breaking ground!!

The volunteers have been here for a week now and it has been a whirlwind ever since they touched down in Ghana. Alyssa and Caisa arrived a day early, on Thursday, so I along with some Ghanaian friends took them out for a night in Accra. Early the next morning we all trooped to the airport for the third time in two days to get the rest of the group, Dana, Michael, and Lauren. The five volunteers are all colleagues of mine at UPS so it was very strange for me as my two worlds collided, people from back home arriving in Ghana. Once I got over the shock of seeing five Yeevus (white man in Ewe) whom I knew get off the plane we jumped straight away into orientation. The first three days, Saturday, Sunday and Monday were spent in Accra at the Volunteer Abroad house, where Kersten and Poppo, the VA country coordinators, went through a comprehensive list of problems the volunteers could encounter and how to appropriately deal with those situations. We also took breaks in between classes and went to the beach, a five minutes walk from the house, or out dancing at local night clubs. Tuesday afternoon we rented a trotro, basically a large van, to take us to Keta, but as there where eight people, lots of luggage, and broken down beds which we were taking with us, and it started raining in the midst of packing, it took us a lot longer than expected. We reached Keta by 6pm, and only had about 45 minutes of daylight, so we rushed to get the beds set up before night time. The first night in Keta was a shock for everyone as they had been getting used to the modernized city of Accra, but they all survived, mosquito netting and fanless. The last few days have been consumed with building and getting the volunteers orientated to Keta. The first day of building was Wednesday, and as it was ridiculously hot we had only one task, consolidate the cement bricks which were laying over the entire section of land we needed to build on. Sounded easy, but lifting heavy bricks of cement and packing them in concise stacks, in the open sun, is actually quite tiring, but rewarding, as work on the clinic had begun. The next day, Thursday, was our first real day of actual building, and we got so much done. The team of local masons we are working with and the volunteers in one day had dug the outline of the main room and the office, and filled the outline with cement. At the end of the day, the outline of the building had appeared,and I was caught between jumping for sheer joy and crying out of overwhelming happiness. Needless to say, the experience so far has been beyond words, to see the project which I and so many others have so hard for actually coming to fruition. I remembered how much I love this country, the people here, and the atmosphere of relaxation, understanding and moving according to your own time, and the positive effect it has on me, especially after the craziness of school. I will try to post pictures when I can, they are beautiful and I am taking as many of each stage of the project as I can . I am tan, working hard, and have never been happier!!