Day 4 (May 22)

Contributed by: Olivia

We left Afia Beach after our luggage had been tied to the roof of our taxi by the driver and several helpers. We settled the tab with the hotel owner, Kofi, and packed into the taxi for the trip to Kumasi. We left the city in the late afternoon after we made a stop at Interplastic for the polypipe. A 150 ft-45 mm polypipe was purchased and tied atop our heap of panels. At the next stop, we purchased 6 batteries for the schoolhouse PV system. They were plastic-wrapped in case of rain during the drive. We left Accra around 4 pm in the afternoon. Oh, and just to give everybody an idea of how the shopping goes around here, it took an elapsed 4 and ½ hours to by the $90 worth of polypipe, after we had found the place that sells it.

The weight of the 12 packages of 30 kg solar panels punished the rack when the taxi dipped in the dirt potholes or swerved to miss them on the paved roads. Immediately after we'd left the city, the volunteers fell asleep when the air conditioner was turned on. We stopped on the way to have coconuts. Several young boys used their machete to cut the coconuts for us at 10 pesowas (10 cents) per coconut. We drank the water and ate the milky inside. At our next stop, pillows were bought from an Ashfoam vendor. The driver set the radio dial to news or played his tape of American R&B music artists. Beyonce was heard many times over before we arrived at our hotel in Kumasi at 9:30pm. We checked into our rooms and had a late dinner. I was very excited to watch Battlestar Galactica in an air-conditioned hotel.

Day 3 (May 21)

Contributed by: Berai

After waking from a deliciously cool sleep we met David (see photo) again and had some breakfast. Jared, John Campbell, Matt Moan,David and Isaac headed out for the city in search of materials for the project. While Dani, Olivia, John-John and I stayed at the hotel to work on project logistics. Once the guys returned from shopping we all went out into the city together and had dinner at Papaye (or Popeye's as Dani would call it) for some Guinness or fanta, fried chicken and rice. After, Papaye we went to the airport in quest for our luggage. The awaited football (soccer) game between Manchester United vs. Chelsea was on a TV outside the airport. Everyone was standing in front of it tense, excited, and yelling as the match continued. Ghanaian's are extremely excited for the World Cup 2010 to come to Africa. We got our luggage (phew!), it took awhile, but everything arrived safe and sound. Afterwards we traveled to Afia Beach and had a meeting with ourselves, David, Isaac and Akunz. Again, it was an exhausting day and after the meeting we hit the sack to get rest before our long haul up to Yua.

Contributed by: Danielle

We spent our first day in Accra shopping and planning for the project. Jared, John, Matt, and David were designated as our shopping crew and went out to battle the bustling markets of the big city. The rest of the crew stayed behind and organized the community health and project assessment plan. Later Olivia, Berai, and John Y. took a stroll to a nearby market, not entirely prepared for the advanced style haggling they met. They survived and John Y. (who had been referred to as “Peter Pan” by a local merchant boy) came back with two beautiful oil paintings at a good price. For dinner we tried the local fare and ended up at a very busy fast food joint called Papeye's (Which means “we can do it” in Twe). We were served a very delicious dinner of chicken and rice with a spicy black sauce called “shito” which provided us with laughs for the rest of the evening (our team has become very easily entertained). It stormed hard this night, the sound of the thunder and rain mingled with the frogs and ocean, made an exciting new sound, even more calming than sleep. Olivia and Berai giggled at Ghanaian TV and went out to briefly play in the warm rain.

Day 1 & Day 2 (May 19 & 20)

Contributed by: Berai

We made it! All seven of us and roughly 2,000 lbs of luggage. While at Phoenix Sky Harbor we had been carrying the weight of our tremendous amount of luggage in fear that we wouldn't pass inspection. We knew that British Airways may have easily taken one look at our load and said, “No way.” Thankfully everyone was extremely helpful and let us and all our bags on board for the long journey to Ghana. While on board, we were all entertained by the personal screens equipped with TV, movies, and radio stations for the lengthy flights. The transfer in London was a breeze minus the mad dash sprint through airport to our connecting flight. Luck or something was on our side because we made the flight when we were told we had no chance. Finally, at 8:15pm-Ghana time we arrived tired and stiff, but smiling. We were greeted at the immigration line by Akunz's delightful smile and warm hug. He helped us figure out our luggage situation (since we arrived late in Heathrow our luggage didn't make it on our connecting flight),we had to take a moment... a long moment to fill out the necessary paperwork, so we could get our luggage the next day. Finally, the moment we were all waiting for happened, we stepped outside (and for some of us) saw Ghana for the first time. We were met there by David and Isaac, our guides last year on the project. It was dark which didn't allow us to see the city and scenery quite yet but we hopped into the taxi and headed for Afia Beach, our hotel located right next to the Atlantic Coast...awesome! John Yatsko, a.k.a “John-John” had never seen the Atlantic, so in true John-John fashion he took a little swim. We were all pretty exhausted leading us to pack it in pretty early. Olivia and myself were highly entertained by Ghanaian television,but I of course fell asleep in a heartbeat and didn't open my eyes for another 11 hours. Oh, I haven't mentioned that it is H-U-M-I-D here! Fortunately, Afia Beach had AC which was nice for us “dry-heaters”.