Sunday, February 22, 2009

Bright, colorful, warm, and friendly

Here is a picture that Prasad took of me yesterday (I was chatting with kids at a rest stop between Accra and Takoradi), notice the little girl petting my head:

I’ve only been here a few days, but today was definitely my favorite day so far. I slept well last night (woke up a lot, but each time was able to get back to sleep and feel like I am already on a normal sleep pattern, yay!) and went to the International Church of God in Christ for service this morning. The sermon was very good (and charismatic) and the traditional clothes everyone wore made it incredibly bright and beautiful. I took a cab, with a driver who answered anything I asked with “yes” but still made it safely the 15 minute drive there. On the way back to the hotel, he took me through downtown because I was going to buy a few items (like candles and matches), so I got to see the street vendors and the hustle-and-bustle of people. The brick-and-mortar stores were all closed for Sunday, but I enjoyed the ride anyway.

The hotel staff (everyone from chambermaids to general manager and chef) are going out of their way to ensure we feel comfortable here. I asked two simple questions this morning before breakfast and by the time I was done eating, Helena had already done both things in my room. She is a sweet sweet girl and she asked me to pray for a husband for her as I was leaving for church, so those of you reading this who pray, please do pray for beautiful Helena.

When I returned from church, I rejoined our team and we all went down to the beach. The water was warm and I jumped right in to swim for a while (I’ll have to think about it, but this may have been the first time I ever swam in the Atlantic Ocean). The beach here is beautiful, and I can see why this area of Ghana brags about having the best beaches in the country. When I applied for this program, I thought I would be living in a hut in the middle of nowhere, so I feel incredibly blessed (and highly favored!) to be in a comfortable hotel so close to the beach.

Here is the beach today, you can't feel how soft the sand was or how warm the water was:

After the beach, we headed back to the hotel for our orientation meeting with the chief of police (who didn’t warn the ladies about anything but warned the men about getting frisky with the ladies, who might rob them blind in the middle of the night), the hotel general manager (Charles, who asked me to pray for wisdom for him as I was leaving church this morning, so I want to call him Solomon), and several trusted taxi drivers. We talked about logistics (laundry, food, etc.) and meeting our clients tomorrow before heading to dinner. I ate banku (kind of like Kenyan ugali, you tear off a piece with your fingers and dip it in a soup) with fish and okra soup. It was good, but I think I will like fufu (like Puerto Rican mofongo) better. It’s nice to be here for a month so I can try all the food.

I learned a lot about Takoradi (~350K people total in the twin cities of Takoradi and Sekondi, growth due to the oil discovery) and the Western Region (one of 10 administrative regions in Ghana). The Western Region (where I am staying) is very important economically: they contribute 55% of Ghana’s annual cocoa supply, 100% of their rubber, 75% of coconut, and they are first in gold and second in diamonds. I am eager to meet our clients tomorrow, but I really enjoyed a relaxing day today and I look forward to doing more exploration as we go.

Yvan and Sandy, proposal number one already.

2 comments:

  1. Oh joy...Ghana. Proposals and people petting your hair....your blog is really bringing me back. Just wait until you find an Ewe girl that pets the hair on your arm and says "It's nice." Have fun chale!

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  2. Michelle, I am so glad that this blog is bringing you great memories of such a beautiful country! I had paw paw for breakfast and fufu with groundnut and fish soup for lunch today, yummy :)

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