Africa Day

I have a feeling very few people actually know this but May 25^th was African Union Day!!!! It is quite a big deal in Ghana and many other parts of Africa. The Ghanaians are at the beach almost all day celebrating with music and dancing. There are also crowds of people who jog down the street and chant Ghanaian songs (quite an interesting sight actually). It is a giant celebration and even the hospital had a slow day because people were celebrating. We went to Labadi beach, which is about halfway between our house and downtown Accra. There were tons of people there, all dancing or simply running around like crazy. It was quite a sight. We also met some Rastafarian artists who were selling amazing paintings. We next went to Osu to meet Mitchell’s (my South African roommate) friends from his volunteer work in Ho (a smaller city in the Volta region, northeast of Accra). The other volunteers were 4 German girls who were spending 9 months to a year volunteering in Ghana during a Gap year between high school and college. I find everybody I meet from a different country has an amazing story.

                Discovered Breadfruit several days ago, as well as fan Ice, two delicious African treats. Breadfruit is a ball of dough that has been fried, much like a donut but without icing (and I dare say more delicious). They are only 50 peswes, or about 30 cents USD, and can be bought all around Accra. Also Fan Ice is the African form of Ice cream. It is basically just frozen chocolate milk that you squeeze out of a bag (much like the clean water we get here). It tastes delicious especially since anything cold is a precious commodity in Africa. I don’t know whether I can help myself whenever I see either of these, so they may become a staple of my diet.

                We managed to make it all over Accra several nights this week. I have been to Osu (not ohio state university but like O-sue), as well Independence Square in the heart of Accra, Tema Station, Jamestown, cantonments and Teshie. We had some interesting experiences bouncing between spots (the Ghanaian saying for somewhere to get food or a drink) in Accra. We got lost several times or did not know when to get off the trotro, but the people of Ghana are so nice and always willing to help a lost obroni. For instance, we were walking through a neighborhood trying to find a specific spot but couldn’t find it. We asked a man sitting in front of his house, but he didn’t know so he yelled to his neighbor to ask him. His neighbor did not know either so he got on his phone and called several friends to ask. Neither stopped until they had at least some information for us. It is the same for trotro rides where you can ask anyone where to get off and they will tell you or tell the driver. We asked a women one day which trotro was heading to Jamestown. She told us and then when the trotro arrived, she explained to the driver where we were going (in Twi) and made sure he would help us to get off. It is often quite amazing the lengths that Ghanaians will go to in order to be nice or helpful. Before you talk to anyone it is difficult to understand this fact, because most people will just stare at you. But once you start talking to them or asking questions you break a barrier and they can’t help but be friendly and helpful.

                Anyway we also went to Tema station which is a madhouse of people selling things. We bought some sugarcane (just pure sugarcane which is really good) and then walked into Accra. We passed by the memorial to the first President, which is a massive beautiful monument. We walked through Jamestown, which is the fishing district of Accra. It is also incredibly poor and there was a makeshift shantytown by the docks. Apparently the fisherman in the Gulf of Guinea are overfishing and depleting the pool of fish. So they are forced to catch the smaller younger fish instead of throwing them back, only exacerbating the problem. Not only are they struggling now but just to hang on they are ruining their hope for the future. 

                When I have some more interesting stories from the hospital I will make another post; probably around Wednesday or so. I will also try and get some of the pictures my roommates took of Accra. Here are a few more Twi phrases.

Twi phrase:        ete sen?                              How are you? (Greeting)  This is the shorter version 

                         Me da ase.                          Thank you

                         Maaha                                  Good Afternoon

Pictures of the House

These are a bunch of pictures from the House in Teshie-Nungua where I am staying in Ghana. they ended up in kind of a Random order but they should give a general idea of the conditions that we are staying in. Keep in mind that this is actually in a rather nice neighborhood in the "suburbs" of Accra and many if not most people in Ghana are living in humbler conditions. I will try and have some more interesting pictures up in a couple of days but look out for another post tomorrow.

The street where our house is. The road is dirt and very uneven and all the houses have six foot walls surrounding them.

The front gate of the house. It is always kept padlocked ans somebody always has to let you back in the house.

