Akwaaba, Ghana!

Welcome to Ghana! We've arrived. And we are here, more or less. And we are experiencing culture shock, again. Ghana is simultaneously very similar and yet entirely different from Tanzania. Or perhaps, Accra is very similar and yet entirely different from Arusha. At any rate, we are feeling rather out of place and a tad homesick, both for Arusha as well as San Francisco.

But all in all, things are good. We arrived on Thursday at noon after a long trip from Zanzibar via Addis Ababa, Ethioia. Our new home is in the town of Pokuase, on the outskirts of Accra. Downtow Accrs is home to two million people, and the entire metropolitan area boasts over four million people. Our new neighborhood seems to be full of middle class Ghanaians. Immediately upon arrival, Jeremy and I commented on the abundance of *newer* looking cars and homes. We also laughed that throughout the city, roads are paved and even have paint lines to indicate lanes! However, our neighborhood streets are more or less dirt paths, our shower water is cold, and we've lost electricty a couple of times. Some things are consistent in Africa on both sides of the continent!

For the next two weeks, we will be working for a local NGO, Volunteer Partnerships for West Africa, or VPWA. There are currently 20 other volunteers here, as well, all working on various different projects. Five of us are here for the Deworm Ghana project, on which we will begin working tomorrow. So it is great - albeit very different - to be surrounded by other volunteers, some as young as 18 and others who are even more *mature* than Jeremy and me!

Most volunteers live at The Compound, a collection of homes owned by VPWA's founder. They sleep three people to a room, and rooms are very small. It is pretty much the college dorm scene all over again! With so many volunteers, though, The Compound is full, so Team Deworm is camping out about a half mile away in the VPWA offices. Two large rooms have been converted to bedrooms for us; and although Jeremy and I do have a room to ourselves, we are shacking in bunk beds. Hilarious!

We'll eat dinner at The Compound every night, feasting on Ghanaian dishes prepared by Chef Lizzie. For our first night, we had Fufu with Chicken and Peanut Sauce. It was spicy and oily and not good for my stomach, although Jeremy loved it. On Friday, we had a plainer spicy rice dish. It definitely blows Chagga Banana Stew out of the water, but I'm not yet a huge fan. Tomorrow we are heading into Accra for a tour of the city... Nanti ye (good-bye in Twi, pronounced, Chwee) for now!