I have a lot of feelings...

So,

Posting in here has been a long time coming. I have now officially been in Accra for 5 days. We arrived here in the evening of July 8th (Monday). Time is taking some time to get used to (Ghana is 4 hours ahead of the States). The flight was smooth...I guess. I flew into Frankfurt, Germany from D.C. by myself but I met up with the other Temple/Philadelphia kids in Germany and we flew together into Accra...


interestingly enough we stopped in Lagos, Nigeria to refuel and drop off people. I had no idea that we were stopping in Nigeria. It was a little eerie for me to be there (in my home country) in an airport but not being able to move...like, I haven't been back there for like 10 years...and I'm note sure if I'm ready for that kind of psychological re-evaluation...

oh well.

It's been oh so interesting since I arrived here. We've done so much and the days seem to last twice as long here. It's like the days never end and by the end of the day it's as if I've accomplished a week's worth of stuff.

We are staying in dorm like accommodations but it wasn't where we were placed when we first arrived. There were some problems with the first place...

- it wasn't clean
- there were rats
- it wasn't clean
- there were rats
- like, they didn't prepare for us (Oh Africa)


get the picture? So, we bitched and complained and we got moved. We are staying in senior housing now and it's much better.


I'm pretty familiar with the kids on the trip now. It was kind of weird at first but I pretty much get along with everyone and I've found my "niche" of friends. This wasn't always the case though...

there was a little trouble with these 2 girls and the rest of the group. Like, basically the second night we were here a bunch of us went out and my roommate got really really really drunk...

like we had to carry her home drunk. I know...very Ruthie/first episode of the Real World Hawaii dramatic. Anyway, a couple of us had to take care of her all night. She had asthma and was shaking and she couldn't stop throwing up and pooping and we had to literally hold her. She was also coughing up a lot of these very personal verbal confessions and quite honestly I didn't know (and still don't know) what to make of all of it all. During the night we weren't sure if she was breathing but we have a nursing student on the trip and she was tons of help. While all of this was happening some girls were not too pleased that their sleep was getting disrupted so they communicated that to us and there were some unkind words exchanged between some people (not me). I tried to talk to them...they didn't want to hear it so I stopped. I didn't talk to them for like 2 days before they came around around started talking to us.

So much drama,
So little time.

Things are fine now (for the most part). The days are slow and hot and sometimes wet. We walk a lot. I run a lot. I talk a lot. I drink a lot. I listen a lot. I feel a lot. I share a lot. I love a lot.

This is going to be a sick journey,

but I'm ready.