We made it!

I'm sitting typing this in the communal room of the hostel we'll be staying in during our time in Ghana.  We arrived late last night after an amazing flight from Istanbul.  We flew over the Sahara desert for hours - a breathtaking expanse of sand, bigger than I can comprehend.  To start with there was a little vegetation, the odd track, but soon and for hundreds of miles nothing but dunes and dunes and dunes.

The desert was like an optical illusion, at times looking like a mirage as if I was looking down over a huge lake or ocean, and then at other times becoming hazy with heat turning the air to gold.


We were woken up earlier (after our first ever night under mosquito nets!) by the roosters crowing at each other, and have met several of the local goats and chickens roaming around the streets going about their business in the heat of the day.  Today has been a settling-in day, getting the Internet connection hooked up and unpacking mostly.  Akosia's Ghanaian contact and general wizard here in Accra, Elliot, has been helping us out with local orientation and giving helpful and much-needed advice about things like crossing the road (perilous!), getting money changed and local shopping tips. Now after scouting out the local area, I'm preparing for a day of training tomorrow for all the volunteers in advance of the project starting on Monday.