Day 7

After some brief shopping in "ShopRite" and clearing out their entire shelf of water, Ben, Siera, Alexa and I were guided to the rural fishing village, Immuna. The IOM has been working within the village since 2003, helping out with their school system and reintegrating children who were trafficked into the fishing industry. The closer we got to the village, the more smiles and waves we received from passerby's. We started off about 2 hours away on a main highway and eventually turned on roads that were somewhat even, which led us to a road that was completely red dirt and rocks, and that if you had eaten before you might not feel so lucky. There is one road in and one road out of Immuna. Along the way, adults and children dropped what they were doing to wave and scream hello. A lot of children even ran after the van. I've never had a feeling like that before. Everyone wanted to get a look at you. Goats soon became the American equivalent to squirrels; always randomly in the middle of the road, running around everywhere. Eventually we arrived to our house. It's one of the first houses on the road in to Immuna. We pulled up to our gate and when it was opened a candyland colored house sat in the middle. It has a big spacious front, cemented down. There's a beautiful porch and a giant well of water. The toilets don't have running water, so we now use buckets to flush them. Bucket showers are now going to become the norm for us. And also we sleep under giant, almost princess-like, white mosquito nets. It's quite comfy actually. We ended the day cooking our first meal and sitting out on the porch for a breezy sunset dinner in our new home.

Day 4

This day was SO much fun! Really started to get into the culture of Ghana. We start our mornings early, around 7:30am. Our IOM driver, and new good friend, Emmanuel picks us up cheerfully every day and takes us to the office from the hotel. It certainly makes the mornings easier! Patience continued with our cultural training and we delved into the basics of the Twi language. The official language of Ghana is English but traditionally people still speak Twi. It's a fun language! We learned days of the week, counting to 10, and greetings. Easy basics. So for example, I can now say "Ete sen? Me hoy ye. Me din de Lauren" which means "How are you? I'm fine, my name is Lauren". After language training, Dan Sam then came in and did a presentation on human trafficking, the occurrence in Ghana and current counter-trafficking projects.

Then it came time for lunch. We headed out with Patience, Dan Sam and Emmanuel to a local chop bar where we all ordered the traditional dish "fufu". Fufu is boiled cassava, which is pounded until it feels like dough. The cassava in then put into light soup, which is quite spicy, and you can add chicken, goat or tilapia. You do NOT eat it with a spoon or fork, only with your hands! You pinch the cassava and roll it into a ball. It was very different, but yummy.

After lunch, we watched a video of the Oprah show in which the IOM was featured, facing the issue of child trafficking. The IOM carries out missions that target and identify children who are trafficked into the fishing industry, rescues them and traces the child's family. It's truly incredible. Soon, we will be in a fishing village where former child slaves will be residing back with their loved ones. Tonny then came in to discuss how various migration movements and emergency operations are organized.

Later, Nhial Malia, a former Sudanese refugee came in and told us his powerful story. During the Sudan conflict, Nhial found himself and his family traveled treacherous conditions to flee to a refugee camp near Gambella, Ethiopia. Nhial's mother had seven children, and carried all of her possesions above her head while dodging air dropped bombs and disease along the way. Nhial lost many of his siblings, and was soon found by the IOM. Since his uncle was already in the United States, the IOM decided to resettle Nhial with him. Nhial described how he used to think the United State's streets were truly made of gold, and the planes that would overpass Ethiopia during the night each had a giant swimming pool and a football (soccer) stadium. Nhial made an incredible
life for himself, after facing challenges, he started going to Barnes and Noble reading everything he could get his hands on. He did well in school and even started running track. Years later, he is now in the Peace Corps and came to Ghana to speak to us about his journey. It was truly incredible. And when it was mentioned the South Sudan embassy was nearby, his face lit up like I've never seen anyone's face light up before. It was magical. Nhial hasn't been back in 15 years, and would like to know where his younger brother is. Dyane then presented him with an IOM tshirt, and we took a bunch of photos together. What a wonderful afternoon.

Day 3

Day number three was the start of orientation week at the International Organization for Migration in Accra, Ghana! It was packed with activities and field trips out of the office. Dyane welcomed us warmly and gave a brief overview of the IOM globally and in Ghana. I was even more impressed with the organization than I had been before; it's truly a wonderful place that creates so many successful projects on positive and regulated migration. Soon after, we went to the United Nations to get briefed on security in the field. We'll be living out in the field, in a fishing village on the coast called Immuna, for six weeks. It was great training! Learned a lot and felt really prepared to be living in this country.


After that, we headed to our meeting with IOM Partners UNHCR. They explained their role and how both organizations work together. It was so much information that I wasn't expecting! We truly began understanding how the IOM works.

Patience and our driver Emmanuel took us to the market in Osu to show us how crazy it really can be. Every seller is coming up to you trying their hardest to get you to buy something.

From paintings to a bracelet with your name on it, in which they make while they're trying to convince you to buy it, the market has a ton of stuff. The men try and learn your name and if you don't buy something they'll try and give it to you "from the heart".

