mein so mehoyai

what's up guys...

so i'm in accra right now. its about 110 degrees or so, pretty hot. its usually pretty hot around here in africa, but i guess that can be expected. full of black people too. good ol' africa.

a little bit about where i'm at...first off, i wash my own clothing by hand - which takes an afternoon to do, by far my least favorite thing so far. there's no running water so i have to bath out of a bucket, kinda like a sponge bath....and its not hot water either, friends, let me assure you. i haven't eaten cheese (or any dairy product, now that i think about it) since i've been here, and only eaten chicken a few times. mostly everything here is rice or some kind of rice substitute, and they always serve it in soup form or goop form. lots of grains, shit like that - and for some reason everything tastes like fish, i think they put fish in lots of stuff, or fish oil. who knows, i don't even like fish.

learning twii right now, which is the dominate language among the akan tribes of the greater capital area. lot harder than spanish, but its coming along alright. i'll be learning some different dialect next week when i get stuck with my host family. odds are i'm going to be stationed in the northern regions - out in the bush. training for water sanitation and health starts next week as well....

everywhere we go by bus we get a police/military motorcade escort, which really makes you feel like a diplomat. we get to party at the ambassador's place from time to time, and rub elbows with rich people and politicians. technically we're rich people to, though. the cedi transfers into american dollars quite nicely: 8700 cedis to a dollar. and just to let you know how great it is being american over here, a cab ride that would cost $30 in the u.s. costs me 1700 cedis, and beer is 6000 cedis for a forty. oh yeah, how imperialistic is that...

so yeah, so far everything's great....the other trainees are cool, the volunteers that are training us are nice people, and the ghanains seem to be pretty patient with our american ignorance, which is good. i gotta get going, we're doing 'survival drills' in the capital. that's where they drop you off in the middle of the city, slap you on the back, tell you to make your way to certain areas to complete objectives, wish you good luck, and speed away. fun shit. so feel free to write the white man (obruni), kids,

and i'll talk to you later....stay outta trouble...
akiyre abeishia,

brian joseph hough
diplomat, hero