"Akwaaba"... Welcome Home

Upon reaching Atlanta, I began my preparation for the second leg of my journey. After upgrading my seat, shoving food court chinese food down my throat and popping two... ok maybe three... sleeping pills, I was mentally prepared for my eleven hour flight.

My premo seat was next to a lovely gentleman from Liberia named Jarred, who would inevitably be my cuddle buddy (whether he liked it or not) for the journey ahead. It is safe to say that I was out cold before the plane even took off. I slept the majority of the flight, awaking only to eat two subpar airline meals and to watch the Adjustment Bureau, as well as Water for Elephants, on my personal TV (Score!). 

As we came in for landing, Jarred opened the shade on the window. At first there was only blinding white light, but as we descended out of the clouds the african landscape came into view. Jarred chuckled as he looked over at me, "I bet you didn't expect to see that". He was right. While I very well should have expected to see such a lush and foreign landscape, part of me, or all of me, had not come to terms with the fact that I was landing in Ghana. 

As we descended even farther the landscape became speckled with colored roofs. Soon enough, it was colored roofs crammed together in clumps with seemingly no order. In the movie of my life this is certainly when I would turn to my dog Toto and say, "I've a feeling we are not in Kansas anymore".

While waiting to exit the plan, I gathered my belongings and gave one final sweep to make sure I had everything. In doing this, I noticed something that my mother is sure to appreciate. In big bolded letters on the outside of the delta flight manual it read, "BE SAFE".................like come on! As if I needed any more reminders.

Walking off the airplane I got my first glimpse of the airport. It was astonishing to me that it even functioned. Out of the very few airplanes there, one of them looked functional and it was the one I had just arrived on. 

Upon entering the airport, I read a big sign saying, "Akwaaba", or welcome home. I had a moment of panic as I realized that this foreign land would in fact be my home for the next few months. 

After going through customs and retrieving my luggage from the single baggage claim, I headed outside to meet my NYU greeter. Standing there, while waiting for others to arrive, I observed the interactions of the people around me. I decided that either the security guards working knew everyone getting off the planes, or they were just super freakishly friendly. Being that the planes coming in were from Ethiopia and Dubai, I am going to guess that they are just freakishly friendly... 

From the airport we boarded a bus to our dorms. On the 7 or so minute drive, I began to realize that Ghana may very well be more underdeveloped than I had imagined. For one thing the open drainage system is going to be difficult to get used to. 

There is a huge disparity between the rich and poor here. A gated nice house is followed by a half finished crumbling cement foundation that people are clearly living in. The US embassy (2 mins from my dorm) sticks out like a sore thumb, as it is way nicer than anything else around. 

My dorm is clearly on the nice end of the spectrum. It is fairly new and is protected by a huge wall with an electrical fence and 24 hour guards. There are about 15 kids in my dorm and only 2 of us have a single....Some how I manage to always hit the housing lottery. My single is pretty large and I have my own bathroom...SA-WEEEET!

SO.....that is the overview.

P.S. You should see how much the people here can carry on their heads.....it blows my mind. They are so incredibly casual about it.