I've recently been learning a lot about the culture here. The following is an example of how you just have to go with the flow here.

Anna and I have been doing Anti-stigma HIV workshops in Accra schools. So last Friday we had scheduled one at 9am and then a combined workshop with 2 schools at 12pm. I called to confirm the times on Thursday. When I called the first school, the teacher said he had to go to a village so he was not in town. But he said the headmaster knew about it so I said ok. Then I called the next two schools that were supposed to have a workshop at 12. One said that they wanted to change it to 1pm and the other said that 3pm would work better. So then we talked about it and called again to confirm these new times. This time...the one that said 3pm now wanted it at 12 and the one that said 1pm now wanted it at 2pm. This kind of thing is very common in Ghana. You can plan but that doesn't mean it will really happen.

So on Friday we went to the schools. The first one went well and we arrived at the second school around 11:45 for the workshop at 12. We sat outside in chairs waiting and didn't start until 12:45. The funny thing is that I've heard that a lot of international volunteers get frustrated when things like this happen. But to me...it's part of the culture. Getting frustrated makes no difference. If we did more workshops, similar things will happen. It's good to be aware of this and learn how to really adapt to a culture. You have to adapt, or you won't really be happen somewhere other than your home. It's a good learning process.

On a different note, life is good here. I haven't gotten sick at all yet but I hear everyone gets some kind of sickness when they are here. I hope I escape this. I had a relaxing weekend with rain and cooler weather. It was nice. The only problem is I now know where the "good" coffee shops are and I'm tempted to go there often...especially know that I can get around easily now.