The Last Few Weeks... and Leaving

I knew my time in Ghana was coming to a close, so I tried to make what was remaining time that I had as full as possible. I had a week of the program remaining, and then a week to do whatever I wanted to do. I spent the first of the two weeks writing my essays for school, saying goodbye to everyone at my internships, and going about my daily routine.
I enjoyed doing the research for my essays, as it really capped off what I learned about this incredibly new place that is so different from anything that I had ever seen. I wrote about the culture, the people, the religion, and my overall experience. Perhaps I will post one or two of my essays in case anyone wants to read them.
Saying goodbye was more sad than I had imagined it would be. Even with people that I only had a couple real conversations with, it was so hard to leave knowing that I probably would never see them again. Basically everyone that I meet while I was in Ghana was incredibly friendly to me, it made me feel as at home as possible as I possibly could, which was truly incredible.
For the last month or so I was tired of having to put up with the new culture, the heat, the marriage proposals, etc. I was ready to leave, ready to be home, but I knew that after I left that I would miss it.
During the last week I went traveling with geens (Gina), mol (Molly), and phil (Emily). Ades (Ada) was off traveling with her new fiance so she couldn't join us. We were debating where to go and had all these ideas in mind, but ended up deciding the morning of depature just where we where going to go. We decided to make our trip small so we went up to the Shia Hills nature reserve and then down to the Keta Lagoon. It was a nice little trip, and like always it was nice to get out of the city.

At Shia Hills we ate really good fufu, hiked through the wilderness, and got to see lots of baboons.

When we were in Keta we spent a lot of time relaxing (traveling in Ghana can be quite exhausting so it's nice to take it easy). My favorite part of our trip was when we got up at 5AM to go for a long walk on the beach and watch the sunrise. It was an increadby beautiful beach with white sand and big waves. We were probably the only white people in the entire town so we were spectacles to the locals, but they did not hassle us at all. During our walk we made friends with school children playing on the beach, and fishermen coming back with their morrnings catch. On our way back one of the fishermen that we meet offered to take us out on his boat, and we accepted. He and his friend paddled us over all the big waves to the calm and beautiful ocean in his heavy old hand carved wooden boat. It was so cool to be out there in the little boat just out for a paddle. After awhile the fishermen decided that it was our turn to paddle so they handed the paddles to us girls and we went at it as hard as we could... which was at about a tenth of the speed they went! Traditional fishermen gotta be in REALLY good shape.

After we returned we got all packed up. Mol left first, so we went with her to the airport and said goodbye. The rest of us spent the next day at a beach a couple hours away that was totally beautiful. Emily and I both flew out that night (Geens left a few days later). William (my friend and internship supervisor) gave us a ride to the airport, our neighbor Stanley that we befriended also came along to say goodbye. I didn't feel sad at all until I was actually in the car, waving goodbye to my neighborhood friends. The people were so friendly and amazing to us and we really developed a sense of community during our four months there, it was really hard to leave it all. It wasn't until I was at the airport giving William and Stanley goodbye hugs that I cried. I wasn't expecting it, but I totally sobbed. I was happy to be going home, but at the same time so sad to be leaving it behind. I walked into the airport and knew that I would have to return again, someday.