Hey guys! Well, I've arrived safely in the lovely place known as Ghana. I spent the first four nights staying at some Women's Center in Greater Accra with all of the other trainees. For the most part, it was a good time. Some of the highlights: the weather is unbelievably perfect (it's the rainy season right now so it's cooler and more windy than Atlanta), the people are very easy to get along with...this includes other trainees and Ghanians, we drink water out of a plastic bag, which sounds weird, but I actually quite enjoy for some reason, we got to attend a party at the ambassadors house that involved a live band, great food, and beer/wine, oh, and the buses play a song by mozart when backing up instead of beeping. Some of the yucky stuff: I have had several lovely shots in the arm (and many more to come), there are many, many spiders...Karyn you'd love that..., and I'm sure I've eaten meat at several occasions so far (they kept saying it was vegetarian but I later found out that if it comes from a can, they don't consider it meat :(). Overall tho, the cons don't even compare to the pros of living here.
On Friday we went to the city in groups of 3 and walked around for about 5 hours. It was quite the experience. I attempted to have conversations with the locals, but considering they had only taught us a couple of sentences they all went like this "Good morning, how are you?" "I am fine, how are you?" "I also am fine." And then the native women would crack up laughing. It was fun and I had a very good time, and I also bought my first 2-yd (cloth to make clothes out of). I've taken many pictures, but unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera to this internet cafe so I'll post them later.
Yesterday I went on my vision quest, which is when you go and stay with a current volunteer for a couple of days. She lives in Tema, about 1 hour east of Accra on the coast. She has been cooking for me, and the food is really good...granted anything is better than the rice and fried chicken they were serving us every day for the past week. I still have not tried fu fu, one of the staples of Ghana, but I will soon. Today we walked about 20 minutes from her house and sat at the beach. It was so beautiful! I borrowed her camera so I could show you guys. It is a little overwhelming here though because they don't speak Twi (which is what I know a little of), and instead they speak ga. This happens to be the only place in the world that speaks ga, so you can see how useful it would be to become fluent. In fact, the volunteer I'm staying with says there is a good chance that she is the only white person in the world that speaks it. They all keep trying to talk to me, and I have no idea what is going on. Hopefully Twi will be the language at the site they place me at.
Oh, by the way, there have been showers at every place I've stayed so far...however they are insanely cold. You have to hold your breath the first time you go under the water every time. Also, a lot of the volunteers (including the one I'm staying with) have running water and electricity! Some even have internet access at their house!
So on Tuesday I will travel again and a few short days after I will know where my site is, and I will also be moving in with a home-stay. It will be very interesting to move in with a family that I have never met, and that I really can't communcate with. Some of the volunteers (hopefully not me) will be being trained in the language they will need once they get to their site, but their home-stay family will speak something completely different. In this case, you just kinda nod and smile all the time :)
Ok, well, I'm gonna leave it here. Next Sunday I should have off and I will do my best to travel to an internet cafe and post a new blog. Until then...I send my love, and I hope everyone is doing well. I would love for you to post something and let me know for sure. Ok, love you all,
Diana
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Final night in the states
Well, tonight is the official last night I will sleep in the good ol' US of A. My staging event here in Philly has been quite fun and exciting. I seemed to have lucked out with the people in my group (or perhaps every PC group is full of great people), everyone is quite nice, and I've definately enjoyed myself. Tomorrow after getting shots, we board a bus to Newark and you know the rest. I am unbelievably excited, which I think is inevitable after talking about Ghana for the last two days straight, and I want you all to know that I am doing well. This is the last time I will have computer access for awhile, but I'll write as soon as I do. I love you all, and miss you.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Final Goodbye :)
Alright guys...the time has come. I will miss you all dearly and look forward to hearing how all of y'all are doing. As soon as I have some pics and computer access, I will let you guys know how life is in Ghana. LOVE YOU!!
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This is me at the Amsterdam airport after far too many hours without sleep! I didn't realize quite how scary I look in the picture until I posted it...but I think it's funny.
This was one of the first meals I ate with my homestay family. I soon figured out that it was not customary for Ghanaians to eat together like this (they were just doing it as a sort of introduction to the family) and I ended up eating most of the meals over the next 10 weeks alone, which I was totally ok with. It also is not customary to talk while eating in Ghana (due to the abundant amount of spices used in the food, they are afraid they will choke if they try and talk while eating) so eating alone is virtually the same experience anyways.
Here is a pic of me and the girls at a spot. Check out the gigantic beers they serve here (for only 1 Ghana Cedi too!).
I took this picture while riding in a car on the way to Bote Waterfalls. At first I was like "shoot I think I accidently got those people that we were passing in the photo", but once I saw it I thought it was a really cool pic.
This is Kukurantumi, the town where I had training. It is right before the daily rain...
A kiss for you!