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.