An Adventure Coming to an End

I've had the best week ever! I am really beginning to love this place. I will be so happy to have American food again next week, but I know I will really miss Ghana and saying goodbye will be difficult. My last week here has been so amazing. On Friday we visited a very small village called Twa which was a crazy adventure. Lots of the people did not wear shoes and the kids were missing a lot of important clothing items.... like pants. I met this very nice old man with no teeth who was 90 years old! His name was Kow. He was so sweet. When we were driving home, a sudden rumbling and shaking of the car had us worried.

When we pulled over we saw that our tire had completely ripped apart. Luckily, Seth knew just what to do and we waited on the side of the road for him to replace it. It was so scary to be on the side of the road because the cars drive soooo very fast. We had a lot of fun as a group that day. Later that evening I went with my friends from the Telecentre to listen to live music. We had a great time, but I was too embarrassed to stay after the band called me out as, "our friend from the U.S."

When we got back from our outing, I saw a large group of Nigerians checking in at the Telecentre. They are a group of students who fly into Ghana for a Saturday class ever could of weeks. Last time they were here I met my friend Segun. He loves to talk about American politics and the latest movies, so we usually have a lot to talk about. Anyway, I was glad to see him again and the next day he surprised me with a gift. He bought me 6 yards of fabric and I was so excited I took it to a seamstress right away so I could have a dress. My seamstress friend, Veronica, was already making some things for me, and she surprised me by having my floor-length dress finished in 2 days! It is so pretty I can't wait to show you all. I noticed she was using broken reading glasses and I am hoping to get some for her at the clinic because her's are missing the legs. I am sure it is hard to sew like that! 

On Saturday, we visited the Botanical Gardens and the beach. It was so much fun! There was a wedding party at the gardens that day, but our tour guide walked right through as if they were not even there. We climbed inside a hollow tree and chewed on real cinnamon bark! It was so strong! I also saw where nutmeg comes from and tasted the leaves of a "malaria-fighting," tree. Can you guess what it tasted like? Bug spray of course! Very strong bug spray. 

The beach we went to was at a resort because we wanted more clean water. The beach was obviously for tourism because people were selling things, performing tricks, and offering horse-back rides. We saw a man who broke a bottle and ate the broken glasses, and a man who put a fire ball down his pants. That was so strange! I might be famous now because about a thousand people wanted to take a picture with me. When we decided to swim, we found an area with life guards. A bunch of Ghanaian were swimming there and we just joined in. The life guards were very intent that we did not pass the flags on each side because there are rip tides. We met lots of people while we swam, many of the boys tired to save us from the waves. That was ironic because most of them don't know how to swim! That makes sense because they do not have many pools and the beaches are normally just a sewage dump. After a while, we got attacked by some big waves of garbage and we got out and watched the sunset. 

When we finished, we were so hungry that we splurged and went to Pizza Hut at the Achimota mall. I needed to buy some tape so we went to the supermarket there and because Megan was still in her swimsuit, which made us celebrities or models or whatever because EVERYONE wanted to talk to us. The next day, I saw that I had some friend requests from people we met at the store and wouldn't you know it.....Megan was in all of their profile pictures! I was laughing so hard. One of them captioned his picture with her as, "C D colour difference?" 

On Sunday I went to church early because I had to sing in front of everyone and I was feeling nervous. I ran around to the back of the church and went outside so that no one could hear me. While I was practicing to myself, I saw someone inside the church looking at me so I squealed and hid in the crevice of the the building. After a while I looked around and did not see him so I quietly sang again and then suddenly there he was! I jumped and said, "I am hiding from you!" He said, "I know, I can see that! Why? You're just singing, right?" Hahaha. He was right. I should not be so afraid of people hearing me. The song went well! One of the doctors from Crystal Eye Clinic, Dennis, came to church that day! Plus, Kwame and two of the new volunteers! It was a powerful Sunday. Sometimes the people share their testimonies in Twi which makes it hard for me because I can't understand, but Dennis and Kwame thought it was special to hear testimonies in their own language. Later that night, a family in the ward made dinner for us. It felt wonderful to be in a home and to talk about our families. I could not believe how many people she fed that night. There were 12 of us AND the missionaries, PLUS a few more young men. The parents of the family are converts. They are a big family because they have four children, and take care of their mother, sister and her children, and a nephew. We ate the same foods we usually eat which are, Joloff rice, banku, chicken, and lettuce, but for some reason it tasted sooooo much better than usual. Home cooking really does make a big difference. 

