First Day in Africa

Hey all! Well, I arrived in Ghana safe and sound today at about 8:30 AM, which is approximately 1 AM our time. We have been going, going, going since we got here and so needless to say, I am exhausted! Yesterday was quite the day. I left Utah at about 8:30, and was supposed to fly into JFK at 3:30, with my flight to Ghana leaving at 5:25. Well, there was a little girl on the plane, sitting right in front of me who was flying alone, and she got a little air sick--ok, she got a lot air sick. She puked. I am talking projectile vomit. EEW!!! I just happened to see her do it, and it was everywhere, on the carpet, on the tray, in her neighbor’s purse, everywhere! And if you know me, you know that I can’t stand to see or especially smell vomit. Yup, smelled it, yup started gagging uncontrollably. Luckily, I was able to keep it all in, but I had to hold the blanked over my face, plug my nose and breath only through my mouth for about 30 minutes. It was gross.
Then, JFK was way too crowded. We flew circles in the air for about 45 minutes, and when we could finally land, we had to taxi around in the airplane for another 30 waiting for a gate to open up. This put us much behind schedule. When we finally did get to our gate, we practically ran to our next gate to catch our connecting flight. There was a HUGE line! They were starting a new procedure apparently and had to make sure that every one had the right boarding pass, and were re assigning some seats and such. Luckily I didn’t get reassigned. The flight was completely booked. Not one single open seat. It was so crowded and chaotic - I loved it!
Flying through the night as many of you know, is not an ideal way to travel. I was blessed to have the window seat--thanks dad--but still wasn’t able to get much sleep. I don’t know, I guess something about sitting completely upright with no leg room whatsoever just doesn’t appeal to my sleeping habits, go figure. It also didn’t help that I didn’t have Dan with me to baby me and let me put my legs on him, so I finally gave up trying after sleeping for only 30 minutes. I was pretty tempted to ask the guy sitting next to me if he would mind if I put my legs on him, but don’t worry--I didn’t!
Any way, we finally got here. We flew into a tiny airport, and went through all the security checks. When I was getting my passport checked, the man at the booth was asking me a bunch of questions, like what I was doing there, and why I chose to come to Ghana. I answered the best I could, and then the last question he asked me was, “Do you do face book?” in his thick African accent. It caught me really off guard, and I said yes. He then asked me if it was ok if he sent me a friend request. I said sure and he said, “Ok, I will make sure to do it today.” I laughed and went on my way to baggage claim.

Our airplane right after we all got off

This is the tiny Accra, Ghana airport

So far I have found that the people here are very friendly. They all say hello, and greet me with giant smiles. The country isn’t what I pictured it would be at all. It is much more industrialized than I imagined. I was picturing something much more destitute. We also had the opportunity today to go into the city and exchange our money and go to the market to buy water. We walked to the currency exchange place, but had to take a taxi to the market because it is about 3 miles away. The drivers here are CRAZY! They don’t know what lanes are and they are constantly honking at each other. If they want to merge into your lane, all they do is honk, put their hand out the window, and step on it.

A little boy begging from the window of our bus

Oh, and here, pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way! I almost got run over by many people just driving. If you are in the road, they honk and speed up, not honk and slow down. Also, there are people in the streets selling things all over. They are literally in the middle of the road. Standing on the white dotted lines that mean nothing here. It’s crazy. The cabs they drive are old, old beaten up cars. Just today, in my one hour excursion of the city, I saw 3 broken down cars with people in them, and others pushing them from behind. Little kids are selling anything they can find in order to make money. It is so sad, but the people seem so happy.
The rest of the day today we just get to rest and recover from the long trip. I am so glad. The rest is much needed. And that concludes my first day in Africa, I’ll keep you posted!

People in the middle of the road selling their stuff

Oh---and for the record, airplane food is WAY worse than hospital food. YUCK!!!

A few more picts of my first day

Entrance to the airport

And Again

I HAVE ARRIVED!!


Another shot of the sales people

Just a road sign

My home for the next 5 weeks

Anne Marie and I infront of our "home" It's called the pink hostel, the building is completely pink, but so far, I have only seen men working here, with the exception of one woman, who is dressed completely in pink. It is fantastic

The view from my room, we have a little balcony--how quaint!

First taxi ride, if we look sweaty and gross, it's beacuse we are. It is so hot here! about 90 ish, plus 75% humidity. Oh, and no A/C in the cars!! WOOT!!