I've made it home safely. I was not delayed by Obama's arrival, but I do blame him for the frisking I got in the airport! Oh, it's so great to be home! I got some delicious sushi and salad, and I'm starting to get back into my daily grind. Sam and I spent the weekend in Atlanta having wonderful meals and seeing the aquarium. Also, for anyone who has not heard my exciting news, I got a graduate school fellowship! I had a great time in Ghana, and now I'm back to the mundane: grocery lists, unpacking, getting ready for school to start. But I'm actually excited about that; I missed my routine! I'll post pictures on facebook for anyone who wants to take a look! Hope to see everyone soon.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Break Out the Bubbly!
Hi, all! Apparently Obama is coming this evening, so hopefully I'll be well on my way before stuff gets crazy. Rumor is that they're going to start closing the roads at 4p. Dimas, one of the UFS guys here is going to be helping with security; he's so stoked. It's 6:30a here now, and I should be on my way to the airport any minute now. I should be in New York at 5:00p, Atlanta at midnight, then in the bathtub exfoliating from shortly after midnight until 10a. Sam and I are staying the weekend in Atlanta, maybe going to the aquarium (finally!). So I'll be home Sunday evening and expecting a hero's welcome :) (and by that I mean sushi and photo slideshow on the bigscreen). See you guys soon!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Happy 4th!
Hi all! Hope everyone had a great fourth. I missed everyone and BBQ! I decided to do something totally American for the fourth, so I went to the Accra Mall, had a chicken sandwich, fries, and a coke, and saw a movie! It was a refreshing change. This weekend I've been doing a lot of shopping in the rain. I'm trying to avoid the temptation of buying every mask I see, because my suitcase already weighs a ton. I have 3 more days of work, then Thursday off to pack, and Friday in the sky! Hopefully I won't get too delayed with Obama flying in on Friday. I'm so excited to go home, and I really don't want to miss my connector in NY! See you all soon.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Me ho yo!
Well, it's been pretty much business as usual since my last post. I had a great time in Kumasi. Last Wednesday I went to Lake Bosumtwe, a huge meteor lake. The locals believe that god lives there and that the souls of the dead pass through there on their way to heaven. It was overcast and very foggy when I was there, and it was almost believable.
I am now back in Accra. Saturday I bought an African dress so I could look the part when I crashed my first African wedding. It was such a cool experience-- very lively with lots of music and dancing. Everyone was so hospitable; my cohorts and I stuck out like sore thumbs, being the only obrunis there. We danced around, drank blue champagne, and took photos with the bride and groom. It was so much fun.
I was supposed to be in Tema this week, but I only spent one night there before coming back to Accra. I had been sick, and being in the sticks with no shower and a toilet that didn't flush wasn't working for me. Today I went to the cultural center, which was an awful experience. All the vendors were blatantly trying to rip us off, charging four times what we've paid for similar items elsewhere. Plus, people would come up to "shake your hand" and if you gave it to them, they would grab you and pull you into their stall. It was crazy. I spent so much time playing defense that I did very little shopping. I think I'll stick to the art market in the future. Way nicer! On the upside though, I have finally learned how to haggle.
I just said my goodbyes to Alex and my new Canadian friends Emilie and Erin. Dave left for Philly this morning. Now I am all that remains of our cohort until Becca comes back from Adansi this weekend. I am holding down the fort, hoping to stay roommate-free until she comes back, since she is the best roomie ever! I'm so excited to go home; the more everyone talked about what they were going to do when they got home, the more pissed I got that I'm still in Africa. It's been a great experience; I'm just ready for it to be over. I miss sushi, nachos, salad, and vegetables. I'm beyond missing hot showers, washing machines, and air conditioning. We've been watching movies at night on my laptop, and when someone eats something really great in the movie, we'll all say, "Oooh...Oreos!" or whatever. Alas, there are so many snacks that plantain chips and goat kebabs cannot replace!
