Home!

So I am home now. It's very strange being back into this life, with abundant running water, electricity, and anything you could need. It's been a big adjustment. I'll cut and paste from my journal:

"Wow this is weird. I’m sitting at the London Airport, eating my first Western breakfast of fried eggs and English banger sausage with an espresso. It’s amazing how easily I fit into this world again. In a way I feel like being in Ghana was all a dream. Was I really sleeping in a mud hut two days ago? Did I really see an elephant outside my door Monday? Did I really go without electricity, internet, and running water for five weeks?

Sitting here, it’s easy to feel like it was all a dream. So while I ate my breakfast (which was absolutely incredible, I have missed Western food), I played a slideshow of pictures from the trip to remind myself of it. Looking at the pictures I feel like I am right back there. I remember how I was feeling and what I was thinking and what was happening at the time. Mm.

Okay so my flight is delayed it says. It’s strange being in the airport – I feel a bit like an imposter. Make-up looks weird on my face after not wearing make-up for five weeks. I look fake, like a doll. Funny that I never thought that before. I’m not even wearing much make up, just some under eye concealer, cheek tint, and mascara, but it looks more artifical than I remember. 

And my carry on bag is filthy from being used on all of the weekend trips while I was in Ghana. It was set on the ground so many times and on the floor of the Tro Tro that while it was once white and pink with a cute anchor, it is now dull tan with splotchy brown spots. My friend Casey told me it looked like I am homeless so I turned it inside out. It’s still dirty but less so, and hopefully no one will notice my bag is inside out. My shoes are worn out from wearing them in the dirt, and my toenails are not polished and look rough (I don’t remember the last time my toe nails weren’t painted – probably when I was like 9). Luckily my dress is clean. I’m really happy I saved one outfit to wear on the plane, because although I work hard to do my laundry in the bucket, I never really feel like it comes out clean. It always come out stiff because you can’t get all the soap out, and it doesn’t smell good still. It still smells like dirty and damp humidity, like everything else in my bag. My clothes are so gross with dirt and mold (yes, mold.  Mold started growing on everyone’s stuff in this humidity, even clean clothes get mold), animal scent from the farm, and African smell (the scent of lots of sweaty, unwashed bodies too close together like on the Tro Tro). Yum. I can’t wait to wash my clothes, hang them in the sun, and have them come out clean and smelling like sweet laundry detergent. That’s one of the top things I am looking forward to about coming home. It’s funny, no matter how rugged I get, I never stop desiring to be clean. I took like 3 showers a day sometimes trying to get clean and I didn’t rewear my clothes very often so they didn’t smell as bad. It must be a fundamental human desire to want to be clean. Hmm. Can’t wait for a hot shower….

5 hours later

So I just got home now and it feels so luxurious to be home. I took a shower get now (a cold one, the warm water weirded me. It’s warm out, why do I need warm water?). I used nice shampoo and it actually came all the way out because the water poured down on me and I had my favorite scented French soap and my favorite perfume. After my shower I dried off with sweet smelling, clean white towels and changed into a fresh laundered nightgown to lay on my very own bed with soft white cotton sheets and fluffy pillows. I feel like a princess. I can’t really believe that this is my normal life. Wow. 

So anyway I have a lot more to post on here. Thoughts about development, different ways human live, what my research found, etc. but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I am way too tired now. Also to come are pictures and videos. Stay tuned :)