Travel and First Days!!

After two very stressful days of travel I'm finally almost through the first day in Ghana. The time difference is only 5 hours so not too bad but my airport experiences were less than pleasant...but the main thing is that I survived!

Right now we are staying in a hotel in Accra, the capitol city. Originally I thought that we'd be here for two weeks but it's actually only two days! I'm meeting my host family siblings tomorrow for dinner and move in with them on Monday. My host mom is named Aunti Grace and she is a seamstress/fabric dyer and runs the store out of the home, my host dad is a contractor, and my host sisters are named Rachel and Seecho and are around the ages of 25 & 26.

We've spent most of the day just meeting each other and doing typical orientation stuff about safety, customs, communication, and money. We also went to the mall today and bought cell phones. The taxi ride there was pretty crazy because people don't really obey traffic signs here. They just drive wherever without stopping for other cars...it's even worse than Milwaukee or Chicago..and we don't have seatbelts here... luckily my petite body often leads me to be positioned in the center seat so I feel a bit safer haha.

I've been telling people a lot lately that I don't really believe that I'm going to Africa, and I still have a hard time believing it. Our hotel has a/c, cable, and a pool (I took pictures but fear my internet connection is too slow to upload them)...also there have been potatoes or french fries at each meal I've had so far so I think of this as still somewhat Americanized. I'm sure by tomorrow when we go on a scavenger hunt throughout the city and campus I'll finally start realizing where I am but for now it seems like a vacation at a hotel with strangers haha. Speaking of, there are 47 students on my trip. My roommate is from New Jersey and surprisingly enough we're two of the oldest people on the program (most students are going to be juniors not seniors). I've met some interesting characters and even a couple from UW-Madison that I didn't know. We also have U-Pals or University Pals staying with us and helping us. U-Pals are Ghanaian University students and they have been super helpful and comforting, so I really appreciate their presence.

Right now I think things are going well, it's definitely a challenging place to be but I'm glad I'm doing this and know in the end everything will turn out all right no matter how difficult the culture shock seems at the time. Everyone is really surprised when I tell them that before now I'd only been on a plane once and had never left the country...and now I'm in Africa! Crazy but good.

Overall, I'm doing fine and trying to get a routine so that it'll be easier to talk to family and friends either via facebook, phone, or skype. If you would like any updates and I haven't updated in awhile feel free to check in with my mom or dad as I'll likely be talking to them the most often.

Till next time...