First Five Days

Akwaabe to Ghana! That means 'Welcome to Ghana'. We have heard that phrase many a time in our first five days here, and I'm sure we'll hear it many more times over the next four months, although hopefully we'll begin to blend in a little bit more as time goes by. Already we've been picking up a few useful phrases, so a few people are surprised when we tell them that we've only been here for three or four days :)

So, it's been quite an experience already! Hard to believe it's already/only been five days since we left Grand Rapids! Our flights went off without a hitch. In Chicago, we just stepped off the plane and onto our next flight to Washington DC. We had a three hour layover there, and then our flight to Accra was only 10 hours. I managed to sleep for a good four or five of those hours, so I was pretty well rested when we finally landed at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra. We found Professor Hoekema (who said we could call him David) and Roland waiting there for us, and we hopped straight onto our bus after picking up our luggage. We drove about 30 minutes to the University of Ghana, had lunch at the Institute for African Studies (where we will be taking all of our courses), and then moved into our dorm rooms at the International Student Hostel.

The first two days were incredibly overwhelming. When I was in Sierra Leone, we were living with families in their houses, so it was almost impossible not to feel an immediate sense of community, which only got stronger as the two weeks went on. Here, we have a place where we can retreat to and be away from everyone, which is kind of a temptation with all the overwhelming aspects of being in a new culture. The University campus is enormous! It takes 20 minutes to walk from ISH (the nickname for our dorm) to the Institute of African Studies, and they are only about 1/3 of the way across campus away from each other. The campus has its own hospital, fire service, and police station. It also has a gas station, a 'mall', plenty of restaurants, and many other stores where you can buy everything you need. It has a bank, ATMs, a post office, and quite a few internet cafes (I'm sitting in one that is on the second floor of ISH right now). There is no reason for any of the students to leave the campus, really. It is always busy and noisy, even at night, and school hasn't even started yet. It can be quite something to get used to, but slowly, I'm beginning to adjust. I'm actually excited for school to start, because I'm excited about the classes we're going to be taking, and I'm looking forward to having some sort of routine again.

This morning we went to the Legon Interdenominational Church, which is located about 20 minutes away, still on campus. It was really quite something! The building itself was very nice, and it had basically an open sanctuary (there were a lot of doors that could close it up, but the breeze was very welcome as church was packed!). We sang and danced and clapped, and then we had the sermon, which was actually preached by a guest pastor from the States somewhere. I enjoyed it, and I'm pretty sure I will be going back. During the announcements, all the new guests were asked to introduce themselves, and many people were excited to learn that Logan and I were from Canada :)

Tonight, we will be eating dinner at David's flat on campus, by the Commonwealth Hall (the most rowdy hall on campus. It is an all-male dorm, and it actually cannot be controlled. The University tried to kick the residents out because they were breaking rules and turn it into a post-graduate dorm, but the residents won their court case because of all the support of leaders who used to be members of the hall during University. They're not dangerous, just a little rowdy and uncontrollable.). Tomorrow, we're going to be paying a visit to the Ga district, which has been a sister city to Grand Rapids for 15 years. I'm excited!

So, that's it for now. There is so much I could talk about, but I will save those details for another posting. Once I figure out how to load pictures onto this computer, I'll be adding pictures too! Thanks for reading!