First Few Days in Accra

Above is a picture of me yesterday in the courtyard of my hotel. As you may notice the hotel is beautiful. They have so many amazing tropical plants that it reminds me of my trip to the Caribbean. My room has a TV, refrigerator, A/C, hot water, and wireless Internet. So much for my hopes of "roughing" it. I loved living with Aubry, my friend whose couch I surfed for over a month, but this place is amazing.

Our country representative, Kwesi, gave all of us Wednesday/Thursday(felt like two days-not one) to lounge around, because we were all so sleepy and off our schedule. Then yesterday we had a meeting where we met with USAID and our accountant. The bulk of our meeting topics covered- "what does one Cedi buy (the Ghanian dollar which exchanges for one US dollar)? when should we tip? are there names for the peswas (the Ghanaian cents) like nickel, dime?" For the most part it was an informative day.

Eating hear has been pretty good. Thursday for lunch I had Red Red which was fantastic. Red Red is fried plantains and red beans in a spicy sauce. Want to know more click here. For dinner I didn't want to ask as many questions, because my server at lunch had a hard time understanding me. In Ghana they speak English, but unfortunately I speak American really fast. so decided to be the Vegetable Salad- thinking it sounded safe. I was wrong. It was many vegetables- green beans, cucumbers, squash, and egg (didn't know that was a vegetable) covered in a white sauce (that didn't smell like mayo, but I don't know what else I could be) on a bed of lettuce. I picked out all of the lettuce that didn't have any dressing on it and tried to find vegetables not cover in dressing, but it was found to be difficult- especial when I thought one was a cucumber and was an egg. That was my low of the day. Needless to say- I will be asking more questions.

Below is a picture of my lunch yesterday between training sessions. I love fried plantains now, and I think that is good because I have seen quite a few. There is also fried yam- which is nothing like a sweet potato. There was white rice, red beans and rice, and a yellow starch that reminded me of cous cous. Also- not pictured was the steamed cabbage and other veggies that I ate too fast.


My low point of these two days was eating a part of an egg and my high are these next pictures. Yesterday after our training sessions I journeyed out of the hotel to the nearest main road. Here I bought a phone card and just wondered. As I was walking I saw the word VEGAN. I thought I must have been seeing things, but then I saw VEGAN STAKES and TOFU KHEBAB. This is what I saw...


Heaven I tell you-


I couldn't stop smiling...

Too bad it was closed, but I am going back before I leave for sure!

Last night many people from my group ate together by the pool, our favorite table, and listened to a live band. I seriously feel like I am on vacation. Today, in a few hours, we are going to see the market. My brother, Cameron, told me to check see the heart of every city I travel too- where the business is- to see how the economy is really doing. Did I mention that my brother is a stock broker? Wish me luck. I will leave you with this last picture of the live Band playing during our meal.