Week One Report

Day One: Arrival Wed. June 14th
Landing on British Airways Flight 81 at Kotaka International Airport was supposed to be the most emotional experience of my life. I remember how I felt looking out the window when finally landing in Timor-Leste back in '03. I figured that watching the scene from the window would be even more moving this time around - being my first trip to the motherland. The poetic home going of a descendant of Africa. Well, the landing was smooth but not exactly poetic. Some screaming babies interrupted my musings on Maya Angelou. Oh, and the arrival was 8 at night...so people had the shades down on the windows, and were generally knocked out sleep from either exhaustion or BA's generous provision of dinner wine.

I felt the warmth of being here not from the window of the plane, but from people once I landed. At first, I was so brain-dead-tired that I forgot one of my overhead bags. So, waiting to reboard on my retrieval mission, I ended up being the last to deplane, enter the airport, and hear "Akawaaba" (sp?) "Welcome."

Then it was off to baggage, customs, and down the ramp where I met the Embassy's motor pool dynamic duo and was swept off in (what else) a black suburban to my place. Weird. I could tell then - just from the neighborhood around my new home-for-3-months that this is going to be a different experience than Timor.

I'm not here as a random student this time, but am rolling with the Embassy. Accomodation got stepped up, along with (potentially) my barriers with the society. Meeting Ghanians (those who are not my home security guards) will mean leaving my neighborhood and getting out and about, I thought.

My first chance at this came quite soon. Management Officer from Embassy Judy helped Lynette and I settle at our Intern House and then took us to her place to eat ice cream and meet her son. Her son's Ghanian friends were over, and they took Lynne and I out to "The Office," a club where we explored Ghanian beer, food, and gossip until midnight.

Then I went home to get settled, talk to Danielle and update her about the journies, and then get some rest for the first day of work.