Arriving in Ghana

While we were in Ghana I found some time to journal about my experiences. I wasn't able to journal as much as I would have liked so I'll use some of my journal entries and fill them out with other details that we can remember. This post starts with Bruce and I close to arriving at Heathrow Airport to catch our flight to Accra, the capital city of Ghana. The next date is two days later. We arrived in Accra on the evening of the 24th to meet our team and stayed at the Miklin Hotel near the airport. We enjoyed a late supper of fried chicken and plantain and then were off to sleep in preparation for the long bus ride north through Kumasi to the village of Kofiase where we would be staying for 12 days. At the end of a long day traveling by air-conditioned bus through cities and towns, witnessing Ghanaian life as it is lived in the streets - hawking anything from baked goods to crackers to tins of sardines to every vehicle as it passes by - we didn't know what to expect as the sun set and the roads became bumpier. After 7-8 hours of traveling our bus suddenly stopped.

The frosty morning in Hastings as we left for the airport.

Our first Ghanaian meal - fried plantains and chicken!


Accra as seen from our bus window.


Enjoying FanYogo - frozen yogurt! Purchased from a roadside rest stop (pretty fancy by Ghanaian and even Canadian standards) - there was much ado about cleaning the package and using clean scissors to open it before we sucked the delicious frozen treat out. By the end of the trip Bruce & I were far less careful.


Sunset outside of Kumasi as seen from the bus window.

November 24 9:35am About 25 miles to go! Getting excited on the M25! Left around 8:15am from Hastings . . . too excited to record the time ; )

November 26 6:58am We arrived last night and our arrival was quite amazing. The full moon was rising and brilliant orange and everyone came to meet our bus. Kids were loving the camera and flashes and we all had fast new friends who held our hands as we walked the path towards our site. We walked lit by the full moon and the headlights from the truck carrying our bags and supplies. Looking back on our silhouettes created by the moon and head lights made me smile; as our team of 18 Canadians walked along an uneven dirt path holding hands with tiny Ghanaian children, kicking up dust, I realized, we were in AFRICA!

Once we were led to where we would be staying and found our luggage in the mild chaos of backpacks, suitcases and boxes of bottled water, we explored our accommodations and quickly divided ourselves up; men off to a smaller Habitat house back behind the main common area and the women in a larger building the affiliate had built to serve as storage and office space – 6 women in the smaller room and 8 of us in the larger room. It was dark, so we dug out flashlights and headlamps and began to tackle the problem of hanging our mosquito nets. We worked together quite well as a team and fashioned our own method to hang the nets. While we set about getting our rooms together, our cooks, Peace and Jane, were busy preparing a very tasty spaghetti dinner. Our group then gathered together in our first circle for a short meeting and then it was off to bed.

A view of the women's room Brandy slept in, complete with our mattresses, bedding, bags and mosquito nets strung up - at night they were lowered and tucked around our bed and bags.



Here's Bruce posing on the porch of the men's house - the camera is looking north out towards the farm fields and forests of the community. The Habitat houses are simple, two rooms and a porch in this case, with a utility shed off to the left (not shown) which houses a toilet, bathing room and storage room.

For me it was a terrible night; it is nice to wake up on the other side of it. I couldn’t sleep and had to get up for the toilet twice – the first time I scared a cat (or other small unidentifiable animal?!?!?) who ran past me and scared me half to death as I turned on my light. Lesson – never forget to turn the headlamp on no matter how bright the moon.

The morning roosters started at 2am and again by first light – around 5am. It was hard to get enough sleep as they crowed back and forth to each other endlessly! Time to organize my pack, find some clothes and get ready to meet the chief!

Just a few of the many, friendly neighbourhood chickens that we shared the village with. These ones have found a jackpot of dried corn kernels in this basin.

Hand painted banner displayed in the middle of town to welcome us to Kofiase.

Stay tuned - 12 more days to share.
Coming soon!


Also, special thanks to the Rotary Club of Oak Bay for their generous donation in support of our fundraising efforts - check out our final fundraising total $6,325.43!