Blimey! I'm in Africa.

I'm not sure that I have ever before had so much to say and so few of my friends to say it to. Good thing for me you are all here, on the internet...

Um wow. Where to start? Well first of all the internet is pretty slow here, even though this is apparently a good place where all the other volunteers come, so I have like 4 tabs open at the same time so as to be most effecient. For instance, right now I am checking my email, checking facebook, writing this, and reading Alissa's blog. Fascinating, yes? Let's move on to the interesting stuff, eh?

So my flight here was fairly eventful - there was a medical emergency on the way to JFK so we had to land in Minneapolis, shortening my horrific layover to about 8 hours. Not enough time to go into the city really, so I collapsed in a tiny pile and fell asleep on my backpack. On my flight to Accra (capital of Ghana) I was fortunate enough to sit next to the only other white person on the plane. Yes, probably racism involved in that seating arrangement. Anyway, he turned out to be a missionary and we spent the first 4 hours of the flight talking about the culture of Ghana, the establishment of the Christian church, and whether or not it was possible to be unselfish. He told me no one had ever challenged him like that before, and he seemed to enjoy it. By the end of the flight I kind of forgot we weren't friends and I wouldn't be heading off with him. He had brought burger king on the flight for his friends, and seemed surprised when I implied they would probably not be tasty upon their delivery. Cool guy.

My entrance into Ghana began with no toilet paper. And has continued similarly. I was terrified to get money out of the sketchy blinking ATM but I eventually sucked it up, shoved my card in, and awkwardly tried to dispose of the 30 dirty, wrinkly bills my efforts had procured. All the money here was printed in 2007, when they changed the 1000 cedi bill to the 1 cedi bill due to ridiculous inflation, but it's still disgusting and looks ancient. I don't really want to know where it's been...Anyway finally I was greeted by Nyame, this really cheesy guy who spouted scripted phrases like "Yar going to breahk yar mudda's haht!". Lots of hefty, fake laughter was involved and as I sat in the taxi that took me to the office, I fervently hoped my entire stay would not be this exhaustingly fake. In the office I met all the people at the head of Projects Abroad, Ghana, and had my first water sachet. More on those later, if I have time. Then Paul accompanied me on the 6 hour bus ride to Kumasi. The busses here are air conditioned, which I quickly realized was a euphemism for freezing, and they play terrible Nigerian soap operas that the loudest music cannot drown out. At this point I had been traveling for 48 hours and was pretty exhausted.

Meeting my host family was incredibly awkward. It doesn't help that I have experience with German and Australian exchange students, because this just makes the whole scenario seem even more odd. The mum (Patricia) kind of shunted me into a separate guest room, told me where the washroom was, and shut the door. I sat there pretending to unpack for a bit before I sucked it up and went into the family room, where the dad (Francis) was sitting. He is very friendly and I've talked to him quite a bit, but eveything else about the family dynamic is off. I either eat alone, with Francis, or with my roommate (Alice, more on her later!), and I've never seen the rest of the family (they have 2 sons and a daughter) eat. The 16 year old daughter does everything around the house and the boys are totally ignored. Family time doesn't seem to be something they have at all. I speculate that this is not typical of all Ghanaian families, merely a side effect of being extremely upper class. Really, I guess the same thing often occurs in upper class 1st world families. Still, it's strange and fairly uncomfortable. My family is very rich (and I am very lucky) in that they have running water! This is such a luxury and I was expecting exhausting bucket showers for the month. Cold water is even nice after a disgusting day of humidity. It's funny that I was at first upset with my placement - I wanted to be in the capital and I wanted to work in an orphanage. Of course, things always happen for a reason. Kumasi seems much nicer and more central than Accra, and I have been placed with a nice family and a great roomie. She is English, which is perfect because an American would be boring but a foreigner would create significant translation issues. Plus, there are plenty of other internationals to fratenize with. Alice. works in an orphanage and has told me that her children cannot even crawl at 1 1/2 months. They sit, understimulated, as the staff watch tv all day. The staff are frustated with her, as interaction with the children has made them crave more attention. They toss the children about very roughly and seem ambivalent to their progress. We have all brought toys for the children, but apparently they are locked away. I hope my placement is better - it is at a day care, where hopefully the staff is more concerned with the welfare of the children. Either way, I hope I can provide some much needed care. I finally start tomorrow.

Everything about this country is strangely, strangely comforting to me (well okay, not everything. But i'm getting used to it). Sucking on a bag of water, sleeping under a mosquito net in a dank and musty room...it's a weird, surreal feeling. But I like it alright. I met the other volunteers on Thursday and they are from everywhere - Scotland, Holland, Singapore, England, Switzerland...I kind of hit the ground running and traveled to Cape Coast with some of them this weekend. The night before I left, I sat in bed just thinking how surreal and ridiculous and weird it was that I would be getting up at 3am to travel 4 hours away with complete strangers in a foreign land. Luckily, everything turned out alright. Obama had been there only 2 weeks before so everything was all decked out (as much as Africa can be decked out) in his honor. There is not much to see in Ghana, it turns out, but it's interesting anyway. On Saturday I did a canopy walk, which pretty much consists of walking across a ladder with netting attached to the side. Lots of disconcerting creeking going on...then we went to this restaurant surrounded by crocodiles. I straddled one and touched it. In retrospect and at the time, it was absolutely insane and terrifying. But hey, only here once...

The volunteers here seem very settled in. It turns out that Projects Abroad is not nearly as organized or competent as any of us expected, so everyone must rely on each other to keep safe and aware. They all refer to Kumasi as home without a second thought. I feel kind of left out because they've all bonded already, but they are nice to me and more newbies are coming soon.

AH I have so much to say! Don't worry though (Chelsea) I am keeping somewhat of a journal and have already taken tons of pictures so I will be ready for a debriefing in a month's time. I'm running out of time at the cafe! 6 minutes to finish this!

Oh ps I have a ghanaian sim card now and the local rates are the same as international! About 10 cents for a minute and a text. It's crazy. They have internet on their crappy little go phones. Makes me wonder what kind of technology the US is holding out on us. So I might text some of you ocassionally if I have your number saved from texting you recently and could call some land lines, but it will probably cost you guys too much to text or call me. Not really sure.

Oh and:

Molly - I wish I had more Michael Franti because that's the only thing I really want to listen to here!

Christine - no Tom's shoes yet. Actually, I'm starting to be completely sure that EVERY charity we invest millions of dollars in each year doesn't actually go to help children, but instead to the pockets of very happy white collar African men. Terrific.

Chels - I hope you got home safely! We were only 3 hours time difference apart for a couple days! I tried to text you today but didn't have your number. Sad.

I miss all of you so much! I'm getting used to it here very quickly and I hear time goes by like crazy. Hopefully I will blog more soon when I figure the 3 different taxis out a bit better. Leave me comments so I know you're not dead!

Love!