This is long... Beware.
My flight out of JFK to London on British Airways was scheduled for 7:25pm. I left my house at 3pm and arrived at the airport around 4:30ish because of traffic, stopping to get gas, and getting my last taste of McDonalds for a year :( Actually, that should be a good thing because God knows I need to stop eating McDonalds. Anywho, we stood on line to check my baggage for about 15mins. When I got up to the counter for my bags to be weighed they were both overweight-which I expected. However, they were over the overweight limit. British Airways allows two checked bags for free if they are under 51 pounds. If they are between 51 and 70 pounds then you have to pay a $45 overweight charge. Well, my bags were 80 and 89 pounds. MESS! So the woman at the counter was very patient and just told me to unpack 30 pounds into another bag. I didn't freak out because I had brought an extra duffle bag for this very purpose. My thing was I didn't think I could fit 30lbs of stuff into this duffle bag. Yet, it worked out. I went straight for my heavy denim jeans and shorts, my sneakers, rain boots, and sandals and put them into the duffle bag. Then prayed before I reweighed my bags which came down to a whopping total of 70 and 69 pounds. God is good! I just made it and I'm happy I did because nothing else could fit into the duffle bag. Then another blessing: instead of the woman making me pay another $145 for the third bag fee she let me take the duffle bag as a carry on (technically, it was too big to be considered a carry on). So instead of paying $145 + $90 for the overweight bags I just paid $90. God is good and that woman is an angel because I was a mess. She was really patient with me and was looking out for me.
I made it through security just fine besides the fact that I almost left my passport and boarding pass on the counter. My mother didn't notice that part, Thank God. She would have been so worried about me and would have been thinking I was going to lose everything on the way to Ghana. But I'm here Ma, passport and all, so no worries! On my flight I sat in row 52 out of 53 so I was in the back which I didn't mind and I had an aisle seat which I also loved. Close to the bathroom, which is good because my bladder likes to suddenly attack me lol. I wore a Georgetown T-shirt so that Claire, the only other girl from Georgetown, would be able to notice me in London since we were on the same flight from London to Ghana. It just so happens that I sit right next to a man with a Harvard Grad school shirt on. Fifteen minutes after sitting next to him he asks me if I still go to Georgetown. I say “yes” and he says “hold on.” He reaches into his bag and hands me these tickets to Qdoba and says “I own the Qdoba on M Street, here are some free meal tickets.” Homeboy gave me like 10 of them. Ok so anyone who knows me, knows I love Qdoba and literally ate there at least once a week this summer. So I was lightweight excited. Lol. Too bad I can't use them though because I'll be in Ghana for a year. I'll just give them to Claire so she can use them when she goes back to the States in December.
Anywho I get to London safely and I have a friggin 7 hour layover. I arrived at 8am London time or 3am NYC time so I was beat. They didn't show the gate to where my flight to Accra, Ghana would be leaving from until 1:20 pm, just an hour before my flight. As a result, I didn't meet any of the other 15 people or so on the flight from my program until an hour before. I was lonely for six hours :(. But I read my Bible, I started the Book of Acts. All I'm gonna say is I was comforted in Christ and the Lord's Word. I slept a lot too. On the flight to Accra me and Claire were one seat apart so we just asked someone to switch. We just talked and watched movies. Oh yeah, the food on this flight was no where near as good as the food on the first flight. Even though they were both Brtish Airways flight. But big ups to our flight attendant who was so happy to see that we were Hoyas because he had just came from Georgetown like two days ago. Crazy right? But we flew for 7 hours and arrived safely. I froze to death on the flight but I also slept most of the way. That felt good!
AKWAABA! Welcome to Ghana. I have arrived. The air smelled different and the heat of Ghana hit me as soon as they opened the airplane doors. I went through customs with no problem. Then as I was trying to exit the airport it happened. I got hit on for the first time by a Ghanian. No more than 20 minutes after I stepped off the plane. He was one of those Customs guys. He looked at my Passport, looked me up and down, and said “Oh, you're an American? How are you?” I say “Yes, I'm fine. Thank you.” He cuts me off and says “yes, yes Very fine.” Then he looks at my Passport again and reads out loud my whole government name. “Tamika Nicole ____. (wink)Ahhhh. What sport do you play?” “What? What sport? No sport. I just study,” “ Oh, well your body, your frame looks like you do shot put. You should do shot put.” Ok so now at this point I'm reaching for my passport because I'm done with him winking, smiling awkwardly, reading my government name outloud, and examing my body frame. Lol. It may not sound like he was hitting on me from the words above but his body language and expressions said it all. I didn't sweat it though, I just kept it moving. Further up I was greeted by CIEE staff-which is the program I'm here in Ghana with. They led us out the airport and onto the bus which would take us to the hotel. While waiting to board the bus a Ghanian man comes up to me and asks me “Are you from a magazine? Jet? Essence? Ebony? You look like you are from a magazine.” “Oh, thank you, but no.” Lol. And then I try to carry my overweight luggage to the bus and I'm making it until there is this random step and then the hagglers come and try to take my luggage away and help me. Now, the CIEE staff informed us not to let anyone touch our luggage besides the CIEE staff because these people would be expecting money. So I tried to continue on and they just kept yelling at me “Mama Africa, you are very strong. Mama Africa is strong. But let your brothers help you.” So they dang near took my bags out my hand and pulled them no more than 10 feet to the bus even though I had already brought it across two streets myself. Then they wanted money. “Sorry, I don't have any money. Sorry.” I really didn't though. We boarded the bus and made it to the Coconut Grove Regency Hotel which is nicer than any American hotel I have been in. It's type baller. We are only going to be here until Tuesday for Orientation then we will be moving into our dorms at the University of Ghana. The hotel has WIFI. YES! Which is how I'm writing this and am currently on AIM and Facebook. I tried calling home but no one picked up then I tried calling Grandma and she didn't pick up. So I got on AIM and my little sister was on so I told her to call home for me and she did and my friend Diamond called my aunt for me. All is well and everyone knows I have arrived safely. We have to be up by 7am tomorrow for breakfast and then orientation at 8am. Oh yea, our program has 47 girls and 3 guys. That's crazy! I didn't take any pictures of the airport because taking out my camera would have just been too much work. I will take pictures here at the hotel though. I'll post those soon. Maybe sometime tomorrow. Oh yea, I don't think my Malaria medication is my best friend. It makes me feel funny, well nauseous, and it makes me have crazy dreams. I had a dream that I ate a bunny's legs on the plane. WEIRD. That could also be me though, not the medication lol. I only ate french fries, which Ghanians call potato chips and grilled chicken for dinner because I wasn't feeling too well. I passed the plantains and Jolof Rice because I didn't want to eat anything different while I was feeling nauseous. That could of turned out bad. I also had a Pepsi which comes in one of those snazzy glass bottles. I took a shower it was not hot. Which would not have been so bad if I didn't have the AC on blast in the room. As soon as I stepped out the shower I noticed there was a switch outside the bathroom, next to the bathroom light switch, that said “water heater”. Now I know for tomorrow's shower lol. The sockets here are also a little different. You have to actually flip a switch on the actual socket before energy will go into whatever is plugged into it. Good thing I figured that out or I would have just been thinking I bought the wrong plug adapter lol. But I think I need to sleep now. I love God. He has blessed me so much. I thank Him for this opportunity and my safe arrival. Keep me in your prayers, I'm keeping you all in mine.
Love,
Tamika Nicole
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