Two more days in Tamale. This means every time I go somewhere or see someone I need to think about whether I’ll see them before I leave. I’ve already had to say goodbye to my peanut lady, the restaurant owner whose restaurant I visited at least 20 times and some people that drop by our house sometimes. The question they always ask is, will you come back? But I’m honest with them and tell them I don’t think so as I love travelling and experiencing new things, so if I was to come back to Africa, I’d visit a different country.
On Monday, we had a lot of rain again, so only two girls came to school. It took us about an hour to get the water out of the class room as the class has no windows. On Monday night, the girls and I went out for a meal. We got pizza, it tasted so good! It was the last night for two of the 3 girls so we had a drink afterwards. Now it’s just Valentine (the Romanian boy), Laura (the German girl in my room) and me left.
There are many things I’ll miss. First of all, I’ll miss the kindness of the people. Walking anywhere you get greeted with big smiles and all children want to shake your hand or just be said hello to. Everywhere we go the kids shout: “Hello Slaminga!” meaning hello white person! And that isn’t offensive just an observation and they will not stop shouting that until you wave to them and say hello, so cute! The volunteers and I were saying the other day that we’ve all gotten so used to talking to everyone that when we go back to our own country, people will just look at us strangely when we all say “Hello” with big smiles, especially to the kids haha.
I’ll definitely miss that I can live without a phone or a watch. In Ghana you can live without the time and it’s been amazing experiencing that as it makes you realise how easily stressed we get when someone or something is late. Here it’s like, you waited 3 hours? Oh wow that’s good, I waited 5 hours last time, so you’re lucky!
I’ll definitely miss people individually, like the girls I’ve taught for the last 6 weeks and the boys from Fred’s house. I can keep in contact with the boys as they have facebook, but the girls from the village, don’t use the internet, so there’s really barely any way we can keep in contact, as they can’t afford writing letters to Holland. It’s sad as I can understand that, but they don’t seem to understand that I can’t call them (as it’s way too expensive) or contact them any other way. They keep saying “I’m not happy” because I’m leaving, which makes it even harder to leave!
I’ll miss the simplicity of life here. No tv, no internet unless you go to a cafe, no one cares about how you look, no expectations, it’s great! I would love to say, I can keep that going in Holland, but I know that as soon as I go back I’ll start caring again about what I look like and what people think.
But I’ve got soooo many things to look forward to, that I can’t wait to get back! I can’t wait to see my family, although time has gone fast, at the same time it feels like I haven’t seen them for months. I can’t wait to see the new house, to see my new room, to settle in. I can’t wait to see my dog, I can’t wait to have my first warm shower in nearly 7 weeks, I can’t wait to sleep in my own comfy bed, I can’t wait for the Dutch food and I can’t wait to start university!
This will be my last blog post written in Ghana as I don’t think I’ll have internet this weekend. I really hope you’ve enjoyed reading them and that I haven’t bored you. I’ll be continueing writing when I’m in Holland, although I’m not sure how long I’ll continue that for.
Hope to speak to you or see you all soon!
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