Update: I wrote this post yesterday before we lost power at work-we just got power back this morning, so here it is!

Hello to everyone from Ghana!  It has been a crazy 48 hours for me that started when I left home in Pittsburgh to drive to New York with my parents.  Then it was good-bye to them and hello to Hannah and Erin as we all boarded our flight to Accra, Ghana.  The flight was about 11 hours long, and when we landed, it was about 12 noon local time (8 AM back home).  By the time we made it through immigration, baggage claim, and customs, I think we were all relieved to see a familiar face.  Calvin, our internship coordinator at Georgetown, had come with Emmanuel, a driver from the research center, to pick us up.  We loaded into his truck and made a few stops in Accra to exchange money, buy prepaid phones, and buy internet modems, before heading out the main road to Dodowa, where we will be living until December.  As we drove from Accra to Dodowa, I almost couldn't believe that this was really happening, because I had looked forward to this moment for almost four years.  In fact, this might be a good time to explain exactly why I am here.  For those of you who don't know, I am an international health major at Georgetown.  A major part of our curriculum, the focal point of it really, it a semester of practical experience abroad, when everyone in the major goes to a developing country and lives and works on a research project for the semester.  Basically, this major and its accompanying experience abroad were the main reason that I chose to attend Georgetown.  I'll be working at the Dodowa Health Research Center, but we haven't definitely figured out what research we'll be doing yet.  I'll keep you posted :)

Anyway, we arrived in Dodowa yesterday, and our first stop was the research center to meet Margaret Gyapong, our preceptor.  We also met some other staff members who all greeted us warmly (everyone says "you are welcome" when they meet you, which made me feel very...welcome!)  We then headed over to the research center guest house where we will be living.  We all have our own bedroom, and share a kitchen, bathroom, and living room.  We will have two other roommates living with us as well and we met one of them, Oti, yesterday.  He is a graduate student here collecting data for research, and so far he has been a huge help, showing us around town, helping us figure out what to eat, etc.  It's good to have someone around willing to answer our silly American questions!  Auntie Esther then came over to tell us that she was preparing dinner so we should come over.  Auntie Esther is part of our host family-she works as a midwife at the hospital, which is right by her house.  Her sister Charity was also there last night, as well as some of the kids- Lovelyn and Elvis.  Elvis is three years old and I already love him.  He kept hiding from us last night, but would peek around the corner to see us and if we looked over at him he would jump back and dissolve into laughter.  We ate rice and chicken and vegetables, and it was really good.  She hasn't been making our food too spicy yet, because Ghanaian food is usually much spicier than anything we're used to back home.  

This morning we came to the research center around nine, and Sheila took us around to meet everyone else who works here-I am trying my best to remember names and faces, but meeting so many people so quickly is a challenge!  People seem to be having the most trouble remembering and saying my name, compared to Hannah and Erin, which I think is really interesting-I guess Allyson sounds exotic here?  After we met everyone, a man named Christian took us on a tour of Dodowa.  He was really nice and showed us around everywhere, explaining history and what different buildings were.  For example, we went to the Dodowa Proverbial and Historical Forest, which is called that because a war between European colonizers and the Ashanti tribe here was fought throughout all of Ghana ended right in that spot in the forest.  We saw a lot more of the town besides just the main road that our house is on, and my favorite of the many little stands and shops was the “Why Not Jesus? Hair Salon”.  Many of them are named with references to faith or religion, but that one stuck in my mind.  After about an hour driving around for the tour we returned to the research center to read about some of the past research projects done here, as well as ongoing programs.  We just have a delicious lunch of fried sweet potatoes (not sweet potatoes like we know them in America-literally white potatoes that taste sweet) dipped in a spicy salsa-like sauce.  VERY spicy.  That’s about it for now!  Our weekend plans include a trip to the mall in Accra where we can hopefully meet up with Calvin and the girls going to Navrongo before they fly out Monday to go north, as well as going to church on Sunday with Solomon, who works at the research center.  He said that the service is usually three hours long-I’m excited to see what it’s like!