See you all soon! 10 days and counting....
I am now back in Accra. Saturday I bought an African dress so I could look the part when I crashed my first African wedding. It was such a cool experience-- very lively with lots of music and dancing. Everyone was so hospitable; my cohorts and I stuck out like sore thumbs, being the only obrunis there. We danced around, drank blue champagne, and took photos with the bride and groom. It was so much fun.
I was supposed to be in Tema this week, but I only spent one night there before coming back to Accra. I had been sick, and being in the sticks with no shower and a toilet that didn't flush wasn't working for me. Today I went to the cultural center, which was an awful experience. All the vendors were blatantly trying to rip us off, charging four times what we've paid for similar items elsewhere. Plus, people would come up to "shake your hand" and if you gave it to them, they would grab you and pull you into their stall. It was crazy. I spent so much time playing defense that I did very little shopping. I think I'll stick to the art market in the future. Way nicer! On the upside though, I have finally learned how to haggle.
I just said my goodbyes to Alex and my new Canadian friends Emilie and Erin. Dave left for Philly this morning. Now I am all that remains of our cohort until Becca comes back from Adansi this weekend. I am holding down the fort, hoping to stay roommate-free until she comes back, since she is the best roomie ever! I'm so excited to go home; the more everyone talked about what they were going to do when they got home, the more pissed I got that I'm still in Africa. It's been a great experience; I'm just ready for it to be over. I miss sushi, nachos, salad, and vegetables. I'm beyond missing hot showers, washing machines, and air conditioning. We've been watching movies at night on my laptop, and when someone eats something really great in the movie, we'll all say, "Oooh...Oreos!" or whatever. Alas, there are so many snacks that plantain chips and goat kebabs cannot replace!
See you all soon! 10 days and counting....
Friday, June 19, 2009
I Met a King Today!
Yesterday was largely uneventful. It was my clinic day and I watched about 10 surgeries. Today I got to see the patients who had surgery yesterday. They spend the night on little mats in the foyer of the clinic, then they get their bandages removed and everyone is all smiles because they can see again!
Today we saw about a hundred patients at a village called Nsuta. Afterward, we got to meet the king of Nsuta. He and the royal family (his family) are the custodians of all the land in Nsuta, so we went to his palace (which is not very palacial by our standards) to thank him for allowing us to use his land for our outreach. The outreach coordinator thanked him, through the king's linguist, because no one is allowed to address the king directly. They had a long exchange in their native language, which of course none of us could understand, then the king addressed us, thanking us for caring about his people and making the effort to come and help them. He wanted to know all of our names and where we are from, and he told us to remember his village because we will always be welcome there and we will always be friends of his people. It was so surreal to see someone so regal, decked out in tribal dress, yet so humble. Then he wanted to take a group picture with us! It was so cool; I don't think I've ever heard of a less pretentious king.
Tomorrow we are going to the big market here in Kumasi to buy fabric. Some of the girls want to have dresses made. Rosamund, who works at the clinic, is going to take us to her seamstress, where we can have a dress made in two days for 6 cedis (about $4). Unreal! Why am I doing laundry one piece at a time in my sink?
Tonight, we are going to dinner (maybe pizza) and then to a "dance club" which consists of a band and a big open space. Not my idea, but we'll see what happens. I am seriously craving a CloseTalker from Moe's.
Today we saw about a hundred patients at a village called Nsuta. Afterward, we got to meet the king of Nsuta. He and the royal family (his family) are the custodians of all the land in Nsuta, so we went to his palace (which is not very palacial by our standards) to thank him for allowing us to use his land for our outreach. The outreach coordinator thanked him, through the king's linguist, because no one is allowed to address the king directly. They had a long exchange in their native language, which of course none of us could understand, then the king addressed us, thanking us for caring about his people and making the effort to come and help them. He wanted to know all of our names and where we are from, and he told us to remember his village because we will always be welcome there and we will always be friends of his people. It was so surreal to see someone so regal, decked out in tribal dress, yet so humble. Then he wanted to take a group picture with us! It was so cool; I don't think I've ever heard of a less pretentious king.
