(1) upper left picture: Cora and I on the way back to the office after roaming the town.

(2) upper right picture: Melting Moments, a delicious restaurant that serves western food, like paninis and french toast!

(3) My bedroom, yes I know, its a bit messy!

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Day 9: I have spent the last week helping Renae with shipments and exploring my surroundings in town. I have found a favorite lunch spot, serving red red and plantain, jollof and chicken, etc. Ghanaian food is actually pretty good! Last night Cora and I went and saw a local band play at a bar called Jazz Tone. It was low key but fun. When we got in the taxi to head back home I realized that still didn't really know how to get back to the house, fortunately we found our way back finally and 2 cedis later! I finally broke my 5 year fast of hamburgers. Dave, Renae's husband, decided to make burgers for everyone and I had just a taste of Cora's, at first, turns out that hamburger isn't that bad after all! Yes I know, I ate hamburger! ;) But I am not sure that it is a regular thing yet... This last week hasn't been very busy, but tomorrow I should be starting on my project with Renae!

An Unplanned Welcome

(1) This was taken on the way to the airport from the hotelI stayed in while in Nigeria.

(2) The room I shared, the lady in the red left early in the night, so it was just me, Rada and her mother.

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My first few days on this trip have been unexpected, nothing seemed to go as planned. But as they say "That is the African way". You can't expect things to go as expected. Let me give you a run down of my first few days in Africa. My 10 hour flight to Frankfurt was fine, I didn't sleep a wink. I did meet a very nice man though. He was about sixty and from the Czech Republic. Although there were some communication difficulties, we had an interesting conversation. After we got to Frankfurt, we got dranks (I know this isn't a big deal but I ordered my own alcohol!) and he paid what a nice man! An hour we said good bye and I got on my plane to Ghana. I have to pause and say that this is probably my favorite thing about flying. The people you meet are so interesting, I love starting up a conversation with a complete stranger. Back to my story, The seven hour flight went smoothly, I sleep for most of it. We had to stop in Nigeria to drop off a few passengers, the other passengers were just supposed to stay on the plane. Everyone in the 4 seat row I was sitting in got off in Nigeria. So I laid out in the plane and sleep while I waited for the plane to take off. I woke to find we hadn't left yet so I feel back to sleep. After the third time waking up to the same scenary out the window I asked someone why we hadn't left yet. They explained that there was a problem with a piece of the plane and Lufthansa was trying to find a replacement. We landed in Lagos, Nigeria at 5:00pm, by 7:00pm we were told that the plane wouldn't leave that night and we would have to find alternate plans. We exited the plane only to a chaos of the Lufthansa staff trying to find alternate flights for us and the passengers angry, tired and frustrated that they we stuck in Nigeria. The flight crew was unsuccessful, so they arranged to have us put in hotels for the night and we would fly out the next day. We left for the hotel at 10:30pm. I partnered with 3 other women, one from Texas, and a women and her mother from Romania. We decided to room together, since we felt safer in a group. After we finally got to a hotel and into the room, the lady from Texas, who was visting her husband, was taken back to the airport since her husband had arranged another flight for her. So it was just me, Rada and her mother, Lusia. We ended up sleeping in the one bed that that was in the room. I was actually relaxing and encouraging being with these two women, eventhough we had only just meet. By 2:30pm on the June 20th we left for the airport to get on the second flight to Ghana. Thankfully we made it to Accra with no other problems. All of the passengers cheered when we landed! I meet up with Renae and her husband Dave. We meet up with some others working with WIP and went to Indian food for dinner. It is kinda funny that I haven't actually had Ghanaian food yet. I had breakfast, lunch and dinner in Nigeria and Indian for dinner tonight, along with all of the airplane meals! But I guess I have 3 months for that! Anyway after Renae showed me my room and the WIP office, I decided to go back to my room, which has a code pad lock on it, to shower, turns out the lock decided to follow African rule and not open. Oh well I guess its a night on the couch and still no shower since Thursday...
Despite all the little problems, I think I will love it here. It is truely an interesting place!

Six Days!

I can't believe I will be sitting on a plane in 6 days and 4hrs! I don't think I am fully ready to go but at the same time I am so excited I just want it to be Thursday! I have been asked if I am nervous and I have to say that I don't nor do I have any real anxieties. For the most part I have tried not to let myself for expectations. If I form expectations of what it will be like and what I will be doing I am afraid that I will miss everything else because I will be so focused on the picture that I created of what Ghana will be like and what I will be doing. I want to be as open as I can to knew experiences!