Standing in the driveway this is the front of the house. We have a big metal barred door that has to also be padlocked every night.

Main sitting area, family room type of thing. We have a television but it has about 5 channels so we don't watch any TV.

Mine and Chris's (the Canadian) bedroom. The beds are rather uncomfortable and I am pretty sure the pillows are filled with straw.

Dining room table with the water fridge sitting on the floor.

The bathroom sink is a bit plain. It has one faucet that does not put out much water and there is no way to determine temperature.

My side of the bedroom with my stuff piled on the floor. We always sleep with the fan on which is actually quite comfortable.

The Toilet is very old. You can't put toilet paper in them because the sewage system in Ghana is very poor. When the water runs out we have to flush it with buckets.

The shower is quite simple. The head does not so much spray as drop the water and it is almost always cold since there is not water heater. The drainage system consists of a hole in the floor. Also to conserve water you only keep the water on for 30 seconds or so at a time.

First Day of Work

                I met my two other roommates several days ago from Johannesburg, South Africa!!! They are Rosa and Mitchell and both are incredibly nice and really interesting to talk to (because of their accent as well as what they have to say). I am learning a lot just from meeting these people from other parts of the world. They graduated high school and are taking a gap year to travel around the world and volunteer; Rosa was helping refugees in Israel before coming here and Mitchell has been in Ghana for two months already. They have such a different worldview that anything we talk about ends up being interesting. Both are working on the civil rights in Ghana, so their work is completely different than mine. They are here for about the same amount of time as I am so I will have more to say about them I am sure.

                Also I had my first day of work in the hospital Tuesday. When I arrived I was introduced to the whole staff and was told I would begin working in the Pharmacy. I will admit I had a hard time at first. For starters I felt out of place and as though there was no meaningful work to begin with. But that changed about an hour in and I feel like I did a lot for my first day. Also I was struggling mightily with everyone’s accents. Normally I can understand the Ghanaian accent just fine but when a lot is going on around you and it gets noisy, it becomes much more difficult (anyone can have a conversation in a quiet room but the real trick is doing it in public). Also everyone in Ghana speaks English, but when they are talking with other Ghanaians they often switch to Twi, the main language of the Ashanti in Accra. It is very difficult to pick up on their English when they switch between Twi and English (nobody tells you this when you go to Ghana). But after a while it becomes easier and so the day got much better as it went on.

                The first day I sorted some patient files for the main pharmacist. This was a difficult task because they do not have a filing system and the documents are just kept in big stacks with a rubber band around them. It seems to work for them though. I also counted out iron pills (ferrous sulfate), and placed them in prescription bags given to patients with anemia. Although this wasn’t the most interesting work I found it quite important since much of Ghana has some sort of nutritional deficiency. I don’t have statistics but since meat is not as common here I would assume iron deficiency is relatively common. I look forward to seeing other parts of the hospital soon but I was told I would get more work learning the actual prescriptions the next couple days.

                I guess I should also comment on the state of the hospital. It is located 15 minutes from our house, in Nungua and is a Christian run hospital. There is one main waiting room with a table in front where patients get there blood pressure and history taken by nurses (in most places this would happen after you were put in an exam room but space is tight so they do it out in the open). At the back of this room is a small room (about 8x10 ft) where the pharmacy is located and also where people pay. The back wall has the medicine on it and I say medicine rather than pharmaceuticals because I think most of what they have could be bought over the counter in America (things like cough medicine or vitamins). There are some antibiotics such a Ciprofloxacin, which is what is given to travelers for water-borne viruses. There are several offices and a couple exam rooms as well. In order to get to the second level you must walk outside and up some stairs, and there are several exam rooms up there as well. They have a lab for running tests but not much high tech equipment, and even their computers look like the old dell my parents had when I was in elementary school. I also noticed a sign on the wall that listed several surgeries and there prices; there were only about 10 of them, from C section to appendectomy (not a wide variety). Another sign listed the days that certain specialties were available; Surgeon on Monday, eye doctor on Wednesday, Gynecologist on Saturdays. I believe that there is much more medical attention that most of these people need, but the hospital does all it can to help as much as possible.The people working at the hospital are quite knowledgable and I am sure that with the technology available to every doctor in the states, they could be equally as successful.

