Arriving in Africa...

I left for Africa on Monday, September 1. The goodbyes were tough, but no regrets. I left Springfield at 2:20pm and did not arrive in Ghana until 1:20 pm (IL time)- 23 hours of flying is a long time (plus, I can’t sleep on planes). When I arrived in Ghana, I went through immigration without problem, got 1 checked bag without problem, but the second one never arrived. I had to wait in line for almost an hour to report a missing bag, (which still has not come in a day later) and then went through customs. I am not sure if what I did was good or not, but when I walked through customs I did just that, walked through, never stopped. There were officials sitting at desks helping other people coming into the country, but none of them said anything to me, so I just walked through. I hope that is ok. Then I left the airport to see a huge crowd of people standing outside the doors. I was hoping to see someone holding a sign with my name, but no such luck. So there I was; an “obruni” (white person) in Africa, at night, in a city of 2.5 million people, not knowing a soul, missing a bag, very little money, exhausted, and with no ride. I decided to hire a taxi (with a very nice driver) and he took me to a reasonable hotel that I could afford. I crashed there for the night and decided to worry about things in the morning. The next morning I was able to get a hold of my contact at the embassy and the headmistress and one of her sons who picked me up and brought me to Accra Girls School. They showed me to my new home for a year. Today, I was able to, not only be driven around Accra, but also went grocery shopping, ate fufu and got a local phone number. The headmistress and her two sons have been very helpful.