Week 1: Accra

Sunday, May 5^:

The hotel serves breakfast at 7:30, but I decided to sleep in until we left for church at 8:30. The walk isn’t too long, but it was HOT and HUMID. Instantly sweaty. On the bright side, it makes my hair pretty curly? So that’s kinda fun.

The walk to church

I was amazed at the energy at church today. The members put their whole souls into the hymns and the speakers spoke very emphatically. The last guy to bear his testimony was practically yelling. We stayed after church and met a few of the members before heading back to the hotel. We got a lesson in handwashing outside with a bucket and a bar of soap and then we went and found some lunch.

Kaden giving us a lesson in handwashing

We bought some “waakye” (pronounced “wah-chay”, it’s basically just rice and beans mixed together) and some salad on the side. We came back and had a meeting with Jerome, a nurse from the Crystal Eye Clinic, which is where most of us will be stationed this week. We got an overview of what the next week will look like and when our outreaches will be and such. Then the other volunteers played cards while I took a much-needed nap. Some of us then walked the fifteen or so minutes to the Achimota mall so that we could get a few snacks. I bought some random cracker looking things, so I’ll see if they’re any good.

One of many, many water satchets

On the way back, I bought a coconut off the side of the road. While we stood there all taking turns drinking from it, these brothers came over and started a conversation with us. Before we knew it, they were having a dance battle and performing a little routine for us in their matching outfits. It was probably the highlight of my day.

We grabbed the rest of the group back at the hotel, then went and got dinner. It was chicken and rice and salad, so kinda hard to go wrong with that. Gabby (my roommate and the only other girl on the trip) and I bought some water on the way back so that we could finally have water in our room. The cheap water here comes in little bags, so you just rip a corner off with your teeth and slurp it down. We got 30 bags for four cedis, which is a little less than a dollar.

I don’t think I’ll have any trouble sleeping here because I feel absolutely toasted by the end of each day.

Monday, May 6:

Went on our first out reach today to a town called Teishe. After a breakfast of an egg, toast, and milo at the hotel, we arrived at about 9:00. There was a big meeting in the school (or maybe chapel?) where they explained what would be happening today.

Today was packed full so I’m just gonna bullet list some highlights:

-         Made a little girl cry every time I (or any of us) looked at her. I don’t think she’d ever seen a white person before and it was hilarious

-         Counted my freckles with a group of girls who then tried to find freckles on themselves.

-         One girl asked me to take her back to America with me. Kinda wish I could take them all.

-         Saw about 300 patients and tested the visual acuity of half of them.

-         Learned more Twi phrases because I hate the feeling of someone speaking to me in a language I don’t know

We finished seeing patients at about 7:00. Luckily, they gave us lunch (very spicy rice) halfway through and we scarfed it down in between patients. And there was lady on the side selling pineapples and papaya (or “popo”) so I ate a lot of pineapple. Like… almost two altogether. They are so sweet here! Not sour or acidic at all.

We got back to the hotel and I was so thoroughly sweaty that all I could think about was finding a FanIce. Two other volunteers and I left to go find some, but basically all the shops were closed since it was almost 8:00. After 15 or so minutes, our spirits were low and we were about to give up. We tried one last place and lo and behold, they had it! Four different flavors no less! I just about cried I was so happy. Not only was the lady super nice, but it’s also really close to our hotel, so I have a feeling I’ll be going there a lot.

I slurped down my FanIce in about 30 seconds (I wish I was exaggerating) and then took a shower and washed all my clothes. I’m realizing that will be the ritual every night so it’s probably not even worth mentioning anymore. I think the other volunteers are downstairs watching TV, but all I can think about is sleep so I think I’m gonna go to bed.

Tuesday, May 7th:

This morning, we had breakfast (oatmeal) and then left for an outreach by 8:00. Something I haven’t talked about yet is the driving. To sum it up, it’s some of the most chaotic I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen one stop light thus far, so if you want to turn on a road, you basically just go and hope that the other cars slow down. People straddle the lanes and weave in and out of lanes to get past one another, and everyone is very liberal with their horn. Many roads are either paved roughly (aka lots of potholes) or not at all. And crosswalks? You just go when it feels right. There are also people (usually women) walking between the lanes of traffic with huge loads on their heads: water, soda, fruit, fabric, pretty much anything you could ever want.  

