Day 1 Continued: First Outings in Accra

Exploring our hotel this afternoon was quite fruitful...I found out we have a state of the art pool, as well as an internet café (on top of the Wi-Fi!).
We had our first meal at Tawala Beach Restaurant, literally a restaurant on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. As our professors have been telling us, chicken and rice is what we'll be eating a lot of the time, and Welcome to Ghana, that's what we had for dinner. Seeing the Atlantic while we ate was amazing. The ocean here is loud and rough and the waves actually crash onto the shore. If I had thought Accra was humid earlier, it was nothing compared to how humid it was at dinner. You could feel the moisture in the air and taste the salt on your lips.


Driving through Accra to dinner, I couldn't help but notice something... "Developing" countries are developing countries no matter where in the world they are. Having experienced India, Belize, and now Ghana, I've observed that they all have similar appearance, lifestyles, smells in the air, and so on. Its interesting how that tie is there.

After dinner back at the hotel, our group sat out by the pool and talked through the jet lag that kept us all awake. We got to know each other, and found out that the 16 of us are from all sorts of backgrounds. Its definitely a wide range of people, but I'm sure that is one thing that will make this trip more memorable.

I realized something after sharing my story and hearing everyone else's story, and having seen much of Accra today. We may be from one of the most well-reputed and most convenient-to-live-in countries in the world, and there are many beauties and luxuries in the American culture, especially compared to countries and cultures world wide. However, it seems to me like there is an arrogant, almost too-liberalized side of that same lifestyle and while it can be understood, it can be ugly at first glance.
I guess to dwell on this, and realize that there's no good and bad in any culture, is the wise thing to do.

Medasi,
Padma