We are Here and Surviving

Greetings from Chorkor, Ghana- and excuse the possible punctuation and spelling errors (typing on international keyboards is always slightly different).

Let's see- where to begin. We made it here safely and despite the awful heat, we are surviving. Yesterday we spent becoming familiar with the BASICS compound and the area of town we are living in. Pat, the director of BASICS, took us on a mini-tour of the area. We stopped by the Center for National Culture, which is an area where local tourist items are sold. We got to experience the swarming Ghanaians- it's a strange phenomenon that as white people we get so much attention. I don't think any of us are quite used to the treatment. It's a bit uncomfortable actually. Liz and Lori practiced their bartering skills and purchased their first souveneirs- African paintings. We ate at Frankie's, in Osu, which is apparently a popular restaurant. Yes, we all had American food of burgers and fries.

We are living with 4 Ghanaian girls who have been extremely helpful. They've helped us learn the tricks of the African culture- how to flush the toilet, how to fetch water, how to wash your clothes by hand, where to buy water, how to use the different appliances, etc. They also helped us get a taxi so we wouldn't get cheated. We are grateful for their generosity and kindness, because this clearly is a different culture and a shock!

It's apparent this is a developing country- their standards of living are very different. It's pretty normal to see people urinate on the side of the road, there is trash everywhere, and Pat took us to "Lavender Hill" which is where the dump trucks unload all waste into the ocean. It's a sad reality.

We also got to interact with the children at BASICS briefly yesterday. They were so sweet and we anticipate the more frequent interactions that will occur with them. I think we are all a little more nervous about implementing a successful HIV prevention program after we've seen the reality of the circumstances these children live in. We are so impressed with the mission of BASICS and all they are trying to accomplish for the Chorkor community. (It's clear this a very poor region of Accra and the world).

Today, we were adventurous to go out by ourselves :) We have the weekends off to travel, but were not quite comfortable trying something too crazy, so we are just becoming accustomed to the area and how we are supposed to go about doing things. So far, so good.

Our only hope is that we can begin to tolerate the weather because we know it's not really going to cool down :(


Below, pictures for your enjoyment.


This is the three of us at the top of the construction site of the new BASICS building. It should be an awesome facility for the organization and will open in July. We will get to see a lot of the changes as it is being built. From where we are, we were able to see much of the area including the ocean- which is really only about 2 blocks from where we live


Courtney and Lori after Lori and Liz arrived. These are our bunkbeds. Lori sleeps on the top and Courtney slept on the bottom, until the lack of circulation did her in and she moved her mattress to the floor. The bag Lori is holding is a satchel of water, the most common way the foreigners can drink water.


Our shower facility. The first the the water was out, so we had to use just a bucket of water- though the hand-held shower head doesn't really provide much force anyway. Might be easier to bucket-shower every single day