togo or bust!

i can't believe i've only been in philly for the past two two and a half(ish) days. i've done so much, learned so much, met so many people, it feels like it's been way longer. alas, here i am, on the the eve of my departure, feeling surprisingly calm.

highlights of the past two days:
9.19.07
-saw the liberty bell, betsy ross' house, independence hall, along with more cool historical stuff, i'm sure. philadelphia is a cool place in general i decided.
-had a philly cheesesteak sandwich for the first time. can't get much more authentic than that.
-met some more wonderful people. i've almost got all the names down now. there are about 30 people in the togo group altogether-- 16 in the girls' education and empowerment (gee) program and 14 in the natural resource management (nrm) program.
-talked about anxieties and aspirations as we anticipate leaving.
-had dinner at an indian restaurant. it was buffet style, which was fabulous since i got to try several dishes i hadn't tried before. i wonder if they'll have indian food in togo...
-stopped by an irish pub before heading back to the hotel. it was a good ambiance, although the music they were playing sounded like someone was singing karaoke, but there wasn't any karaoke anything around. kinda confused me for a little bit.
9.20.07
-talked about how to cope with getting unwanted attention in togo. it's hard to tell what that's going to be like.
-had a chinese lunch with a great group of people.
-talked about what tomorrow is going to be like-- it sounds like it's going to be a lot of sitting. we take a bus to the clinic to get some shots, take a bus to the airport, take a 7 hour plane ride to france, and a 6 hour plane ride to togo. fortunately i brought plenty of stuff to keep me occupied, not to mention a group of 30 people to talk with.
-when we were walking to dinner, we asked a guy on the street for suggestions of where to go and as he was leading us to bucca di beppo (mmm...), he randomly took us into a kinko's because there was a guy in there he knew who is from ghana. he was telling us how great ghana is, so i'm definitely going to be visiting some time in the next two years. anyone who wants to come along is more than welcome to join me.
-had an amazing dinner
-saw a ton of bats (we all decided they were bats) when we were walking back. normally i wouldn't be happy that flying rats (i'm not a big fan of bats) were all over the place, but they were just doing their own thing relatively far away from me and it was actually kind of neat to see it.
-saw a march/demonstration go by of people who want the boys of the jena six case to be let go(to read more about the case: http://www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml).
- saw about a million and one motorcycles go by all at once.

all in all, it's been a pretty eventful last couple days. i'm so glad i've gotten to spend some time here, i'm for sure going to come back some day. i'm super excited to take the bus up to new york. i hope i get to see a lot on the way. i'll just tell the bus driver that i'm feeling nauseous so that he will pull over and i can sneak some pictures along the way. pictures never work as well when the bus is moving.

i'm all packed and ready to get poked tomorrow. please pray for safe flights.