Greetings from Ghana

Greetings from Ghana - excerpts from Erin's e-mails posted by Wendy 2-16-10

Monday Feb 15
Happy Valentines to you! I cannot believe we are in the last week here in Ghana! I think we counted and there are 49 days left! That means we will be changing countries and everything will be new and different again – I am ready for a change. But we are staying in Accra at the Compassion International site again and as we arrived I was thinking that this was as close to a 'home' as we have here in Ghana.

Wednesday Feb 10
Everyone is fine – we are missing people from home, and some are adjusting still – sometimes reminding ourselves of the good life at home instead of embracing where we are here and now. We get more tired because of the heat and humidity.

We have only seen goats, sheep chickens, guinea fowl, and crocodiles, no big game.

I have a whole list of foods I want when I get home, but the 2 most important are pickles and mashed potatoes, not necessarily together. And I want to cook!!! I miss it. The most I have done is make a cup of tea.

Tuesday, Feb 9
Thank you for all of your support... I am doing much better. The stay here in Cape Coast has been more relaxing yet busier... Monday, we got to go see the Cape Coast Castle that Obama visited and presented a plaque for - I am sure you can find pictures online. Everything was Obama there - shirts, hats, bags, flags, key chains. I even saw a drum with his face on the side!The castle itself was beautiful though the history is gruesome – they had the chapel built right on top of the dungeon where they kept the slaves to be in near starvation with no plumbing but the rain and gravity for 6 months at a time.

The coastline was beautiful - it was my first tourist time in Ghana, and it was good! I have so many pictures...We then got to go to the beach after lunch (the french fries tasted like the state fair!!!). It was heavenly, walking in the waves, picking up shells, hugging palm trees... It did my heart good.

Today we have four programs. One was a school chapel starting at 7, this afternoon we are doing another at 2, then a radio program at 4:15 and another program for a village at 6. Tomorrow we have a 7am school chapel, then leave for Accra for a day of rest on Friday. I am hoping to go to the art market in Accra - they have beautiful carvings and jewelry and such. I have not bought anything yet because I do not want to carry it for the next 50 some days! It’s too heavy and too fragile to risk all the bus trips. We are planning to ask our contact to have a day the week we leave to do some shopping in Nigeria before we fly out.

Sat, 2/6/10
Hi!I am feeling rather out of sorts. I am very much in stage 2 of culture shock and would not be sad if at the end of our time in Ghana we came home instead of going to Nigeria, but I know, barring extreme circumstances, that will not happen. I miss home and all of the comforts there. I miss all my people. I miss being able to go buy exactly what you want without walking for blocks and looking at 27 different street vendors. I miss cold beverages and food I get to choose for myself. I miss snacking!!! We have not since we came to Ghana! I miss using fully functional plumbing. I miss being able to just go somewhere without bargaining for a taxi. I miss eating fish without bones. I miss talking on the phone!

But enough grousing and complaining. You asked about the surroundings here: The houses are mostly cement block boxes, at least most that we are staying in. They have screen windows and doors, but hold the heat all night. I have also seen many made of all corrugated metal roofing, empty shipping containers, etc... in the villages, there are more rounded mud huts with thatched roofing. There are a lot of ½ finished yet abandoned buildings, and I do not know why. About 1/3 of those buildings have 'stop work - produce permit' spray painted on them, but the rest do not. In Bunkpurugu, up in the north, the weather was very dry and hot and there were trees, but for the most part they were the only green. The land is very flat - think southern MN. The dirt is very red, about the color of terracotta, and very dusty. As we drove south to Kumasi, about in the middle, there was more greenery, but still, everything looked very dry despite the added humidity. There were palm trees there, but only around the nicer businesses and hotels. The land was not quite as sheet of paper flat, but not a lot of variety. As we drove from Kumasi to Takoradi, the plants were more lush and there were more hills and valleys - very pretty. And then we drove by the coast so I got to see the ocean! I am ready to come home, but I have so far left to go. I am enjoying myself and all of the new experiences, but I am about adventured out for a while!
Missing you a lot!
Love,
Erin