(On the afternoon of Friday, October 19, 2018 my husband Rick and I, and our friend and sister-in-Christ, Lydia, left our homes in Middletown, Connecticut en route to Kennedy Airport in New York, City. To follow is what I wrote in my journal about our first hours/days of the journey):
That Lydia….such a big troublemaker! Her carry-on was searched by TSA because they saw…..wait for it….a box of educational flashcards. (Terrorist flashcards?). Almost all the Ghanaians on our flight are dressed as though it’s 40-degrees on the airplane. Everywhere I look I see leather jackets, ski jackets, puffy jackets, men and women in full suits. I’m in a 3/4 sleeve knit shirt and capri pants, shoes are kicked off and sweat is rolling down my neck! A portend of conditions to come ? (well, that was added just now …now that I’ve ‘been there!)
The lovely lady seated across the aisle from Lydia is traveling to Ghana with about twenty people from her Texas church to work on a school they started there. Later we would see them in the airport after arrival at baggage claim, with about 30 large bins of supplies, tools, etc. for the work they’ll be doing. The lady we talked with has two teenage girls from Ghana currently living with her family in Texas. The girls stayed behind this time!
I never really thought about how long this flight would be (11 hours or so)….or what it would feel like….my body is stiff and aching, making it hard to sleep. Later we would all agree that a flight through the night like that, you find yourself in some kind of ‘half world’, feeling dazed and hazy. I watched two movies through the night, “Runaway Bride” and “The Sound of Music”. I’m hopeless.
(Saturday morning, October 20th – WE’VE ARRIVED [photo below]
8:53 A.M. WE’RE IN AFRICA!
OK, let me (try to) only say this once. It. Is. Hot. Here.
Airport, baggage claim, customs, etc. all very easy to navigate and get through. After a bit of a wait, we got into two taxis accompanied by cousins of Lydia’s – who arrived IN the taxis — because she’s not sure how to get to the house, so we need them to navigate our way there…..and there don’t seem to be street addresses here in Ghana. We are going to “Kwabenya House #7” (Kwabenya is an area of the capital city of Accra – what we would think of as a large suburb, and there are definitely more than 7 houses there!)
Coming here from the airport we saw entire areas of three-wall shanties sitting on dirt – some have small storefronts selling everything from concrete blocks to bottles of water. Clotheslines are everywhere, huge black plastic water tanks sit high everywhere you look. I could see kids, goats, dogs, garbage…. all in one glance.
The roads are impossible to describe (and this theme would continue throughout our stay). Most are dirt roads with deep ruts, holes, huge rocks in the middle to go around, no definable traffic lanes, so many cars, motorcycles on both sides of us, typically…and “tro-tro’s” (large passenger vans used for public transportation) pulling off…pulling in. And horns horns horns honking honking honking.
We arrived at the home where we will be staying most of the time while in Accra – the home Lydia’s mother owns here. There are other relatives and families living here. Uncle, aunts, cousins, grandchildren, friends. I lost count of how many children there are….but they are all so BEAUTIFUL! We’ve already given out some candy, Matchbox cars, dolls and a stuffed animal. The kids all say ‘thank you’ in the sweetest way, and give such good ((((hugs))).
Surprise! We have no running water here. I recalled Lydia sending money in advance of our trip for the pump to be repaired….but it’s still not working and more parts are needed. I bathed using a five-gallon bucket of well-drawn water and a one-gallon pail to pour it from.
Uh huh….. we are officially off on an adventure !
Grace Mission in Ghana 