May 13th - May 14th

Yesterday/Today was all travel and very little sleep. We (Ayanna, Alanna, Taysha, Polina, Janaiya, Folasade) left from DTW at 9:00pm and we arrived in Amsterdam around 11:00am. I was surprisingly not tired but it definitely caught up to me on the second flight. The food they served on the planes was actually not half bad…well I can only speak for the vegetarian options, there were mixed reviews on the meat dishes. The first plane served curry beans w/ greens and rice and a salad on the side. The second flight served Aubergine curry offered with coriander couscous, raisins and Spanish red pepper…classy, right? And the passion fruit mousse was served over gram cracker crust (just delish). To make the flight even better there were the most adorably little girls sitting behind me, except they were never sitting, they played in the isle for the majority of the flight and I played something equivalent to peek-a-boo with them for a little while. Both flights gave me a chance to pretty much finish this month’s issue of Essence…it’s a must buy…all about being green and they gave green awards, here are some highlights:

Ways to go green at home:
Let fresh air in, unplug unused appliances, wipe your feet, turn your heat down and put on a sweater, use recyclable bags, say bye-bye to bottled water anddddd GO MEATLESS(they suggest visiting black vegetarians.org/recipes/soulfood.htm for those who don’t wanna give up soulfood!!)

They also had a wonderful interview, as their feature article, with Michelle Obama and her mother, Mrs. Robinson.

Finally, a few of the Green Award winners are working on projects in the Bronx that involve both creating green job training and salvaging abandoned building parts for reuse (google Majora Carter and Omar Friella for more info)

Unfortunately, it gets dark very early in Ghana, so when we arrived at 7:30 p.m., it was already dark. It was still pretty cool to see Accra at night, even though it is very dark and the only light comes from small store fronts and vending machines and buildings, people are still walking about and street vendors are still set up and open for business.

The dudes at the airport were definitely trying to hustle us. They run up to help you before you can even say “yes, I need help” or “no, I got it” and next thing you know their asking you for a tip. Hustlers everywhere, I need to think of another believable country to tell them I’m from, because if you say American, they’ll automatically assume you got bukoo money.

Now, we’re at the International Student Hostel in Accra. Taysha, Janaiya and Folasade are leaving for Mampong Ashanti at 5:00 a.m., Kwaku and Polina are here for good and Alanna and I will be here until Sunday, so we’re going to exchange some money tomorrow and go get our hair braided with Polina, should be fun!!!