First Day

After months and months of planning for this volunteer trip, I am finally here in Ho! And it is everything I expected and more! My cross country teammate, Molly Ortiz, and I arrived at the Accra airport two days ago, and John was right there to meet us. We made the three hour journey to Ho, and on the way we saw some baboons on the side of the road. We passed through many villages. Molly and I were tired from our long trip, so when we got to Ho, we went right to sleep. On our first full day in Ho, John helped us get oriented. We went to McColin's Primary School to introduce ourselves to the children. (Molly and I are both volunteering here, and the other Ghana ACT volunteers are working at other schools in the area.) We are planning to start an after school sports program, so we brought a lot of sports equipment with us. We brought one soccer ball on the first day, and they were so excited to play with us. During their recess time, they taught us some of their songs, and we taught them some songs too. They were fascinated with my running watch, sunglasses, and especially my white skin! They were very welcoming and followed us around everywhere we went. The teachers also welcomed us and taught us some basic phrases in the Ewe language. Mama Susie, the director of McColin's, took some time out of her busy day to eat lunch with Molly and I so we could get to know each other. Everywhere I go, the Ghanaians are friendly and happy to help us with whatever we need. John not only took us on a tour of the surrounding area, he has also introduced us to key members of the community and has begun to teach us Ewe. Tomorrow he is taking us on a weekend trip to see some of the surrounding area. I look forward to start teaching on Monday at McColin's. I hope the after school sports program gets off to a great start. I will try to update the blog regularly on our progress.
Even though I have only been here a couple of days, I am already so glad that I have decided to volunteer with Ghana ACT.