Back in Ghana and off to Morocco

Just sending a quick note to say that I am back in English speaking Ghana after a wonderful 20 hour bus ride. It wasn't too bad except that I like to have my space and have no one touch me while I sleep and Pete is a bigger guy and his body and legs would cross the seat division line. "Line of Death" from car rides growing up has taught me the importance of boundries which are not always possible. It was a lot better than standing and the small spaces of the other buses. Crossing the border was interesting also. I guess the embassy gave me a "wrong visa"because they "undercharged me" and made it for two weeks instead of two days for a transient visa. The border patrol shortened my visa to 4 days which is more than sufficient time for me, but it was pretty frustrating. I asked them if they were on the same system as the embassy and they said yes but that the embassy "does things wrong." The ironic thing is that I asked the embassy if I could get a transient visa at the border and they said that they didn't know because they weren't the same system. I just laughed and learned that you just have to except things here in Africa because somethings will never make sense to me.Our last night in Ouagadougou was great. Our friends took us out to buy some cool art which they had at their store. We got some cool bougulas which they had gone to Mali to get. They were asking us to pay $30 for them and I showed them that I only had $20 left and that I still had to eat and get to the bus station. Rasmane said that they would feed us, we could stay at his house, and that they would take us to the bus station on their motorbikes. Oasman was pretty bummed because he said that he only made a $2 profit. They were both pretty sincere. We had already paid for the hotel and Pete paid for the taxi to the bus station (because there was no way that we would not have tipped over with our huge back packs on those motor bikes), but I left Burkina Faso with no cifas (I still had dollars and some ghanian money). That night we went back to their neighborhood and sat on their porch and talked. They made some sweet tea with charcoal and some rusty kettles. I had to explain that I didn't drink tea. Rasmane joked it was because doctors would be too jittery if they drank coffee, tea and dangerous if they smoked and drank alcohol. Pete however had tea and he drinks and so I think that it was Rasmane's way of making me feel comfortable when I had to refuse. It was interesting because later that night we were talking about what we liked about Africa and I was telling them about goat meat (which is unclean to eat for Muslims). I thought that Mormons and Muslims are a pretty funny match. We could have a whole meal together where the Mormons would eat all fo the food and the Muslims would drink all of the drink. I had to laugh at religion at that point because coffee, tea, and tobacco were all horrible things in my eyes but the norm in his, and shellfish, goat and pork were everyday for me. I think one of my best memories from Africa will be sitting on that front porch watching the sunset and laughing with these guys. I also had to laugh because one of the things that they really wanted to show us was that they got MTV, which I had no clue what any of the shows were. So we went to their neighbor's place that had set up a "movie theater" type place with a TV and wooden benches and a dirt floor. They had a chalk board of what shows they were going to watch and people would come. It was cable from France. I wondered how it was to watch commercials for things that they would never see or could ever afford. It was great and actually pretty sad to say goodbye to those guys even though we had only known them a couple of days and had a language barrier, we got to be pretty good friends during the 18 hours we spent with them.Africa has been quite an adventure. Even though I know Spain will be awesome, I am sad that I didn't spend the next couple of weeks here. I really hope that I can make it back someday. I also am happy that I could go while I am young because I think the friendships are the best part, and people my age are the ones with the most time because of no kids and flexible jobs (when I asked people about marriage ages here they said that for men it is usually in thier 30's so that they can afford a family, but the girls are usually 20) and the ones traveling. I also had to think about the importance of trusting people, even though you might get ripped off now and then, you can really miss out on some awesome experiences if you don't allow people into your life. I will probably write again in Spain because I have a day by myself there and I will have to tell about Morocco. Good luck and keep the emails coming as I will. Another side note, we are staying with one of the med students parents who are serving as medical missionaries here and I am washing my extremely dirty and oily clothes, so Paul doesn't need to bring me anything but Costco trailmix.