So. Much. Sweat.

I've officially been in Africa for 1 whole day! Goodness...the past 2 days have been so crazy. Amazing, yet crazy. My mom dropped me off at the Salt Lake City airport Friday at 5:30 am. My flight left SLC at 7:30 am, and I arrived officially in Ghana, Saturday at 3:45 pm. I never realized how uncomfortable airplanes are, or the impossibility of sleeping on them is. I had to ask a random girl next to me on the plane for some of her sleeping pills, since my second layover flight made me check my carry on, and all my pills were in there! I had only slept 20 minutes the past 24 hours and was so desperate. Once I took those sleeping pills, my flight to Ghana felt the shortest of them all, although it was the longest because I was out cold! Overall, my flights went super well even though I had to run past 76 gates to make a flight leaving in 17 minutes and my laptop's hard drive crashed, making it pointless for the next 6 weeks! (luckily I've got super awesome friends who are good at sharing theirs) But hey, I'm now in Africa and it's been the most amazing days ever.
We started off our Ghana experience with 9 of 13 of us BYU students going through Ghana customs. Since we're here volunteering with eye clinics, we all had to bring 600 pairs of reading glasses. We were given exemption letters to pass us through the customs, but that custom woman was not having it! She was telling us that we would have to pay 600 cedis (3.75 cedis=1 US dollar) taxes on the glasses. Luckily, John, our driver guy was able to come in and talk to them. However, they only let us past once we gave them each one of our glasses! I'm so glad we don't have to go through that on the way out...I sure hope not at least. On the plane, I wore sweats...which I realized was a terrible idea 10 feet before I even stepped out of the airport. The weather here is about 90 degrees all day everyday, with 90% humidity. I have never sweated so much for so long. I have always hated going to bed feeling sticky, but here there is no choice! The water gets turned off in the nights, so we get about 2 minutes for showers in the mornings. Best 2 minutes ever. We're staying in a pretty nice hotel here. It's just us here, since we take up all the rooms, and we've just sat outside on the covered porch (because if you stay inside, you will die of heat, I'm sure of it) and played so many card games. It's super fun already!
Last night once we got into our bedrooms and changed, we all desperately needed water. The tap water here will make you deadly sick, so we have to buy it. All 13 of us Obruni's (white person) headed out onto the Ghanaian streets in the dark. (Sorry Mom!!) It feels pretty safe here luckily. At least until 13 white people show up at an ATM on one of the busiest streets in Ghana. As soon as I realized how stupid/dangerous this was, I decided not to exchange any of my money until I had to. So I did that today and bought some water. We drink water out of little sealed plastic bags that they sell on the street. About 30 150 mL bags for 3 cedis. I even showered with one of those tiny bags tonight. It's hard to sleep so sweaty, but no showers because the water is turned off so I improvised!
Last thing...church today was so amazing. Walking in to a random building, hearing hymns from the piano brought the spirit so quickly. The people in the ward are amazing. They welcomed us and were awesome about talking with us. They all sing the hymns so loud. Their testimonies were amazing. They're truly grateful for little things that us in America would never think to be thankful for in our testimonies. Their prayers are straight thanks. They are amazing people who LOVE the prophet. Definitely love President Monson. Despite dripping sweat continuously for 3 hours, church was amazing. The kids here...kill me. Anyone who knows me at all knows how much I must be dying over the kids here.
We also ate our first Ghanaian street food today...fufu...I'll save that for the next blog. It wasn't pretty. All I'm gonna say! Read my next blog to find out about that experience! Tomorrow morning we head out to our first outreach! I can't wait to get started!!