Saturday at the Pool

Today is Saturday, March 24th and my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Ma! I went to bed last night at about 11pm and woke up this morning at 9:10am. That is the longest I have slept in a long, long time. I guess my body was really tired. I probably could have slept longer because the reason I got up was from a knock at my door to clean my room. I forgot to put the "do not disturb" sign on my door. Duh! I was actually glad she woke me up because I might have missed breakfast.

Breakfast for me was just a lot of bread products because my stomach has been hurting since about 8pm last night. I'm okay just ate something that didn't agree with me. I'm drinking lots of water so I don't get dehydrated if you know what I mean. Lunch was also a Clif Bar because I was nervous to eat anything else. I brought Clif and Luna bars to eat every day :)

This morning there was a bride and groom taking pictures around the hotel. It was neat. The bride was amazing in a typicaly wedding dress and the mom (I think) was dressed in this beautiful African Dress with a big, beautiful head piece. I wish I had my camera. I wanted to sneak a pic.:)

I went to the pool today and did a little reading and work. It was nice. The pool is really beautiful. Here is a pic (at Becs' request):

As I was sitting by the pool I was thinking how disappointing it was that there are no lizards here. At the last hotel I stayed at (La Palm) I saw several walking around the pool. Not to be out done by the La Palm lizards, a Labadi Beach lizard showed it's face as I was leaving the pool.

Tonight I have been invited to have dinner at a work colleague's house. She invited me over at 6pm and I plan to take a cab. Don't worry Ma, I asked the driver who has been taking me around during the work week if it was safe and he said "yes" and it should cost about $3.

My hotel has it's own private area on the beach as well. It's actually pretty nice. There is a bit more litter than I care to see but its not too bad and there are little sand colored crabs running around on the beach...like the ones we saw at Virginia Beach.

Tomorrow I plan to work more - maybe go to the pool and maybe tomorrow I will go to Global Mamas, the shop Rebecca recommended. Even if I don't go tomorrow I will definately go sometime next week. On Thursday, I am going to Cape Coast to visit staff at the University and I think there is a shop their too.

That's about it for Saturday. Still looking forward to getting home!

In Ghana (yes, again)

So my Ma asked if I would blog while I was away and I couldn't refuse. I know she is less interested in what I am doing than just wanting to know that I am safe. How could I refuse that?

So I left DC yesterday Tuesday, March 20 at 11pm (EST) and arrived in Accra, Ghana at 2:30pm (Ghana time) on Wednesday, March 21. As most of you know we just arrived home on Sunday morning from a week long cruise in the Caribbean which was too fab! Yes, I am a little crazy. I will try to put some pictures on the blog of our trip when I get home. Anyhoo, I had enough miles to upgrade my ticket to business class which made my trip a bazillion times betters. There really aren't words to describe how much better business class is on an overnight 12 hour plane ride. It's just so much more civilized. I could actually recline to sleeping position and slept about 6 hours on the plane. I NEVER sleep on planes. I'm dreading the plane ride home because I don't have enough miles to upgrade on the way back. Boo, sad.

It's 90 degrees here and humid. They will start their rainy season in about a month. The hotel I'm staying at is nice but I haven't really got to explore yet because I have so much darn work to do. I ate dinner in my room: grilled spicy chicken with jollof rice and have been working since I got here. The power went out while I was eating for about 40 seconds and went off while I typing but this time it was out for about 20-30 minutes. Ugh! I hate that part.

I have to say...getting a little tired of the work trips, especially the international travel. Not sure what i'm going to do about that right now. My poor little guys were in tears when I left. I miss them so much too (and my big guy).

Here is my room:

 

Bathroom

 Room 1

 Room 2

It is a much, much nicer room than the hotel I stayed at last time.

Good night!

Addicted to two new TV shows

For Christmas I got the Nook Tablet. I love it so far. I got it as an early Christmas present so that I could take it on my trip to Africa. In Africa, I primarily used it as a reader. I finished The Book Thief which I highly recommend and started to reread the Twilight books. I know, I know...but sometimes you just want a book you can breeze through without thinking, especially on an airplane.

Yesterday, I started playing a little bit more with the Netflix streaming and put a few shows in my instant queue:
Coupling (a British comedy they tried to make in the US but it flopped-it definately was not "the next friends")
My Boys (an American comedy, started in 2006, that didn't do great but I really like it)
Gavin and Stacey (a British comedy that Thotlady turned me on to...really funny...like a cross between Friends and Absolutely Fabulous--not sure if Thotlady would agree)

The other show that I added which I have never watched before is Vampire Diaries. I started with the first episode of season one last night. I am not into Vampires. Sure, I love the Twilight trilogy but that is pretty much the extent of my Vampire show watching. I don't watch movies about Vampires (unless it includes Vampires with the last name of Cullen) or TV shows (no Buffy for me) but I've heard this series was good so I decided to try it.

