June 2, 2009 (Day 1)

Today we arrived in Accra,Ghana!! The flight was very long but I sat by some great volunteers, Stephanie from new jersey and Ama from Michigan. We all three watched The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. After the movie Stephanie went over my Twi flash cards with me, then I attempted to fall asleep but was very unsuccessfull. I think I maybe got around 2 hours of sleep on the eleven hour flight. We arrived in Ghana around 7:30 A.M. Ghana time and as soon as we stepped off the plane it was scorching hot. I couldn’t even imagine what the afternoon was going to be like.
After we collected all our luggage we piled into a couple of large vans and left for the Peace Corps Headquarters in Ghana. Once we arrived we sat our stuff down under a large tent and stood in line for a coconut. I was surprised by how much milk is in coconuts and I only drank about a fourth of it. It isn’t my favorite thing but I am sure I will have learn to like it. Next, the staff that worked at the HQ introduced themselves to us and we introduced ourselves to them. Then, we had 3 priests from the three major religions pray for us: Christian, Islam, and one that believes in many gods. It is now the afternoon and it is extremely hot and I am exhausted. We have water but it is warm so it isn’t refreshing for me right now ( I miss ice cubes already) Finally, we load back up into the vans to head to our sleep quarters, half of us stay on a college campus and the other half in a building a minute from the campus ( this is the one I live in). On the way to campus our van is side swiped from another car but there is just a scartch. My room is just one room with with a bathroom but we have electricity!! A fan goes a long way if you don’t have air conditioning in Africa. There are three beds and I have two other roommates ( Dan from Long Island and Jacob from Maryland).
At the college we have dinner and Ghanian food is really good. We had a stew that you put over rice and noodles along with chicken and a salad. To drink we had water and water comes in little plastic bags. They are kind of fun actually. If you don’t have a bottle to pour it into, then you bite a small piece off the corner and squeeze and suck it out. After dinner all the voluneers end up chatting and right now I am extremely exhausted. Finally, we head back to our rooms and I take a shower. The water isn’t warm but it feels really good. It is only 8 P.M. here but all three of us go to bed. I fall asleep in no time but I end up waking up during the night. I feel like I have slept for hours and I am ready to start the day but everyone is still sleeping. I grab my watch to see what time it is and it is only 10 P.M.. I can’t believe it and now I have to go to the bathroom and I am hot. I just want it to snow in our room so I can feel cold again. I get up and take take a half a sleeping pill, thanks dad for them. Before I know it I am back to sleep.