Tomorrow we are going to the big market here in Kumasi to buy fabric. Some of the girls want to have dresses made. Rosamund, who works at the clinic, is going to take us to her seamstress, where we can have a dress made in two days for 6 cedis (about $4). Unreal! Why am I doing laundry one piece at a time in my sink?
Tonight, we are going to dinner (maybe pizza) and then to a "dance club" which consists of a band and a big open space. Not my idea, but we'll see what happens. I am seriously craving a CloseTalker from Moe's.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wanted: A Hot Shower
Well guys, tomorrow I am halfway done! So much has happened since I last updated. I am now in Kumasi, which has more reliable internet access and less reliable phone access. The rainy season arrived 2 days ago with a vengeance, making the roads worse, if such a thing is possible. The place where we have been doing outreach this week is 3 hours away, and in the last 3 days we've seen about 500 patients.
I've been on so many terrifying cab rides at this point that I'm desensitized to the weaving, hissing, and honking (yes, they hiss here to get each other's attention). Apparently it's considered rude to say "Hey!" or something similar, but not to hiss at someone incessantly. I have tried fufu, which has a pretty good flavor, but very weird texture. I have learned to say "chicken" in twi- "akokoa", so I don't accidently get the one with the fish heads in it!
I was able to get some replacement glasses on my clinic day last week. Dr. Clarke hooked me up while I was there observing surgeries. It is an amazing thing to behold. They wheel the patients in to the OR two at a time, and Dr. Clarke just slides his chair back and forth all day. He finishes one surgery, then scoots over to the next gurney, and while he's doing that surgery the nurse is putting someone else on the gurney where he just finished operating. He does 5 surgeries an hour! The patients are under local anesthesia, so while he's cutting their cataracts out, they are talking and moving, which is kind of disturbing. I watched 1 cataract surgery and 2 pterygium surgeries and I took lots of yucky pictures.
I did a treetop canopy last weekend that was a rope bridge 140 feet high! I was scared to death. Seriously, there are not enough tranquilizers in the world to make this fun. Someone took a picture of me white-knuckling it all the way across one of the SEVEN bridges! It's kind of funny now; I look like I'm going to barf in the picture. We also went to the slave castle at Elmina. That was a very sobering experience, but interesting. It is a wonderful piece of history with a breathtaking view of the ocean. Absolutely amazing.
Friday night, one of the new incoming volunteers got hit by a car. It was going about 25 mph and the side mirror clipped her shoulder. It made the most disgusting sound ever, and I don't know how she managed to shake it off, but she did.
I arrived in Kumasi on Sunday after a 7 hour drive from Accra. The hotel is quite nice, but a little removed from everything. Nothing is in walking distance (at least, not what I consider walking distance :) ). Becca (my roommate) and I are pretty tight now that we've spooning in a full size bed all week. Seriously, though, she's really cool, and even though she's a lot younger than me, she's very mature and non-annoying. My first impressions of Kumasi were not favorable, but after last night's meal, my feelings can only be described as euphoric. We went to an Indian restaurant called Moti Mahal, and the food was to die for! We all got dressed up in our best skirts/dresses that we brought and put on the jewelry we bought at the art market in Accra (very important for women who have not worn makeup or had a hot shower in 3 weeks). The restaurant was gorgeous, had a full wine menu, and they even brought us a hot towel to clean our hands! I drank a liter of beer(!), and ate chicken tikka masala, basmati rice, and Peshwari naan (with sultanas and coconut inside). I paid a whopping 30 cedis for my meal, which is six times the cost of any other meal I've had here, but still less than $20 and worth every penny. I was full for the first time since I touched down on the African continent and positively giddy. The icing on the cake is that today is my clinic day, so I got to sleep in until 7:30, and I'd had enough beer that my concrete slab with a sheet on it was not intolerable last night.
