Obruni in Ghana

I haven’t done much. Just eating good food, playing with the little boy (He’s 6 years old so we get along really well. Also – it turns out that my ability to make paper boats impresses men of all ages and makes it easy with the young ones to make friends), trying not to move too much because it’s soooo hot and humid here (seriously, I wasn’t made for this weather J), and well, that’s it.

I don’t have internet access at home, but I love my new home and my new family. They’re all great and I’m really happy to be here with them. We went swimming today with my new sister Harriet which was great – being in water for 2 hours, I even was cold for a little bit! But the trip there also made me realize how difficult transportation in Accra is. How am I going to be able to get to work by all the crazy buses? Harriet suggested that we could move together to an apartment in Osu from where it would be much easier to get to work. So we’ll see.

But being on the buses made me realize how all parts of development are so closely connected. If there was a better working public transport system, it would be much easier for people to get to work (and other places) on time and have more time for other activities (like kids doing homework etc.). And that is also related to the state of roads – they’re bad and that makes getting to places even more difficult. Now you can think it’s me coming from Europe and pointing out things that Europeans are so used to and they cost money… and maybe you think these things don’t matter. Well, I think they do and I think people here think so, too. They told me themselves they don’t know why the government stopped caring about the roads. So no, it’s not just me who thinks that. And being able to places is very important for so many other things related to development – health care (getting to hospitals), education (getting to school), businesses…

So these are my first few days here – the things I see around that make me think. If you have any comments, feel free!