and so it begins

I think what I'll do as we go along in the travels is journal on paper and then blog by the day I wrote whenever we hit up an internet cafe. So expect a few entries at a time once a week or so. This set comes quickly on the heels of us leaving the ship, because we've managed to pack more living into the last four days than I thought was even possible. This first bit is from the day we left and headed for Ghana.

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And so it begins.

The trip started in true African fashion. These are the things I don't want to forget when we've left this continent. Border crossings manned by a surly official at a wooden table, stamping passports mechanically in the cool breeze. Dust on my feet as we walk to the taxi station, a motley assortment of vans. We sat in one for an hour and a half, waiting for the requisite twenty passengers to join to we could go. They never came. We took a private car instead while the man with our money disappeared mysteriously into the crowd.

This is Africa. I'm going to miss it.

Somehow safaris and South Africa don't feel like Africa to me. I need roadside markets, little kids shoving socks and sodas and snails into my window when I stop at a police checkpoint.

I don't even really realize yet that we've left the ship.