Some actually mean it, the rest let you take it and then try and hassle you for money until you say no and they put it in your hands, say "it's from the heart" and the process starts all over again. It's hilarious and can get quite hectic. They even came up to our van afterwards and tried to sell from there. We could barely close the door!

After that, we were off to the office. But first!


We had freshly chopped coconuts. We drank the water and Emmanuel explained how to use a piece of the coconut to spoon out the "meat" of it. Very fun experience.

Back at the office we ate lunch which was a typical rice and chicken combo. Patience, who has quickly become our motherly figure, went over our cultural orientation. We discussed many do's and don'ts. For example, whistling at night or using your left hand is really looked down upon, while saying "How are you?" (or "Ete sen?") is a great idea! When little kids call you "Obruni!" (white person), you're allowed to shout back "Obibini!", which is the opposite, but not offensive and they'll often giggle. We also learned a couple of dances and just how much Patience loves to dance! It was a lot of fun and very informative. Then Dan Sam came in and explained IOM's work on migration and development in Africa.

That night we went to a traditional African food place, FINALLY! We had been itching to get our hands on some local dishes. We went to Chez Afrique, an outdoor place that is down the road from our hotel. We had been told to only go their on Fridays and Saturdays, as the live music scene and dancing is really great those nights, but we just could not wait. We were three of a few customers, it was quiet, but very nice. It felt like you were sitting under a black light with the large mosquito zapper overhead and party lights all around. It's a place you could really see being situated on a beach and has a very tropical, laid back feel. Also, the mosquitos haven't really been existant yet!

Anyway, we ended up having a dish that many Obrunis like, "Red Red". It's a slightly spicy blend of beans, red pepper and red palm oil, served with sweet fried plantains. Absolutely delicious! You can get it with tilapia, chicken, or even goat sometimes.

With the Red Red, we felt it necessary to order the best Ghanaian beer. Our waitress recommended Club beer, so that's what we had! They're big bottles, and the flavor is pretty good! So we ended up drinking two and had a relaxing time during our first real night out on our own. We headed back to the hotel and fell quickly asleep for day number four. 

Day 2

The next day, Monday, we woke up at 12: 30pm. Guessing jet lag got the better of us. A knock on the door and it ended up being a man from the hotel saying Patience, from the IOM, was downstairs waiting. I was so excited to meet her. Alexa, had been dropped off at 5am and was also there. It was such a great reunion. Patience just came to say hello, the motherly woman we'd soon get to know very well, and then we were off on our own for the day. We ended up going to the place down the road for chicken kabobs and jollof rice. Delicious! We were still craving traditional African food and promised ourselves we'd do it soon. After breakfast/lunch/dinner or whatever meal that ended up being, we returned to the mall to get Alexa's phone situation figured out. We decided to walk on the highway, which is common, to the mall. We definitly witnessed some of the slums of Accra on the way. After we got that figured out, we decided to be adventurous and just walk around Accra for the hell of it and see what we could find. At the end of the day, we must have walked maybe 10 or so miles. We ventured around the streets, got a couple marriage offers from the overly friendly but nonthreatening men, and made a couple of friends. We literally walked with no direction in mind, it was great.

Later that night, we ended up meeting Ben, the fourth intern at our hostel. The team was finally complete!

Akwaaba! First days in Ghana.

I arrived in Accra, Ghana about 2pm on Sunday, and after a day of many adventures and confusions, I was exhausted and had already fallen asleep for two minutes. I arrived thinking I'd be alone, but after being hissed at many times at the airport, a man named Emmanuel picked me up and without many words brought me straight to Dyane's place where Siera had been staying for about a day. Hissing is a way of getting someone's attention. Then we went to our hotel, which is called Catters Hostel. Cold showers, no internet, but air conditioning and 6 Ghanaian TV channels work. We're plopped right on a street that comes off the highway which connects to the Accra mall and is always bustling with traffic. Our street consists of some road side shacks and shops, in which families live off to the side in basically the bush of our hotel, a "night club" and a delicious Turkish restaurant. A little bit farther on is our soon to be favorite place, "Chez Afrique".

The first day, Sunday, Siera and I went to the mall to buy phones, which was an experience in itself. We really didn't know what we were doing. Fresh off the plane, after visiting the phone place 3 times, my first meal was pizza. I'll backtrack a little bit because as soon as we left our place for the mall, we realized we even barely knew the hotel's name. In Ghana, you don't rely on addresses, as there aren't many, and instead you name the place and what is nearby. Our friend at the hotel grabbed us a taxi, so we didn't have to overpay for the "Obruni" (white person) price. And we were off and soon realized how little we knew about the area. So on the way back, it was quite an adventure finding it. Our cab driver most definitely wanted to just forget about us. Cabs here, though, are crazy. If there is a space on the road, they will fill it with their cab. Traffic laws aren't so much a thing. Also, let me explain something about the term "Obruni", first. It's not meant to be offensive, it is most certainly not the equivalent of a racist term for a white person. It's mostly endearing, coming often from the children who sometimes do not believe you're real (thinking you're a ghost) or otherwise shout "Obruni obruni!" at you and smiling. 

So without wifi, Siera and I ended our first day together in Accra by falling asleep to a juicy Ghanaian soap opera.