I'm addicted. But I'm also afraid. Most people who know me from when I was young know that I am a bit of a fraidy cat. I never watched scarey movies with my mom and Heather. Never read scarey books. Sorry Mom, I will never read a Steven King novel. So when I started watching Vampire Diaries last night after the kids went to bed, I watched two episodes and got a little scared and had to turn it off even though I was so tempted to continue. I had to watch Coupling and My Boys to lower my anxiety but I'm still hooked! I'm still a little scared but totally hooked!

At the same time, Aidan and Jason got hooked on a new TV show too. You'll never guess what it is. Wait for it....wait for it...

Finding Bigfoot (on Animal Planet)

They are totally addicted too. I think it might scare Aidan a little but he still wants to watch it. It's like he knows he shouldn't but he can't stop. It is a show about people who search all over the US for Bigfoot. Jason loves Animal Planet so of course he loves it too. I think it's hilarious and they don't like it when I tease them about the existence of Bigfoot, the sounds apparently Bigfoot makes, or the clues that lead people to believe he exists. Ha!

So I wanted to know what you think about Vampires and Bigfoot. Check out the two polls on the right of the blog.

P.S. If you're wondering about Leo, he's not into Bigfoot or Vampires. He loves Wii Go Vacation. He's been snowmobiling, expanding his Villa, skateboarding, snowboarding and exploring.

Happy New Year!

2012. Seems impossible.






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Winding Down

Tomorrow we leave for the good ol' USA. Finally! I can't wait to see my boys! All three of them.

We leave at 11:15pm on a direct flight to DC. We finished our last set of meetings today. Finally no presentations. Afterward we had a very late lunch at the hotel restaurant situated on the water. I had grilled tilapia (the whole fish, head and all!), jolof rice and a bitter lemon drink. It was fantastic.

Here is me (no, I'm not drunk-just a bad picture)


A view of the beach from one of the hotel restuarants



A little lunch friend (these lizards like to hang at the pool too)



See/talk to you soon!

Love you!

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Ghana

We left Dakar at 3 am this morning and we arrived in Accra Ghana at 8 am. The hotel we are staying in is modest but there is a pool and it is on the ocean.

We had a very busy weekend visiting villages where the whole village (at least 40 people) came to meet us. It's overwhelming and undeserved but it's interesting. These villages farm for their own consumption and now farm crops to sell. They farm maize (corn), millet, peanuts, and some vegetables like peppers, cabbage and lettuce. The women are amazing and do everything from farming, caring for children, cooking, cleaning, and they are learning to read and write. And I thought I was busy. Hardly.

My feet are covered in mosquito bites and my stomach is off and on quesy but not bad. Others have had more severe stomach issues. Cross my fingers I will remain well.

From Dakar to Accra via Banjul (the Gambia - yes, Jason it is a country) we flew Air Nigeria. That is my first and last time flying that airline.

We are here until Friday and I can't wait to go home. I wish it was today.

Live and miss you!

Hotel in Accra



My favorite tree in Senegal, baobab tree-they make candy and drinks from it.



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Senegal

We left Kenya on Wednesday for Senegal. I really saw nothing of Kenya but my hotel which was really great. We stayed at Tribe Hotel if you want to google it.

I think Senegal might just be my very favorite place in Africa. Here is our hotel and view from my room.





Leo and Aidan you would love it here at the hotel! The pool is awesome. I think the reason I like Senegal so much because it's on the water. I was feeling a little tired and down on the way here but being by the water was just the uplift I needed.

My room is terrific. Obviously the view, I have 1.5 baths, it's big, and they brought me a mid-day snack of water, fresh fruit and some like applesauce but with mire exotic fruits.

On Thursday we went to a market and it was interesting for about 20 minutes and then it became exhausting. There are people everywhere trying to get you to buy their goods. They would say 'pretty lady, come and look in my shop', 'looking is free, you come here', 'you promised to look in my shop', 'i give you good price'...and at the end of the day they didn't want to give a foreigner a good price and i didn't buy a thing. i just couldn't take it anymore.

Tomorrow we go outside of Dakar to visit some farms and then we leave Dakar at sunday night/Monday morning. All i can say is Mon Dieu.

Love to all

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