Accra Dispatch: Episode One

Hi, everyone,

I'm in Ghana, and it's been quite an adventure so far. Before I get into the details, I just want to let you know that the internet connection I have now is very slow and I pay for each 15 minute segment. So it is really important that when you reply, you don't send me back a copy of my message to you. Be sure to delete my message from your reply so the only thing I get is your message. I'll be doing the same. Also, if you send me any website addresses to check out, please let me know what they are and why you want me to see them, and if there is a lot of photos. Most web pages take quite a bit of time to load. Thanks!! I have a lot more sympathy for people who do not have fast connections and I'm sure my websites will be a lot faster when I get back to work!


The trip from North Adams to Accra started off with a bang. A big bang. The eight of us were supposed to have a chartered minivan for the ride to JFK, about three and a half hours. Apparently, the minivan broke down, so they sent this enormous white stretch limo, which fit us and all our luggage. Our training director was shaking her head, watching us load this beast up: "This is so inappropriate." Meanwhile, our friendly PBS camera man (named Joe) was eating it up. (A PBS series called "Livelyhood" is going to feature us later this year. ) To top it off, it started snowing real hard as we were packing up the car. It was as if some force was at work, making sure that our send-off in the U.S. would be the polar opposite of our arrival in Ghana.

When we arrived here, it was about 78 degrees and humid. I actually felt quite at home. It wasn't too different than a humid Miami night. During the second leg of the flight, Amsterdam to Accra, I woke up after napping a little, and for a second I forgot that I was on a plane going to Africa. I had a vague idea that I was coming home to Oregon. As soon as I took a quick look around the plane, I was brought back to reality: we are definitely going to Africa.

We got settled in our house, which is called Geekhalla. It's a funny sounding name at first, derived from Valhalla, but now we use it as naturally as any other word. The house is massive. The bedrooms are at least 15' square. We have a large living room and family room, and a pretty big kitchen (more about that later...). There are four bedrooms upstairs and three downstairs. There are also four bathrooms. My bedroom is the only one that doesn't share a bathroom. The guys all agreed that I should have it. But it's not like I have the bathroom totally to myself--the showers in two of the other bathrooms were not working today, so naturally I didn't protest when a couple of the guys wanted to use mine. The ceilings are high, at least 12'. There are large ceiling fans in every room of the house. The walls are concrete with a pretty splotchy tan paint job, and the floors are black and white terrazzo stone through out, no carpets. We even have jalousie windows (non-Florida natives can look it up (-: ). Except for the splotchy paint job and things needing to be repaired, I feel like I'm home in Miami--in the 1960s!

We have a community web site at http://www.geekhalla.org.

Saturday we had our first group meeting. We got a little less than one week's allowance, about $80, in the local currency, the cedi. The going rate for the cedi is about 7000:$1; we got 500.000 cedis--all in 5000 cedi notes, which is the largest denomination printed. Getting a month's stipend for each one of us requires our director to go to the bank three days in advance to arrange for the currency to be there, and then go pick it up in an enormous case. He has to get over 16 million cedis---3200 bank notes. Needless to say, there is no concept of "pocket" money here. You have to walk around with a huge wad of bills to do most anything.

Later, we took a walk to the director's house to have lunch there. The most interesting things I've tried are a hibiscus nectar and something called "ginger milk", which I would call "ginger nectar"--it has no milk in it. The guys are digging into the Ghanaian cuisine very enthusiastically, but having gone back to vegetarianism, I am having a few difficulties. They have great fried plaintains here, just like back home in Little Havana.

And today, we found a vegetarian Rastafarian restaurant. When I say "found", I mean it. We were assigned a restaurant to find as part of a "scavenger" hunt to orient us to the city. The only information we had is that it was called JahRah and was located downtown. In Accra, people don't use street addresses. Everything is by landmark: we live near the Elf gas station in Osu, and every taxi driver knows where that is. But every taxi driver does not know Jah Rah, nor do most people on the street, although one kind soul graciously accompanied us a half mile in the wrong direction! My partner and I were calling it quits. We flagged down a cab to go back to our neighborhood, and then we noticed the driver had a Bob Marley sticker on his dash!! Yay!! So I got to have my first plate of mixed vegetables since I got here. It's really not a good idea to eat uncooked vegetables or fruit unless you wash and peel it yourself, so I have been going a little crazy. :-f)

OK, I have succeeded in downloading a couple photos:

http://www.welltempered.net/geekcorps/images/accra1.jpg

This is the view outside our doorstep, looking towards our neighbor, the American Embassy Visa Section. Note the goats and chickens, who just live on our street.

http://www.welltempered.net/geekscorps/images/accra2.jpg

This is my room. The windows have permanent mosquito nets to help reduce our chances of getting malaria. I'm also taking a preventative dose of antibiotics, but you can never be too careful. The mattress and pillow are pretty bad, but I'm going to buy new ones.... But it already feels cozy to me.

Have to go and see how long it takes me to send this to everyone! More soon, and more photos if I get a faster internet connection.

Love,

Jean

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