People waiting for their eye exams

The visual acuity screening set-up

One of the cutest babies I've ever seen

We tried a new system with the patient’s papers, and it made it all a little more chaotic today. Once we figured it out about halfway through, it got much better. As per usual, here are the highlights:

-         - Found my new conversation topic with young boys: Ronaldo vs Messi. They all have their own opinion and it’s amazing to me how knowledgeable they are about football.     
        - Tried “boflote” for the first time and it was divine. It’s a little ball of sweet bread, and it kinda reminds me of a doughnut. It costs just one cedi which makes it way too easy to justify.

A woman selling boflote

  - Sat with Jerome (one of the doctors who does the exams) and he showed me a few of the most interesting / extreme cases. The most common by far are cataracts and glaucoma.

  - Got my first sunburn (missed the back of my neck dang it) and first mosquito bites. Feel like I’m officially accepted into Ghana now.
  - I can feel myself developing a little bit of an accent when I talk to the people and it’s simultaneously hilarious and also embarrassing.

Fufu with light soup and chicken

There weren’t as many patients as yesterday (only a little over 100), so we ended much earlier today. We were home by 3:00! We needed some lunch and decided to try some fufu. Fufu is a “swallow food”, which, as the name implies, means you don’t chew it. The consistency is very similar to bread dough. You can choose what kind of soup to have it in, either light soup, groundnut (peanut) soup, or palm nut soup. I went with the light soup (still not sure what’s in it to be honest, but it was very spicy) and chicken to accompany my fufu. You scissor off a piece with your first two fingers and use them as your spoon to get it to your mouth. When the fufu is gone, you drink the rest of the soup. I didn’t order much of it, but I couldn’t finish. It didn’t taste bad at all (or much like anything actually) but it was hard to get past the texture and I wasn’t very hungry. I’ll have to work my way up to eating the huge blobs like some of the others can.

We got some FanIce on the way home and I’m still obsessed with it. When we got back, a group of us went to the mall (again) to get some stickers for the kids and some laundry soap. The guy who greeted us at the door asked where we were from. When we said America, he goes “I knew it!! People have been talking about the group of white people who have been walking around the city and we made bets on where they were from”.

The walk back was filled with many stops for food and snacks on the street. I got another boflote (see, I knew this would happen), one kid bought a pineapple, and another bought a huuuge mango. He gave me a bite and I just about cried. It somehow melted in my mouth?? Best mango I’ve ever had. Once I get more cedis, I’ll be buying so many of those.

When we got back, I accidentally took a little 30-minute nap. When I woke up, it was only 7:30 so I decided to come downstairs for a bit. There’s often a dubbed over with English telenovela playing on the TV in the lobby, so I watched that for a bit. We also watched Gavin (a volunteer) perform some magic tricks and then played some video games that I lost every time.

Wednesday, May 8th:

Breakfast was “coco” and bread. They say the coco will grow on me, but today it wasn’t very good. It’s kind of a soupy porridge that has a lot of ginger in it.

The drive today was long—about two hours. I think everyone fell asleep at some point, despite the multitudinous potholes and weirdly high (and seemingly random?) number of speed bumps placed on the freeway. Maybe the rumbling of the van is what rocks everyone to sleep. Some of the volunteers have gotten carsick and I’m feeling very lucky that I haven’t.