This week, Seth bought us Waakye in the morning and always offers to buy us food during the day. He really is one of the nicest people ever. He knew we wanted to be home on time yesterday because the ward was having a goodbye party for us, so he went through a lot of trouble to get us out early. The work has been fairly consistent throughout the week with about 100 people helped each day. Two days ago, in Cape Coast, we met a big family who were members of the church. It was fun to chat with them. That day, Aldan got to meet up with his old companion and his mission president. I went to the store down the street and I actually saw cereal! It cost 50GHC which is about $13. I could not believe it was that expensive. I also saw a block of cheddar cheese at the mall which was 97GHC, about $25. Crazy!

I convinced Kwame and Regina from the telecentre to come to the ward party with me. The party turned out to be a Young Single Adult activity and we shared stories and talents until we ate joloff later. Darius taught a lesson, a boy played the guitar for us, and Lily sang a song for them. We also danced to some music. It was a fun time. 

Well this is probably my last blog post..... I wish I could have written more, but it has been difficult for me to get wifi access. I am sorry for that. Thank you everyone who reads them and cares about me! :) It has been an amazing adventure and I cannot believe it is coming to close.

Week with St Thomas....in the Zongo

View of the street from the room upstairs in the Mosque

This week was hard! St. Thomas is a good clinic and the people are very nice, but they are not very organized or efficient. We were in a crowded and poor part of Accra with many Muslim communities. Many of them have scar marks on their face to identify themselves as part of the "Zongo" community.

This is the photo of the blind man

On Monday we took our shoes off and were able to stand in an upstairs room of a Mosque. Megan and I sat up there with the doctor so we could enter each patient's data into the computer (which is a piece of junk by the way). As I sat on the floor, reading my book and waiting for my turn to enter data, I noticed a man sit by Megan who was obviously very blind. I had been thinking of taking pictures of the people here because they had the most interesting and colorful robes so I took a picture without a second thought. Later, I posted the photo on fb and Megan told me her cousin's friend messaged her about the picture. Turns out, he served his mission in Accra and recognized the blind man one of his converts! What are the chances?!?! Of all the 150 people we saw that day, I posted that one of fb. Crazy! I honestly believe I was inspired to take that picture because there is no way I looked up from my book at the exact right moment on my own. Also, that day we met a lady who told us she loved us. That was so cute.

The very happy woman on the left and the 100 year old on the right.

On Tuesday we arrived at outreach, only to see a bunch of men yelling at each other in another language, nothing was set up or ready for the day, and we were very crowded on the side of the street so Megan, Sydney, and I stood on a rock pile, helplessly waiting for the chaos to end. We had to do all of our work outside because we were at a Mosque and were not allowed inside. As Megan and I started to dispense the medications and glasses to the people, we noticed that every person we encountered had the same frustrating demands. They said, "buy this for me." "I don"t have money and you do." "I trusted you to give me free glasses, but now I see you are not my friend." Luckily, we met this really happy woman who lifted our spirits. She sat beside an old woman who wore the cutest glasses we had ever seen. She was 100 years old! We took pictures with them and felt grateful to find kind people. That night I asked my friend Filila, who works at the front desk of the telecentre, why those people were so different from all the other people we met in Ghana. She explained that they have a very tight-knit community who are known as more violent and rude than native Ghanaian tribes. Everyone in their community is considered family and they will defend each other even if it results in violence. She experienced a Zongo community when she was at secondary education school because many of their children went to school with her. I also noticed that they use charcoal around their eyes, even on the children. That was very interesting.

Wednesday was pretty tough because we had told Seth, our driver from St. Thomas, that we ran out of medicine the night before, but he did not bring more! It was so tough to tell people we could not give them anything. Sydney and I coped through the day by reading between patients.

Now I want to explain some of the things I find interesting about the English people speak here. In Ghana, the English dialect is highly influenced by the British which is evident when they say things like, "porridge," and "washroom." My favorite is when they say "I am coming," or "wait small," which means "hold on." Or they say, "go and come," for "ill be right back." The English is fun because it is much more simple and slower. They only talk fast in their native languages, which there are soooo many. I have heard people speak: Twi, Fanti, Krobo, Ga, Nzima, Huse, Ewe, Dangbi, and French.