Ernest in Ghana

Hi everyone!

I can’t believe I have only been in Ghana for two weeks! It feels like I have lived here forever. A lot has happened so I will try to give you guys a quick summary before I run out of minutes at the internet cafe.

I left for Philadelphia on 6/6/06 and met my fellow volunteer trainees at the Holiday Inn near the historic district. It was not the best date to be traveling (I was reminded of the 666 reference a few times before leaving) but we all made it there okay. Our group had 33 to-be volunteers, around 50/50 male female. The majority of the people are recent college graduates. We have two older volunteers and the rest of the people are between 20 to 30 years of age. It was at that time that I found out we were all going to be teachers. We will be teaching math, science, art, and ICT (Information and Communication Technology). Another group of volunteers will be arriving in Ghana in September. They will be helping with health, agriculture, and the environment. After going through some ice breaker activities, filling out some paperwork, and getting our first round of shots, we went to the JFK airport via an air-conditioned bus (oh how I miss air-condition) and got on the plane.

We flew Lufthansa and therefore stopped at Frankfurt, Germany for the connecting flight. It was at the airport that I had my last fancy meal, a chocolate croissant and coffee. Due to multiple delays, we finally arrived in Accra, Ghana after 22 hours of traveling.

I found out very quickly that the travel guide was quite accurate in regards to the hot weather. We are in the middle of the rainy season (May to September) and it is raining around every other day, so the humidity is quite high. Fortunately, the rain also has some cooling affect so the temperature is more bearable on the days when it rains.

At the Accra airport, we were greeted by the country director and other administrative staff at the gate. But it was when we came out of the airport that we realized more than 50 volunteers had traveled to Accra from all over Ghana to welcome us and to cheer us on. I found out later that many of them had been waiting in the rain for 3 hours. It felt so nice to know that we have such a strong supporting system in Peace Corps Ghana.

Peace Corps did a great job in pacing our integration into the country. We were brought to a university where we would stay for one week. We called it “the compound” since it is totally fenced off from the city. After two days of classes and exposure to Ghanaian instructors, we went on a walk in the immediate community. We saw a typical market and witnessed methods to bargain on the street. Two days later, we went on a scavenger hunt in Accra. We were divided into groups of two and had to visit different sites in the city with very minimal instructions and language training and just a little money from the trainers. We became quite experienced in a very chaotic public transportation system and became very good at asking for directions and walking long distances. Ghanaians are so friendly so we felt quite safe walking around town. We felt very accomplished when everyone made it back safely to the compound and many of us had interesting stories to tell (including a taxi driver being arrested for having an expired license and wheel falling off of a van, called tro-tro here in Ghana).

The accommodations at the compound was quite nice for Ghana standards. We had running water at a common bathroom. We had electricity in the buildings and a fan in each room. We lived in dorm rooms so we had two people in each room. Despite the amenities, I still found myself doing a quick gut check asking myself whether I could stay in the country for the next 27 months. I felt some apprehension when thinking about all the challenges ahead. Those apprehension faded very quickly but I cannot help but wonder how often this sense of insecurity would crop up in my stay here in Ghana. Well, at least so far so good!

More to follow…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 5th, 2006 at 5:06 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.