Meet Mei, our newest travel blogger! Mei is exploring Ghana and taking us along for the ride. Stay tuned for weekly updates.

“Akwaaba” means “Welcome” in Twi, the main local language spoken in Ghana, where I’ve been for the past three days!

I flew into Accra (Ghana’s capital) on Thursday, and was probably the only Asian person amidst a sea of Africans (I imagine this will be a recurring theme over the next 5 months). In spite of all my attempts to get an entire row to myself so I could to stretch out more comfortably on the 10-hour flight from DC, I ended up sitting next to a very nice Ghanaian lady. She works for an organization whose goal is to institute a standard currency for all of West Africa—an objective that is apparently realizable in the longer-term, but which currently requires additional progress towards stabilization of many West African economies.

The aerial view of Accra is uniquely different from that of major cities in the US: the landscape is sprawling but relatively flat, with no high rises or skyscrapers in sight.

So far, I really like Accra. In just three days, it’s surprised me pleasantly in many ways which I’ll detail later on, but the best surprise was probably this: I came armed with tubes of Cortizone and bottles of DEET, ready to take on even the hardiest African mosquitoes, but have not yet encountered even a single mosquito (although now that I’ve said that, they’ll probably come swarming)…

Until next time,

- Mosquito-free Mei

Full post here: globetrotting, akwaaba!.

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About: Brittany: I'm a travel addict working for Gtrot.com, a travel company that makes travel more social. Say hello @gtrot or on Facebook http://bit.ly/britgtrot