MY version.

My bags are packed, I'm ready to go, I'm standing here by the mini-van door, I hate that my suitcases can only weigh 50 pounds. But the dusk is breaking, it's almost eight, My mum's impatiently waiting, were running late, I can't believe it I'm finally Ghana bound. So hug me and laugh for me, Tell me that you'll facebook me, now stop hugging me so tight cause I really gotta go. You see, I'm leaving on a British Airways plane, I know I'm going to be back on exactly July 3rd again, Oh, everyone I truly care a lot about and will really miss, I so freaking excited to go!

Gone to Ghana, Will be Back in July.

I'm writing in Superstore, sitting in the Deli section my Laptop on my lap, I've finished all my last minute shopping and am waiting for Mum to finish hers. I would go help her but whenever we get separated here I find it's best to just  sit and wait in the Deli, our choice meeting place. I learned this at a very young age when I was found by one of the stockers on roller-blades, sobbing between the ziplocs and mr.clean at the back of the store.

Oops an alarm just went off in the fish department.

Maybe someone free the crabs and lobsters, I've always thought of doing it - but I CAN'T go back to juvy, I am of course being facetious...or am I?. 

I toted my Mac (or rather my fathers Mac, but as he never uses it I have commandeered it as my own) to the Super market because I type up all my lists and do not see the point of writing them out when I can just bring the Mac - also because it is somewhat lengthy and I am lazy and do not want to write it all down.

Anyways. Thanks to this last minute and rather unexpected Superstore excursion, I was in the middle of making curry and apple pie for dinner when mum announced she was going for a shop, I now have everything I need  for the next five months:

  

• Batteries?  Check.
  
• New (and adorably lacy) Underwear? Check.
  
• Gatorade powder? Check.
  
• Tums? Check.
  
• Taboo? (a ridiculously fun card game) Check.
  
• Chocolate for the plane ride (I refuse to consume airplane food) Check.
  

And Yet...I'm not ready! I leave the day after tomorrow and I'm not ready to Go! By this I don't mean that I haven't finished all my shopping (which I actually haven't I still need to get a camera bag), I mean that I am NOT READY! When I think about leaving I want to bawl my eyes out then do a cart wheel* and run around Fort Langley screaming. I'm going to miss my family and friends profusely and don't know how I will cope without them. But to use a cliche (Sorry Mrs. Knittel), this is the opportunity of a lifetime and I will not let myself worry or become upset, I intend to enjoy every minute of this adventure and come back with a new understanding of travel, culture and (hopefully, but this may be asking too much) myself.

* Having no upper body strength and great fear of falling on my head, much as I would love to, I have never actually been able to carry out a cartwheel. 

Death Resulting in Baboon Feces

I'm writing in Starbucks, waiting for Lindsey to pick me up and take me to the Hindi Movie Store near her house so I can but some boot-legged Bollywood DVDs for the trip (about 1$ each!). I just paid a massive library fine, from all the books I took out when my leg was broken (most of them on travel & Africa ironically enough), which has set me back quite a bit with my Ghana money. My brain is going though the worst case scenarios if I'm not frugal with what cash I have. I can see myself running out of money and not being able to afford any bagged water, dehydrating, dying in my little cement hut and then, my roommate, disgusted by the smell of my decaying flesh, throws me into the street where my dry carcass is slowly eaten by the undernourished baboons they use to help sell street product. Now I know the likelihood of this happening is quite rare (25 out of 100 to be exact), most likely I will not be able to travel as much as I intended. But sometimes I think I would let a baboon nibble at me for a bit if it would mean than that I wouldn't miss out on any of the amazing experiences I'm sure to have while traveling around West Africa.

11 Days till take off.

Just recieved the news that Mum is now joining me on the trip to England so she can visit with Granny (who has been suffering for seizures and memory loss episodes), but really I think it is so I do not burden any of  my British family members with my wild Canadian ways and excessive luggage. Not that I mind, I havn't seen the De Little family for 4 years and hopefully this will make the five day reunion a little less akward. 

It's really starting to sink in that I'm leaving, that I'm not going to be able to wake up at 12pm, leisurely drink lattes at Wendels or watch endless episodes of Bones with Mum. Instead I'm going to be waking up at 5am, drinking bagged water and teaching the difference between a simile and a metaphor to my students (Note to self look up difference between a simile and a metaphor, I joke, I joke). And I couldn't be more excited!

At the moment my life is completely devoted to not forgetting anything I will need, down to the last Q-tip. I have been to Wal-mart & Best Buy more times this weeks than I have in my entire life, and I still don't feel prepared. It helps that the other UK volunteers and I are constantly communicating about everything under the sun. It all started about 2 weeks ago with a message from me asking if anyone wanted to show me around their lovely Island state, and has evolved into a whirlwind conversation about scrabble, swimsuits and the amount of weight of each of our suitcases (they all use kg to which can be quite baffling sometimes).  And of course because of the time difference this is all going on while I'm asleep, they have a whole conversation about Malaria Medication:

"What medication are you taking? Lariam. Whats Lariam? The medication I'm taking."

"How many months should I bring, 2 months or 3?"

"When do I start taking them? Do I start taking the medication now?" 

"What about the side-effects?"

and so on.

Meanwhile I am dozing off and hours later, after they have finished their discussion on the side effects of the prophylaxis, I add in any questions or quips I have to offer on the subject. But I digress; It has been very helpful to get many other volunteers insights into the matter of packing and what not, and also very therapeutic to have someone else to go crazy with and say "I'm Freaking Out!" "Man, I'm freaking out Too!" with. It's nice to know I'm not going through this insanity alone.

I'm Insane for Doing This.

It's hard to grasp the situation. Right now I am sitting in the antique armchair with the horrible floral pattern, my legs crossed underneath me and a cold latte from Wendels in my left hand*, and in exactly twenty days I will be flying into Ghana, my country of residence for the next five months, in order to teach at a co-ed boarding school.

How does such a drastic change occur? It's very simple...I'm insane.

Pending graduation I decided that I didn't want to go back to school right away, though Uvic was expecting me to show up in September my mini fridge and "I Heart 420" T-shirt in tow, and instead went completely mad and had the daft idea that I wanted to travel across the world; to the city of Takoradi and teach prepubescent Ghanaian children English and Music (though Ryan insists I should teach "Feminine Sexuality 101"). And now, it's really happening. 

The first five minutes, after I was told that I was accepted into the Lattitude program, were something resembling this.

 "Chloe, Stuart just e-mailed. Your going to Ghana in January!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

After this there was an excessive amount of high-fiving and  spinning around in circles, then I was able to calm down and read the information the Lattitude Canada coordinator had sent me.

I've been placed at Peter Piper's Learning Ways, a boarding school on the outskirts of Takoradi, near the coast of Ghana.  As soon as I discovered my placement I persistently harassed the two former volunteers via Facebook in order to uncover as much information about my future accommodation and pupils as I could: The school is 10 years old and  is still in the renovation process, it opened early because the previous building collapsed unexpectedly. and consists of approximately 1000 students, 200 of them boarders. I will be sharing a small cement hut in between the girls dorm & the boys washrooms (which should give my living-quarters a pleasant aroma). This building consists of a bedroom which is fitted with all the necessities, namely two beds, closets, a fridge and a broken TV; and a bathroom which I will share ONLY with my roommate. Ah Luxury!

So instead of spending my time studying philosophy amidst bunnies at Uvic, or taking an absurd amount of illegal substances with 2010 Olympian snowboarders I find myself  heading off Africa in order to experience something entirely new.

* The left hand has limited functions in Ghana as it is traditionally used for unsanitary acts.