First Impression

After a long flight, we arrived in Accra without any trouble. Accra is the capital of Ghana and is fairly modernized for a developing country. It was surprising to see several other "Obruni's" (foreigners or white people) in the city. Although most people in Accra speak English, communicating was still challenging because of the accents and the different meanings of words. Luckily, even when communication was difficult, there was usually a friendly Ghanaian to help us find our way. Jon and I even traveled alone in Accra and managed to take our first "tro-tro" ride. A tro-tro is an old 10 passenger van packed with people that is much cheaper than a taxi cab ride. The good thing is the ride is fast since there are no stop lights on the roads, but the bad thing is that the smells on the tro-tro can sometimes make for a long ride.

On Sunday, we traveled by taxi with two other volunteers to our destination in Odumase - Krobo which is a much smaller village in the Volta region. As we approached Krobo, a large rainstrom was sweeping across the mountains waiting to greet us. It made for a beautiful show, but knocked out power to the house so when we arrived we only had one candle to light up the small house.

There are a total of six people living in the volunteer house including one peace core volunteer. The living conditions in the house are very modest from US standards, but drastically better than homes in Krobo. Poverty is widespread here so even our running water is a significant luxury. It is difficult to express with words the poor living conditions of the people in Krobo, but the locals seem happy and very thankful to God for their blessings. Everyone is very friendly and eager to provide help or just become your friend.

Odumase - Krobo is very different from Accra and much more representative of an average Ghanaian village. It has one main road that is lined with street vendors all selling the same thing for a few miles. We are the only foreigners in the village and many children have never seen white people. Some people here speak English, but most speak Krobo. We have learned that "obibiknee" means "black man" so if people are yelling "white person" at us as we walk down the street, it is funny to them if you're able to yell back "black man black man" in their native tongue. In the past few days, we've picked up a few basic Krobo words, but we need to rely on an interpreter when visiting the women who make the beads. In just these past two days, the language barriers and lack of basic business skills have made it very challenging for us to complete the assigned tasks. It will take some time to get used to baby pigs and goats interrupting our business meetings!

Over the next few days, Jon and I will be traveling with a few locals to more remote villages to find the bead makers. We will try to update this with our photos later this week. Internet service can be a bit challenging to find here! Miss you all!