It’s truly hard to believe that I’m in WEST AFRICA!!

72 other American’s and I joined forced in Philadelphia, PA on June 1st with only one thing in common… Peace Corps Ghana. As the awkward hellos started “Hello, my name is Molly”… (making me feel as if I’m in some sort of AA meeting), “I’m from Colorado” (as if this was a competition for the best state), “and I’m Agro-Forestry and Alternative Livelihood Facilitator” (whatever the hell that means?), friendships emerged as we all got our yellow fever shorts and partook in team building activities.

We were sent off via 3 buses on June 3rd for a quick tour through NYC (us Coloradoans were in awe of Manhattan) and on to JFK.

Sleep deprived we arrived in Accra, Ghana to be welcomed by our trainees and rain. We were told that arriving in Ghana with rain means blessings… (Really hope our 27 months here is blessed). Luggage in tow we took welcoming shorts of Gin (10am I believe it was) as we were sworn into the country.

Medical visits, drinks with the US Ambassador, and hours of card games we all started to feel like one BIG family. The Ghana jokes started as we drank water from a bag… (can’t really drink it from the tap), and discussed “Riding Hot” in Tro Tro’s (an experience that none of us want to have).

4 days after arriving in Ghana, Education vs. Omnibus (AKA everyone else) was divided up. As Education started their training, everyone else set out on a “vision quest.” Questing was done as visions of what our 2 years service might look like as the omnibus crew visited another PCV’s site to get a small taste of Peace Corps Ghana.

I was fortunate enough to quest with another Agro girl to the coast for some quality beach time. 2 tro tro’s (Ghana’s form of public transportation… and I do believe I will discuss tro tro’s in full later) 1 taxi and 10 hours later (I think the total mileage was around 200) we arrived in Princess Town (on the map it says Prince’s Town… someone made a mistake when publishing the name).

Princess Town located right on the Golf of Guinea was filled with fresh fish and a German Castle (making me feel right at home), fu fu and farming (f ufu will again have to be discussed in full later), break ins and sun burns (where we were staying was broken into… no one was hurt but about 150 USD was stolen from my friend).

A few days ago the Omnibus Crew quested to a town called Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region of Ghana, to start our 8 weeks of training!