Goodbye to Miss Kaylee for 11 weeks...

Ummm... I leave three days from today? What is Happening?!

This past weekend I went camping with my fiancé, mother, and her friend for Memorial Day weekend. My sister and my niece, Kaylee, were supposed to come camping too, but unfortunately they weren't able to come. Today I am saying goodbye to my niece for 11 weeks, and I am extremely sad. My niece is my world and it is going to be so hard to be away from her for that long. I'm sure that I will make some new friends at the orphanage that will remind me of Kaylee, and they will be my niece in spirit!

To My Love, Kaylee Lynn:

Nay Nay is leaving to go to Ghana to help some kids that need some love. I am going to miss you so much, but I will be thinking of you everyday while I'm gone. Maybe someday when you're older, you can come back to Ghana with me and meet my new friends! I'm sure they would love you and that you would learn a lot. If you miss me, just give the pillow I gave you a big squeeze and I will feel your love all the way in Africa. I love you so much baby girl, and I will never forget about you. 

Love you so much,

Nay Nay

Ten Days... Pink, Pink, Pink, Pink!!!

Pink is the Color of Love!

My mother, Jenna, and I got our placement for our Ghana trip yesterday! We are placed in the Pink Program (IVHQ has different colors for each program) which is in Dodowa, Ghana, Africa! We are so excited because this is the program we requested and we couldn't be more thrilled about being able to be in this program! 

The orphanage that we will be working in is called Potter's Village. It is about a 5 minute walk from our volunteer house, which is not bad at all! Other programs you have to pay to take a trotro to and from the orphanage every day. It adds up, so we are very lucky! There are about 90 children living at Potter's Village, ranging from the age of 1 all the way to young adults. 

The volunteer house, my home for 9 weeks, is actually not too bad. There are 3 bedrooms with bunk beds in them, a living room area, a bathroom (without running water... bucket flushing and bucket showers for the win!) with two toilets and a shower, a dining area, and a kitchen. We do not have to cook for ourselves, as we have a cook living on site! The difference from living at home to living in Ghana is a drastic one, and will take some getting used to. But, I will make the best of it, and it will be rewarding living like the Ghanians do!

Click here to see a video of what the volunteer house looks like (it has been updated a bit since this video was made).

I am SO EXCITED to be in Ghana, but I am also very nervous. I am nervous about missing my family and my fiancè, Matt. I'm nervous about being in a foreign country all alone. I am nervous about getting malaria or another sickness. I am nervous that I will not like it there, and I will be very homesick. I am nervous about being hit on by multiple Ghanian men (I read in my Ghana guide book that Ghanian men love to hit on white or "obruni" women and will profess their love for them and propose). I am nervous about not getting along with the other volunteers and there being drama there. I am nervous about not liking the food, and being hungry the whole time because of it. I am nervous about not liking the water sachets and having to spend a ton of money on bottled water. I am nervous about getting lost while traveling. I am nervous that the kids wont like me. I am nervous about having to get up so early to bathe and feed the children, that I will be asleep by 8pm.

No matter how nervous I am about all of these things, I am even more excited to have the opportunity to make a difference in these orphan's lives! I am excited to meet the children. I am excited to be loved by so many kids at once. I am excited to make friendships that will last a lifetime with other volunteers. I am excited to learn how to be on my own. I am excited to learn about the culture and history of Ghana. I am excited to try new foods. I am excited to travel to places that I have never been. I am excited to go to Mole National Park and possibly to see elephants! I am excited to see if I have the strength to be on my own for 6 weeks. I am excited to go to the markets. I'm excited to experience church in Ghana, even though I am not very religious. I'm excited to have clothes made just for me, from cloth that I pick out. I am excited to possibly have a drum made for me (thanks Jenna for the awesome idea!). I am excited to be able to experience this with my mom. I am excited to be able to live like the Ghanians do, so that I can be grateful for everything we have in America.

T minus 10 days until my life is changed forever!

Things to Remember on a Cruise to the Caribbean...

Things to Remember on a Cruise to the Caribbean

Last month I went on a 5 day cruise to Grand Cayman and Cozumel on the Carnival Paradise. I did a ton of research before leaving and found some very useful and handy tips that I shared with my family... It still didn't prepare some of my family members enough. So, here are some quick tips on what to bring and a few things to do in Cozumel and Grand Cayman.

• Do NOT forget your Passport/Birth Certificate & I.D!!!- Picture this... My fiancè, niece, and I have just arrived into the cruise port in Tampa, and we are waiting for my sister and mom to get there on the next shuttle from the airport. *buzzzzzzz* My phone rings, it's is a call from my mother. 
• MOM: Hey, do you have Michele's Birth Certificate? 
• ME: Ummmm, no..... Why would I have her Birth Certificate? I gave it to her a few weeks ago... 
• MOM: Well, she doesn't have it.

• So then when they finally get to the port, we are basically forced to wait in this small closed off box until someone from customs comes over (aka 10000000 minutes), and talks to my sister. She was not going to be allowed to board the cruise ship, so she calls her school and has security break into her dorm room and search her room for her birth certificate. Just don't do it.
• Do not leave your phone in the stroller in the hallway!- My sister left her iPhone 6 in the stroller and it got snagged by someone passing by our room and was never returned.

