ghana. day one. two. three.

day one:
I'M IN GHANA!!! No piece of cake getting here, that's for sure, but I'm here. Stefanie (one of my best friends from home) left a St. Christopher bracelet to surprise me in my purse so when I got to LA, I found it and from then on, I knew I would have a safe trip =). Finding it made me so happy and it was just so thoughtful. Anyway, first off, I just ichatted with my mom and it was nice to see her! It's already 1:30 am here but I'm not tired, just pretty worn out. One of my roommates and i are the only people awake anymore. Everyone else is asleep. I can't tell you much about ghana yet, because it was dark when we landed, but everyone seems pretty nice. Except that its HOT! And humid as a sauna, gross. And it's only night time, I can only imagine the sun woo. Apparently in missed this, but in the airport, there are signs saying that if you are a pedophile, you must leave the country. No signs about criminals, rapists, identity theifs, etc. but pedophiles MUST get back on the plane and leave. Welcome to Ghana. So my evening upon arrival... My suitcase broke at the seams at the airport. All my luggage smelled like vinegar... like seriously haha? Only in Accra, I guess. So then we took little buses to the dorms. We got off the buses, and I look at the dorm assignment sheet and I see Griffin next to "JOSHUA"!!!!!!! Of course, they put me in a BOY's room because my name is griffin. So that was great. But now i'm in a triple with two other girls because the girl who is supposed to live with them doesn't get into ghana for another couple days. So we'll see what happens with that. I really like the dorm, it's really nice, and we have electric fences around the facility and security men who check the van as we come in, so I feel super safe. We only have cold showers for a while, which was refreshing, and cold haha. I'm a very happy camper. I really like most of the people here, hopefully it'll get even better. Orientation ALL WEEK LONG! So I'll update as soon as possible about actual Accra, Ghana..

day two:
Orientation starts. LONG LONG day. Hot again too. Every minute of our day from 8am to 8pm is filled with lectures about how not to die here and how if we do something wrong how we will die. Wear bug repellent. Take malaria meds. Drink bottled water. Don't have sex with locals. Eat cooked food. Don't walk around by yourself at night. If you do any of these things, you're just asking for it. Anyway, it's really nice spending all day with the whole group because we really get to know everyone! It's so different being in Africa, so its nice that we are easing our way into everything. Some very un-American things/African things that I think are pretty funny: chickens, mango trees, and baby kittens in our backyard, lots of dirt roads, "road rumbles" instead of speed bumps, cold showers, etc. It's fun though. We're all just getting used to the idea of being in AFRICA. The staff is great and they make it really easy to get adjusted. Ghanaian food is great. We had it for both lunch and dinner. My favorite: plantains from this place called Tante Marie. We have a meal plan here which is great, because I think plantains are my new favorite food. mmm. Also, at lunch, a cell phone vendor came and we got nice ghanaian nokia cell phones. Pay-as-you-go. So if you get a call from Africa, ANSWER IT, IT'S ME!!

day three:
Orientation started at EIGHT! So needless to say, I was tired from the moment I woke up and my roommates and I all didn't want to get out of bed. Finally we did and went with the whole group to the Academic center where we learned yet again about more ways in which we can die. Malaria, typhoid fever, diarrhea, AIDS. Wonderful. Today we actually got to walk around the town in a little area called Osu. Ghanaians are VERY aggressive when they want you to buy something. This man came up to me and when I said "No thank you." He proceeded to tell me, "It's nice to be nice, you know?" put the necklace in my hand and wouldn't leave my side for about five minutes. I didn't buy the necklace and just left. He approached some of my friends but I pulled them away haha. We also had our first Twi lesson today. I learned how to say many things. Its a very hard language and the enunciation of everything is sooo different than it looks. Today we had no Ghanaian food - only pizza for lunch (delicious) and indian food for dinner, also good. I'm excited to get into the city more though, we've been kind of kept in our group for a while! Tonight we're watching Milk because one of the boys here has it, so I'm very excited for that. Actually... I'm going now! I'll try to keep up with this blog thing...

twi lesson for the evening: bye = Yebehyia

Peace and love love love