Beaching it in Ghana, back to the USA, lessons learned in Africa

We got back to Ghana and it was sooo good to hear English again. We had to barter for a taxi. Janine was so fed up with the bartering system at this time she lost it. She said that she knew how "these people" were because she had worked in Katrina. Both Julia and I tried to explain to her that this is just how the system works and she was sick and tired of feeling ripped off. We went to the bus station to go to the beach and we finally had cell phone service. She walked away from us and just cried on the phone. She was probably expressing her frustration about Africa and Julia and I to her parents. She was entitled to this given that this was her first trip out of the country and it was so dang intense. We got on the bus and made it to the closest town to the resort. We had to arrange another taxi to take us to the resort and they told us $20. Janine wasn't going to take it. After about a half and hour of negociating with other taxis we finally took it. She felt insulted by the driver and was crying again. We finally realized how out of the way and how horrible the road was that we realized that it was a fair price. The resort was full and so we ended up sleeping in tents on the beach. It was a perfect place to de-stress and relax. Janine met a lot of knew friends and I read my book on the beach. We went swimming and got sun burned...it was what we needed. It was so romantic on the beach that Julia asked me what I thought about two friends making out if that would be awkward afterwards. A little shocked because I think that kissing causes emotions to flow just like saliva told her that it was probably better that we didn't. Ironically Julia and I been kind of physical throughout the end of the trip and the idea of kissing her went through my head before she brought it up. We stayed 2 nights at the beach with all of the other Europeans who were in Ghana. We went home and I called my parents on the way back to Accra. They had recieved sporatic emails and I knew they were probably worried as they usually do. It had been an adventure of a trip. I was sad to leave but it always feels good to come home.

These are just a couple of thoughts that I learned while I was in Africa that I wrote along the journey:
You can't control everything in life, sometimes you have to go with the flow if you are powerless in the situation.
It is better to have less expectations and treat every good thing in life as a gift.
It is important to greet people
Making friends is a good survival tool. People you can trust will help you through difficult situations
Everyone should be vulnerable sometimes to see who you really are and know what it is like when you have no control
It is scary to be in situations where you if you get hurt and there is no way to get help
It is easy to judge and make you feel better than others, but it makes you unhappy. it is just as easy to laugh at the situation and relax. Realize we are all human