Wannie in the ACC

So I had to fly to DC then to JFK to connect to my flight to Accra. Why it cost more to fly directly to JFK is beyond me. Obviously it costs more in fuel to shuttle someone two places rather than one. Anyways. Apparently one runway is closed at JFK so on average all flights are 45 minutes late. That is kind of need to know info- if they know you are going to be 45 minutes late, then they should tell you to book your flights with an additional 45 minutes inbetween. So my flight into JFK was actually about two hours delayed. I was staring at my watch the whole flight and throwing the evil eye at some bozo who after we were all seated, got up and asked the flight attendant if she could give a letter to the gate rep to put in the mail for him. And the other two bozos who got up to pee after the cabin door was shut. There were five or six of us on that flight that were headed to Accra. When we landed I power walked as fast as I could to the gate, where the flight was set to leave in like four minutes, stopping only at the bathroom ( I am Susie's daughter). When I walked up and said I was for the flight to Accra, they hustled me on, took my rolly bag cause there wasnt any more room ( boo hoo) and I was the LAST one on. I would have had to wait 24 hours for the next flight!!! And missed the bulk of why I was going in the first place. I felt so fortunate, but also starving since I didnt have time to get something to eat. I don't think all of the people on the earlier flight made it to the gate in time, I looked for them and never saw them. Maybe they wanted a day to hang out in NYC?

There was another person on my plane that I knew going to the same meetings. He and I took the hotel shuttle together, had 10 minutes to change and spent the next 8 hours in a meeting, an hour at reception and then an hour at dinner. Then I came back to my room, fell asleep, woke up with a start, called J who asked me to call back in an hour, fell asleep again, and had some conversation with j and the girls that I have no idea about on skype an hour later.

So what am I doing here? I am a teeny tiny part of a grant that is trying to improve the health workforce in Ghana. And this meeting was to discuss where the situation is currently, to collaborate on publications and to research and begin the application process for further grant funding. I wrote again a teeny tiny grant to come here to meet with other nursing faculty that I worked with last summer. Some were going to be at this meeting so it just seemed to work out that I could come to this meeting, see them, get the info I needed. I pretty much accomplished what I needed to already. Now I have three more days to hang out which sounds great in theory. It is a gorgeous hot day out, and the pool is so awesome, I can fill my fresh from the tree mango craving, pick up the latest in pirated movies and enjoy being in Africa. But I miss my babies, all four of them. I also have this paper to write and again, theoretically I can take the next three days to write it poolside versus taking three weeks ( months?) to write it after I put the kids to bed.

I look so weird in this picture. I felt like I had to post it. Does my neck really look like that? Geez.