We're here..and it's HOT!

Well we have arrived in Ghana and we are starting to get settled after a bit of a rough start.

We arrived at the airport in Accra right on time. We were both a bit nervous about obtaining our visa at the airport, but that seemed to be no problem at all. Then we went outside to meet the people who were supposed to pick us up, and they weren't there. We thought perhaps they were just late, or had expected that obtaining our visas would take a bit longer, so we waited. Several people came up to us asking if we were OK or if we needed to catch a taxi to a hotel, so I guess we must have stuck out a bit. We kept politely telling them that our ride was on its way. About an hour later, we decided we should probably try to give someone a call, just in case they forgot or something. So we tried calling both of the cell phones that were given to us and both just were actually shut off. We started to get a bit worried. Then we found one last number - the landline to the orphanage. We were reluctant to try it, since it was passed the regular office hours, but we thought we better give it a try. So we called and someone answered and they said they would send someone right away. We waited, and waited and people kept coming up to us asking if we were alright, and then finally, after about 1 more hour and just before we were going to take a taxi to the nearest hotel, they arrived. They said that they were really sorry for not being there on time, but they thought our flight was to arrive at 7:30 am, not pm, so they had been at the airport all morning! Gotta love miscommunication!

So we were on our way, finally, after over 20 hours of traveling already. We thought we were heading right to where we would be staying, but apparently they needed to go get the key from the director first. So, we spent the next 2 hours trying to track him down, driving from place to place. In the end, we ended up just breaking into our home because he was no where to be found.

We were so happy to finally be to our home, thinking we could just grab a much needed shower, quickly unpack a few things and jump into bed, but that was not the case. First of all, we determined this house had no running water. That is certainly not something you want to hear when you have been traveling for so long and have been dreaming of your next shower for the last several hours. They were able to go next door and fill 3 buckets from the well - problem solved. Then they showed us our room. Now, one of the only expectations that we did have before coming was that one of the rooms in the home, presumably ours, would have air conditioning. We weren't sure if it worked, but we would at least hope that it did and if it didn't, we would try to fix it. Well, they decided that we would be put in another room, on the other side of the house, with just a little fan in it. At this point, we were both so tired and very sweaty, so we quickly asked if we could at least switch rooms for a while, since the air conditioner was in fact working. They said it was no problem. So, as soon as they left us, we quickly took apart our bed, moved everything across the house to our new room with air conditioning and put our bed back together.

At this point, this is where I had my first breakdown of the night. This was just not what we expected at all, we were so tired and so hot, and I just couldn't help but cry. I knew that wasn't going to help and I needed to get some sleep, so we each had a bucket shower to cool down and freshen up and then tried to go to sleep.

We woke up the next morning feeling a bit better and VERY thankful for our wonderful air conditioner - it is a life saver and I honestly don't know if we would still be here if it weren't for that air conditioner. Even if everything else falls apart, as long as you can sleep, you can handle the stress much better.

We still had no running water, but there was still some water left in our buckets so we could at least cool off and freshen up again. We didn't have much food around, so we just snacked on some almonds and a granola bar that was left over from our traveling.

So far, it's only me and Chad who live at our house. There will be several babies and their care givers who eventually move in, but they wanted to get things set up first. There is, however, a daycare next door and those kids are loud! When we first heard them, we thought they were right in our living room, but they weren't. The wall between the two properties is not very high, so as soon as they arrive in the morning...we hear them. We hear them crying and singing and screaming - we are now very thankful we brought lots of ear plugs!

Later that day we went to the main orphanage where all of the 52 kids are currently living. At that home, there are children from 3 weeks old to 15 years old, so it is a really lively place. We were pretty overwhlemed when we first arrived because most of the kids ran over to greet us right away. These kids are beautiful but they don't get much personal attention so when someone new arrives, they crave attention. That will be one of our roles, we just aren't sure how it will look at this point in time.

So that was our first day in Ghana. We are now waiting for a working stove in our house so that we can start to cook a real meal. Since we have been here, we have just eaten random snacks, with the exception of one meal at a beach-side restaurant on Wednesday afternoon. It was beautiful, and the meal tasted great too!

We are also waiting for some running water and they keep telling us that they are working on it. We did have running water for about 5 minutes yesterday, but it hasn't been back since. I guess we'll have to start enjoying our bucket showers!