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Best Laid Plans (Part 2)

Posted by Fetch Fri, 23 May 2008 16:33:00 GMT

Best Laid Plans (Part 2)

Why Ghana?

a: in the same day, somebody makes a copy of your bank card and steals $2000 from your accounts while your cell phone conks out and you have no land line to use

b: your cell phone bill spikes to over $500 because you no longer have rollover minutes from your husband’s account

c: your dog requires a biopsy for a bump on her back

d: all of the above

Well folks, whether it was just a run of bad luck, a case of bad ju ju or the gods coming together to hit me with a can of whup ass, I was faced with choice d. In the months after my husband left, I felt like I was surrounded by those weird black-liquidy spirits that took down the bad characters in “Ghost”. Had I been approached by a cult in those days, I probably would’ve asked them to lead the way to the compound. All I wanted was to escape somewhere and dive head first into the sand. To quiet my brain a bit I began contemplating where I could go. My family had a big trip planned but that was planned with my husband in mind and was somewhere I’d been with him before. Because of that, I knew I’d feel like he was still there – a hologram of him – following me around, reminding me that his actual body was decidedly absent.

1. Giving myself enough time to save money

2. Feeling at ease with going by myself

3. Trying to find something that I’d always wanted to do but had never had the chance when having to compromise with someone else.

First an Earthwatch vacation popped into my head. I’d always wanted to do one and I figured that, since you were with a group of volunteers, traveling alone wouldn’t really be an issue. They’re an environmental organization that offers volunteer vacations in which you learn and do work for any number of different projects. You can search for butterflies in Vietnam, do marine research on a boat in Greece, work on an animal preserve in Africa, etc. You are limited only by your finances and your interests. My personal idea was to try and become one with the dolphins. Me and Flipper, coasting the waters in Greece… Can a human marry a dolphin?

Then I found an organization called Globe Aware. They too, offer volunteer vacations but with a more Peace Corp-type bend to the work. (By the way, in a moment of utter confusion I looked into the Peace Corp but then realized that two years without my dog would make me feel like my left arm was cut off.) Their projects span the world and in their list of destinations was Ghana. I’d always wanted to go to Africa and the idea of going half-way around the world to either teach or assist in building much needed facilities (ASSIST being the operative word), really excited me. Their vacations are only a week long so it wouldn’t require too much time off of work, and if I went in August I’d have plenty of time to save (provided I never set foot into any clothing stores in said time frame). Globe Aware addresses lone female travelers on their website and they also focus on safety and security. I was in. All of my criteria were being met: Time to save: Yes Could go by myself: Yes Could do something I’d always wanted to do: Yes, Yes, Yes.

I was off…