February 10, 2011 2:53 GMT

Hey Everyone!
So, today is our last day in Ghana. We are departing for South Africa in a few hours... and should get there in 6 days. I am sad to say good bye to this amazing country, and will miss the people here very much. Since my last post I have been pretty busy exploring Ghana. On tuesday, Meghan and I were signed up for Habitat for Humanity, which was amazing. I am so glad I signed up for this trip because it was a really great experience to be able to compare the two habitat projects from the US- which i've done previously and now Ghana.  We woke up for the 7am trip time and had about a 3 hour trip to the little town we were working in. The traveling, although long, was not too painful; somehow Meghan and I were able to sleep through the majority of the drive.  Once we got to the site, we were split into four groups.  My group actually got the most excited job...in my opinion I guess. We spackled a cement/mortar/mudlike substance on the interior walls of a house. It was not as easy as it sounded, because it was very hard to get the mud to stay on the wall- you had to throw the mud stuff at the wall really fast in order for it to stay. For some reason (maybe because construction and house work runs in my blood) I picked it up really fast and my wall looked pretty good- Mom and Griffin, you'd be proud. After about 2 and a half hours of work... and being covered in dirt and mud we took a break for lunch and bought the cool Ghana Habitat shirts. It ended up being pretty late before we finished lunch, so we weren't able to help out anymore... so we ended up walking back to the bus. Although, I think it was the hottest day I've ever experienced outside... I couldn't have been happier to have helped out that day. We took the bus back and 3 hours later arrived back at the ship. Luckily- we were able to take showers right before the shut off the water for 24 hours (a lot of people who didn't make it back from their trips on time... couldn't shower- ship was a gross mess of sweaty people). That night, we went to the little bar across from the ship and I went with a bunch of people later to a local bar in town called Ocean Bar. It was an interesting place to say the least. I'm pretty sure it is the local's whore house or something because their were some real interestingly dressed women and some old white men... yaaa. odd.  
        Anyway that night ended shortly because I still hadn't exchanged my money (this is day 3 in ghana- I know... fail) and they wouldnt take my american cash.  I went back with a few people pretty early which was probably for the best. On wednesday- yesterday me and meghan went into the town with a few other girls to explore and shop a bit. We bought some stamps at the post office and finally exchange our money. The currency here is about 1: 1.4 (CDs or Cities- something along those lines). We went to the circle market in the center of town because the other girls wanted to buy fabric to have dresses made.  I bought a bible off a street vender- because I wanted one with gold pages. Anyway in the circle market... i thought i was going to have an anxiety attack because litterally everyone yells at you to buy their bracelets and worse- bush meat. It smelled soooooo horrible too and I have a dog like sense of smell so I thought I was going to get sick... and then some women takes her bush meat (which i believe was a smoked squirel) and she hits me on the arm with it and i think I just about lost it. So I had to get out of their ASAP.  We finally decided it wasn't the place for us tourists and we decided to go find some kind of craft market.  We met this guy named Cofi and he showed us where to go.  He told me something really interesting about the names of people in Ghana.  People are named based on what day they are born. Sooo all people born on a Friday are named Cofi... and each day of the week is different. I asked him what his teachers called him in school and he told me all the teachers use their last names as well.
        We departed Cofi and Meghan and I walked back to the ship. We did a little shopping at the market outside of the ship and I bought a few wooden carvings and some tshirts.  We then went back to the boat for lunch and met up people and decided to check out the beach. We went to the beach called Africa- which was perfect. The water was amazing and the weather was perfect. After a few hours 3 of us went to the hotel next to the beach and used their wifi to get on the internet. We then head back to the ship for dinner and took naps before we headed next door again to hang out for a little.  Maggi came back around 1am from her trip... so after she got back I fell asleep.
        Today I haven't done very much.  Pretty much just shopped for more nick nacks and now I'm journaling and about to take another nap before we depart.  I know lame last day.... but i needed a day.

Anyway thats all for now.  Hope you are all doing well as always

Miss you all... and hope winter isn't gettiing the best of you

Ciao....
Keira