First day in Paga - Wednesday

So up to this point I’ve been under the care and guidance of Canadians who’ve been in the country for much longer than myself, in other words they’ve been taking care of me because I’m clueless of how things work here in Ghana. Well all that changed in an instant when Ryan took off back to Bongo on his moto and I was in Paga at the MoFA office. It was an interesting day, a long interesting day, and to completely honest it was probably the toughest day and the most unpleasant so far. So the landlord to my place was in Bolga when I arrived so I had to wait, first at the MoFA office with the Director (my new boss, real nice guy), then we had to take off, I was sent to the border where there’s an office that deals with agriculture import inspections and such. So I waited there for a while in the shade with some of the people who worked at the border. By now I’m feeling some anxiety, feeling out of place, awkward, and so on. Finally after a while Solomon, who is a director there, showed up and drove me back to my new place.

As I’m typing this now I’m laughing but I wasn’t on this day I’m describing. So, we get to the place which is a compound (a rectangle set up of rooms with a courtyard in the middle) but the room wasn’t ready, that is, they had to install the (only) light. So seeing as how there was nothing in the room except concrete walls/floor, a window, light switch, and outlet, Solomon was kind enough to take me to the neighbouring town of Navrongo (15min) to pick up some things like a couple buckets, foam mattress, chair, and a mat. So here I am expecting to be welcomed by a host family and get settled in, have a local meal, and relax. Nope, that would be too easy hahaha. So try to picture it, I just get to the place I’ll be staying at for the next 3 months and there’s nothing there but an empty room without a light, I just met the people I’m with, there’s very few white people who come up here and I’m new so just about everyone stares at me (not exaggerating), can’t speak the local language that everyone is speaking but the majorty know English, and I don’t know where anything is located like food or the main water source. In EWB there’s a lot of talk about “getting outside your comfort zone”, well I was flying past the line of that zone at record speed.

But I’m lucky, Solomon really helped me out, he took time out of his day to drive me to Navrongo and back, then brought me to his home for a hearty meal of rice balls and stew. Here’s another thing that threw me off: I felt like I was back in Canada in his house. It was like a standard middle class home in Canada, tile floor, nice couches, entertainment center, average sized TV with the dvd “Madagascar” playing, nice dishes, and not too hot. So he took me in, fed me, helped me buy things (which sounds simple but is pretty tough freshly on your own in a foreign country), and drove me from place to place. This one of my expectations that has not fallen through so far, the warm welcoming by Ghanaians, everyone I meet here almost always says “you are welcome”. But when I was comfortable and full I headed back to my place, which was finally finished, Solomon dropped me off after asking if everything was ok and I had everything I needed and hahaha I was alone in my new room with a neon-blue light shining on touquiose greenish walls. So I went out to find water, and I bought a big bag of clean water satchets but not without breaking a couple bags by not carrying it properly, and feeling ridiculous as people stared. I laugh now, but at the time I thought to myself ‘just get through the night and tomorrow I can get a new light and a fan’ and everything will be ok. And of course everything was ok.