Home for the holidays

In the months leading up to Christmas I had made the arrangements necessary for a visit home for about three weeks. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to leave with the elections happening around the same time, but fortunately everything worked out. It was interesting because they don't allow the tickets to be purchased online here. I needed to go to the airport in Accra and purchase the ticket in person.

It was interesting arriving at the airport for my flight out because there was such quick change in the people that I saw. In many places, the people at the airport appear to be just the same as the people you see in the streets. Here though, you can tell that the Ghanaians at the airport are from the smaller, wealthy group. There was also quite a high percentage of foreigners among the people leaving the airport. The truth is that Ghana is still a developing country, and there really isn't the money to be buying tickets to places. It's also not easy getting a visa to foreign countries as a Ghanaian. It's very difficult getting a visa to the USA from here. In many parts of the world, if a person studies hard in school, and either goes to college or takes work seriously, this person will be able to visit foreign countries. Here though, there aren't that many well-paying jobs for college graduates. A teacher just starting out could be getting as little as $70 a month. It'll take quite a while for that teacher to save up $1200 for a ticket!

The departure area in the airport in Accra has a nice, modern appearance. I got there quite a few hours in advance just because I didn't have a whole lot else to be doing at the time, and I didn't want to run into any traffic trouble, or problems with tickets at the last minute. So I passed through security and waited for a quite a few hours for my flight to leave. Boarding the plane is interesting because the airport doesn't have a jetway. Instead, we take a bus to the plane, and walk up a set of stairs to board it. Getting on the plane after riding around in tros was interesting, but not bizarre. It wasn't that long ago that I had just arrived on a similar plane, and I don't forget things that quickly. We left at 10:00 pm and it was roughly 87 degrees on the runway. We arrived in Amsterdam the next morning, and I started feeling rather cold. My Ghanaian batik shirt that felt so normal in Ghana started to seem to stand out a bit more as I stood among the others waiting for the flight to Detroit.

Arriving in Detroit was nice. Being back in the US after being overseas for a while felt great. Things were just as I had been accustomed to for all my life. Things did start to feel really cold though. I only had a fleece jacket with me, and it wasn't doing too great a job of keeping me warm. When I walked down the jetway to the next plane, it felt extremely cold. I was literally trying to to hold myself relaxed, because my muscles were starting to get tight. It was actually difficult to move my arms smoothly. Once I got on the plane, things warmed up again and were fine.

I spent a couple days at home and then headed out to the east coast for a cousin's wedding. On the way there, my family stopped in Vermont where we all went snowboarding for the day. The conditions were a bit icy, but the weather was gorgeous. Sitting on the slopes of a snow covered mountain should seem like quite a shock after sweating it out in Ghana, but it felt like the most normal things ever. At the wedding, it was great to be able to see a lot of my extended family and catch up on the latest.

We headed back home and I enjoyed relaxing and seeing more family and friends. I got out and played some hockey as well. The day before I left, my dad and brothers headed out for a day-long snowmobiling trip. With it being a weekday, the trails were empty and we were all free to cruise along. The sun was out and the conditions couldn't have been better. It had gotten dark on the way back, but it was fun to cruise along through the woods, seeing the trails illuminated by the headlamps of the snowmobiles.

Then, all too quickly, it was time to head back to Ghana. This wasn't because I didn't want to go to Ghana, but as they say - time flies when you're having fun. But I had also grown to like my situation in Ghana, and was looking forward to getting back and picking up where I had left off. It felt a bit strange leaving my leather coat and heavy hat with my family as I boarded the plane, because it was -3 degrees out. Back in Detroit I checked up on some compensation for a late luggage problem. I got some frequent flier miles, and a couple vouchers that could be used at the airport. The vouchers actually worked, and I had a great lunch at Chili's and a dinner at a Mediterranean place.

Then, I was deboarding back in Ghana, stepping down the stairs and into the warm humid air. The trip went by quickly, but I certainly enjoyed seeing everyone back home. The modern convenience and luxuries were great, but it wasn't too hard for me to leave them. It could be that it's because I've only been here for 6 months now. It could also be that I have a pretty decent setup here. I've got the internet at my place, a 5.1 speaker system, two fans, laptop, plenty of movies and music, a quiet road for jogging, a soccer field, a bamboo pull up bar, BBC radio, weekly podcasts and I could go on. I think it's going to feel rather strange getting onto that plane leaving Ghana for the final time as a PCV.