Greetings from Ghana!

Good evening to all of you folks in the US. I am happy to finally have an opportunity to provide my first official update! I trust all is well back home.

I am new at blogging, but I really want to do my best at creating an informative and interesting blog for anyone who is able and interested in following along. If you have questions, post them here - I will certainly reply as soon as I am able. The Internet access in the Hotel is not really the most dependable and we have also found that the electricity is not either....

These postings will provide you a brief glimpse of my first impressions of Accra, Ghana. I will take you through a quick summary of my first day in the Country and move expeditiously into day two where the adventure truly begins! My hope is to give a good representation of my perceptions of the culture and the overall feel of this truly incredible part of the World.

After an eleven hour flight from Atlanta, I arrived in Accra, Ghana at 12PM on Tuesday Nov 3. Although I did not sleep much on the plane, I felt rested and energetic enough to take in the surroundings, but I have to admit I was not necessarily running on all engines so to speak.

The first day in Accra was very informal. We were transported to our hotel, the Novetel in Accra. The bus ride from the airport was fairly quick. I was quickly taken in by the amount of locals in the streets selling products. They were literally walking between lanes selling everything under the sun. They would tap on our windows and yell at us trying to get us to buy their products. I found out later that many of the people working in the streets come from slums located within and just outside Accra. The median income in Ghana is approximately $1.25 per day. (More accurate data later). Many of the locals I saw working in the streets are earning money for their families who live in small shanty towns. It is common for extended families to have one “bread winner” in the family to feed the whole family.  More later on the local economy, but I thought should insert a bit of the local economic situation.

After our quick trek to the hotel and a little time to refresh after the long flight, I met with the rest of the Rotary group. For those of you who do not already know, I am here with approximately 28 other Rotarians who have traveled here from North America.  Most of the group is made up of Americans, and we have a few from Canada.

After our orientation, we all went to the hotel lounge to spend some time in fellowhip. We were all very tired and warn out from our travels, so the evening closed up at around 9:30PM local time. For day two we will visit one of the local markets, do a little site seeing,  a West African Rotary meeting/welcome, and go to a political briefing at the US Embassy in Ghana.

Day two is coming – phew, I am sooo exhausted. BUT LOVING IT!!!!!!!!