Going to greet the chief

1-20-11
Arrival Day:
After a long 10 hr. flight from D.C. to Accra, with only about 2 hours of sleep even after taking  a valium, we landed in Accra! I knew we were in Africa when I felt the airplane window and it had changed from frigid to burning up.  The moment we got off the plane it was a rush of heat and humidity...let the sweating begin.  Customs was simple enough as we just had to show them our passport and then came the waiting for our bags and thank the Lord I wasn't "that:" person whose luggage was lost. 

We then made our way to the International Student Hostels (ISH) where we will be living for the next four months.  The rooms were bigger than I expected but I am already learning that "clean" here is not going to mean the same thing as in the states.  Right now we are in the season where the Harmatan winds are coming down from the Sahara so EVERYTHING is covered in the red dust, but at least it is cooler!
We walked down from ISH to Tasty Treats where got some delicious Ghanian food for dinner and passed our new monkey friend chillen in the tree on the way.  There are about 30 of us ISEP students and next week we will get our Ghanian roommates :-)

Some lessons I have already learned...
1) Be careful when walking on the roads, cars will not stop for you, you must move for them.  This is def. not like any American college campus where students have the right of way.
2) Don't drink/brush your teeth with the tap water or swallow it when talking a shower...at least for now.
3) Toilet paper is your friend, bring it everywhere because most places will not have any.

1-21-10:
Day 2:
Got up for another awesome breakfast at Tasty Treats of a sweet roll with jam, oatmeal, omelt, coffee, and delicious pineapple juice.  Then we headed over to the ISEP building on campus and got a talk from the doctor and one of the linguistics professors on campus about Ghanian etiquite and culture. Lets just say that we were all sufficiently freaked out by the doctor and I will definietely be taking my malaria pills religously.
The professor taught us to make sure not to use our left hand for greeting or really anything because that is disrespectful and I now know how to request to go to the bathroom: "Merekokyea": I am going to greet the chief.  Yeah way cooler than saying I gotta pee.

We also got a tour of campus...yeah its huge and I am pretty sure I'm going to get really lost for awhlie.  There is a soccer field/track right in the center of campus that we can use at any time that I'm pretty pumped about. 

1-22-11:
Tour of Accra:
Today we loaded up onto the ISEP bus and headed for a tour around Accra.  We started at the Accra mall which was pretty crazy and really nice, and the moment you walk in its like your right back in the US.  We got to exchange our money for my first Ghanian cedi's!  The tour took us to a beautiful art gallery that was overlooking the ocean, to W.E.B DuBois house/museum, to the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum (Ghana's first president), and then to Osu which is a section of Accra.  We had a delicious Chinese lunch at a fairly traditional restaurant and then we were set free to check out the streets of Osu.  This was definitely a sensory overload as we were bombarded with street vendors where I have already been proposed to I think...and ripped off as we basically have a sign on us saying "American fresh meat!"
My favorite part was the stop by the beach and all the "soccer fields" or dirt areas with kids playing soccer. I wanted to jump out of the bus and start playing!

So far I have sufficiently embaressed myself on numerous occasions trying to speak Twi (the most popular Ghanian dialect), but at least I'm trying!  I'm really excited to go to church tomorrow with one of our Ghanian ISEP leaders and then to the beach!

Even though it has already been a long and overwhelming few days I am loving every minute :-)