We've Arrived

We left Canada on July 12; Maria and Tiffany from Calgary and Josephine from Toronto, and met up in Amsterdam. Landing in Accra seven hours later, we piled into buses for the short ride to the terminal, and joined long lines through Customs. Fortunately we passed through Customs easily, were greeted by a gentleman holding a sign with our names on it and were ushered off to the Airport View Hotel for the night. At 8:20 the next morning we discovered that check-in for our flight to Kumasi was between 7 and 8. The hotel driver quickly drove us to the airport, but our panic was unwarranted as there was lots of time until the flight left. Tiffany was thrilled to score an aisle seat, only to lean back and discover that her chair was broken. So being a polite Canadian she dutifully sat forward for the duration of the 35 minute flight to give the lady behind her enough space! Our two flight attendants were impressive- extremely well groomed and professional.
It was exciting to finally meet Philip at the airport in Kumasi. He is a remarkable person; gentle, jovial and patient. We piled our five suitcases into the back of the truck, covered them with a tarp and set off for the 400 km drive to Wa. Kumasi was a chaotic mass of cars, people, and shops. Amazingly the drivers are extremely polite and simply honk or flash their lights if they intend to merge, pass, or turn. All this without stop lights or stop signs. No one even seemed perturbed by the large crowd blocking part of the road participating in an exorcism, or cars parking in the right lane while the driver went in to purchase something.
The lush vegetation, especially in the southern part of Ghana was a surprise. We passed numerous villages and schools along the road with captivating sights, colours and sounds. Women with children wrapped securely on their backs effortlessly carried huge loads on their heads. Goats and chickens scurried across the road. Markets were plentiful and people were going about their day; working, washing, cutting and braiding hair and visiting. School children in uniform were visible in their classrooms, assembled outside their school, playing soccer and finally walking home. The children were equally enthralled with seeing three white faces in the truck and they would brighten up as we drove by smiling and waving. It gets dark early here, and the last hour and a half we travelled down the road in darkness with a full moon, serenaded by enchanting songs from the ponds. Finally two full days after our departure we arrived at our destination, the In-service Training Centre, exhausted and ready for bed.