1st Day in Accra

Greetings from Ghana, Africa! where the heat is about 90 with about 80% humidity---quite a switch from Portland winter weather! but so far I have survived a day out in the heat, and I am now in the hotel (with air conditioning) writing this.

Today we all visited a school, where they were celebrating and commemorating the new bathrooms that were just added....quite a luxury, since they have been operating for a few years without any bathrooms---hard for us American's to imagine, huh? so we watched Ghana children drum, dance, sing and recite poetry...and listened to the adults talk about their school and how they have built it up from nothing. This school originally was just an outdoor structure with a roof and no walls--and now the three classrooms are enclosed. The students are all from very poor families and they have so many students they teach in shifts, beginning early in the morning.

After the celebration ---our kids were invited to "play" with the students---and play they did! Despite the heat, soon the girls were playing tag and the boys soccor with the Ghan kids. Later they moved indoors and Shirley Mae and some of the students taught the Ghana kids American songs---they had them all singing THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE in a round--and they all sounded stunning.

I am in a bit a culture shock---only one other person in our group is white---and this is the very first time for me being in a country where I am a white minority. At times I feel like a fish out of water; everyone is friendly and kind---but the children were clearly fascinated with my tatoos and just stared at me most of the time. Today was their National Holiday---for their Independence, so the city had more people here than usual--and it was quite crowded everywhere.

I am not sure I will be able to describe the feel of this country in words---but I doubt I will be able to upload photos until I get home because I forgot my usb cable for the camera (darn!!) but I will be trying to post here every few days--so do check back. WE are off in 15 minutes to dinner --so I must go now.