Thursday, June 24, 2010

Day Number One

Soo...where do I start?? This has been one of the craziest, yet strangely laid back couple of days I have ever had.
Yesterday, we took three flights to fly into Ghana. The first one was two hours late... and we had lay over for...two hours. Our group was literally sprinting through the Detroit airport to catch our second flight which was supposed to leave the minute we got there. The attendants weren't very happy, but we made it! Then, that flight was held up for a little while and we made it to our next flight in JFK 15 minutes before that was supposed to leave. It was one crazy LONG day on the airplanes...and I'm pretty sure I almost died on the last flight. About 20 minutes before we were supposed to land in Ghana, the plane started to have "some of the worst turbulence we've ever experienced" according to the flight attendants. We were literally bouncing up and down on the plane. Me, being me, screaming my lungs out...and everyone around us just ducking and holding on for dear life. I honestly thought that could have been the end...Me and the lady next to me said a quick prayer and just held hands well it shook uncontrollably. When we finally landed, the passengers all broke out in an applause of relief...I was still shaking until we got our luggage.

Another thing about the flight...I met one of the coolest ladies on our flight to Accra at I think 1 or so in the morning?? She was a missionary who was flying to Liberia to build a mission home for the people there. We talked for about 20 minutes and I told her how I wanted to do some sort of mission work in the future. She had the most amazing heart for God and felt so connected at that point and knew that I was headed in the right direction..

Ooh..and did I mention I maybe slept 3 hours in 3 days? no joke...I don't think I have ever been that tired. But anyway...

Accra, Ghana, Africa
This place is so strange. So different from what I pictured. I thought it would be mostly a dirt road city with little shacks surrounding the roads with these really friendly people (that everyone was telling me about). The first thing I noticed touching down was the cement roads with normal markets...and the shacks of course. My first impression was that it looked like "a really bad part of Detroit." It's almost a mix of the Detroit ghetto with the Mexico border. But the roads are paved and they do have nicer restaurants and shops...you just have to find them. At the airport, Christine almost got some of her money stolen from the people "helping us" (that we did not ask for). Then, we drove through the "city."
The traffic has no rules at all! If I were to drive out here for just one day, I would probably die. End of story. People are cutting each other off everywhere and the honking never stops. Plus, there are all these people carrying things on their heads in the middle of the streets, trying to sell their products to you. They come up to the window, sometimes even sticking their heads in, and throwing their products at you or stuffing it in front of your face. Another weird thing is when we were driving in the car, they played American music. You would think we'd get away from all that western culture stuff...but no, they try to act as American as they can, thinking that this will impress us. Kind of interesting...and sad.

After eating at an American restaurant (the last one for a while according to Janaan), we headed to our "hotel." It wasn't the prettiest thing, but it has a bed and air conditioning though so I'm happy. And supposedly this is more upscale for them. I took a nap then...and managed to pull myself out of bed to go on a walk around the endless town and little market shops. We ran into all of these children in uniforms on the street and wondered where they were coming from, so we followed them to their school and they kept holding onto our hands and pulling us closer. Soon we had a whole crowd of children pulling at us and showing us their teachers and such. We had to run to get away...and promised to come back tomorrow to watch them sing and dance..so that should be fun. We will see. but for now I have no time and am on my last minute so farewell for now.

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