long overdue

Sorry it has been awhile but I was informed by my mother that I needed to update on my life.
After battling the flu on Thursday I managed to fully recover this weekend on the beach. On Friday, the 2 other interns, Lindsey and Anna, and I traveled to Big Milly's Backyard, a hostel in Kokrobite. It was the cutest place, but so hard to find. We ended up arriving about 10:30 pm on Friday after driving on dirt roads that really would not be considered roads back home. We drove for about 45 minutes on these roads and it felt like we were in the middle of no where. Finally when all 3 of us were beginning to lose hope that this place did not exist, the taxi driver found it.
We pulled up to several bonfires, a bar and so many yovo (white people). It was nice see a bit of western culture again. We checked into our room, which had 3 beds all with their own bug net and a  bathroom with a shower. We then headed out to the balcony deck where we sat next to the beach listening to the water but not being able to see it because it was too dark.

The next morning Anna and I woke up early and went for a nice beach walk. The beach is beautiful with a lot of big wooden boats that the fishermen use to fish. There were so many people working with these boats and nets, it honestly felt like I was back in biblical times because the processes are still the same. The men and some children were in charge of getting the boats out, pulling in the nets and pulling out the fish from the nets. Then there would be a bunch of women working to cleans and gut the fish. It was such an interesting process to watch and from the restaurant pavilion of the hostel you could see everything.

We had a nice breakfast of banana pancakes, cinnamon toast and mango, pineapple, and banana before we set out for the beach. It was so nice to just lay in the sun and bath in the ocean. The water was really warm and wavy. After we were all worn out from the beach we spent the evening having dinner, which included a massive amount of lasagna for Lindsey and I, and Anna had tilapia. It was so nice to have cheese again! Cheese is something that we do not have at all at the house. Later we lounged by the bar and had an interesting conversation with a man who was of lebanese heritage and looked lighter skinned but considered himself Ghanaian. That night we saw a few performances by 3 little men that were double jointed everywhere and amused the crowd by positioning their bodies in crazy ways. Following them were some musicians that played authentic african instruments similar to the guitar. These men were all of the rasta and Bob Marley culture as were many of the people that we saw this weekend. On Friday it was actually the day of remembrance for Bob Marley and it was interesting to see the great impact that he has had on the culture here.

On Sunday we were picked up by the rest of the volunteers that were making their way back from Cape Coast and then had a 5 hour drive back to our house. We stopped at the mall on the way back and had a nice western meal of mozzarella sticks and nachos, which is so funny to me because when you are in Accra, it feels as if you are in any other large city across the world. There is a diverse group of ethnicities and also a lot more people dress in western style than in the traditional African clothing.
I was able to talk to my family a little bit on Sunday evening through skype but I didn't realize how hard it would be to actually see them. It was still nice to chat a bit and wish my mom a happy mother's day.

On Monday I headed back to what has become my favorite place, the children's ward of the hospital. When I arrive in the mornings everyone is usually waiting for me. The kids come to the table as soon as I walk in the door and even some parents will come too. I pass out coloring books and crayons and say hello to everyone. Then I will walk around to all the beds and make sure that everyone who wants to, has some crayons and a coloring sheet. I am getting a little worried though because each time I leave, I usually feel so bad about taking everything with me that I let every child have a crayon and a coloring page. This has depleted my supplies some and I am almost out of coloring pages and crayons so I am not sure how I will go about getting more. On little boy that has been there since I have, I found out this week has HIV. It is really quite sad because he has been so much fun to color with and he is so talented! He has a wrap on his leg and could not walk so I thought he had just injured his leg, but when I talked to his mother about it she told me it was a boil. Lindsey knew right away that this meant he has HIV. I will obviously not treat him any differently now that I know this, but it has been really sad to think about. He is, however, getting the ARV treatment that he should be receiving and it is being payed for him so that is also good news.

After placement on Monday, our group visited an herbal doctor. This actually made a lot of the volunteers upset because this man's logic is so skewed and people go to him for medical treatment. He has technically gone to school, but he said that he will not tell us what he learned because that is a secret that people pay to learn when they receive treatment. He gave us a sample of what he does but dipping one of our volunteers fingers in an oil and putting it under a microscope. The microscope was hooked up to a monitor and he pointed to different things that he saw and said things like, "This shows that she needs to not drink cold things," and "This shows that she should not have alcohol." It was a bit strange to say the least, but prepared us for what we saw next.

We then traveled to a bone setter. At this location, people will visit if they have a broke or dislocated bone. The first thing before we walked in that George, our advisor said was that it is not sanitary. I knew as soon as he said it that it must be pretty bad. They gave us a tour and in each room there was no lighting and anywhere from 2 to 5 people laid on the ground with their legs or arms or hips resting in an angle that the bone setter had placed them in. One man had a shoulder injury and had been laying on the floor with is arms spread wide for 3 months! It was quite a site and got me to thinking about the sanitation of it all. They had a photo album showing them actually operating (if you could call it that) on people that had come in after accidents and they were just sitting in lawn chairs or on the ground with blood going anywhere. I wonder how many more problems going to this place has caused for these people.

Our final stop for the day was to this large mansion that was made by an American man for his Ghanian woman. It was very beautiful and all made out of cement with a very beautifully designed fence all the way around the house. Here, we met a woman that made batik fabric, a traditional bright printed fabric, similar to the background of my blog. She let us all design and make our own handkerchief. First, you start by dipping a large wooden stamp in a waxing concoction and pressing it onto the scarf then you place it in the dye and then hot and cold water. The end result looks somewhat like tie dye. It was really interesting and I enjoyed learning this traditional trade.

Yesterday we did not go to the hospital, but instead climbed the tallest mountain in Ghana, Afadjato! It definitely sounds more prestigious than it is. It took us about 45 minutes from where we started to reach the peak. I think my favorite part was that our guide was a young boy probably around 16 and he did the hike in flip flops! He told me that he does it some days as many as 5 times. It was a pretty steep climb and I managed to fall on the way down, but survived.

Later we had our second language lesson of Ewe, the tribal language that is spoken here. We learned numbers and parts of the body and also a nursery song that all children know.

I would say after being halfway into my second week, I am beginning to be more accustomed to the area and culture. I really like the village we are in and have enjoyed getting to know the staff more. One of the workers in particular, Ruth, is my age and I have had a lot of fun hanging out with her and seeing Ghana from her perspective. Sometimes it is hard to understand coming from a more developed country, but she says that she would never want to leave Ghana to move to the US or similar country. I have really thought about that this week and come to see that a lot of times people from the US, myself included, think that our culture is the best for everyone, but that is not at all true. Many people would rather live a more simple life that is what they are used to.

Thanks for reading! More updates soon (promise mom)


See ya later alligator
Elizabeth