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.

Photos from Takorati

WIFI is working! Trying to cram two weeks into one post....

Hello everyone! To start, let me tell you all the fruits I love to eat. They have AMAZING pineapples and mangoes here. The pineapples are sweet enough to even eat the core. The oranges look like limes on the outside, and we suck the juice out before we eat the fibers which is also good. The bananas are small and sweet as well. We get fruit everyday and I love it. During the morning we have a meal of rice, beans, or some form of chicken usually. I have pictures of most of the food I have eaten so I will show you later :)

Since my last entry, I have spent my weekends in downtown Accra. We were hoping to travel, but the staff members for UFS where busy, so we had to change our plans. We went to the LDS temple, visited the artisan market, and shopped at the open air, main market in downtown Accra. The artisan market is the craziest thing I have ever been to. People are physically pulling and pushing on you to buy from them. There is so much pressure that most of us were very overwhelmed our first time. Downtown Accra is the only place that I have encountered Ghanaians that are not really nice and friendly. Most of the time, I am amazed at their kindness and patience. For example, last week on my overnight trip to Takoradi, I got very sick one day and had to stay behind from work. Around 5pm I started to feel better, but my group was not yet back from outreach so I went downstairs to ask where I could by phone credit nearby and the man at the office told me to wait there because he would just find it for me. While I waited, I met a nice lady named Mary who let me sit with her. As soon as she heard I was not feeling well, she asked me if I had eaten anything. When I told her I had not, she told me she would make an omelette for me and would have it ready whenever I wanted. To my surprise, she delivered a huge egg sandwich to my room and did not want any money for it! I was so grateful.

My first day in Takoradi was very rainy. I was grateful for the rain because it cooled down the heat and it made the world very green, but rain is bad news for Ghanaians because it floods very badly. They have no system of the flood, but it rains a ton 2 months of the year.

These past few weeks I learned a few games from the kids at our outreaches. One game they hit each other on the head with empty bottles so that is really funny. The adults at each outreach continue to surprise me. For example someone today said, "Hello friend! I love you!" and last week I met someone who only spoke another langauage, but I saw her name was Elizabeth. I pointed to myself and said my name was Elizabeth too. She was so excited and happy we shook hands and smiled for a long time. She was very old! We see people in their 90s all the time. Crazy how good they look! I love that Ghanaians tell me when they are going to leave. If they are friends with you, they come back and say goodbye. I wish we did that more in the states! Overall, I liked Takoradi, but the hotel had sooooooo many bugs. Everynight I slept with dead bugs all over my floor because I squished them before I went to sleep. I hated that.

We met two more volunteers that just arrived for UFS. They are really nice and came to church with us! But, the left to visit Kumasi with another eye clinic, so we will not see them until next week. I also brought my friend Kwame to church with me. We are good friends and he helps me learn about Ghanaian culture. I gave him my small book of Mormon and I think he reads it sometimes! Yay. Also......I have to sing a song next week....AHHHHHHH. The crew with Crystal Eye clinic was singing in the van on the way to outreach last week and then we sang for the people when we arrived! They loved it. Jerome is so hilarious when he sings we can never finish a song without laughing.

Everyone just got home which means my wifi will stop working so I am going to post as fast as I can and hope it works. K bye!

Surgeries in the Clinic

Yesterday I was able to watch cataract surgeries at Crystal Eye Clinic. It was a very long day, but I loved it! We started in the afternoon, and did not get home until 9pm. They fed us lunch which was very nice. I had red red, which is a favorite of mine. To be honest, that part took the longest. It took them about 2-3 hours to get our lunch ready before we could start haha.

The clinic looked a lot different than I expected, I thought it would look like a doctor's office, but it was just a normal building with some lawn chairs for a lobby. When we got ready to go inside the surgery room, we had to put on different sandals and green.....snuggies along with masks and a hair net. The surgery room had two beds. The surgeon would finish one surgery, and then wheel his chair to the next bed and perform that surgery. It was very efficient. There were about 4 nurses assisting and administering the anesthetic to the other patients preparing for surgery. In total, we had about 7 patients, the surgeon, 4-5 nurses, and two volunteers in the surgery room. It was busy!

