(Notice that this blog post is directly from the diary that I wrote in Ghana. All of my feelings and thoughts is how I felt during my journey.)
When I came to Amsterdam I really had to go to the toilet. So I was looking for the ladies room and I was so incredibly happy when I found it! How nice it was, so bright and shiny! And it flushed automatically. I had to take a picture of it haha.
Ghana toliet
Amsterdam toilet
It was a very long line to the passport control in Amsterdam. So it took a while until I came to the lady who checked my passport. She was very sceptical. My passport was made in 2007 and it’s 4 years ago so it is no wonder if I look different in that photograph. The security check gave the alarm on me, so I had to take off my shoes and then it went well. When I waited to board the flight home I got the hiccups for a long time.
When I had boarded the flight and sat down on my seat I fell asleep immediately. I couldn’t stay awake, I was so tired. The breakfast was a sandwich and a bun with raisins in it. The sandwich wasn’t so tasty but the bun was delicious! This flight was also very fast because I probably slept all the time. When we were landing in Sweden water started dripping on my head from the ceiling. I don’t know what that was but it felt cold.
When I arrived at the airport I stood for a while and waited for my two bags. But they never showed up. Half of the airplane’s bags were stuck in the transfer in Amsterdam. So I had to file my luggage as lost and then I went off to meet my family! When I saw them I smiled the widest smile at first, but everything felt so overwhelming I just burst into tears! Grandfather, Melissa, Niclas, my mother and my father ware all standing there. Melissa (my sister) had a large gift in her hand and Niclas had a big beautiful bouquet of flowers in his hand. It was so nice and I was so happy to see my beloved family again!
When I got home, I also met my grandmother (my mother’s mother). It was really nice. We talked a long time and I ate toast with cheese and jam. I also got a yoghurt drink. It was so delicious! The gift that Melissa had was from Niclas and it was a giant fluffy OnePiece in it! This was perfect now that I was home in the cold again.
After a while my mother and father told me to sit down because they had something sad to tell me. I just instantly knew. “Has grandmother died?” I asked. And as I feared it was so. My grandmother (my father’s mother) died on Thursday March 3. No wonder I had felt so sick that day and wanted to go home. I might have had a hunch that something was wrong at home. I started to cry and I could hardly breathe. We sat and cried together for a while in the kitchen until I saw a very ugly drawing on our whiteboard that we have in our kitchen! It said “Good thing that Bella comes home soon before we’re becoming craaaaaazy!”. And then I started to laugh instead haha. This was an overwhelming day, much laughter, happiness but also a lot of sadness and tears.
I felt so shocked to hear that my grandmother died and I felt so sad. I thought she could have stayed on at least a few more weeks. We had decided that I would come home to her after the trip and show pictures to her and tell stories. She was so proud of me. She looked forward to it and I did too. It would also be the first time she would meet Niclas. So I mourn the most that I didn’t have time to see her one last time before she died and that she never got to meet the love of my life, Niclas. She had been sick for a long time and it all went so fast in the end.
I had also thought a lot in Ghana on how it would feel to come home when I feel so changed, but everything here at home is just as normal. I really thought it would be like that but when I came home nothing was as it used to be since my grandmother died. It felt a little weird.
In the evening my mother gave me meatballs, potatoes, sauce and lingonberry jam. It was so heavenly tasty! I had longed for this meal haha. Then I slept really well in my own bed, in my cozy blanket next to my beloved boyfriend all night. It feels good to be home. It feels good to go to my own toilet that I can flush after each visit and to wash my hands under running water after using the toilet really feels like luxury! 
- There is no place like home.