The outreach today was up in the mountains, so it was a bit cooler and SO GREEN. It was gorgeous. Plus, trees = shade. So that was wonderful. Right when we got there, I saw a little girl off by herself, so I went to talk to her. She had poor eyesight, so she had skipped school to get her eyes examined. We talked about school and favorite foods and she even sang me a song. She came up to me after her exam and said she was leaving, so we said goodbye. About an hour later though, she came back with a bag full of mangos for me because I’d said it was my new favorite food in Ghana. I invited her to eat my lunch (rice and chicken) with me. We sat and talked more about school, what she wants to be when she grows up (a science teacher), and her siblings. She also tried to teach me a few Twi words, but she kept laughing when I tried to pronounce them. Later, she kept trying to fix my messy hair, so finally she sat me down and plaited it for me.

Saviour, the girl who braided my hair and brought me tons of mangoes

The visual acuity set up for today

After I finished with the rest of the eye exams, we spent the next few hours running and playing with the other kids that had gotten out of school. We played soccer and practiced somersaults on the grass and it felt like paradise.

We saw about 250 patients today and we were all super tired by the end (especially after playing with the kids. They wear you out faster than anything). To top it all off though, we got to watch a beautiful sunset as we laid on the grass. We didn’t leave till about 8:00, so we grabbed some dinner on the way home. I tried a chocolate croissant and was not disappointed. The bread was denser than back home, but I think I may have liked it more. I also had a FanIce (naturally).

We got home a little after 10:00. I am consistently amazed at how long the days feel. I also can’t help but wonder if this will ever get old because so far, each day is still really, really good.

Thursday, May 9th:  

Jerome using a flashlight to conduct exams

Long drive, almost three hours, to the outreach today. Every drive up, someone always wants to stop for food which adds a little bit of time. I think the hardest part of the drive is wanting to sleep so badly but not being able to because there are so many speedbumps and potholes. Maybe by the end I’ll have mastered it.

The church we were in today

The outreach today was up in the Volta region and it was indoors today! Still humid but being hidden from the sun makes all the difference. The two guys volunteering at the dispensing table want to stay there, which is the best news because I love testing visual acuity. We’ve got a system down now and it goes pretty fast.  We saw less than 200 patients today, but at the very end, a wicked rainstorm hit. Rain was blowing in through all the open windows and leaking in through the top of the door. It also made it pretty dark, so the doctors were using a flashlight to see their patients.

My two friends

After I’d finished testing, I saw two little girls in the corner. I went over to them and tried to talk but they were both super shy and spoke very little English. They followed me around for a while and at one point they started copying everything I was doing (like my posture and such) and we were all cracking up. Later, the older one ran away to get something from home. It was then that the storm hit, so the younger girl was left with us. We had to leave to go back to the hotel, so we left the little girl with some of the older women from the village. On the way home, we got a call at about 9:00 that they had finally found the girl’s mother. Holy Hannah. I’m continually amazed at how much freedom the kids have here. Just yesterday I saw several little boys all wielding machetes and it took everything I had to not go protective mother on them.

A friend invited us over for dinner and we ate spicy rice and dried fish (I actually wasn’t very brave tonight… I gave my fish to another volunteer. Maybe another night). The volunteers are dropping like flies. Bryan was throwing up all day today at the outreach and several others have diarrhea. I’m feeling spared and very blessed. We got back to the hotel and the not ill ones played some cards until bedtime.

Didn't want to post the video of Bryan throwing up so I'll just settle for the pic of our boys using the bathroom

Friday, May 10th:

Another outreach today! This is the only week where we won’t have a day or two at the eye clinic. The work is so fun, but it takes a lot out of you. So I have a new technique. Use as little energy as possible in the morning so you can save it for all the little kids at the outreaches.

One of our lovely bathrooms

I was spoiled yesterday when the eye exams were inside; today was HOT and I felt it. We saw a little under 200 patients, but it actually went super fast. I didn’t have much time to play with any kids and instead just did eye exams the whole time. They gave us lunch / dinner (spicy rice) before heading home. The whole car ride back we played Wordscapes, a game I have on my phone, and everyone was getting super into it. It made the car ride go by quickly.

