Day 57

This morning we woke up at 6 and packed up our stuff before walking to the bus station. The bus was full so we had to wait about an hour for the next one. We got on the bus at 7 and I sat in the aisle seat with Jackie in the middle and Cassie on the window. Lauren sat in the same row as us but on the other side next to a fat lady. I sat in the bus and waited for us to leave. I didn’t want to sleep until we were actually driving so I tried really hard to stay awake even though I was exhausted. This man stepped on the bus and gave a very exuberant prayer before we were off around 8. I tried to sleep most of the way but it was too bumpy I just rested my eyes for the two hours. We took a few pit stops along the way where people just went to the bathroom in the open. We reached our halfway pit stop point around 11 and I got off with Cassie while Jackie and Lauren stayed on the bus to watch the bags. Cassie had to go to the bathroom so I walked over to guard the view of her while the women just went to the bathroom with no barrier. Cassie was walking behind a tree but she slipped a fell getting her whole entire backside muddy. We walked back to the bus to find food but there wasn’t anything appealing. I ended up buying half a loaf of bread to split. Jackie had bought a small bunch of bananas and shared them with the rest of us. I decided sleeping was useless so I got out my scriptures and read a lot in Alma. Once we finally arrived in Kumasi I got off and carried all of my stuff to the LONG journey to Barclays. I had 2 heavy backpacks that might have weigh as much as me, and a very heavy stuffed purse. We walked for at least 30 minutes through the hospital and to the bank. I was falling behind most of the walk just struggling to keep walking. Once we finally arrived to the bank I was tired, sore, and hungry. I pulled out money, went to the bathroom, and made our way to the immigration office. This was another 20-minute walk that I wasn’t up for. Once we got to the small stuffy immigration office we heard that they were on break so we had to wait until 2. As we sat and waited there was a ratio of about 4 workers to customers. They were about just 40 different workers just standing outside 7 or 8 offices. A man gave us our VISA renewal forms that we filled out and waited for the break to finally finish. Around 2:00 Jackie and Cassie went into the office first but came back out saying that we needed to go to the Internet Café to print out our flight itinerary. We were all on edge because we hadn’t had food all day and didn’t get much sleep last night. We made the 10-minute walk with King to the Internet café just next to the post office. The place was so busy but we did run into a lot of missionaries there. The computers were too congested so we had to wait to use one of the open computers. While we waited we talked to the missionaries. They were from New Zealand, Colorado, and Nigeria. We walked back to the VISA office and waited for 20 minutes to be seen again. I walked into the room and the VISA office lady was a total brat and refused to actually speak to me. She would only speak through her partner and was being such a brat I didn’t even have time for her. We had to get photo copies made of our VISA forms and sweet King could see that we weren’t up to do any of it so he made them for us. We got our 30-day extension for 40 cedi like we originally planned. So after talking about where to eat we decided that we wanted actual food so we went to Vic Baboos. I ordered a chicken sandwich and an orange mango gingerale juice. I read Hunger Games while I waited for my dinner. When I got my dinner it was literally a chicken nugget on a huge piece of bread with a small tomatoe and piece of lettuce. I didn’t like what I had just ordered so I re-ordered the grilled cheese omelet that Jackie got. I have had the worst luck with sandwiches on this trip. We walked to the tro tro station and got on without any troubles. We only waited less than 10 minutes before we were off. Jackie and I sat next to eachother and got to talk about our Southern roots. We talked about rodeo, cowgirl boots, hats, country music, and even switched some music between us. This was one of the few bonding moments I’ve had with Jackie that makes me love her. The rest of the time I read my scriptures and tried to sleep for the ride. We were in Agona before I knew it. King grabbed Cassie’s and my arm to sweetly thank us for the trip. As soon as we got home we greeted Grace and Matilda came out to give me a big hug. I am going to miss Matilda so much. I made hot Milo once I unpacked and typed notes.