                On a lighter note I took my first trotro ride home from the hospital. A trotro is a public transportation van that runs in the cities in Ghana and is very cheap (although a bit dicey). It was really interesting and now I feel quite comfortable taking them anywhere. However, the trotro ride was followed by a 30 minute walk up our street in 90 degree weather to actually get to the house. I survived but about 5 pounds lighter from the sweat loss. Also saw a lost goat running in the street on my way home. It must be normal because cars barely slow down, they just assume the goat will know to get out of the way. 

               I will post again at the end of the week when I have had a full week of work and had a chance to explore Accra. I am also going to start including a Twi phrase of the day for both your benefit, as it is interesting, and my benefit, learning the language to communicate with Ghanaian's in their native tongue. It is an interesting language but just a heads up, the pronunciation is not at all how it looks.

Twi phrase: Wo ho te sεn?                How are you?

                  eye                                 good.

Arrival in Accra

I arrived in Ghana late Saturday night, exhausted from 20 hours of sitting on several planes. As we got off the plane, an older American woman asked me if I could help carry a bag of laptops for her. She was donating the laptops to a school in Ghana, so of course I helped. The flood of people from the plane were all funneled into a narrow hallway where a women was checking our yellow fever vaccination booklets. She took all of 5 seconds on mine and I find it hard to believe that everyone was adequately checked. Anyway we went on to the passport check where they took our picture and scanned all ten of our fingerprints (high security measures) but I was not asked a single question before getting my passport stamped and sent on my way. There were several lines, one for Ghanaian Nationals, several for Other Nationals and one whose sign read ECOWAS Nationals. I could not figure out what this meant so I had to look it up; it is actually the Economic Community Of West African States, which includes 15 countries in west Africa. A giant sign overhead read Akwaaba, which means "welcome" in Twi, one of the many local languages. We passed through to the checked luggage pick up and of course many of the bags were “misplaced”, including mine. The Ghanaian people on my flight were quite unhappy at this and after much yelling the bags were “found” again. The 30 minute wait for my bag was undoubtedly the most stressful part of my trip. I continued on through customs (without checking my bag or anything) and down to the waiting area. Paul Badasu, the Director of Humanity World International, HWI, (humanityworld.org), was there waiting for me along with another volunteer, Chris, who had arrived on my same flight from London Heathrow. Chris is from Montreal, Canada (I can show you where Accra, Ghana is on a map but I realized I could not show you Montreal) and is here for 4 ½ weeks working on legal work. He is currently a law student.

                As we drove back to the house I noticed several things. For starters the roads are paved but are very rugged. Also there are not a whole lot of street lights, or road rules of any kind for that matter. On either sides of the street are many run down houses or shops, mostly made of sheets of metal. Right next to the airport are several very nice hotels (they look just about like any hotel we have in the U.S.) that I am sure many travelers stay in. Most people walk right along the sides of the road and I was sure we were going to hit a few.

                We arrived at our compound which is in Nungua, a district of sorts in Accra. The house is surrounded by a stone wall and a gate with a padlock. The house itself is very nice and very simple. When you first walk in there is a large room with a couch, several chairs and a TV as well as a little dining room table. The main room also has a small fridge where the clean water (that comes in a bag) is kept. There is a small kitchen with a fridge for food and a microwave. It is not much to look at but during the week we have someone to cook for us. There is a washer sitting out in the hallway that looks quite old but I am looking forward to trying to wash my clothes by hand. There is a bathroom with a shower and toilet, but the night we arrived the water was not flowing. So showers had to be bucket showers and the only way to flush the toilet was by pouring bucket water down it. Paul told us that the water often was not working but the tank out front was filled at the beginning of each week, so some sort of water was always available. The bedrooms consist of two double beds and a table with one single light overhead. Not much to look at but enough for anyone to live in.

                The hardest part so far of being in Ghana is the heat. It was only in the mid-80s today but I was sweating the whole day. I am sure I will get used to it, but for now I only have the fan to help keep me cool. I apologize for my writing, I am a biochemistry major and writing is not my strong point, but I will hopefully have interesting stories to come. Look for a post in a couple of days when I begin working in the hospital and I will try and post some pictures of our house.