First moments in Ghana

Just before I left home for my flight yesterday, my Ghanaian friend Stephen called to wish me a safe journey and to encourage me to remember how I felt when I stepped onto African soil.  He was particularly interested to know what I felt about the temperature, suggesting it might be like a microwave.

I think most of my fellow passengers were probably pleased just to be safely on the ground, and I wonder whether more than a few prayers had been said towards the end of our flight.  It was mostly smooth over Southern Europe and the Sahara, but nightfall brought some electric storms so that last couple of hours were quite bumpy.  To cap it all, the pilot had to abort our approach when were were only a few hundred feet above the ground as the wind had just changed direction and we had to go around before landing.

Having met my host, Bishop John, and Stephen's wife Dorinda at the airport, it was a good journey  Despite the humidity, I slept well, only to be disturbed by the goats arguing outside my bedroom window at about 4am!

My home for the next three weeks

Today has largely been a day of introductions, firstly to Joseph who is overseeing my stay here and secondly to Winneba.  Joseph and I took a drive around this afternoon and visited a few of the Methodist Churches and most areas of the town.  The word of the day has been 'welcome' - wherever I have been that has been paramount and I am looking forward to soaking up the atmosphere more tomorrow on a visit to Accra.

So, how was that first moment?  More like sauna than microwave, Stephen, but thanks to a recent rain shower it was cooler than I'd anticipated.  Thanks to the humidity, night time wasn't much cooler than day time.  Let's see what tomorrow brings.