Signing up for Peace Corps I set myself to have no expectations… or so I thought. I though ‘Peace Corps Volunteer’ and I thought ‘remote, isolated, limited cell reception and internet connection, no electricity or running water’ I also thought ‘children staring at me, no one in my village to confide in, and days that might never end with my only thoughts carrying me away.’ These weren’t really my expectations, but rather my assumptions of what Peace Corps was.

For the most part my assumptions (or expectations depending on the way you look at it) were true… I am remote (or so I think), I don’t have cell reception or the ability to get a wireless internet modem (do to the fact that I don’t have cell reception), there is no running water, and electricity is there (but it comes with its own set of problems). The children do stare (and MOST of the time I don’t care), I’m ok with the fact that I can’t really confide in anyone in my village because there are other PCV’s close enough. But what really gets to me are my thoughts…

I never imagined that being a Peace Corps Volunteer was such a mental game. I didn’t know that my own thoughts could build up so much in my mind. And I hope that it doesn’t all come crashing down.

Most days I’m fine. I’ve been enjoying my time and I wouldn’t change what I’m doing for anything. But there are then some days where someone says the wrong thing, or something happens and I just snap… making me wonder what I’m doing, how I’m going to survive the next 16/17 months and am I really cut out for this (because I feel like what I’m mainly doing is sitting on my butt reading books and watching movies).

It doesn’t always help that the capital of Ghana, Accra, is like entering a run down American city… (although from the view of a traveler passing thought it might seem very African, but coming from a small village it seems like a western city). In Accra I can stay with an American ex-pat family, eat home cooked western food, enjoy hot pressurized showers, sleep in an air-conditioned room under blankets, have access to high speed internet, and watch TV (CNN, movie channels, ESPN or really whatever my heat desires). I can’t complain… it’s a grate escape from the village life. It’s a chance to feel like a person again, remember what its like to be clean and remind myself that this is what I’ll have when I go back home… but also making me wonder why I left the comforts of home, or America?

As of now, through the good and the bad, I’m hear in Ghana to stick it out till the summer of 2012… whish me luck.