Sebastien Gasquet's Blog - Post #2

Crazy First Week!!


Whew, well what a whirlwind week its been! Where to begin??? I FINALLY have found a room with a stable internet connection, so at last time to blog a bit, even though it'll be by darkness because of yet another power cut... I had a good flight on Royal Air Morocco from Geneva to Accra, where I even managed to get some sleep in...which was a good thing, given that I arrived at the ungodly hour of 05:30 (the plane left Casablanca at 11:40 pm). Despite the early hour I was fueled, almost caffeine-like, by the now undeniable fact that yes, after 3 solid months of preparations since the opportunity first was discussed, I was at last in Ghana!

I was greeted at the airport by Narcisse, the brother of of my direct supervisor at WANEP, Edwige. After a few words of welcome I learned he was not Ghanaian but Togolese, so we quickly switched to French. Apparently, short-term accommodation for expats in Accra is a scarce resource and is allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis, as the apartment I originally was moving into was given to someone who had simply gotten into town before me.

On the Accra tarmac

Uh oh... Thankfully, the people at WANEP had gotten my a room at hostel run by an order of Catholic nuns where I could stay for a couple days while finding another place. As a result, my wake-up alarm was the call to morning prayers, quite lovely really! Meanwhile, Narcisse has been giving showing me around town, introducing me to his friends, and even inviting me to two family dinners, of djoloff rice and chicken, prepared by Edwige. I was/am amazed by their hospitality!

I finally moved into an apartment 10 minutes walking from the office, so not too bad! It was then I made the lovely discovery that most of Accra was going through a massive water outage, with no foreseeable end in sight, as Narcisse explained to me, later by my colleagues. In other words, running water? Umm...nope. Looks like I'll be getting an unexpected workout for my arms from pumping water for my daily needs!