Unusual but Useful Things to Bring Along

• Duct Tape- Just bring it, I guarantee you will use it for something! My sister posted signs on our door trying to get her phone back, and used the duct tape to stick them on. You never know what you'll need it for, but it won't take up too much space in your bag!
• Highlighter- We used it to highlight things on the "Fun Times" paper (the paper that has all the activities for the day on it) that we wanted to do that day.
• Clothespins- The shower curtain blows into the shower and sticks to your soapy body. Clip clothes pins onto the bottom = Problem solved!
• Small Pouch on Clip or Lanyard- I went to Walmart looking for a lanyard to put my Sail & Sign Card (a card you use to make all onboard purchases on carnival) in. I found a lanyard on clearance that had a small pouch on the end, and it proved to be VERY useful! I put the Sail & Sign Card on the outside where an ID would usually go. Inside the zipper, I put my driver's license, the schedule for the day, a small map of the ship, and if it was a port day, I put the cash I wanted to bring with me off of the ship. Put the pouch on a lanyard or clip (then clip it to your belt loop) so that you won't lose it!
• Magnetic White Board- Put it on your cabin door and ask people a question (ex. How many cruises have you been on? What is your best cruise tip? etc.). People will answer!
• Sticky Notes- We used sticky notes to tell other family members where we would be and stuck it to the mirror in our state room.

Fun Things to Do in Cozumel and Grand Cayman

I would suggest that if possible, always do an excursion on your own and not through the ship. The cruise line gets a chunk of the cost of the excursion, so they charge extra to customers going through the cruise line. Our excursion in Cozumel was not offered on our sailing (but is offered on other Carnival sailings), so we booked directly through the company. It saved us $20 each, for a total of $80 savings!

Grand Cayman: We went on an excursion through our ship to the Turtle Sanctuary, because we did not have a lot of time, and we wanted to make sure we got back to the ship on time.  It was absolutely amazing! The bus driver picked us up from the port and gave us a hilarious (and free!) bus tour of the island! It was so great, and so funny! We got to hold baby turtles (a lot bigger than we expected), snorkel with turtles and fish, swim in a chlorine pool that had a fun water slide, feed exotic caribbean birds, look at nurse sharks and other fish, and watch the sharks being hand fed! They also have a package where you get lunch included (we didn't do this, but some people on our bus did) if you wanted to do that. This was the highlight of our trip and I would recommend it to anyone going to Grand Cayman!

Cozumel: I got a AAA travel book for Mexico and the Caribbean, and I read about an awesome ranch, Rancho Buenavista, that offered tours of the Mayan Ruins on horse back. I really wanted to go, but it was not offered on our sailing. I ended up calling them and booking directly through the ranch. It was $70/person that way instead of $90/person, which was the price they offered on the ship. The ranch is amazing because they treat the horses SO well! The horses do only one tour a day and other than that, they get to roam freely on the ranch! When our tour was done, we got off of the horse, and then the horse just went on its way with the saddle still on and went into the pasture without even a staff member leading them! We ended up getting our own private tour with just the 4 of us, which was really amazing! First, we had a quick lesson on how to ride western and how to control the horse. Then we went and got our helmets and went to get our horses. The tour was about an hour, and we got to see tons of Mayan Ruins (not huge ones, but things like pots and pans and some statues). We even got to go into a cave that the Mayans used to hide from enemies. It had a ton of ruins in it, many that were still fully intact! After the tour was over, we got to chose our complimentary soda or water. Then we were put into the bus and went to a nice beach that had hammocks and chair swings. We got some authentic Mexican guacamole and salsa with homemade chips. The beach was not good for swimming because it was rocky and the water was rough, but it was nice to relax!

I had so much fun on my cruise, and I hope I helped you a little bit on deciding what to pack and some things to do!

Umm... How Do I Do This?

Umm... How Do I Do This?

My First Blog Post

Hi everyone! My name is Shannon Rogers. I am 21 years old and LOVE to travel! This year alone, I have traveled/am traveling to Grand Cayman, Mexico, Ghana, and New Zealand. I figured I would start a blog to document my adventures, and to help other travelers who are going to some of the countries I am going to or have been to!

Let me tell you a little about myself. I am from the Boston, MA area and I am a college student in Wellesley, MA. I have been stuck in a community college for almost 4 years because I am dumb and goofed off for the first 2 years. I am very close to graduating and transferring to a state school to get my BA in Psychology and eventually my Masters in Social Work. I want to work in a school as a School Psychologist or an Adjustment Counselor... It's so hard to decide!

On another note, I am engaged to be married on August 6, 2016 to an amazing man named Matthew Silvia (Matt for short)! We have been together for over 2 1/2 years and it has been the best years of my life. We are having a rustic/country wedding in a barn in Holliston, MA. It was the first venue we looked at and we fell in love with it (and the price)!! We already have 140 guests on the list and the venue can only hold 100. It's going to be hard to make the list smaller because it's virtually all family and literally 2 friends. Anyways, enough about that!

I have a 3-year-old niece, Kaylee Lynn Rogers, who is my world. Before she was born, I was going through a very rough time with a major life decision that I was forced to make, and that I regretted so much. When I saw Kaylee's beautiful face and got to hold her for the first time, my whole perspective on life changed completely. I was brought out of the deep depression that I was in and on that day, I vowed to myself and to her to be the best Auntie I could possibly be. Recently my sister, Michele, moved to Pennsylvania with Kaylee and I am still so heartbroken. I only see her one weekend a month, when I used to see her at least twice a week. It has been 5 months that Kay has been gone, and I'm still so lost. I am missing out on so many things that she is doing... She is growing up so much and I am missing it all. The only good thing, and I mean ONLY good thing, about it is that when she sees me she is so much more excited than before, and she doesn't want to leave my side. No matter how far away she is, I love her more and more every day.

That's all for now, folks! Look for my next blog post titled "Things to Remember on a Cruise to the Caribbean!"