First Impressions

The first thing I noticed about Ghana was the wall of humidity I hit as I stepped off the plane...seriously, like a wall! The good news was it wasn't raining though. My plane landed in Accra at about 6:30pm last night and by the time I made it through immigration and found my bag it was 7:30pm - I was getting desperately nervous that my ride, who had been told I was arriving at 6:15pm, would have already left and I would have to find my own way to a hotel for which I only had the name. This was the first point I was cursing the fact I was traveling alone. Luckily though, William was still waiting and he brought be safely to the hotel.

This morning, after not really sleeping at all on the plane the night before, I was woken abruptly by my hotel room phone ringing at 7am. Normally I would have been very annoyed except that this was Agatha calling. She is the mother of one of the women that works on the Millennium Village Project in NYC. She was calling to see what I needed to do today and offer me her driver. Ben picked me up an hour later, brought me to Agatha's office at the ministry of finance and then continued to be my life line the rest of the day. He helped me get a cell phone, gave me a little tour of Accra, brought me to the MVP office here in Accra to meet with someone about my research, and he brought me to the bank. Again...not knowing where any of these things were, and I'm sure if the little white American had gone by taxi would have been ripped off...Ben = lifesaver.

When I got back to the hotel, I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood. Out on the road I met a very nice girl named Elizabeth who was on her way home from work and invited me to her home. As we walked and talked she mentioned more than once that she was a safe person but that I need to be leerly of bad people. Was she trying to give me a false sense of security? I figured as long as we were walking on the crowded road I was fine. It was when she told me we had to get on a TroTro (sketchy bus) to go the rest of the way that I got leery. At this point my dad's departing words, "don't be naive" rang in my ear. I made up an excuse that I had to be back at the hotel shortly so I could not make a long trip. She seemed to understand and even walked me back part of the way so I would not get lost. She really did seem nice enough, and I'm sure I would have been fine, but better safe than sorry.... Ghanaian's are very friendly. She was the second person I had talked with only briefly who wanted my contact information and wanted me to contact them when I came back to Accra.

Now I'm back at the hotel and have some work to do tonight before I head to the site offices tomorrow. It turned out one of the team members was in Accra today and heading back tomorrow so I do not have to take a bus to Kumasi - yet another blessing!