Women in Progress

The final Chapter!

We have been back for a while and I know you have all been waiting on our final updates but we had to adjust back to life very quickly.

Our last week at Women in Progress was fast and furious! There was so much left to do and such a short time to do it. Our main focus was getting a handle on the inventory there in the Ghana office. There was such more product that was getting lost in the shuffle. Tiffany and I dove in with our sleeves rolled up. We spent two entire days with the women counting everything that looked like it could be sold and throwing out what was waste. At the present time they were merely keeping track of those items that made it to the store front and nothing that was being housed in back. We were up to our eyeballs in babies dresses, saraongs, and other miscellaneous batiked items. We designed more store front displayed to be built to make better use of the space they have. Tiffany was spending the evening working on the database to track their free trade certification, and I was trying to optimize the long lead supplies. Every morning we arrived first and left just in time to make dinner over at Ellies.

Since we realized that we only had a short time left there were things that Tiffany and I wanted to take advantage of before we headed out. Mostly that meant shopping and eating! We had been confined to one tiny bag on our backpacking trip but now we had so much more room to work with for our way home. We were shopping fools our last few days. If you can believe it we made it home without having to buy a second bag for all our goodies.

We spent our last nights with the other volunteer girls. Mostly we just enjoyed Ellie's wonderful Ghanaian dishes over a gin and tonic. Honestly there was very little to report since our days were stacked full of finishing our volunteer projects.

The day arrived for us to head back to Accra to catch our flight. Since it was a late night flight on sunday we had the luxury to take our time. Mid afternoon we hop in Renae's car and make the drive. A leisurely dinner was spent at a place that looked like a warped version on McDonald that served amazing garlic chicken. A drink at the bar down the street and then a quick stop at the Accra apartment to get one last cold shower in before boarding the plane for the long flight. Man there was nothing that was more dreamed about than a hot shower.

Tiff and I got to the airport just in time to stand in line for what seemed like an eternity. Then once we arrived at the gate the agent took our boarding passes and told us to wait to the side. Talk about unnerving. We were clumped together with the other obrunis....no one had any idea what was happening but with our travels we had learned....don't fret...just go with it.

Finally about midnight (an hour late) we board and head off to London. A rather uneventful flight we get to Heathrow just in time for breakfast. Now for any of you who have yet to enjoy a traditional British breakfast....it is nothing to write home about. We walked all the way to the other terminal at 9am to see if the sushi bar was open to no avail. Oh well....egg omlet and baked beans it is. At least we put to good use the 15 british pounds for some reason had been burning a whole in my wallet for three years.

We said our goodbyes at the gate and we each went our seperate ways. A bit battered I arrived to Los Angeles at about 5:30pm. Without a cell phone to contact friends I just hopped on the shuttle bus to get home. The van was rather empty and since I had been so used to not listening to the conversation around me it was most of the ride when I realized that the driver and his friend were speaking in Twi! I asked and replied that the driver was from Kumasi and his friend was from Accra!!! What are the odds. By the end of the drive he was inviting me to dinner at his house and telling me where to get Fufu in LA! What a small world. And I promised to send Tiffany fufu powder once she heard the story.

Since I have been back life has been a blur. Adjusting to the hustle and bustle is always hard after traveling and it seems that this arrival home has hit in full force. School, work, and the unending amount of laundry that seem to be piling up keep me busy. (And you all know about me and laundry!) Everyone here was thankful for the treats I brought home. I even make ground nut soup for the gang on my roommate's birthday (note....use 1/4th the amount of cayanne pepper they call for!!!)

Tiffany and I will be sending out volunteer story to women in progress so they can post it on their website. Keep posted and I will tell you when it is up.

posted by thecattmarvin @