just a quickie...

i am here in ghana (not sure exactly where outside of accra) but arrived. friday was kind of a disaster...i felt very out of my comfort zone. i was anxious to explore, but not sure how to do it on my own and my roommate is not really the exploration type. i showered (by that i mean bathed out of a bucket) apparently running water is extremely hard to come by no matter how much money you have...shouldn't i have known this??? i don't know why i was shocked but i was and i guess it is ok to admit it. i went to bed at 8pm on friday...figured if i could sleep maybe i would wake up feeling a little more comfortable.

my roommate got up at 6am, 6AM on a Saturday!!!!!!!!!! this is definitely the earliest i have woken up in over 2 years if you don't count days i have traveled. i had breakfast with her before she took off to tutor at a local private school and my other roommates invited me to tag along on their end-of-trip day at the finest hotel in all of ghana and the beach...i couldn't turn down an offer to the beach and since i am dependent to move about i figured i might as well. we went to the arts market (i bought 2 paintings ya), the La Palm hotel where obama will stay in July, and then to a hookah bar...

it was the most un-ghanaian day i could have imagined for my first full day and it was apparently very expensive, which i wouldn't know as the father of one of the volunteers came along and treated the whole group throughout the day. i feel incredibly OLD (they are all between 17 and 23, besides "dad"), but i was grateful to be carted around and get a better idea of the city.

i am already getting anxious about getting going on my research, and if you know how my turbo self can be i want to get something accomplished right away, but i am going to give myself the next few weeks to get adjusted to the culture shock i am definitely going through.

this morning, i had planned to go to church with a roommate to check it out since that is the typical SUNDAY activity here and pretty much everything is closed down...when he came to wake me up, I was in deep REM sleep and couldn't quite figure who he was or where i was so i decided to try to keep sleeping, which was a failure.

i had breakfast with my roommate, read a bit about ghana politics since i know NOTHING, and then ventured out on my own for the first time...naturally, i ran into 2 of the only 5 people i know here and sat and had some lunch with them before venturing here...tonight we are having dinner at a ghanaian friend, russell's house. tomorrow i am heading to office with my roommate working at the local paper...i should have more internet and more updates.

i am doing wonderfully be assured. i am shocked and uncomfortable, but looking forward to the two months i have to take it all in. i am already kind of liking my bucket baths (and know i will never be a water waster again ;p). Life already feels simpler and the questions have started buzzing around in my head about my own lifestyle...i am sure this is only going to intensify....

ok, 30 seconds left on internet...chau, mwa!!!