This is the new lens we give to the patients during surgery. It is clear and perfect!

The surgeon was a very nice Ghanaian man who let me ask TONS of questions. He helped me understand each part of the process and explained what happened anatomically to the eye during the surgery. I even looked through his microscope at the eyes! To be honest, it was pretty hard to watch a first. I realized pretty quickly I would need to ease myself into it, so I took a quick look and then sat down for a while. After I repeated this, I finally watched a whole surgery. They take about 15-20 minutes. However, after it was finished I felt light headed and my stomach churned, so I allowed the other volunteer to take a turn until I was ready. The second time I went in, I had no problems at all! I was able to watch and ask questions without any trouble. 

In this picture you can see the cataract has been removed; it is sitting on the white cloth (to the right), and the surgeon is putting the new, clear lens into the eye.

This experience was particularly special because the surgeries that day were being performed for people from Elubo, which is one of the outreaches from my overnight trip last week. I got to see the people I was helping last week, come to the clinic and be operated on. There were 3 very sweet young girls that had cataracts that we operated on. I was so sad that they had cataracts at age 9 and 14, but I was happy we could help them. Because they had to travel very very far to get to the clinic, they have to stay overnight and so the clinic put on a movie for them. When we left I saw all the patients with bandaged eyes trying to watch haha. They were so nice, and no one every looked scared coming which surprised me because I would be scared! They are awake for the whole thing! In all, I think we saw about 24 surgeries that day.

Overnight with Crystal

This week we stayed in Esiama for an overnight outreach to Nzema. Sadly, I did not have any wifi so I will do my best to cover the whole week in one post. To start, let me explain what happened last Saturday. A small group of us went swimming which was very fun, but the water did something really strange to my hair. My hair became hard, sticky, and tangled.  It feels like someone took a bottle of hair gel and dumped the whole thing on my head. I can't run my finders through it or brush it without becoming sticky all over. The worst part is that it did not wash out! I talked with the other girls who went to the pool and they had the same problem. During the week I asked my good friend Buffy who does my hair in Nebraska for advice. I tired Vinegar first, but the real cure was dish soap. I am still not back to my good hair, but I can now brush it successfully and am not grossed out all the time. Lots of people ask why my hair looks wet, and I honestly don't know how to respond haha.

Anyway, Sunday we drove to Esiama and I really enjoyed the drive. It was long, but there was so much to look at! I was really entering the jungle. Esiama is West of Accra with a lot less people so there are not crowds like there are in the city. Instead, I see hundreds of trees: palm, coconut, banana, cassava, and cocoa. I guess there are even rubber trees. Amazing! We passed the ocean as well. Riding with the staff from Crystal is very fun because we can ask them lots of questions and learn about their lives in Ghana. Ernest and Jerome always tease us and sing silly songs. We love them because they take care of us and help us not get ripped off when people try to sell us things on the street. Bismark was our driver for the week, and we love him too. I learned that Ernest recently got married and is a Christian. Ghana has interesting traditions for a marriage. The man is required to ask the father for the traditional "list" when he wants to marry the daughter. Each tribe has different required items that the groom must purchase and present to the family before the wedding day. Ernest taught me how taxes work in Ghana, and answered my questions about education. He even sang the national anthem for us, but he made me sing ours too :). Also, some tribes in Ghana mark their faces with specific scar designs. I did not see them much in Accra, but they are more common in the Villages.

Our new hotel is very different from the Telecentre. It is much cheaper and has bigger rooms, but it only has one bed and it is only memory foam.....no real mattress. My shower was better, but we were required to give our keys to the owners while we were gone. We discovered this was because they came in and turned off everything once we left. Overall, we actually loved it there! One night I walked from my friends room to mine and I saw the workers all sleeping on the floor in the lobby. I think they live there in the Lobby. Crazy!

