The Asabere family and their home

Akosua, Nicholas, Victoria, Maame(on the laptop), Adwoa, and Akwasi, opening gifts on the night we arrived.

Akwasi's family is so welcoming, as are most of those we've met so far. It's been quite common that the first thing someone has said to me is "Welcome to Ghana." The Asabere family has completely opened up their home to us, so I'll post some pictures for you to get a feel of where we are staying.

Their house is a one level, four bedroom home, in Haatso, a suburb of Accra. Andrea, Chandra and I are sharing a room, with a kingsized bed, and a huge bathroom. Although there is a huge jacuzzi sized tub, the water really trickles out, so we mostly use it for just rinsing. The windows, as you can see in the picture, are screened.


The homes are almost all fenced in, so Akosua told me she doesn't even know some of her neighbors, because most people stay inside.

We're about fifteen minutes from University of Ghana, which is where were are right now using the internet.



They live in a neighborhood where some houses are constantly being built; this is quite common since there isn't the idea of credit we have in the US, everything must be paid for up front. Akwasi's family waited ten years before being able to move into their home.

The neighborhood is pretty quiet, and very nice to walk around, when the sun isn't directly overhead. It got to be atleast 90 degrees for most of the day.





The current president of Ghana's son lives right around the corner in this yellow house, and there are very different styles and types of houses in the the area. One even looked like it was right out of New England.

One thing that is noticeably different: Ghana's sewer gutter system, or what I've seen of it, is above ground. Most of the time you cannot really smell it, but in more crowded places, such as the market, where Victoria's shop is, you can. Not to mention you have to be careful not to fall in. Akosua said that when there is flooding, little children have accidentally fallen in and drown. There are no trash receptacles, as far as I've seen, and while trash isn't all over the place, it isn't uncommon to see it on the ground.