he would find an interest in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was very excited to introduce him to something that brings such great joy to my life. Charley has continually said to me “ there is something that is just different about you that I really like.” I told him it was the church. After telling him that it was the church, he was ready to try it out. I hope that he had a positive experience today and wants to continue to go. He is an individual who is very deserving of this gospel. He deserves all of the happiness in the world.

Following church today I jumped in a taxi and headed to the orphanage which is about 30minutes away. It is so difficult going to the orphanage knowing that these children are parentless. There are the cutest brothers ages 3 and 5 that just had both parents pass away last week, can you even imagine? All of the children were so happy to receive what I brought them today. I took them some beautiful artwork donated by Mike and Susan Singleton, clothes that my little cousin Edie and her friends made, bandanas, as well as some water toys which were a hit. Everyone was soaked by the end of play date. We played with new kickball’s, basketballs, sidewalk chalk, and books. I wish I could take every one of these children home.

After the orphanage we went to dinner across the street for pizza and some traditional Ghanaian food. The Ghanaian food was very different but edible haha. On our walk home I stopped at my friend Ta’s shop. Ta’s shop is on the side of a busy street in Accra. In the back of his shop is his hut/house which is built over the sewer. I went to Ta’s to buy another pair of pants… I could not resist. I love the pants here and could not come home with one pair especially after what happened today. My pants ripped at the orphanage all the way to the bum, but not to worry Ta fixed them for me. It is so handy to have crafty people all over the city that are so willing to help you.

Tomorrow we are heading out of here at 5:00am to Mole National Park. The national park is a 10 hour drive to the very northern part of the country. We will all start out in one big van and then split into two vans around the 4 hour mark. The reason we have to do this is because the roads are so bad, and I guess it will make it easier in smaller cars. I am really excited to get to Mole to see some wildlife. Hopefully I will come back with some good pictures. I am also planning on taking the rest of my humanitarian stuff to hand out in a very poor village we will be visiting. I am super excited for this trip and know that it will be a good close to a wonderful African adventure.

Ps: I also have to give another shout out to Dawn Christian. All of the men at church today were so grateful for their ties. Thank you so much!!

Thank you Ta for stitching my pants back up!

The orphans

Thanks Singletons they loved their new artwork!

New shirt... thanks Edie!

Very Africanized wouldn't you say?

Ok is doesn't Christopher have the cutest most beautiful face?

Which one do you want?

Felix loves his new shirt!

This Nata the 5 year old

This is Nati the 3 year old. He loved these cars Janessa brought

Charley and I at church....

Boys loving their new ties!

The elders i think were the most excited!!!

It's a good night out on the town!

Last night we had a great night at the club here in Ghana. Some of the employees at our hostel thought it would be fun to take us out and it was! We were the only white people in the whole club and were the first to make it to the dance floor. As soon as we all started to dance we caught peoples attention and there were suddenly more people on the dance floor. This club was outside which was really hot, so to cool ourselves down we had some pineapple juice to refresh ourselves. We continued to dance the night away and eventually made it back to the hostel where the Pentecostal church behind us was worshiping till 4:30AM. The way this church worships is by screaming into a microphone, the kind of screaming that pierces the ear.

Today Ahslee and I woke up and headed to Olivia’s who is a seamstress. Olivia lives down the street from us and makes beautiful clothing. I want something that is made just for me to take home. After drawing what I wanted for Olivia it was time to hunt for fabric. We jumped in a taxi to Macola Market which is a little ways away and shopped for a while. I was not able to find fabric that I liked but did find other things including a bunch of new friends! As others were shopping I sat in some of my “friends “ shops played instruments and talked about HIV. After shopping for a while we headed back to our city and went to a high-end fabric shop called Woodin. I got some pretty fabric and took it to Olivia so she can make me a skirt. I hope the skirt turns out the way I have envisioned it.

Today I handed out some of the ties that were donated by Dwan Christensen. I gave them to the employees of the hostel, and will be talking more of them to church with me tomorrow. Thank you Dwan they are a hit over here! We leave for a three day trip to Mole which is at the very northern part of the Country. We are going to Mole National Park to see wild animals. I am very excited but am not looking forward to a 10 hr bus ride. I will blog when I get home on Wednesday.

Getting in front of the fan at the club.

Cute Olivia working so hard in her shop. My dress should be done on Thursday when we get back from our trip.

Charley and Evans

They love love love Obama over here!

Employees at The Pink Hostel. So grateful for their ties!

Learing how to drum with my friend at the market in his shop.

Chillin with my other friends in the back of their shop. We were talking about life and HIV. Man I am going to miss it here!