A Lot of Firsts

Before I describe my first day in Ghana, I wanted to share the other couple of firsts I had in Dubai.  To the right is a bathroom in one of the restaurants in the airport that I decided would be a great place to take a dry shower and change.  That was definitely a first for me!  It felt great to get somewhat clean halfway through the trip.  I had quite a bit of time before my flight left in the morning, so I posted up at my gate and started reading the Hunger Games (thanks for letting me borrow your book, mom!).  When the sun finally came up, I looked to my left out the window and saw the faint silhouette of something (below).  The first person to comment below and tell me what it is wins something sweet!

The guest house (right) was a little oasis after the long flight.  I was able to drop all my stuff in an air conditioned room and relax a little.  A shower was definitely needed!  I turned the knob on the shower and nothing came out.  I tried turning the sink faucet on and nothing came out of there either.  I couldn't believe it!  But when I told Jon he just said, "Oh that makes sense- the tank must be out."  At this point I'm thinking I'll never get a shower, but he has me follow him outside to these two big black tanks (below left).  So apparently in Accra, Ghana, the public water is only turned on about once a week.  During that time, each house owner must fill up their tanks if they want to have water.  A third tank is not in the picture because its on top of the roof.  I couldn't shower because the one on the roof had run dry.  When that happens, Jon comes out to these two tanks and turns on the pump (below right).  It sends the water up to the top tank (as expected) and also allows you to take a hot shower!  It's the only time when the pressure is high enough to get the water through the heater.  So on my first day I had my first and probably last hot shower in Ghana.  It was magnificent.

I decided to throw this little guy in here as an added bonus.  They're all over the place in Accra!  If I had more time, I probably would have tried to catch one but I'm already at the farm, located four hours north.  I'll share more about the farm tomorrow.  For now it's bed time.  We have a 6:30am wake-up call to start watering the crops.