It is 4 am and I am back in Rochester. I can’t sleep. That’s OK because all my belongings smell like smoke from the fires in Ghana and I really need to do laundry.
Most of the team was able to adjust to the time difference in Ghana, but some especially Nate and Danielle, would wake up at 2 or 3 am. No one could tell because they were fresh and alert all day and stayed up pretty late at night. Pretty impressive. Stacie and I had no trouble sleeping except the last night. She thinks we were both dehydrated and a little nervous we would be late for our 6 am pick up time. Good thing we all made it out early for it took us 2 hours to go about 20 miles to the airport. Traffic was horrendous. For an hour we stood in place and moved maybe 1 mile 30mins. Once we got past the worst, Mr. Houdo got us to the airport at 8:40. Then we waited in lines.
Line Dancing
One line at customs to check our passports and mark our bags with chalk. No one is sure what the chalk signified since no one checked for it later.
Another line to weigh our bags.
A third line to check our itineraries and passports (again).
Fourth line at Check- in to weigh our bags AGAIN and take our passports after issuing a baggage tag.
A fifth line to search thru our luggage.
A sixth line to wait for the return of our passports and obtain our boarding passes (which incidentally does not happen at the “Check-in” desk- very Ghanaian).
A seventh line for customs where they take our declaration forms and check and stamp our passports (third time).
An eighth line for carry on baggage check and security. They do not let women take off their belts so I beeped and got padded down.
An ninth line where they check our passports for a fourth time and our boarding passes again.
And finally a tenth line where they search our carry on (even after it has been x-rayed) and physically pad everyone down (my second time).
All the IVU bins went thru without any problem and I don’t think they were padded down once.
To the Plane
We all got thru the ten lines and even had time to spend the last of our cedis in duty free. I was able to score on some of that hot pepper sauce. I found the correct spelling is Shito (the name amuses Stacie to no end). Luckily the glass jar did not break in transit. Yum smoke and pepper sauce on my clothes.
Speaking of the smell of smoke. Dr Bellinger said he was almost knocked out when he opened the overhead compartment when we arrived at JFK. The smell of Ghana smoke was overwhelming and may permanently etched onto his nose he thinks.
In JFK- a rush to get Brent and Stacie to their gate for take off and all the bins out. Luckily they were checked all the way thru. In Accra my check in person could not figure out how to code Rochester and was only going to check me thru to JFK. Luckily I gave her the airport code and she checked it thru or I would haven been delayed in JFK.
Charles stopped at Dunkin Donuts and four other people stopped at Starbucks when we hit the terminal. Our first coffee in 12 days. It will surprise all my friends that I was not one of them. I was feeling pretty hypoglycemic and needed real food before any coffee. And I don’t support Starbucks. But I assure you now at 5 am I have an Americano next to me as I type this. It is 18 degrees- a day ago I was sweating in 85 degree weather.
I did not make it home until the wee hours of Tuesday am and after about 2 hours of sleep I was up at 4 am. When I got home I put my smoky bag in the laundry room and went right up to see my daughter who was asleep soundly in her crib. She looks bigger than when I left. Sometimes I would see a little girl or baby at the hospital that would remind me of her. I had pictures of her, but nothing compares to seeing and holding her.
It was a great trip but it is good to be home.
~Stephanya Shear
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