Safe and Sound

After spending an enjoyable day with my cousins and their adorable boys, Darius and Justin, I arrived in Ghana on Tuesday evening. I must admit, having two kids under the age of 5 to keep my mind off of the trip was pretty much perfect... couldn't have been less stressed leaving if I had tried!

We left from Toronto at about 6pm, arrived in Frankfurt (Munich is far nicer) at 7am, and left for Lagos, Nigeria at 10:30am. I have been warned numerous times about Nigeria, Lagos in particular, but we didn't have to leave the plane, it was just a one hour stop. Later on I found out that a few years ago a plane was hijacked when it stopped to refuel in Lagos - things better learned POST-travel! Anyway, we arrived in Accra (capital city), Ghana at 5pm. We were met by Charlie, who is a research associate (former intern) at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre. Lindsay, another Ploughshares intern - who I was travelling with/am living with, is an intern at the KAIPTC. As you may recall, I am interning at WANEP (West African Network for Peacebuilding) which is a local network which connects over 150 NGOs in the field of peacebuilding. Our organizations work together occassionally... currently WANEP staff are at the KA centre for an annual conference. This brings me to why I am currently here, writing this post at the KA centre. I start work next week, but did have the opportunity to meet a few of the higher-ups this morning during a break in the conference.

Alright now on to a bit of my experience so far. There is really so much, I am not entirely sure where to begin, so I'll just dive right in. Driving in from the airport was a bit overwhelming... culture shock is like travel jargon that makes no sense until you are actually IN a different country. And depsite previous travel experience, I am pretty sure you wipe your slate clean everytime you get back to North America. So, aside from a serious resemblence to Belize (probably Belize city especially, Fariba you'll have to confirm when you see pictures), I felt a bit like I was floating for the first 24 odd hours.

Where we live: previous interns with WANEP and KAIPTC, especially Ploughshares interns, have lived in this 'compound' which is run by a landlady who we call "Mammi" - yes like Mommy, and full of random internationals who work at various jobs and positions with an array of NGOs that operate throughout Accra. This is good because we have met lots of people who have given us very helpful tips, advice, etc. We live in an area called Osu, which someone referred to as the Soho of Accra. That makes me want to laugh a bit, but it IS a fantastic location, in close proximity to restaurants, a big grocery store, etc. You name it, they sell it on or near the street outside our place. Like I already mentioned to many of you, we had a fun incident with some huge cochroaches on our first night. Now my experience to date has provided limited exposure to these nasty creatures, I think the closest was the kitchen in Ukraine that was infested, but they were SMALLER and did not fly! Also in Bosnia, apparently there was one room in our house that was infested, but I think I saw a total of 2, neither of which was the size of these ones in our kitchen and bathroom... yikes. Anyway, we affectionately refer to them as our welcoming committee, but at the time, it was not super fun!

Yesterday we went exploring a bit, accompanied by another girl who lives in our compound. We got phones, a few groceries, had coffee (very hard to find here... sigh the irony), and salad. Yes, I know, despite the massive warnings against salad, it was my first meal... we'll see how I fare later I suppose. I have yet to try Ghanaian food, I mean real Ghanaian food, but perhaps tonight I will. I think there are actually a lot of similarities to Guyanese food (plantains, cassava etc.), so part of me thinks I may take quite a liking to it... who doesn't like fried plantains though seriously?

The money here is so inflated it is insane. I literally have a wad of bills which works out to less than 20 bucks... What else? Well there are so many internationals and ex-pats here it is bizzarre. I'm not gonna lie, I tend to stare at foreigners just like I get stared at, it's rather weird. Also, we went to this grocery store yesterday and I was overwhelmed with the amount of British stuff they carry... it was like being in Sainsbury's (best supermarket in the UK), well almost! I mean they carry Haribo AND Ribena... hilarious.

Anyway, don't get the wrong idea, I am going to not live entirely like an international... especially when my job starts, but at the same time, the small things (like getting a gym pass later today) make being thousands of miles away that much easier!

Please do email if you get a chance, and let me know if you want my cell number. Hope everyone is well and happy!