Orientation weekend over...

Hi everyone,

So I am back in Cape Coast after one VERY busy weekend. I left Cape Coast for Accra Thursday afternoon to look at a hostel and prepare to start picking the new group of volunteers up from the airport beginning early Friday morning. We had four new volunteers arrive. Two of them will stay for three months, one for two months, and the third for 5 weeks.

The trip to Accra isn't necessarily long, but the process of getting there can be a bit tiring. There are a few different options to take in terms of transportation. One is a large bus with plastic seats and no a/c (this can get quite uncomfortable on a bumpy hot ride), the second option is what we call the Ford vans, they seat about 13 passengers and have cushier seats and usually a/c (slightly more expensive but worth it in my opinion. These also don't stop as often meaning you get to Accra more quickly.) When I left Thursday I decided to take the Ford vans, the only problem is that with either of these options you need to wait for them to completely fill before they leave. The Ford vans may be smaller, but less people take them, it wasn't too bad, I think I waited for about an hour for it to fill and we could leave. The trip to Accra took almost 3 hours this time and when I arrived I needed to take a taxi to the hostel I had chosen. This can be difficult since they do not use street addresses here in Ghana, and it turns out the Hostel does not even have any distinguishing marks or signs either. After some confusion I finally arrived.

The hostel I booked ended up being pretty nice thankfully. The hotels we normally use in Accra were completely full due to the festival even though I called almost two weeks in advance. Accra traffic is horrible, an absolute nightmare. I really dislike being in such a congested city.

The pick up for the volunteers went pretty well with some minor problems with people at the airport telling them they had to tip for help with their bags, tip extra to drivers, etc. We worked it out. I got them up very early on Saturday morning to head back to Cape Coast in time to catch some of the festival that was going on here. We left the hostel at 6:30am and arrived in Cape Coast around 10:30am after having some trouble finding a bus heading back this way. We headed down to the center almost immediately. I have never seen Cape Coast so packed, it was incredible, I am not sure where all the people were coming from.

The festival was interesting. All of the chiefs were carried through the crowd in these seats specially designed and decorated for them as seen above. There was drumming, lots of dancing, and general excitement everywhere. I am glad we all got to take part even though for me spending a lot of time in such a large crowd can be quite tiring. It's back to work and a busy week now...

Love to all.