I made it!

I'm here! It's the first time I've been able to access the internet anywhere so it's pretty exciting. Today we've just been sitting in lectures about safety, health and some other stuff that I don't really remember. We also took a tour of the campus. Our reward for the long walk is the internet. :) Also, I had to share the bathroom with a cockroach today. Hopefully he's gone when I get back to the room. hahaha.

Here's some stuff I wrote from the past few days. 

Aug. 11: Day of Arrival

             After a major delay that set us back a day and then enduring the nightmare that is airport security (I got patted down for the first time in London…what an experience), layovers and flights, we have arrived. After all of this, my body has no idea what time it actually is. I am so exhausted, but also so happy to finally be here.

            The first thing I noticed when I stepped off of the plane in Ghana was the impressive humidity. Right now it’s not even that hot as far as temperature goes, but it’s rather steamy here.

            Also, our dorm rooms are a lot nicer than I had expected. They’re pretty big and we have our own bathrooms—although whether or not all of the utilities in your bathroom works is another story. Currently, the toilet and sink in my room are out of commission but the shower works. There is no hot water ever.

            The other Calvin students are really nice. I’ve really enjoyed them so far. So that’s a relief.

            Tomorrow we are going to church on campus and then doing some orientation stuff. After that I think we going to go out and explore the city. So it should be a good day.

            Thanks for all of your thoughts, prayers and encouragement. 

Aug. 12: Church, Orientation, and Exploration

            We walk a lot. This campus is huge…like a city within itself. The church we went to on campus was about a 20 minute walk and from there we walked about 15 minutes to our classroom to do orientation and then walking back to our dorm took us another 20+ minutes. I’m not complaining, really. I’m just observing. It probably stuck out more to me today because of my poor choice in shoes. I wore dressier sandals to church that do absolutely nothing for the well-being of your feet. So I will probably have some impressive blisters on my feet tomorrow.

            This evening we went exploring in Accra. We took the tro-tro, which is a form of public transportation. Basically, they’re just big vans that cost like .25 (American) cents to ride in. They really pack the people in, but it’s super fun—trust me. I honestly don’t even know where we ended up but we found this random restaurant on like the 4^th floor of this building and had a lovely little dinner. After that we explored some of the stores on the street and caught a tro-tro back to the university.

All in all it was a very good day.

It's so good to use the internet. You don't really realize how much you rely on something until it's not there. I have the same feeling towards toilets. Mine still doesn't work, but I'm learning that with some creativity and a good attitude, you can get past anything. :)

Also, we're supposed to meet our roommates today....

Love,

Ali