After leaving Fargo, ND on May 12 we arrived in Accra, Ghana, Africa at about 9pm. The trip was quite uneventful but long. Too much time in the air.
We disembarked from the plane using steps to the tarmac and were embraced by a stifling, humid wave of heat. At least for me. I was wearing jeans and a polo shirt with a tee-shirt underneath. Too many clothes. We met one of IAIA’s members on the tarmac and waited with him through the customs check. Luggage pick up wasn’t too bad and our event planner delivered us to our hotel.
Day 2 we did some walking, quite a bit actually and worked up quite a sweat. We saw the ocean from Independence Center. The IC is a very nice outdoor stadium right on the beach. We learned later that every March 6th the Ghanaians celebrate there independence which was won in 1957. After some water at a hotel we made it to the conference center.
My colleague was immediately busy with conference details and I had an opportunity to wander around the AICC a bit. The Accra International Conference Center is a large facility with an amazing mural around the main meeting room entrances. It’s not possible to miss the painting as you walk in and after seeing it now for several days I’m still noticing new aspects of the artwork.
It is really quite a project for IAIA to organize this event. I was quite naive to the amount of work and the attention to detail that my colleagues put into these events.
Mornings come early so I’m going to summarize what will follow in the next few posts as a wrap up for this entry. I will do my best to describe the training courses in general as well as the course that I had the opportunity to take. I will also be documenting the opening plenary, theme forums and concurrent sessions that I will be attending and recording during this conference.
