Anxious, nervous, excited....One week to go!

      So, as a lot of you know, in just a week and a day from now, I will be hopping aboard a flight to Ghana all by myself. I am going through a whirlwind of emotions trying to prepare for this crazy adventure that I have dreamed of going on since before I can remember. I am so intrigued by the West African Culture. I am excited to be fully immersed in the life of a Ghanaian.  My dream is finally coming true!

      While in Ghana, most of my time spent there will be volunteering in two different places. The first two months I will be there, I am  going to be working in a primary school teaching basic subjects such as Math and English, and I may be able to teach a little Health Education, since I am a Public Health major , I hope to do a little of something that applies to my major.  I am working with an international volunteer program. With the program, there is a home base that volunteers like me will be living in together. I have already gotten to know some of the other volunteers there through e-mail. Many of the volunteers I have spoken to so far are either graduate students or just graduated with a bachelor's degree. I am grateful to be getting internship credit for my university while I am out there. The credit will go towards my international development minor. My last month there, I will be living with a host family provided by a different volunteer program. I am helping out in an orphanage nearby my first area. It is an orphanage for children who have lost their parents to HIV and AIDS. Also, I met a couple of friends at my university that are from Ghana. Their families still live there, and they have kindly offered for me to come visit them and stay in their homes for a few days each. My first 5 days in the country, I will be staying with my friend's family in Accra. I have arranged for his brother to pick me up at the airport. Making my first international call to someone I don't know to tell him my name,  when and where to meet me was quite the experience. Then, September 18th, I begin my first program.
       I never knew there was so much planning that goes into doing something like this. I have spent a few months studying the culture of Ghana, getting all the necessary paperwork for my traveling visa, countless vaccinations, and Malaria medicine (Malaria is a big problem down there). Everything seems to be in place. I only have a few more things to take care of before I head off in about a week. I am working on getting everything together that I will need while I am gone such as a 3 months supply of shampoo, insect repellent, and other necessary things that are hard to come by in a Ghanaian village. I am hoping to have internet access at least once a week to update my blog! I am told the internet cafes are not too hard to get to from where I am staying. Talk to you in Ghana!