The Pilgrimage to MOTHER Africa

 I wake up n day 3 to a slew of messages on WhatsApp.  Apparently many people from our group had some major complaints about their rooms ranging from not having refrigerators (I didn't know we were even supposed to have them lol), to having to wait 2 hours for room service, not having hot water, t.v. not working....you know the usual first world problem shit.  Don't get me wrong, this trip was not cheap so I OVERstand the complaints, but my room was cold and the toilette was clean so I didn't really notice what wasn't right.  Needless to say, we were informed that we'd be checking out and going to a new resort later in the day.  We headed out that morning.  I was still purging, just not as much.  Today we went to a place called One Africa Guest House and Beach Resort for lunch.  This place was interesting- It consisted of multiple chalets that were sparsely furnished- this was actually more of what I thought we'd be experiencing- the chalets were very minimal, n

 I woke up at the LaBadi Beach Resort, we hadn't unpacked from the night before so gathering our things was easy.  We had breakfast (buffet style) at the resorts restaurant.  I was not feeling any better.  I managed to eat a few watermelon and pineapple chunks- this was almost immediately upchucked.  I knew I had 4 hours on our bus to get to Elmina and hoped that this impeding wave a nausea would subside.  We departed around 9am, but not before some guy managed to sell my husband a couple of really nice canvas paintings.  Within an hour after departing our hotel I was puking mercessly on the bus, but I sat in the back so the passengers up front were clueless.  During a brief restroom break I was able to clean up the disgusting mess I had going on in the 'Rosa Parks' section of the bus.  I knew that whatever "this" was wasn't going away anytime soon. We stopped at a restaurant called Baobab House. Here we were served a fabulous vegan lunch! Now I did not get th

 We arrived at Kotoka International airport in Accra, Ghana March 2, 2023, one day after the rest of the group had arrived due to a slight delay with getting our visas.  We were greeted at the airport by one of the staff from the hotel (LaBadi Beach Resort).  The driver was pleasant and friendly!  We arrived sometime after 8pm.  We checked into the room and the first thing I noticed was that the AC wasn't  working....as a person who sleeps with the fan blasting, and under a constant 69 degree household temperature I KNEW I was in for a challenge.  The leader of the group (Trish) met me in the lobby, where I was introduced to: Toronda, Jill, and Felicia- all beautifully spirited women who I looked forward to getting to know on this trip- but I was tired, and I had already thrown up on the plane, plus we were checking out in the morning to go to Cape Coast.  I excused myself and returned to the hot room with my husband.  In this moment I wished I'd had my weed- my weed is what pu

Ten years  ago my father passed away.  Before his passing, despite not ever needing or wanting for ANYTHING I grew up "depressed".  I was in a CONSTANT state of sadness, self-loathing, and was clinically diagnosed "manic depressive" (before they started calling it bipolar).  I was medicated for a while, but in true Chloe fashion I wasn't going to stay on any medications that long....so my dad dies- in that moment of holding his hand as he transitioned, I fucked around and FOUND OUT what true sadness really meant. Me being overweight, diabetic, lacking higher education, broke, fighting battles with substance abuse, and dealing with a dysfunctional relationship were NOTHING in comparison to watching my dad leave this earth.  He was my world- He was gone. THIS was sadness.  After his death I was LOST and began studying Buddhism.  I found myself at a monastery where my now husband and I took classes. We learned how to meditate and practice mindfulness.  We were intr

  If you were to ask me just 10 days ago what my dream vacation would be compared to asking that very same question today, the answer would be vastly different.  My ideal vacation would have been a chockablock of sandy beaches with picturesque backgrounds, tropical jungles, lush wildlife premiering a canopy of vegetation painting the earth’s backdrop with an array of colors so crisp and vibrant they’d be unable to be duplicated and reviewed outside of your own eyes! A dream vacation would have been laying lazily at the pool drinking local spirits- indulging in a wide variety of local cuisine until I could no longer fill my belly with the sweet and savory indigenous delectables before me! My personal goal would be to conquer all things edible while defying the glucose monitor until I POPPED. Today…today the idea of a dream vacation seems foreign…obsolete…quite frankly dead.  My perfect vacation, my very own paradise consisted of 3.5 days of falling ill in a foreign land, filled with fea