First Day in Ghana

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I arrived in Ghana today! My 11 hour flight landed just outside of Accra at approximately 2:30 pm and I exited the plane to weather that was actually a little more bearable than what I was experiencing in Michigan during the previous week. The flight was pretty rough with no leg room and chills throughout the night thanks to the shorts and flip flops I decided to wear. The woman sitting across the aisle from me happened to bring some authentic Ghanaian jollof rice with chicken for her two year old and graciously offered me some. Even before we touched down I was already experiencing the Ghanaian hospitality I had read a lot about. There was also a girl on the place in her 4th year of med school at U of M. She will be completing a two week rotation in an Accra hospital. We exchanged emails and may meet up at some point.

After collecting my baggage and heading through customs I exited to a large, open room where drivers were holding signs for the arriving passengers. Despite the fact that I scanned through this line three times, I saw nothing resembling my name or displaying the Unite For Sight logo. I thought they forgot about me! Every second or two someone came up to me to welcome me and to help with anything they could. These people were looking money. I had heard to avoid this scam and politely decline their services. After about 10 minutes of waiting and feeling lost I summoned one over to call Jerome, the opthalmic nurse who was supposed to pick me up. He answered, saying he was just inside and would come out and stated that whatever I do make sure I don't give any money to anyone. At the conclusion of this call, I directly disobeyed this advice and gave the man a buck for his kind service. Before I knew it, I was swarmed by 10 other men aggressively begging for more. They tried to carry my luggage and even attempted to roll down my window as I got into the car. Jerome eventually handed over another dollar and we speedily departed.

The traffic from the airport to the hotel was bad! We were moving slowly bumper to bumper for a few miles at least. As we rolled down this red dirt road, we passed hundreds of people carrying baskets on their heads and attempting to pedal anything from apples to toilet paper to the traffic jam participants.

At the Telecentre (the name of the hotel) I met up with the rest of the volunteers, we eventually went to eat at a chop house owned by a friendly woman name Victoria. We ate jollof again (a spicy rice and tomato dish), chicken, fried plantains, sparkling pear juice, and some Star Lager in a 24 ounce bottle. We sat around for about an hour eating and talking as children and a dog were playing among us.

The evening ended with Reggae night at Labadie Beach approximately10 miles from our hotel. This consisted of over 200 people listening and dancing to an elevated band singing Bob Marley tunes with plenty of beer, food and other Rastafarian party favorites on the shores of the Atlantic.

Quite a day! Can't wait to see what lays ahead next.

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Comments

[Justin]

Glad you made it safe
Looking forward to hearing updates on the trip big cat. Sounds interesting already.

[Jackie]

Good idea!
I like the idea of pedaling food and toilet paper to people in traffic. . .I think that could work in America. ..people would not mind traffic so much. . .dare I say they might actually look forward to traffic and getting waited on?! I know I have thought many a time when I am sitting in traffic without my coffee because I was in a hurry. . ."man I wish someone would come up on a bike and bring me my order!". =) Just a thought.

[Corey]

Yayy
Hi Mike- So glad you made it there safe. I'll be here weekly reading your blogs to see how the trip goes so make sure you keep me updated.