cape coast and leaving ghana

i have only a few more hours left in ghana and it is down right depressing.

i'm sorry i haven't been posting as much, but i don't get internet access in cape coast. the days have gone by much too quickly. the two weeks of the internship flew by. on friday i said goodbye to my students and it got me thinking. those poor children come from difficult homes with little or no money. they get to come to a school, which is great, but their teachers never stay. the foreign teachers come in, make a big impression on the students, give them someone to look up to, but then they leave. they always leave. that must be so sad for those children. they need teachers that they can count on. teachers that will stay with them to help them through school. it makes me want to come back and make a bigger and more lasting impact on the ghanaian school system.

saturday we spent most of the day at the art center. we've made some good friends at that giant market. its funny now because when they see the usual tourists, the shop keepers rush forward to ask them to come to their shops to buy things. when they see us, they welcome back friends. the market is a great place to go when you know the people more then them just trying to sell you their things. i'm really going to miss those friends that i've made. i think during this last two week period, i've made better and more quality ghanaian friends than i did during the whole of the study abroad. its really sad to leave them, and i don't know if i will ever see them again.

sunday, monday and tuesday were either hectic or incredibly relaxing. we travelled to cape coast on sunday and then just relaxed at the hotel while the two girls who hadn't seen the el mina castle went there. on monday we did the canopy walk again. then we visited an old professor of our professor. that visit was really cool. the man was 82 years old but looked like he was 60. he was so full of life. it was interesting to see someone who had mentored the man that we all look up to so much (dr. owusu-ansah, or as we call him O-A). after the visit, we returned to the hotel yet again while the other girls toured the cape coast castle. on tuesday, we travelled home.

now it is wednesday and tonight i'm leaving. i really can't believe that i'm actually leaving. the reality of it hasn't sunk in yet and i don't think it will until i'm on the plane. i spent all day trying to find everyone in accra that i had become friends with to say goodbye. we spent alot of time at the art center (again), buying and saying our last goodbyes. then i visited the family that i always play with and said goodbye to them. it's so strange saying bye but knowing that i won't visit them tomorrow like i always do. tomorrow i'm going to be in the usa. my good friend, david, and i were standing at the ocean (behind the art market) today and he looked across the water and told me, tomorrow you're going to be on the other side of that ocean.

i have to make it back to ghana sometime. this country is an amazing place. it is the people of ghana that make it so unforgettable. i'm going to really reallly miss all of them.