I'm here!

Thank you to everyone who sent me words of encouragement! I appreciate that!

Right about now I have been in Ghana for about 6 days, but it feels much longer. Not in a bad way...it is just that there has been so much going on. We had Staging in Philly for two days and then we've spent the last few days in University housing about an hour outside of Accra.

So far our training has entailed basic cultural, language, health and safety and security training. It is VERY busy. We go to bed late and wake up early every morning. We didn't even have a day off to rest after we got off the plane. They threw us right in.

I have to admit that I was second guessing myself a tiny bit on the plane, but when we got off in Ghana and walked out of the airport there was a line of current PC volunteers and PC staff there cheering us on as if we were celebrities. It was awesome. I am much more confident now as I have spent the last week or so getting to know the other trainees in my group as well as the trainers (a mix of PC staff and current volunteers). I have to say that all of the people here are very kind, generous and open. I'm excited to start training in Techiman after our Vision Quest.

Today we are in transit to Vision Quest. We travel alone or with a partners to a current volunteers site and hang out with them for a few days. We have specific assignments like going into the comunity and meeting people or doing specific tasks. I'm am excited. I am going to stay with a Small Enterprise Development volunteer who is in Ecotourism as well. Another trainee is coming along with me.

Yesterday, we all went into Accra in groups of 2 or 3 and had to explore different areas that were assigned to us. We had specific tasks to do, but our group somewhat deviated. We weren't supposed to eat street food b/c the trainers thought we might get sick since we haven't all quite acclimated to the food and water yet. However, we ate Fu Fu, which is a common dish here made out of yams and pounded until it is really really soft. We at it along with Ground Nut (peanut) soup and Tilapia. Yummy. I'm travelling with one of the other trainees and neither of us is sick. Awesome :) We were in a place called Osu, which I still cannot find on the map - haha. We went to the beach there. One of the main things we were supposed to get out of going Accra is how to get around. There are vans called Tro Tros, which cram a whole bunch of people in - very hot and sweaty - definately an experience.

Sorry if some of this is incoherent!