Ghana Days 9 & 10

Saturday was our group's last day with our village. They basically wished us farewell the same way they welcomed us in: singing and dancing.

 Purchasing material to make a baby carrier wrap thingy.

 I know I've said this already but they seriously adored Ron. We all did. He was so much fun.

 They were huge supporters of Obama.

They sent us off with TONS of food. Unfortunately, you cannot bring any of it back into the country with you :( There was no way for us to eat all that food in such a short amount of time, so we had to leave it all behind.

 The young ladies did a special little dance number for us.

 We officially became members of their village.

To finish our time off, we gave them our gifts courtesy of Vivint. On top of the urinals that we helped build and the time we spent teaching school each morning, we gave them a water purifier; we taught them how to use and clean it. Then, we gave them backpacks (pictured below). Any personal gifts we wanted to give, we had to secretly give away to avoid causing a fight &/or jealousy.

 Saying goodbye

Pure exhaustion...walked into this "hotel" to use the bathroom and could not pry myself up off the stairs. I wanted to wait right there until our bus arrived to take us to the airport...but I didn't.

This was the last picture we took in Africa. We overspent our time with our village and then got caught in TERRIBLE traffic. The drive from Ho to Accra was 3 hours without traffic. The ride was intense; we were all stressed about not making our flights on time. Some people were still deathly sick and were forced to either puke out the window or puke on the floor of the bus. Then, because luck did not seem to be favoring us much that day, we got stopped by the military police and had to begin unloading everyone off the bus to have our passports and visas checked. Thankfully, they let us back on the bus once they realized it would take them a long time to check everyone's stuff. Once we finally made it to the airport the traffic was SOOOO backed up. They couldn't get us to our terminal. We decided to unload everyone and all of the luggage and run the remainder of the way to our terminal. We blew through customs, security, etc. as quickly as we could and barely caught our flights. Yay! I will spare you the details of our flight home and say this: I have NEVER been SO GRATEFUL to be home! Don't get me wrong, Africa was AMAZING! But there really is no place like home.

Ghana Day 8

For our 8th day, we were scheduled to go with our large group to see the Wli waterfall and then to see the monkey sanctuary.

On the way to the falls and monkey sanctuary, we had to stop so we could pick up our lunch. Of course there are vendors all over the street so instead of sitting in the cramped hot bus, we got off and browsed around. I did buy this dress. I was totally falling in love with Africa and wanted something that I would remember my experience by. Unfortunately, my desire to ever wear this dress vanished as soon as we landed in the U.S. I will have to use the material to make something out of it.

 This was our large group.

 Eating lunch before hiking to the falls.

 If I recall correctly, it was a 45 minute hike to the falls through the rainforest. It was gorgeous!

The day started off so hot, but by the time we reached the falls, a rainstorm was rolling in and bringing cold wind with it.

The sky was filled with bats.

I did get in the water. It was cold! But when would I honestly ever get to swim in a waterfall in Africa ever again? Chances are slim to none.

 So glad I brought ponchos...

It was raining (hence all the water drops on the camera lens) and night had fallen by the time we reached the monkey sanctuary :( I'm not gonna lie, I was REALLY disappointed (you can tell in the pic below). But if you click on the pic and zoom in, you will be able to barely make out a monkey in there. It's in the centerish area of the pic.

The pizza was actually pretty delightful! (too bad I was being grumpy)

Ghana Day 7

First time we've ever seen a Jehovah's Witnesses' church with windows.

 Feeling pretty crummy by now :(

 Mixing up the paint

 They loved it when Jared took off his shirt! They couldn't get enough of his skin.

 Hey, it's Blaze again! She's the one in the red and white dress.

 Got interviewed by K Swiss and the production team.

 I honestly still get embarrassed to this day when I think about the interview. I am so self-conscious.

The women were in love with my husband. They loved how he treats me like a queen; always holding my hand and kissing me.

 It finally rained for us...during the day!

 Collecting rain water. Far cleaner than what they typically drink.

 Jenny and Jeff sharing their first dance in the rain.

 Ran out of bottled water so we drank the bagged stuff. Definitely tasted different.

 Oh, a shot of the poop station.

 They even have a diagram of how to use it. Ha!

 Petting the dadi (cat in Ewe).

 I don't think I will ever forget this woman. And, I don't mean that in a nice way. She was not very nice when she was doing my hair.

 Little Kenyon tied a fly to the end of a string.

Pius ended up taking over for the rude lady; she was being so rough that I was tearing up. It pissed her off. You can see her in the background behind Pius.

 Taking Victoria back to Ho with us so she could go home. Victoria was our sweet, fantastic cook! She was such an amazingly sweet, talented woman.