Ashley Shira’s Blog

Day Thirty

     Day Thirty This morning Kim, Leigh Ann, ChiChi, Mike, Andrew and I got up very early so we could see the sunrise on the beach. David came over at 5:15 am and drove us in the van to Labadie Beach.  We found some chairs to sit in and waited for the sun to come up.  Sadly, it was very cloudy and we didn’t see the sun until about 6:30 am and the usual beautiful colors of the sunrise were hidden by all the clouds. We still had a good time just people watching.  We also got to see some baby sea turtles.  They had hatched the night before but were unable to find their way to the ocean due to the echo of the waves off the buildings on the beach so one of the men working at the restaurant on the beach scooped them up in a bucket and took them to the ocean.  It was really cool. When the sun was finally out, we settled in to soak up whatever sun we could on our last day.  Andrew helped some boys pull in their fishing nets which was quite interesting.  We stayed on the beach until about 11am then walked just down the road to La Palm Beach Hotel for some lunch.  When we finished, we piled in a taxi (for the last time) and headed back to Manna.  We had the taxi driver drop Kim and I off at Gilbert’s wife’s (we never did find out her name) shop so we could pick up our dresses.  We were cutting it close on time because the wedding started at 1pm but we really wanted to get our dresses so we could wear them to the wedding.  She had us try them on and one of mine was too big and she insisted on taking it in right then.  After she was satisfied with the way they fit, she ironed and packaged them for us.  Right before we left we gave her the baby gift we purchased for her and she was very excited.  She wants us to come back and visit so we can see their sweet baby girl….I hope we can! We got back to the house just in time to take the fastest showers ever, throw on some makeup, pull up our hair, put on our dresses, and walk to the church.  We got there in plenty of time….nothing in Ghana starts on time.  The wedding was beautiful.  It was very “American” but did have a few African parts.  It was very sweet that we saw a wedding on Valentine’s Day.  We were sad that there was no dancing at the reception, but we did enjoy some minerals and Ghanaian pastries.  When we finished our treats we all walked back to the house and Kim and I headed to our room to pack.  The boys were being very secretive and weird (and they had been for the past two days) so when we were done packing we just hung out in the living room with the girls. Andrew soon came to join us and he told us that Mike and Adam were taking a nap.  After about an hour, I heard some noise in the kitchen and headed in to see what it was.  Before I could get there, I was stopped by Andrew and Adam both yelling for me to stay out of the kitchen! Then a little while later Junior showed up at the house with some bags and took them in the kitchen.  He wouldn’t tell us what was going on! He did say that he wanted Kim and I to call him later so we could hang out with him and Linda for a while on our last night.  At about 7:30pm the power went out and we noticed candle light from the dining room…the plot thickens! Thirty minutes later the guys came into the living room and asked all the girls to join them in the dining room.  We were amazed at what we saw….they cooked us a candlelight dinner for Valentine’s Day…complete with background music provided by Adam’s ipod.  It was so cute!! They made spaghetti and garlic bread that was fabulous.  They even had sparkling juice and ice cream for dessert!  The most adorable thing were the flowers on the table.  They couldn’t find fresh flowers for us, so they drew each of us a picture of flowers and taped them in front of our place at the table.  Sorry to all the other men in the world, but the bar has been raised!! I would have been impressed if they had done all that at home, but it was even more impressive that they pulled it off in Africa! After our beautiful dinner, Kim and I walked over to Junior and Linda’s apartment to say goodbye.  We are going to miss them so much! When we got back to the house we sat around the table with everyone and talked for a few hours then it was time for bed.  David would be there to pick us up at 7:30am.