I am missing you all. Jennifer, I'm glad you guys set a date :) The novelty of outreach has worn off, and now it's just business as usual every day. I'm seeing some amazing things, but I'm about ready to go home. Alas, I still have 3 weeks! I'll be here in Kumasi until next Friday, then I'll be in Accra for the weekend, and on to Tema for the week. I'll try to update more often while I have steady internet access, but I've put in so many 14 hour days that by the time I get back from outreach, I just want to limp into bed. Hope everyone is well; love you lots!
I've been on so many terrifying cab rides at this point that I'm desensitized to the weaving, hissing, and honking (yes, they hiss here to get each other's attention). Apparently it's considered rude to say "Hey!" or something similar, but not to hiss at someone incessantly. I have tried fufu, which has a pretty good flavor, but very weird texture. I have learned to say "chicken" in twi- "akokoa", so I don't accidently get the one with the fish heads in it!
I was able to get some replacement glasses on my clinic day last week. Dr. Clarke hooked me up while I was there observing surgeries. It is an amazing thing to behold. They wheel the patients in to the OR two at a time, and Dr. Clarke just slides his chair back and forth all day. He finishes one surgery, then scoots over to the next gurney, and while he's doing that surgery the nurse is putting someone else on the gurney where he just finished operating. He does 5 surgeries an hour! The patients are under local anesthesia, so while he's cutting their cataracts out, they are talking and moving, which is kind of disturbing. I watched 1 cataract surgery and 2 pterygium surgeries and I took lots of yucky pictures.
I did a treetop canopy last weekend that was a rope bridge 140 feet high! I was scared to death. Seriously, there are not enough tranquilizers in the world to make this fun. Someone took a picture of me white-knuckling it all the way across one of the SEVEN bridges! It's kind of funny now; I look like I'm going to barf in the picture. We also went to the slave castle at Elmina. That was a very sobering experience, but interesting. It is a wonderful piece of history with a breathtaking view of the ocean. Absolutely amazing.
Friday night, one of the new incoming volunteers got hit by a car. It was going about 25 mph and the side mirror clipped her shoulder. It made the most disgusting sound ever, and I don't know how she managed to shake it off, but she did.
I arrived in Kumasi on Sunday after a 7 hour drive from Accra. The hotel is quite nice, but a little removed from everything. Nothing is in walking distance (at least, not what I consider walking distance :) ). Becca (my roommate) and I are pretty tight now that we've spooning in a full size bed all week. Seriously, though, she's really cool, and even though she's a lot younger than me, she's very mature and non-annoying. My first impressions of Kumasi were not favorable, but after last night's meal, my feelings can only be described as euphoric. We went to an Indian restaurant called Moti Mahal, and the food was to die for! We all got dressed up in our best skirts/dresses that we brought and put on the jewelry we bought at the art market in Accra (very important for women who have not worn makeup or had a hot shower in 3 weeks). The restaurant was gorgeous, had a full wine menu, and they even brought us a hot towel to clean our hands! I drank a liter of beer(!), and ate chicken tikka masala, basmati rice, and Peshwari naan (with sultanas and coconut inside). I paid a whopping 30 cedis for my meal, which is six times the cost of any other meal I've had here, but still less than $20 and worth every penny. I was full for the first time since I touched down on the African continent and positively giddy. The icing on the cake is that today is my clinic day, so I got to sleep in until 7:30, and I'd had enough beer that my concrete slab with a sheet on it was not intolerable last night.
I am missing you all. Jennifer, I'm glad you guys set a date :) The novelty of outreach has worn off, and now it's just business as usual every day. I'm seeing some amazing things, but I'm about ready to go home. Alas, I still have 3 weeks! I'll be here in Kumasi until next Friday, then I'll be in Accra for the weekend, and on to Tema for the week. I'll try to update more often while I have steady internet access, but I've put in so many 14 hour days that by the time I get back from outreach, I just want to limp into bed. Hope everyone is well; love you lots!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Akwaaba!
