A New Home

Surrounded in mosquito netting, writing, thinking about all that has happened today. I moved in with my host family this afternoon. My host mother is a very welcoming older woman who likes to joke around. She doesn’t always understand what I am saying but we’ve already had some very deep conversations, she doesn’t hesitate to ask me questions. My host brother is very nice and we talked a lot this afternoon about psychology, the perception of the United States in Ghana and his experience in America with racism. Although at first I had some reservations about him, and still do, I think he will be helpful in figuring out how to get around Ghana. My reservations came around when the other night at dinner he asked another girl on my trip for her phone number (while his mom was away from the table). But I’ve come to find out that most guys don’t hesitate to ask for your number. However, it’s not advisable to give it out and seeing as I don’t even know my number that won’t be a problem.

Today was the first time I’ve seen East Legon (where I’ll be living) and there is much to see, many people on the side of the road selling things and living in small dwellings. Also, the gutters don’t have coverings so sometimes if one is not careful you could fall in. The other day one of the presidential candidates in their elections fell in one of the gutters. Maybe he’ll be the president to decide to invest money in covering them. We also took a taxi ride from the hotel to my house and when my host mother got out of the taxi to go to the store I started a conversation with the driver. I asked him what he thought of America. “Rich.” He didn’t believe me that there are poor people in America too. Later when I was talking with Phyllis he said that he knew that it was true that there are poor people but Ghanaians are deceived into thinking America is only a rich place because of the movies they watch.

I’m finally in my bed, where I’ll be for four months, and I still can’t believe I’m here, in Ghana, by myself. It’s hard right now to think about everything at one time so I’m taking it one day at a time. Tomorrow I’ll figure out how to get to school, where to go once I’m on campus, and then this next week will be orientation on campus and lectures. One day at a time. My dream come true.