First Impressions

I arrived in Accra after the usual painful flight. Delta has the only flight to Accra from New York, so they charge a ton and provide poor service. We were two hours late leaving JFK, the A/C vent for my seatmate was missing (and "patched," literally, with duct tape). But we arrived alright, no problems at immigration or customs and I'm in.

First impression, Accra seems like a pretty nice place. I've only seen the "rich" quarter, really, and the airport, but it seems to be missing both the hyperactivity of Dar and the in-your-face aggressiveness of Douala.

View from my hotel window in Accra

Richard met me at the airport and brought me to the ACDI/VOCA office. I asked the usual questions about prices and greetings, and promptly forgot all the answers through my fatigue. But so far so good. It is a different experience to be on the aid-worker side of the equation, and to have guys in big cars drive you everywhere you want to go. But once they drop me at my post I'll be abandoned, and then I should get some time to get out and wander about.

The hotel was very nice, wifi and satellite tv and a hot shower. I ate at the restaurant, beans with cow-meat and plantains for $9 and a small beer for $2. Too much, but it was soooo good. With the smell of wood smoke in the air, sitting by the fancy ex-pat pool, life doesn't get much better.

I was up early the next day for a flight to Tamale, then another land-cruiser drive to Bolgatanga, in the Upper East. I expected the north to be something like the north of Cameroon, but it appears to be quite a bit less arid (much more green, that is) with the associated humidity and hazy sky. And while the north of both countries has the most Muslims, I haven't seen the predominance of Muslim dress and mosques here that I used to see in Cameroon.

Nor have I seen as much food as I did in Cameroon. Perhaps that is cultural and it is only found in markets, perhaps it is because we are in the middle of Ramadan, but I haven't seen a banana yet, whereas in Cameroon they available at every stall along the roadside. You never know with first impressions, as the sample size is small, but these are the things I've noticed thus far.

Tomorrow I am off to post to see the school and spend some time discussion the project with the host.