Our first day of work was in Bonyere and there were lots of trees. I made friends with some really cute kids! The next day we were in Elubo were the people mostly spoke French. The language barrier was so difficult! We helped over 330 people in one afternoon! It was so busy and very hard work. These people have never had an eye exam before, and many of them traveled very far to get there. I even saw a bus come to our outreach from who knows where! This town is right on the boarder of Ghana and so lots of military men who work with immigration came to get tested as well. Everyone let them go first of course. It was so interesting to meet everyone. My group has been using their Fanti names to introduce ourselves, and the people love it! I think they see that we are trying to connect and understand their culture so they just go wild when we announce our African names. I brought a Frisbee to outreach that day which turned out to be very useful because a found a very big team of little friends who wanted to play with me! I made the mistake of giving a little girl who was very frightened of white people a sucker. Later, while I was working, a crowd of children came to the window of the church where I was working on Visual Acuity testing and they all wanted my attention. I put my arm out the window a few times and they all wanted to hold my hand. So cute. They waited HOURS until I was finished and I went outside to meet them. They had heard about the candy, of course. We did not speak the same language, but they laughed and laughed when I chased them. So I figured I could show them my Frisbee. I think they will enjoy that Frisbee!

The next day we were in Ayanase which was very very hot. I was sweating so much and I later became sick that day. I think it was from eating too much Wa-tchi (sorry for the bad spelling), which is a bean and rice mixture. I'd had it for breakfast most days that week because Ernest and Jerome get very very upset if I do not eat breakfast before work. They also showed us, what they call, "obruni food," which is a restaurant that serves one or two America-styled meals. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough to make us all sooooo happy and very full. They gave us toast and oatmeal! I mean wow! Thursday, we were in Auxim which is a beautiful area. Aldan was very excited because we were in a church right next to the missionary apartments that he used to live in. Turns out there are still missionaries living there! We saw another white person so that was very exciting. A little boy was there that I talked to after work who was a Mormon and when Kara asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up he said, "a missionary!" It was so sweet.

Today was Saturday and Jon took the group to Cape Coast to visit the castle and see the canopy walk. It was pretty expensive because it was a tourist area, but it was well worth it. The canopy walk was a hike in the jungle where you get to walk on rope bridges over the trees. Very beautiful! I felt like I was in George of the Jungle.
The castle was also amazing, but for a very different reason. I learned about the slave trade in Ghana and was amazed by the things I saw. The dungeons were heart-wrenching. Our tour guide was awesome. He showed us how high the floor was due to the compressed human waste, blood, and vomit that was stood on for so many years.

Sorry to end on such a sad note, but I had a great week! Can't wait for more. Much Love!

Learning the Work with Sweat and Blisters

Monday was a holiday, so we did not start any clinic work until Tuesday. One thing that separates Ghanaian culture from Americans, is that they are in no rush to do anything. In America, we thrive when we use schedules and plan out time with exactness. Here.....pretty much anything goes and people are content to wait around for those who are late. That being said, everyone wakes up sooooooo early. They are up with the sun. Anyway, back to Monday. We decided to visit downtown Accra. In-order to get there, we rode tro-tros (I have no idea how to spell any of the African words I have learned sorry!). Tro-Tros are vans that act like buses in a local area. There is usually a young man with his arm out the window yelling the destination and if you want to get on, all you have to do is make eye contact or raise your hand and they will stop right there in the road. It is very cheap, and you always meet very friendly people on the ride. The air conditioning is only the wind coming through the windows. Accra is so huge I cannot even begin to explain how many people there are. We saw all kinds of markets and vendors. My favorite, of course, are the people who walk around cars selling things from the buckets on their heads. I don't know how they keep things cold up there, but they even sell ice cream packets off their heads!

