We arrived bleary-eyed but safely in Ghana on Sunday, March 4th around 2 p.m. Ghana time (we're on Greenwich Mean Time here - 6 hours ahead of CST). The 10-hour flight from Washington, D.C. (mine via Chicago) was filled mostly with Ghanaians returning to visit family.
Our group consists of 11 U.S. teachers: 4 from New York, 2 from Arizona, 1 from Michigan, 1 from Wisconsin, and 3 of us who teach in Minnesota, along with our leader Susanna from IREX. Among the Minnesotans, Eric teaches Social Studies in Grand Rapids and Melinda teaches Science at Minneapolis South.
We were met at the airport by Ekem, who will be our host here in Ghana, and piled in a hired van to journey to our home base, the Highgate Hotel.
After checking into our rooms, we regrouped and hopped back in the van for a trip to the Accra Mall to change money and buy bottled water. Ironic that our first destination was a mall(!), but according to our hosts, one of the only places to change money on a Sunday, and the banks there offer good exchange rates. The Ghanaian currency is called the Cedi, with the current exchange rate of 1.6 Cedi per dollar. A large bottle of water (1500 ml) cost .85 Cedi.
After returning to the hotel, we had dinner as a large group in the hotel restaurant and discussed our plans for the week. Five will remain in Accra for most of our stay, spending time with teachers in schools here, two will commute daily to work with teachers in nearby Tema and four of us will leave Accra on Thursday to meet up with our host teachers in Cape Coast.
My dinner? Red red with chicken and plantains. "Red red" is a red bean dish. One of my favorite foods on my previous Central American trips was fried plantains, so it's great to have them again!
Some members of the group were so exhausted they had a hard time making it through dinner. After a good night's rest, I'm sure we'll all be at full speed on Monday.
