And so it begins... Ghana bound.

I woke up at 6:30 am and unable to fall back to sleep I lay in bed until my roommate Alex’s group, The Gambia, was ready to leave for the airport at around 8:00 am. After Alex left I got up and showered before heading to the commuter lounge to grab breakfast. I bought a bagel and coffee and took it back to the dorm so Megan, Sarahann and I could do our laundry before everyone else got up and wanted to use the washers too. After putting our wash in the washer Megan and I headed downstairs to register our travelers insurance and register our trips with the State Department’s website. At 9:30 am I had my pre-trip individual meeting with Alex Shirreffs (my group leader) to discuss my expectations of the trip for myself, for the group and of Alex. I then picked up my laundry from the dryer and went back to my room to pack my bags. After I puzzled my backpack back together and got everything to fit I headed out to find a postal box on campus to mail a letter to my friend Alex (from Illinois) and an envelope of stuff from orientation home to myself. It was still pouring rain at this point and I was soaked upon returning. Once back at the dorm I headed up to the third floor (where there was a secret computer) to check my email one last time and found my financial aid for MSUM for next year finally posted and leaving me with a pretty big decision to make. Peter who is also in my group then came in and still needed to register his insurance so I let him take the computer and headed to my dorm room to gather my stuff and take it downstairs. Both of the OCA groups heading to Ghana for the summer departed around 1:00 pm with Ghana II (I’m Ghana I) leaving a little before my group. We hit a bit of traffic on the way to JFK airport but it wasn’t too bad and once there we found the lines rather short to check in and check our baggage. After checking in and going through security I headed to find something to eat for lunch and call my sister. I ended up paying a lot for a piece of spinach quiche and a bottle of mango Snapple juice, which I ate while talking to my sister as we waited to board. Our plane left JFK on time and was rather uneventful for the first leg to Frankfort, Germany. We ate dinner, watched a movie and then ate breakfast before landing in Frankfort around 5:30 am Frankfort time. After landing in Germany we found our gate for our departure to Lagos, Nigeria/Accra and then caught up on rest while we waited as we had a 5-hour layover.