While we were trying to find the museum, a man walking beside us started to chat with Aldan. And somehow, he just decided to spend the day with us. He took us to the museum and we walked around the memorial park commemorating their independence. It has their first president's tomb in big strange building. It was the hottest day since we have been here, and the museum was air conditioned so that was nice. The guy with us, Yaw (pronounced yaw-oo), explained some of the history of Ghana to us. Then, we visited Independence Square which is were the President of Ghana gives speeches. But, it mostly looked like a big empty lot full of trash with a few loitering people. Right behind it was the ocean. We were walking around Accra all day and soon became very hot and tired. On our way home, we saw the president's house and a crazy lady who was yelling and taking her clothes off. That was very odd.

When we finally arrived back, we bought a few things that the store for Sydney's birthday because we wanted to have a little party for her that night. It was so fun! We had sodas and Kofi played us Ghanaian music called "hip life." It was very fun because we danced with the Ghanaian that work at the Telecentre. 

The houses looked like this in the camp

On Tuesday I started my first day of work. We visited a Liberian Refugee Camp. There was not much work to do there and was slow moving, but that was good for us to learn our stations. Kara and I helped people with Acuity Testing before they went to see the doctor. It is just a simple screening of both eyes using a chart with the letter "E" facing different directions. They do this because some people cannot read and don't know other letters, but sometimes that confuses people who can read because sometimes they say. "those are all E's." Anyway, It was really nice to be able to work with people up close. I have never interacted with Muslims before, and I got to meet lots of them. I helped a cute Muslim girl who looked about six or seven. One of her eyes was very bad. 

What they say about Ghanaian talking on the phone is true. Everyone asks for my number and wants to call me. People loooove to call their friends to chat and they all want to call me. One lady asked me to play with her three year old. It was very odd because the girl was afraid of me, but the mom just handed her to me. Later, the girl wanted to hold my hand for a long time. I also talked with a boy who was 20 named Abraham. He was able to translate for me which was great because a lot of the Ghanaian did not understand the directions of the test and the language barrier makes things difficult for me. Abrahama asked me to sing with him so we sang "twinkle twinkle little star," and "amazing grace," together. That was very fun. The people in Ghana are the least judgmental people I have ever been around.

Empasi Kontamarie

Last night after the camp, we played games with Jon our driver and then we ate Ghanaian food that Mami Margaret made for us. She runs the hotel, and we paid her for a nice meal. She made something called "Empasi Kontamarie." It is a boiled white yam with a blend of spinach and fish. She also had fried bananas. Now, those that know me understand I do not like fish....but of course, I had to eat it because she served it to me. Here, they call all fish 'salmon,' but it is not really salmon. After a few bites, I actually liked it! I realized that I liked it because I was starving. I had not eaten a real meal in like 4 days and the yam tasted semi-familiar. I ate two plates and Mami Margaret was very proud of me liking Ghanaian food.

Today, we went to a different town. To be honest, I cannot remember the name right now. But I will tell you later if you remind me. It was two hours from Achimota where I am staying. We passed through all of Accra, and then passed like a thousand mango trees. There, we saw so much fruit growing and a "mountain," that just looks a big hill covered in green. The roads were much less bumpy then the ones we took Tuesday. When we arrived, there was a huge crowd already waiting for us. Jon walked to the from of the group and started singing. They all sang together for a while and then Jon spoke in another language I did not recognize. He spoke for almost an hour teaching the people how to take care of glasses and not scratch them, how to use eye drops, and some basic health for taking care of your eyes everyday. Of course, I don't know exactly what he said, but I have become really good at reading body language recently :) Then, I did Acuity testing again. On the way home I bought some local avocados from a woman on the side of the road. I got 5 for 5 cidis. That is about $1.25! The avocados here are bigger with thinner skins and pits that rattle inside. They call them pears here. The rest of the night was very relaxing. I tried to hand wash my clothes for the first time......I don't think I did it right to be honest. And it took forever. Everyone go hug your washers and appreciate them. 

The only bad news I have is that I started getting heat rash today which makes me scared I will get sun poising soon....I am just exposed way more sun than my skin likes. The weather was nice today and I felt less hot, though I did sweat constantly. Also, I have a huge blister on my foot. But tomorrow I am working in the clinic which is air conditioned and I get to sit for most of it! Good timing for me. That's all for now, much love!