So I am FINALLY getting to this! It sounded like such a great idea to start a blog before I left for my summer in Ghana but of course I didn’t set it up before leaving and so once I got here and hit the ground running, the whole thing practically became a joke. For about a week, I didn’t even go to an internet café to check my mail and then when I did get to one the following week, I had so much mail to deal with I didn’t even think about the blog thing. Now as I’m pretty much through my 3rd week, I figured it was high time so without further apologies and excuses, here it goes:
I left the US on the 19th in a bit of a whirlwind between detoxing from my Peru trip, witnessing Adwoa’s proms and graduations, and trying to get myself organized in NY (let’s just say I still haven’t really sorted through all my college stuff and now also have a few NOLA things…sorry for the clutter Mutti!) only to climb into a similar storm of craziness here. This time I didn’t feel the gushy feeling (think: “Wow! Wow! Oh my gosh! I can’t believe I’m home in Ghana!”) I had last year when I came back after being gone for 10 years. I was definitely excited and nervous but it was more of a peaceful, determined and confident state of mind in sharp contrast to the tourist perspective of last summer. After all, I had arrived with an itinerary filled with internship objectives, lists of specific people to visit, research to do, and wedding planning to get through and it all had to be done in a short 8 weeks – no messing around this time! HAHA.
I spent the weekend readjusting to my new surroundings and catching up with Nii Armah, a few friends, and my half-sister Golda. Then on Monday I had to report to the headquarters of Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) in Accra before driving 2.5 hours west to Cape Coast, where I would actually be working. Talk about having to adjust several times in the span of a few days! Before I could be settled in Accra, I was heading to Cape Coast to meet my host family and my supervisors and to actually live in a city I had only visited as a tourist to the castles and Kakum National park. Nii drove me to my family’s home and then around the city and showed me some key points and also the PPAG clinic so I could familiarize myself somewhat before he headed back to Accra. Then, I got to chat with my host family, the Ntrehs (Rev. Ben, Auntie Alice, and Ruth), had dinner, chatted some more and headed to bed since I had an early start the next morning for work. And believe me! I’m very glad I rested up that first night because the first day of work was exhausting.
Actually, it wasn’t just the first day because I have been busy ever since and the weeks just fly by between the crazy work schedule and traveling to Accra every weekend. Basically, I wake up at 5:30, leave for work at 7:30, get home at 6, and don’t get to bed until after midnight. When I leave on Friday afternoons for Accra, it’s not for rest because there are so many people to see and things to get done in the span of 2 days (Saturday + half of Friday and Sunday) that I wake up only a bit later and go to bed much later. It’s a bit overwhelming at times but I’m getting the hang of it and actually feel like I’m thriving on the hecticness (lets hope that sticks for the majority of this trip…lol).
Anyhow, enough of all that. This entry was meant as a tiny introduction to get me into the mode of this blogging thing so I will sign off here. Since I’ve decided that it’s cheaper and easier to type entries on my laptop at home, save them on my thumb drive and then post them to the blog later, I will post this tomorrow so you all can peruse. And now that I’ve started, I will try really hard to be more regular with the posts so expect to get further details about work, my host family, and my other adventures here in Ghana.
Be blessed!
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