First Impressions

Talk about a painless plane ride. Lauren knew 2 of the flight attendants on my Delta flight and she told them I was coming so I got the VIP treatment, short of being bumped to first class. I got my own row of 2 and was consistently spoiled with first class leftovers throughout the flight. Both woman were incredibly nice and I chatted with them a bit about their time in Ghana and the non profit they started at the Orphanage visited yesterday. Watched Invictus and then slept about 4 hours...not bad.

Arriving in Accra seemed very natural. Customs was a breeze. Lo (lauren) met me at the airport and even though it's been 9 months since we saw each other, it felt like no time had passed. Riding around in the car all day was an experience in itself. I saw a large baboon on the way to her place! Goats, chickens, dogs, and roosters were wandering on the side of the road. We ran a couple errands (the mechanic, the laundry service, and pumping gas which were verrrry different than what we are used to and I will try to take some pictures at some point). I quickly realized how friendly and welcoming everyone is.

I met Leslie (lauren's BF) after 2.5 years of hearing allll about him. He is extremely nice and handsome. He was excited about the Lucky Charms I brought him...I guess Cereal doesn't really exist here. Leslie has been to the East coast of the US a couple times and hopefully he will be able to visit the US this summer, if he can get a visa.

Our next stop was the largest orphanage in Ghana which houses over 200 children, infants to 20 years old. The kids were at school for the most part. I am going back today to take photos for the non-profit that the flight attendants founded, based out of Seattle, called Dreams for Orphans. I will blog about this soon after I visit more and get a tour.

By this point I was pretty exhausted but Lo kept me going to avoid passing out and messing up my jet lag adjustment. She had been invited to dinner at the house of a Zambian Diplomat for the High Commission of the Republic of Zambia. We got there around 7 pm and were greeted by 2 families from the church she attends. They were incredibly welcoming and treated us like top notch guests. I offered to help but they insisted I was a guest and didn't want me to lift a finger. One thing that was interesting was that our host and one of his daughters poured water over our hands out of a pitcher into a bowl at the table right before dinner. They prepared a huge feast of Zambian food, comparable to double our Thanksgiving dinners. There were about 7 Entrees of meat...various preparations of chicken, beef, and fish. These were accompanied by rice and nshima, the main starch which is basically condensed cornmeal, along with beans, and sauteed greens of some sort. I know one of the greens were sweet potato leaves which had a really interesting flavor. I tried everything! Even the weird looking fried fish. For the most part, I really enjoyed the food. Lo tells me I am spoiled because Ghanaian food doesn't compare. The families were incredibly hospitable and told me to come back for more dinners before I leave. Pictures below.

Went to bed at 11 pm. So proud I was even still functioning at that point. I felt a bit dazed and glazed over throughout the day but I stayed up to get a full night of sleep. Woke up to roosters behind Lo's house. Stopped at an internet cafe (80 cents for an hour...sweet!). Off for a new day.

Happy birthday to Katie!! Enjoy your conference this week. We will celebrate when I get home.