The One Where We Arrive!

So we have arrived in Ghana! After, what has felt like the longest year ever, we are finally here! The travel went smoothly bar a panicked sprint through Gatwick after a ‘mistake’ on the board which said that our gate was closed. 

On the flight from Gatwick to Lisbon another Vol and I were sitting next to a Ghanaian woman named Matilda (or Fofoe if you wanted to use her African name). She had been living in London for the past 30 years after moving there to have a better life when she was only 20. She was heading back to manage the small school that she had set up the year earlier and would not be going back to London until at  least May. She was lovely! The three of us talked for the ENTIRE 3 hour flight about teaching, Ghana and her children whom she had to leave back in London for school. She told us some amazing stories such as not knowing that she was pregnant until she was five months along, how she had adopted her sister's, who sadly passed away, young son and how incredibly proud she was of her daughter who was the first to go to University and gained a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Oxford no less! We were explaining to her a bit about what we were doing and what Project Trust was all about and she decided right then and there that she wanted some PT Vols for her school. So we swapped details and we are going to help when we can down at her school in Achatci. 

Anyway right now I am sitting alone, while everyone else is with their parters, in a hotel room which I will be staying in for the next 5 days. Tomorrow we have orientation with Nana (our Rep in the country), the next day we are touring round Accra then on the Wednesday everyone but three of us is leaving to go to their projects. The reason that we are not leaving is that my partner Sian had some issues with her visa and is having to fly out of Thursday so the four of us based in Hohoe will be leaving on Friday to start teaching on Monday :/

First Impressions;

1. SO HOT. Its midnight on a ‘cold’ night according to Nana and I’m sweating buckets and know I won’t get much sleep because of the heat...
2. PEOPLE ARE SO NICE. There is a perception in Ghana that white people or ‘Obrini’s’ can’t take care of themselves so literally everyone is helping us carry our bags and get in and out of places. Ghanaians are also famed for being incredibly accommodating and friendly and we have definitely seen it already and we have only gone from the airport to the hotel!
3. GHANAIANS ARE CHEEKY. Because we are Obroni’s they are charging us double for things. E.g at the airport 4 guys helped us load the stuff in the van and we had to tip them and they were asking for $20 (US) which is crazy. Managed to get away with tipping them $10 with my newly found refusal and negotiation skills

Emotions at Current Time;

1. Tired
2. Exhausted
3. Lonely 
4. EXCITED!

Going to watch a wee bit of Frozen to cheer me up a bit before I crash.