Arriving in Ghana

I began my adventures on Friday, April 15th around noon Boise time and arrived in Accra, Ghana (after about 20 hours of travel!) on Saturday, April 16th around 1:00 pm Ghana time.  Everything had gone fairly smoothly up to that point, for which I was grateful... all on-time departures with early arrivals, smooth flying and landing, really good food on my DC to Accra leg, and I didn't even have to use a plane bathroom once!  I kept our flight map up on my individual tv screen for quite a bit of the last leg of my flight... most of the time we were over the ocean, so I was really excited when I saw that we were over land.  It isn't the best picture, but here's my first glimpse of Africa:

On my last leg of the flight I was handed an immigration form to complete.  I filled everything out except for the address where I would be staying in Ghana - it hadn't even crossed my mind that I would need to bring the Maughan's address with me!  Uh oh.  They wouldn't let me through immigration without it.  Thankfully I had Dr. Maughan's cell phone number and the immigration officer was able to call and get their address for me.  I got my bags, breezed through customs, and easily spotted the Maughans in the waiting area... the only two white faces amongst a sea of black.  I guess a famous athlete was on my flight because there was a big crowd in the waiting area, complete with television cameras!

The first day there we drove around so I could get a sense of where I would be staying for the week.  Wow - I couldn't have even imagined what I saw and the way I felt that first afternoon.  It was kind of like sensory overload.  The streets were packed with people - some were catching the "trotro" (van used as public transportation), many were selling anything from fresh fruit to clothing to luggage from roadside stands, etc.  We drove by the beautiful Accra temple, by Jamestown (an extremely poor part of Accra, lined with shacks), past several dirt lots where children played soccer, and by a newer "development" of shacks - built right on top of what was a garbage dump just a few months ago.

The poverty and garbage would blow your mind.  But was even more amazing were the smiling faces behind all that.  Especially the children.  They really are beautiful - gorgeous dark skin, big round eyes, and pretty white smiles.  One thing that struck me was how clean everyone was - with the garbage everywhere on the streets and the extreme poverty where many don't even have running water and have to "bathe" with a bucket of water once a week, and wash all their clothes by hand.

We went swimming in the apartment complex pool that afternoon, followed by dinner and an early bedtime because I was a bit tired from the journey to Ghana!