Me and CC

We got back and a couple of us went on a quest to get some food that wasn’t spicy rice. It’s great, but it’s easy for it to get old when you eat it every day. We went to the mall where Gabby bought some pizza hut, Bryan bought us all ice cream cones from KFC, and we happened upon my new favorite restaurant: CC. They have a deal where you get a burger, fries, and a drink for 12 cedis. 12 cedis! To convert to American prices, just divide by 5. So that meal was $2.50! I ordered the salad and just about cried because I finally got to eat some vegetables.

We walked around the mall a bit and came across this store that sold cologne. There were ones that smelled like “passion”, “wisdom”, and (my personal favorite) “really ripped abs”.

Ask Kaden how he got his bod and maybe he'll hook you up with some of his cologne

We have the day off tomorrow! I’m excited to act like a tourist 😊

Saturday, May 11th:

The plan was to wake up at 6:00 and go to Cape Coast, but several were sick / tired because they stayed up so late the night before, so we decided to just sleep in as long as we wanted.  I woke up a little before 9:00 and it was wonderful. I felt like I finally caught up on sleep. We did laundry and took our time getting ready and left at about noon.

To get to all of our outreaches thus far, we’ve been driven in a big 12 seat van (that has AC, bless). To make our Ghana experience a little more authentic, we decided to take a tro-tro to the beach. A tro-tro is basically just a huge van that smooshes as many people as possible into it. There’s no AC and the drivers are always pretty… aggressive. Traffic was bad on the way to the beach, and I could just feel how stressed my sweet mother would have been if she’d been with me. Cars are constantly switching lanes with motorcycles weaving between them and they always seem to come within an inch of each other. I felt like I was holding my breath for half the time. But for a ride that costs just a couple cedis, it’s worth it.

On our walk to the beach, we passed by this big memorial thing and decided to look around. People swarmed us as we neared the entrance and tried to sell us all sorts of bracelets, paintings, and masks. We realized the memorial cost a steep 10 cedis to get in, but we all hurriedly paid it just to escape the very aggressive vendors. We walked around a bit and learned about Kwame Nkrumah, the first person to lead the country after the Portuguese left.

When we finally made it to the beach, it was a little after 2:30. We paid 10 cedis to get in and were again swarmed by people wanting us to come to their little cabana and eat their food. There were also horses available to ride for a price. We walked a ways down the beach to escape the majority of them and settled in. We sunscreened up (that’s for you, Mom) and ran into the ocean. The warm ocean! I forget that not every ocean is like Oregon and hypothermia inducing. We played some frisbee and Kaden taught us how to play rugby. After a few hours, it started sprinkling and we realized how hungry we were so we figured it was a good time to pack up and leave.

Me & the boys because Gabby was sick and stayed home

Something that still surprises me about Ghana is people’s attitudes toward trash / littering. As we left the beach, Gavin threw his gum in the trash can and he had a man come up to him and say, “Just throw it on the ground. You’re in Africa.” Something similar happened a few days ago when Gabby put a piece of trash in her backpack and someone literally took the trash out and threw it on the ground, saying something like “That’s where the trash goes.” The Oregonian in me winces every time I see something like that happen. To clean up the mess, people simply sweep it all up into a pile and then burn it. With a habit that’s so ingrained into the culture, I can’t help but wonder what it would take to change. For starters, there could be more trash cans around. I’ve only seen a couple since getting here.

We took a taxi back to Achimota and split up to get food. I’d told some of the guys about the restaurant I went to last night (Cabo Corso) and they wanted to give it a try, so naturally I had no choice but to go with them. I bought a huge mango along the way and it was heavenly. Then at Cabo Corso I ordered a chicken sandwich too. Thank you CC for another great meal :’)

Movie night in mega bed

I was still covered in sand and wearing my swimsuit when I got back to the hotel, so I took an amazing (aren’t they all) shower and got my PJs on. Then we had a movie night and pushed the beds together in Bryan and Kaden’s room to watch Crazy Rich Asians. Such a good movie. I actually watched it on the plane ride here, but I was more than happy to watch it again. Afterwards, Gabby and I started packing up our stuff because tomorrow we leave Accra! For the next three weeks, we’ll be with Friends Eye Clinic which services the northern part of Ghana.