The Adventure Begins

Well, after a couple SNAFU moments and 10.5 hours of flight time, we've finally made it.  We took an Airbus A330 from Atlanta around 9:30 at Saturday night (2/4/2012) and arrived in Accra, Ghana around 1:00 PM Sunday afternoon.  Aside from our original flight being cancelled 4 hours before we were supposed to leave, the trip itself was surprisingly uneventful.  Boris (our cat) was a little bit of a whiner, but he was drowned out by the crying baby.  When we landed in Accra, we took the obligatory jaunt through immigration where our mug shot and electronic finger prints were taken (we thought that would be the easy part).  After that we got our checked luggage and prepared ourselves for some bartering and bribing in customs.  Much to our surprise, the line kept moving and we were never stopped.  Well, I guess all that time, stress, and money spent on Boris' health paper work and import permit were unnecessary.  Oh well...at least we were prepared.

After a quick greeting from an old friend (thanks Dad Owen),  we loaded the luggage into the car and made our way to Kpong Airfield.  The rest of our day was basically spent letting our eyes soak in all the changes since our initial trip 9 months ago (more on that in the next installment) and synching up on all that we have coming up during the next week (it will be busy).  We ended the night unloaded our stuff, found some dinner, and hit the sack after a long day.

We've got consistent internet now, so look for more posts to come soon!  Also, see the comments section below.  I welcome any feedback or questions you may have!

1 Week to Go

Hello all,

My life in about 240 lbs.

Welcome to the Ben Sholes Ghana Blog. The purpose of this guy is to give those in the states (and abroad) an idea of what it's like for a day in the life of Ben Sholes as I get prepared and start rocking and rolling in Ghana. Please leave some comments in the forum space below the blog for things you may want to see or questions you may have. The overall goal is to keep you guys informed and entertained as much as possible.






Let's start with the preparation:

As you can see, when you move this far overseas, you kinda have to liquidate everything. What you observe in the picture above is the entirety of the possessions and resources I will have once I land. That's right...all I have is a backpack, suitcase, and two thirty gallon tubs at no more than 50lbs each. The rest I'll have to leave behind. While one might find this stressful (and in a way it is), it's also very...cleansing. It was a great excuse to just "get rid of the junk". I found it a bit liberating.

One of the other major adjustments I'll have to "endure" (I'm actually looking forward a bit to this part) is my new office: While I can appreciate a nice ergonomic chair and blazing fast internet connection, I think the new office will be a nice change of pace and scenery. I'll also have the opportunity to work toward a pilot's license (at least for the small aircraft we have) - pretty exciting. Well, I'll cut it off here for now. Stay tuned for D-Day (departure day, silly) and more updates on living situation.

The old

The new

Until next time...