There's no place like home.

First, I love you all, thanks for reading and caring so much about me in all of this excitement. I'm back in Avon, CT for my summer "break" of 14 days. I never thought May 29 would come, and cannot believe my semester abroad has come and gone. I leave on June 11 for Belize and I'm feeling really excited and brave.
In my last few weeks in Ghana, I took a trip with one other girl to the amazing Northern regions. Went to an african traditionalist tribe where I had to meet the chief and ask permission to tour his palace and see the shrine. I also sat on/touched a live crocodile, and walked around a witches camp/refuge for women who have been accused of witchcraft in their villages. It is remarkably common for a woman to be labeled a witch in Africa. And in Northern Ghana there are multiple sanctuary villages for these women to live. It isn't optimal of course for them to be isolated from their families and forced to live somewhere else, but the real problem is that fact that people actually BELIEVE that the way a chicken's head lands on the ground after it's cut off can determine if a person is a witch. The village I went to was called Gambaga, and there is a documentary called The Witches of Gambaga that I'm about to watch to learn a lot more about it. The chief at that village let us walk around and say hi to the "witches" and see how they live, but he didn't allow us to have conversations with them or anything. You can see the pictures from that trip here: Northern Ghana Trip. And click the video below to see the Gamabaga witch camp that I went to.

Other than that, I really just hung around campus and Accra spending time with my wonderful Ghanaian and American, friends who I won't be seeing for who knows how long.

My trip home was a little frustrating, but if there is one thing I learned in Ghana, it is patience. The flight from Ghana to DC went by fast and I slept pretty well. I sat next to a woman who lives in CT actually and flies back and forth to Ghana to see her family and boyfriend a few times a year. Then when I got to DC, our flight to CT was cancelled. Luckily I was with two other girls from CIEE going to CT and we hurried to customer service. We got on the next flight to Connecticut, which left from Reagan airport in about 4 hours. This was just enough time to wait for our luggage, Taxi from Dulles to Reagan, and eat a giant double bacon cheeseburger with fries from Five Guys. Finally I made it home at 5pm, shed a few tears of happiness hugging my mom for the first time in months, and began to take in my new scenery.
I don't think I could possibly go to any two places more opposite than Avon and Accra. Driving through this suburban, AFFLUENT, clean, quiet, less populated, and green town was a big shock after coming from crowded, smelly, dirty, busy, Accra (which is actually wonderful in many other ways). I'm noticing little things that never would have occured to me. Like how many people wear jeans, and don't talk to each other, and how everyone really has money, the variety of choices everywhere you have to buy something. Just so many differences. But I have to say it's definitely comfortable. I've eaten sooo much. And it's beautiful and green and smells like flowers instead of sewage! Haha I'm really making Ghana sound like a shit hole, but in all honesty I feel a little empty at times without it. The first shower that I took at home was a cold shower because I didn't care about having a hot one. I've already noticed how I have changed, but everything here has stayed the same. I've already found myself being way more conversational and open to complete strangers. And driving gives me an amazing sense of freedom, but it's pretty challenging to listen to my Ghana tunes while driving without dancing. The hardest part of being here is NOT talking about Ghana because I want to compare and tell everyone here about little things there, but I need to not talk everyone's ear off.

Anyways, I'm really happy. And I feel like I got everything I wanted and more out of this experience. I read through my journal entries from the very first days and it's amazing how many of my hopes came true, even though I went into it with so few expectations. I feel like I can handle myself in almost any situation, and I feel like I've grown. Now on to the next big adventure, BELIZE!