Hi everyone! I'm trying to update as often as possible, but the internet has been down for a few days. I had an amazing weekend! Saturday we hired the Unite for Sight van and Bismarck drove us to the Volta Region (about 5 hours away) to visit the sacred mona monkey sanctuary and the Wli waterfall. I expected both of these places to be touristy and filled with Bohemian Europeans, but they were not at all. When we got to the monkey sanctuary, it was in a very rural village. People were just doing their day-to-day activities and we paid a lady to walk us into the forest where the monkeys hang out. I bought some bananas from a lady selling them on the roadside, and when I went into the forest, monkeys just came right up to me and peeled the bananas and ate from my hand. It was the coolest thing ever!
Wli waterfall was cool too. It was a 40 minute hike through the forest to get to the falls, but it was breathtaking. It was the largest waterfall I've ever seen. It is also a bat sanctuary, and at one point, hundreds of bats came out from the cliff face and just filled the sky. They were far enough away for it to be exciting and not scary.
On Sunday, we caught a taxi (terrifying!) to Bojo beach. The beach is so nice; it was just overcast enough to not be excrutiatingly hot. We didn't go in the water much because there was a pretty strong undertow. At one point I waded in to cool off a little, got caught in an undertow, and ended up losing my glasses. Good thing I'm working with an eye clinic; I'm going to try to see about replacing them tomorrow.
Outreach is business as usual. We go to a different village every day. Today we were in Sege-Nakomkorpe in the Volta Region. We saw about 95 patients, most of them students. I'm enjoying outreach. I've been picking up little snippets of the local languages. They speak Ewe in the Volta region, and I've learned to say "Nye nkor nye Rikki. Me tso America." The people love that someone actually gives a crap about their language and their culture. I've been asking the village elders about their tribal scarring patterns and their traditional remedies.
Tomorrow I am going to the clinic to observe surgeries all day. Afterwards we might go to the art market. I tried fufu today. Pretty tasty. I'm starting to be comfortable eating the street food, because everyone else has been doing it and they're not sick. I also bought some sweet bread and pineapple. I will, however, be steering clear of the "bushmeat," which is giant rat. We see it hanging by its tail from shops on the street. Grotesque.
Wli waterfall was cool too. It was a 40 minute hike through the forest to get to the falls, but it was breathtaking. It was the largest waterfall I've ever seen. It is also a bat sanctuary, and at one point, hundreds of bats came out from the cliff face and just filled the sky. They were far enough away for it to be exciting and not scary.
On Sunday, we caught a taxi (terrifying!) to Bojo beach. The beach is so nice; it was just overcast enough to not be excrutiatingly hot. We didn't go in the water much because there was a pretty strong undertow. At one point I waded in to cool off a little, got caught in an undertow, and ended up losing my glasses. Good thing I'm working with an eye clinic; I'm going to try to see about replacing them tomorrow.
Outreach is business as usual. We go to a different village every day. Today we were in Sege-Nakomkorpe in the Volta Region. We saw about 95 patients, most of them students. I'm enjoying outreach. I've been picking up little snippets of the local languages. They speak Ewe in the Volta region, and I've learned to say "Nye nkor nye Rikki. Me tso America." The people love that someone actually gives a crap about their language and their culture. I've been asking the village elders about their tribal scarring patterns and their traditional remedies.
Tomorrow I am going to the clinic to observe surgeries all day. Afterwards we might go to the art market. I tried fufu today. Pretty tasty. I'm starting to be comfortable eating the street food, because everyone else has been doing it and they're not sick. I also bought some sweet bread and pineapple. I will, however, be steering clear of the "bushmeat," which is giant rat. We see it hanging by its tail from shops on the street. Grotesque.
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