Day One

hey everyone, we made it safely to Accra at about 8:30 this morning (3:30 Wilmington time).... our 10 hour flight was interesting to say the least. there was a screaming baby that sat next to us along with a guy who kept showing the girl sitting next to him a porn magazine. (creepy!) there was a lot more turbulence than i expected-i was actually pretty scared at some points. but we made it here and arrived at our hotel, which is nicer than i thought it would be. 

a boy named richard is our doorman..he is extremely friendly and came to our door like 3 times to check on us (i have no idea why..) but anyways, we have a taxi driver named mike who is HUGE because my mom believes no one will mess with a huge ghanian man (so true!) he is really sweet and took us to a few places today. we went to an african "mall" where we bought $250 worth of school supplies. we bought 192 booklets...more than 20 crayons...tons of scissors, etc. the checkout lady was obviously aggravated, especially when she had to count 192 booklets out.

but honestly, at this point, ghana was not what i had expected. it seemed less poverty stricken than i thought. also, everyone seemed to be fully clothed and healthy. we had to gone to a pizza place and met a beautiful woman named diana (everyone here has american names!) but they also have a name for the day of the week they were born on. like a mans name was "koffi" because he was born on a friday. koffi was extremely nice by the way. i met him at a market, where he yelled "what up gal!" and proceeded to hug and hit knuckles with me. 

it wasnt until the market that i actually saw ghanas true colors. naturally, my mom and i wanted to do some shopping. we went into this maze-like market that smelt like BO and sweat. everyone there was jumping out at me bringing out jewelry and paintings, begging me to buy something. everything there was beautiful but i was so overwhelmed that i had to walk to some open space..which led me to a wall with a mountain of trash behind it. kids were playing in the trash and a grown woman was just standing there urinating like it was no big deal. i saw kids who were SO skinny and many of them were missing limbs...or were almost naked. mike told me to keep my distance because they will steal anything they see. all of them wanted a few minutes of attention though, many stopped to try and get me to take a photo of them. i had lots of boys swarm me saying "Ey gal!! what up gal!" apparently a white girl their age isnt a very common site. 

we met a man along the way that became our market tour guide almost. he was slightly annoying but my mom, mike, and i just followed him while he tried to get us to buy certain things. (my mom gave in and bought 2  statues!) i mostly wandered away which freaked my mom out but there was so much to see! there were men making drums out of goat fur. men carving bone and sanding masks...everyone looked so tired and surprised to see me. lots of children came up to me saying hey and smiling. most of them were carrying baskets on their head (i could never do that...!) but our market tour guide led us to a little area full of huts and people just laying wherever they could..while my mom bartered with him, i talked to a man that looked about 18 but was over 30! he was wearing a fulani hat from north of ghana into nigeria. he said he had been wearing it for years and it brought him good luck. when i told him i was from north carolina he told me his girlfriend lived there...when i asked where he said he didnt know. obviously he was lying to get me into his shop (they all do, its really funny actually) but i played along. he told me to try fufu, this nasty paste-sauce that hardly seems edible. a lady was actually right next to us making some on a open fire. her naked one year old girl clung to her side (she was SO beautiful!) but when i reached out to say hello the baby ran away screaming (usually the kids are more than happy to get attention) it was strange! 

but after the market adventure my mom and i ended up back here at the hotel. were both exhausted and disgusting (its over 90 degrees here...and humid...and smelly...) 

the hotel were staying in is owned my a man running for president here. the election is December 7th and out of the three people we talked to about it, they each said someone different was going to win. itll be interesting to see who wins. 

tomorrow we go to the orphanage! ill write back then. sorry this was so long, there just was a lot to say! :) i hope you can see the pictures i post as well! (miss you melissa!!)

-helene