Akwaaba!

Who knew how blissful a mid-day shower in Sub-Saharan Africa would be? Even though the water pressure fails completely about every 30 seconds and the hot water is really only about lukewarm, having a shower here is one of the great pleasures of Ghanaian living. My first few days in Ghana!! DANG!! I landed on the Dark Continent just as the sun was rising Monday morning and I was just so completely beside myself! Partly terrified that I would get malaria as soon as I stepped off the plane and partly confused because it kinda looked like L.A. with kente cloth everywhere. But as soon as I went through immigration and had to pretend that I actually understood the Ghanaian English, I knew I had arrived!!

I had absolutely no expectations of what things would be like before I came here and I’m glad that I didn’t make any attempts. The weather is absolutely gorgeous here, probably getting only up to 90 degrees. I’m expecting is to get much hotter because right now, we are living through the time of year when all the dust from the desert comes down and hovers over the city before settling. Kind of nasty and not so breathing friendly, but not too bad.

The people here are so incredibly friendly! Last night was the first break in our intense orientation schedule that allowed us to actually go out and see what this place is like. We went to a local bar called ‘After One’. Well as Kathleen accurately noted, it wasn’t exactly a bar, but more of a drinking shack. A drinking shack with no roof and a bucket in the bathroom. Haaaaaa. But with 40’s at 1.50 cedi (which is the equivalent of about $1.40 USD) and a pool table, who can really be choosey? But we played pool with some of the locals and found out our Ghanaian names. Here, people are named after the day of the week that they’re born. So, Yefre me Afiya! (That’s Twi for my name is….Friday…haha!)