Greetings from Ghana

Hey everybody,

Greetings from Ghana! Sorry it has taken so long for me to put up a new post. The internet here in Ghana is incredibly slow. I mean, worse than dial-up way back when. The worst part is, you have to pay 80 pesawas/hour (which is roughly 80 cents/hour...pretty close exchange rate) for it. Anyways, not to seem so down about the trip thus far. I've had an awesome experience. The plane rides were terrible. I got maybe 2 hours of sleep between both 7 hour flights. When we arrived, there were hundreds of people crowded around the exit of the airport. Mostly taxi drivers who wanted to take rich Westerners to their hotels. Once I arrived at the International Students Hostel 2 (ISH 2 henceforth), I met my roommate, Simon (from Norway) and almost immediately went to sleep. Saturday, I unpacked in the morning, then took a tro-tro (a beat up piece of crap van) up to a local market called Madina, about 2.5 km away. I didn't buy anything at the market besides a couple bottles of water (it's about 60-80 pesawas for 1.5 liters, which is a pretty good deal). A little boy did try to pick-pocket me, but I caught him and he didn't get anything. The locals are so friendly, constantly calling us "Oboruni's" (Twi, for white person). There were a few beggars, but most of the people here are hard-working and actually try to provide some type of service of good for your money. Sunday, we went on a tour of campus from Ophelia, our RA from Kumasi (a region about 6 hours north of Accra). I found out why it's called Legon University now...Legon means "knowledge" and the campus sits on a huge hill call Legon Hill (Knowledge Hill).

I have so much more to share, but my time is almost up and I don't know how long it will take the internet to post this, so this is it for now. Hopefully, I will be able to post again in the near future to share the rest of my experiences thus far.

Greg