Our First Day

Ghana so far...from Lael...

Wow! Where do I start? We arrived here yesterday. We descended from the back of the plane (interesting experience #1) and were welcomed by an intense heat wave. Hot enough to fog up my camera lense (intersting experience #2). We gathered our luggage with the generous help of a few locals (all asking for tips) and meandered our way through customs. Having unpleasant experiences with customs in Brazil, I imagined Ghana would be nothing short of awful. The airport was crowded and four employees were investigating each bag. David began heading through the crowd and I noticed that noone said anything. He started to wave at a woman, asking her if she wanted to see his bags, but as she ignored him I told him to keep moving. He listened. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is How to Handle Customs in Ghana For Dummies.

After our success we were greeted by an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper with our names in faded blue marker. He showed us out to our ride, an Escalade manned with its own driver and our local Auntie, Ofie Kodjoe (Boris's cousin). Ofie is wonderful - a very sweet, very protective and loving woman. David and I are now running on about 5 hours of sleep combined (.5 for me, 4.5 for him) and it's 3:30am in Atlanta. She wants to know if we're hungry (duh, David's always hungry) and we want to know where we're sleeping (and how soon).

We arrive on campus and after some navigational (is that even a word?) difficulties we found our hostel. Well, it found us. Actually, it welcomed us with a green cloud of marijuana smoke. Ofie looked around, attempted to find the missing warden to at least look at our rooms, and after no success promptly told us we would find another place to stay. And marijuana isn't legal in Ghana.

Isaac, our Escalade driver, then took us to the main University campus (the previous hostel was on the Medical School campus) where other Emory students, Bilal and Maryam, are staying. We found their hostel - much nicer on the outside and only the faint smell of something burning - and them. Oh, American faces! It was refreshing. The only problem was that we couldn't find Matt. We had just missed him by an hour, and he was attempting to find us - sans cell phone and internet. And so began our journey, Where the Heck is Matt?

rest of story... from David

Back tracking a little, the funny thing is we left Atlanta with the plan of meeting up 5000 miles away only knowing the warden's name of some random hostel was Faustina; we had no address, no phone number and not even a general idea of where the hostel was located. So after a few leads from Bilal, we figured out Matt probably stayed on the main campus so we headed over that way. We arrived and asked the porter (assistant RA... they got onto Matt's case for wrong terminology Warden=RA, porter=desk assistant) if they had seen a tall white guy and surely enough, Matt checked-out an hour prior to our arrival and left to find us on the Medical Campus. Since Bilal and Maryam were here, we decided to stay put and setup camp here for the night. Bilal and Maryam had been here 2 weeks already, so they had a genernal feel for the city. They took us to a Lebanese Restaurant where the food was safe and there was air conditioning and internet. Lael and I looked like two zombies (we both took a nap, so we're working on a combined 7 hours of sleep at this point), but we were definitely happy for food (I'm always happy for food)! The restaurant was great, but we were not able to eat everything because the contents might not have been washed.

Interesting Food Precaution #1: Sachet of Water- Ghanaian tap water is not safe, so we have to drink and brush our teeth with bottled or sachet water. Sachet water looks like freezer bags with water, they are cheap and come in bulk!
Interesting Food Precaution #2: Vegetables and Fruit- We don't each anything that is uncooked or anything we have not peeled ourselves.

We head back (6:30 p.m. local) and get ready to hit the sack (we're both pretty much silent at this point... which rarely happens, especially for me). Taking a shower was definitely the best part of the day. After being on a plane for 20 hours and spending a whole day in the hot Ghanaian sun, the cold shower (no hot water here, no need) felt incredible. We've been told by multiple people that taking a shower upon arrival really brightens your day, I have no idea why, but it is so true!

I go to bed thankful for a roof over my head and thankful for food in my stomach; never in my life have I been worried about food and shelter, but today we got to briefly experience what most of the world experiences daily. I was thankful that we'd made it through the day, but uneasy not knowing what the heck we were doing and Where the Heck is Matt.

I was awaken this morning by a knock on my door, I hesitate to open at first thinking it's the Warden waking me up to pay for the room. After a few more knocks, I crawl out of bed, open the door and surely enough Matt Turner was there to greet me!! After a huge roommate embrace, I found out he got in late in the night after receiving our emails and after a very interesting journey at Korle Bu (I'll let him post his experience... many interesting events). After freshening up, Matt, Lael and I call our auntie Ofie and are told that her nephew and work intern will help us out for a few hours. We wait for an hour... then another... and finally we decide to explore the area on foot. We were told that the lifestyle here is very different, everyone is laid back and always late... not David Chen late... but big time late (interesting experience #3). Charles and Richard (nephew and intern) meet up with us on our way to one of the markets and help get us into a dorm on campus. So starting tomorrow night, we will be staying at a Uni (college=Uni) dorm called Pentagon here on campus. The rooms are about the size of a normal dorm room (maybe a bit smaller), but there is no air conditioning or fans. We're very excited about the living arrangement, the dorms are half the price of what we are staying in right now and Matt and I were able to get a room right across the hall from Lael on the ground floor (with weather this hot, walking up stairs is a real work out).

Charles and Richard drop us off at the Accra Mall in search of fans and food. There are 3 chains that are always right next to each other (Pizza Inn, Creamy Inn and Chicken Inn... you can figure it out). We eat at the chicken place and I am super excited! I knew I loved meat, but I didn't know how much I craved it (it's only been 36 hours since I've eaten meat). At our lunch we decided to go with a "Take One For the Team" policy; there are many things we would like to try, but we'd also like to not be next to a bathroom all summer. So we decided that if there is something that is probably safe, but not 100% certain, we will try one at a time. Lael and Matt tried a hot sauce today, so I will be next in line to take one for the team.

The Accra Mall is super posh and has nothing we can afford (Apple Store, Swatch Store, Puma Store... you get the point), so we get a taxi to take us to the closest thing they have to a Wal-Mart to buy a fan for our room. The ride to the store took us through part of town that was more authentic Ghana and less westernized. It was a real treat today to go on that taxi ride and see everything we saw. There are countless things that caught my eye, here are just a few: traditional clothing, street craftsmen and their amazing work, women carrying everything on their head, giant lizards, chickens running around (if my craving gets bad...there will be pictures), the beautiful Ghanaian landscape, the really crazy driving (honking=turn signal). We're now back at the hostel, happy to be together and about to go look for dinner.

Here are a few random things we didn't mention:
1) Internet- Lael's friend from church gave her an mobile internet card. So we have been able to get online by using this mobile card. We will be able to email, but that is about it; until we find faster sources, we will not be able to post pictures or talk on Skype. We are so fortunante to have ease of technology at our wanting in the U.S.; we really are a blessed country and even after a day, I am thankful for so much that we don't even realize is not a nessicity for life.
2) One of the most exciting things so far has been to see all the Ghanaians walking to church yesterday morning. As we drove around with Ofie and we saw people all over the streets wearing their Sunday best (Ghana style of course!) and carrying their Bibles. It was really cool to think that our friends at home, half the world away, were four hours away from doing the same thing, carrying the same Bible, worshipping the same God! So cool! Ofie is a member of an international church here that apparantly has great gospel-centered services, she also is a member of Covenant Life Church in Maryland, which happens to be the church pastored by 2 of my favorite authors (C.J. Mahaney and Joshua Harris)!! She will be taking Matt, Lael and I to church on Sundays. This was a huge answered prayer, so thank you for praying for me!

We would love to hear from you, so please send us emails!! Thanks again for everyone's support and prayers!