I'm here!

I’m here in Ghana! It hasn’t hit me yet, though. I’m still completely exhausted from over 24 hours of traveling. My flights - from Los Angeles to Memphis to Amsterdam to Accra - were long, but uneventful. Oh, but I became SO excited when I looked out the window and saw the Accra city lights sparkling like glitter!

My very first thought when descending the plane was, “How warm!” I was wearing jeans, so my legs felt really warm, and the rest of my body was comfortable.

Blah, blah, blah, passport checks, blah, blah, finding my luggage, customs, blah, blah, etc. I found Sister Juliana, the person who was picking me up (she said she knew it was me, because I just sort of wandered out of the airport and looked around a bit like I was lost, but in actuality, I was just trying to take in all the sights, sounds, and smells of this new country), and we got in the SUV, which was some model of Toyota, which reminds me of all the Toyotas I’ve been in at home. Wow, I’m only in Ghana forty-five minutes and I’m already thinking of home.

I couldn’t stop staring all around me at all the sights as we drove around. MY WORD! Accra is like New York... crazy drivers! I would NOT want to drive here, ever. I would take a tro-tro instead. Tro-tros are these vans that are packed with people and basically work like buses. I haven’t taken one yet so I don’t know what that’s like, but someday I will and I’ll let you know.

It’s different here, but it’s basically the same, you know? Maybe. All I’ve seen so far is the road from the airport to my house, and it was after dark, so I actually don’t know anything yet.

The biggest difference that I’ve seen (so far) is that we don’t have running water. They have buckets of water in the bathroom, and we just use those. I took my first bucket shower today. It somehow feels more adventurous! I’m trying something completely new! I know that after a while, not having running water will either get really old, or really routine and not a big deal. I have a feeling I’ll get so used to it that I’ll stop caring, and when I go back to America, running water will amaze me!

Other than that, everything seems rather luxurious here in my house... er, convent. I mean, it’s very sparse and minimal, but clean and comfortable, and I don’t need much. We even have a cook! The best, best part so far about living here is that my house is PINK! I live in a PINK house! :)

But I’m so exhausted right now. I’m going to sleep. I’m allowed to sleep in tomorrow, but after I get up I’ll be able to meet the kids I’ll be teaching... lovely!