Valentine’s Day Weekend- The Last Weekend for the Canadians

We arrived in Accra around 3pm and I got food from my favorite vegan stand! I had a tofu kebab and a veggie pie for only one cedi! It was fantastic. But more fantastic still was that Betsy’s good friend, Vossie, offered us a room at his house to stay…for free! I was so excited, because Accra is so over priced and I was soooooo tired of staying in hotels. It was so nice.

Friday night Jessie, Betsy, and I meet up with Laura, Rabina, and Shanti at Champs. Champs is the ex-pat bar that has Tex-Mex. It is wonderful. Tonight was karaoke, but we waited hours to be called up to sing (Jessie and I were going to sing Human League “Don’t You Want Me”) and weren’t so we left.


Saturday morning (Valentine’s Day) Laura, Rabina, and I chilled at the Labadi Beach Resort pool. It was catch up with them and wish them the best before they left for home.

Saturday night Lori, a friend of Betsy that attended college at Emory, had a dessert party at Vossie’s house. Below are Betsy, Vossie, and Lori.

It was so much fun even though I couldn’t eat the desserts. Prepping for the party was half the fun. I helped bake. I haven’t been in a proper kitchen since I left and it was fun to make snickerdoodle cookies, apple pies, mango pies, and a chocolate cake. After people arrived I kept up my old routines of cleaning and filling trays, like I do at home, and then stopped to talk and dance (which is rare since I do not drink). Yes, I danced my little heart out!

The Canadian came for a bit. I was said to have to say goodbye to them. They had been my best friends, next to Betsy, and now Agogo wouldn’t be the same. We had had countless dinners and movies, but I guess everyone has to go home sometime. I hugged them all goodbye and already miss them.

After the Candaian left I managed to still have a good time. I enjoyed meeting so many nice people- Vossie and Lori are amazing. After everyone left I watched Jessie’s bootleg version of Twilight! That made my night. The movie wasn’t that good, but I had been dieing to see it after finishing the book. I didn’t get to bed until 4:30am.

Sunday morning I finally packed up to go home. I didn’t want to leave Vossie’s house, but I really missed Agogo. I headed to the bus station then realized I left my phone at Vossie’s house. I had to take a taxi back to pick it up, but I still made it to the bus in time.

Once in Konongo I made a long sigh of relief to almost be home again. I boarded a tro-tro to Agogo and couldn’t whip the smile off my face. I must have looked crazy as I gazed out the windows at the rolling hills, the mountains, the vendors, the goats, the buildings, and just smiled so big. I had been traveling for almost three weeks and was so happy to be returning to the small town of Agogo. Where the gate man always smiles when I leave and return, where Ma always has some priceless words of wisdom, where Papas dogs follow him around campus, where the neighborhood children call out “Madam Alice” as they rush to help carry my bags, and people smile and mean it. I think I was most happy to see Gloria, my 13-year-old running partner and Emmanuel her 11-year-old nephew. They smiled big and told me that they missed me and I missed them too. Gloria had a chorus competition while I was gone and unfortunately lost, but I told her that at least she had fun.

This week back has been nice and I haven’t missed traveling one bit. But I guess traveling makes it more fun to return home. I hope that it is that way when I return to Atlanta at the end of June.