Thank God for Patience

Today has been a very long and very wonderful day here.  I must admit, I had a rocky start yesterday.  Between the snow, the annoying process of checking an overweight bag and having to put it on a crash diet right at the check out counter, the two mile walk through Dulles to get to my gate and the one hour delay because baggage handlers couldn't get it together, I was quite discouraged by the time we took off.

And to top it all off, I chose not to upgrade to Economy Plus and got stuck sitting next to the world's biggest Ghanaian butthole who requested to move seats because of my "girth."  Well, as God would have it, I decided to move to the back seat instead (it was roomier) and let Sir Butthead sit with his family.

Boy am I glad I did because I met the most wonderful woman in the very back row of the plane.  Her name is Patience -- an exhausted, Ghana native from Kumasi who now lives in Saskatoon, Canada (and yes, it is as cold there as it sounds).  She was very soft-spoken, gracious, humble and obviously some sort of rocket scientist according to her job title -- so you can imagine my amusement when she was willing to join in the almost revolt being planned by two gentlemen across the aisle who were not happy with their vegetarian meals when United ran out of beef.  After that died down, we talked about her ailing parents and how she'd been traveling for the better part of 24 hours to see them.

I won't go into all the details but I will say this: Patience set me back on the right path and restored my view of Ghanaians as a friendly, warm and welcoming people (screw you butthead in 35B).  I started out my trip discouraged, but God moved me to the back of the plane to remind me that a little bit of Patience will go along way.

Akwaaba!

 The view from my front balcony

 Another balcony view

 A snapshot of my little Paradise in Ghana

 My first sunset in Ghana