Akwaaba!

Well I arrived here in Ghana on Sunday 13th February after a very pleasant BA flight from London Heathrow to Accra. We landed at about 10pm and I was compleely unprepared for the sauna like heat that I was met with as I walked off the aeroplane. By the time we got through customs, collected our bags etc it was after 11pm and we then had a one hour bus journey to our hotel.  How delighted we were when we stepped into an air conditioned hotel lobby; how ecstatic we were to discover that our room had air conditioning too! Waking up to intense heat at 6am on Monday morning felt so good; 24 hours previously I had been shivering with the cold at Standstead Airport.  We had breakfast of the most juicy fresh fruits (mango, melon, paw paw and pineapple) followed by toast ( yes there is bread in Ghana) with a choice of jam, honey,  peanut butter and vegemite. I shouldn't forget the ubiquitous Cornflakes and a Ghaanian version of porridge that did not stand up to my friend Paula's (I think they may use maize rather than oats and add some wierd concoction of spices  ... for breakfast???  I don.t think so. Usually we have some kind of fried fish as an option at lunchtime but it has its head on so as many of you know that is a no go area for me. So I am eating lots of rice and vegetables at the moment. I have tried bakuu, which is a bit like a very spicy stodgy dumpling, fried plantain is one of my favourite discoveries and we had pancakes with fruit today which was divine. The VSO programme staff all seem really friendly and keen to make sure that we enjoy our stay in Ghana (most people seem to want to exend their time here ..) there is also more pressure from internatinal donors for VSO and other development agencies to demonstrate how their work impacts on development goals so I think I may be kept busy by engaging in some new OD projects with VSO as well as with my partner organisation.  I think my work rate may suffer with the heat somehow.  It's now after 11pm and way past my bedtime. DayO (Goodnight in Twi)