So....For those who didn't know... I went to Africa!!! (Ghana)

So in 10th grade I had a French teacher, Mrs. Wilson, who had been an exchange teacher in Senegal.  She taught us all about West Africa.   I fell in love with Africa, and I wanted to go.  So I kept learning French, I hated French.    I went to college and kept learning French, hated it the entire time, but I knew you needed French if you wanted to be useful in Africa.  My final year of college, I went down to BYU, my major had an African study abroad in Zimbabwe.  I wanted to go really bad, but the $3000 to go seemed to high of a price to pay especially since I planed on going on a mission that summer.    I wasn't too worried, the chances of getting called to Africa on a mission were pretty good, I mean I had a minor in French!   Those of you who know the rest of my story can all laugh mercilessly at me right now. Those of you who don't know my story...I did not go to Africa, I went somewhere that absolutely was not Africa or French speaking.   So I figured my chance to go to Africa was gone.   Fast forward ten years.  I am in grad school and they have an Africa study abroad program, and I went.  

Six of us rushed through our final exams,  and went to Ghana a little early to go live on an African Island.

 This is my island Pediatokope.  

 I lived with a family,

 slept in a hut

 and carried water for my shower on my head! (I don't have a picture of that but here I am with palm nuts)

 I was adopted by my family I have the family bracelet, and my name is Ohwee.(I don't know if that is spelled right)  It means first born daughter, because I am their first white daughter.

This island did not have running water or electricity, and there were deadly malaria mosquitoes, cobras, black mambas, and crocodiles on the island.   So here is my bed that protected me at night.   And my water and flashlight.

The water was really important, because it was very very hot on the Island, but I loved it.  Here I am singing an African song with my family at night.

We were sitting under a solar powered light that is the only light in the village once the sun goes down at 6pm every night.

It was an awesome experience, but I was excited to go back to Accra and stay in hotels with running water, and air conditioning for the rest of my stay in Ghana.

Our first day in Accra with the entire study abroad group our bus was robbed, and I lost my backpack with my iphone.  So I got to visit a Ghanaian jail.  (and I wish I had taken a picture of the jail, because it looked like a cell from Andy Griffith, with a criminal sitting in the little cell, who waved very happily at us from his cell.) But here I am in front of the jail, with everyone else who lost stuff.

While I was in Ghana we worked on two consulting projects one for the Perpetual Education fund for the LDS church, the other was a market analysis for IDE.  I was on the market team, so I learned a whole lot about okra.   It was fun to go to Ghana, here are some highlights.

We swam under a waterfall, awesome experience!

I pet a crocodile...not entirely sure why I did this.

But the best part of the trip, was I got to spend three weeks with some of my favorite people.  I love everyone in the MPA program.  

The most surprising thing about Africa, was I found out I enjoy Asia more than I do Africa.  It was a little sad, to realize this, but also confirming, that I am going in the right direction.   Loved my African experience, but I think the only way I am going back is if I can go on a safari and white water rafting down the Nile, and I want to go to Egypt, but as far as saving the world....well Asia here I come!

After Africa  I went to London.  The next post will be about the adventures on the British Isles!!! spoiler alert,  it was fun.    If you want to see more pictures, visit me on facebook.  That is where all of the Ghana pictures are posted. Also if you want a day by day blow of what I did in Ghana.  I will refer you to this blog  Andrew is a great story teller, takes great pictures, and unlike me, blogged every day.