Week 5: Accra
Sunday, June 2nd:
For all my talk about being spared from sickness in Tamale,
it finally happened last night. I went to bed at 2:30 and woke up an hour
later. I laid there and tried to figure out what had woken me up when I slowly
realized how nauseous I was. I went to the bathroom and “runny tummy” took
over. The nausea persisted and I suddenly realized I had about three seconds to
switch which end was on the toilet before I threw up. After an hour or so, my body decided that was enough for now and I went
back to sleep. I had 45 minutes before I had to wake up because the driver was
going to arrive at 5:30 to take us to the airport. What a night.
I was very grateful the nausea didn’t continue in full force
once I woke up and I didn’t eat any breakfast to make sure it didn’t get worse.
Christian and I said our goodbyes to Foster and we checked our bags. The Tamale
airport is easily the smallest airport I’ve ever been in. There was one gate
(that I could see at least) where people could wait for their flights. We had a
nice little walk to the plane and when we boarded, we were greeted with the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir playing on the speakers. Love it.
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| The walk to our plane |
Christian fell asleep and started snoring almost
immediately. He only woke up for the beverage cart, and good thing too because
they also had sandwiches (even though it was less than an hour-long flight)! I
had a turkey sandwich and milo so I was very happy. When we arrived in Accra,
Christian and I had to wait outside for two hours while we waited for the
driver. Luckily it’s a bit cooler in Accra than Tamale so I wasn’t sweating
toooo much.
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| My lovely lunch |
When we got to the hotel, the rest of the group was at
church but there were four new volunteers who had just arrived the day before!
I was in the process of introducing myself when Francis told me I was going to
be taken to a nearby hotel because they didn’t have room for me ☹They
dropped me off and suddenly I was alone in the room, sitting on the bed and watching
a telenovela. There was no wifi so I couldn’t contact anyone, and I realized I
would be very bored for the rest of the day. Suddenly, Francis walked in and
said he’d been sent to bring me back. Apparently the group had found out I’d
been sent to a different hotel and they weren’t having it. I was touched <3
I had a lot of fun talking to one of the new volunteers
named Sage. She’s doing her masters in social work and sustainable development
at Columbia and she is seriously so inspiring! She’s done work in Africa
(Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda) before and it was so fun to talk to her about her
travels. Her and I decided to go to Cabo Corso because I’d been dreaming about
it the whole time I was in Tamale. CC is the place that has a burger, fries,
and a drink for 12 cedis. My chicken sandwich was everything I’d dreamed it
would be and more. Then of course on the way back, I had no choice but to show
Sage the beauty of FanIce so we had to stop and get some.
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| Random pic, but I am continuously impressed at the size / weight of the things people can carry on their heads |
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| On the walk to CC |
When we got back to the hotel, the boys were having a “gamer
night” (apparently this became a thing while I was gone) in the lobby. There
was ice cream, soda, and of course, video games. I was roped into playing a
couple rounds and I filled the last place slot nicely. It was only 9:00, but it
suddenly hit me how exhausted I was. I guess an hour of sleep the night before
will do that to you. I went upstairs and took a shower and spent maybe an hour
washing almost all of my clothes. I’d gotten lazy in Tamale and had hardly
washed anything because my shower produced only a single very powerful stream
of water to wash in. It was like trying to bathe with a power washer. It felt
so good to finally lay down, especially because the mattresses here are
significantly better than what I’ve had for the past three weeks. Feels good to
be back.
Monday, June 3rd:
Oh my goodness. I forgot that the hotel provides breakfast
in the morning and that was the best thing to wake up to. I had a boflot
(FINALLY. I’ve been craving one for weeks) and some bean nuggets. I have no
idea what they’re called. They look like chicken nuggets (and almost taste like
them too), but they’re made out of beans. I also had coco, a soupy
porridge-esque concoction that calls for a generous amount of ginger. Sadly,
the other volunteers left for the north this morning (they’re our replacements)
so I don’t think they got to partake of the bounty.
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| Sweet Gabby bearing gifts from her run |
The van came for us at 8:30 and it was only an hour or so
drive to the outreach. I was so surprised when I realized my surroundings were
familiar and that we were pulling into Teshie, the first outreach area I went
to! I remembered the staff saying they made sure to go to each village once a
month or so, so I guess it makes sense that we’d be back here, but it was so
fun to be back. I remembered a couple of the kids and it was fun catching up
with them.
I was posted at the visual acuity station with two other
volunteers, Dallin and Andrew. This was the first time we’d been put at the same
clinic, so it was fun working with them and getting to know them a little
better. There was a fairly constant stream of patients from 10:00 to 5:00. I
don’t know the official count yet, but the number is somewhere around 300.
Wowza. Definitely a change of pace from the north where the most we saw was
120.
Highlights:
-
There was a lady nearby selling huge mangos for
three cedis so naturally I had to buy one. It did not disappoint.
-
During a lull in the patients, a nearby school
got out and a few of the more curious / brave kids came over to say hi. We
played some football with them, but that was very tiring in the hot sun so we
needed to come up with a more calming activity. I decided to teach them some
yoga and it was both hilarious and adorable to watch them all copy my sun
salutations.
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People here speak a significantly higher amount
of English so visual acuity was a piece of cake.
-
After the sun set, a group gathered on the side
we weren’t using anymore and conducted their (church?) choir practice. Their
harmonies were on POINT and I loved listening to them.
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| Playing football |
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| My yoga students |
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| Selfie with Bismark, our driver |
We finally finished up at 8:00 and I felt toasted by the end. I passed out in the car ride back and came straight up to my room when we got home. I was still really full from the late lunch they provided us so I decided I didn’t need dinner / socializing time and just got ready for bed.
Tuesday, June 4th:
Sleep works wonders. I woke up ready for the day. We had some
cereal and toast before all piling into the van for another outreach. We’d been
driving for about five minutes when the driver got a call. Apparently, today
was actually a surgery day at the clinic and they wanted us there to sign off
on surgeries. So we drove back home and found out we wouldn’t be picked up for
another three hours. We decided to walk to a nearby internet café and invest some
time and money into our homework. It’s good to hear I’m not the only one that
has a lot left to do.
I’ve decided I love internet cafes. Wifi for two devices for
two hours cost 10 cedis! How can I say no to that?? The connection was the
fastest I’ve experienced yet, so in addition to homework, I also downloaded a
ton of songs, podcasts, and movies for those long drives to the outreaches. When
our time ran out, we went and found some food. Even though it wasn’t super hot,
it was SO humid. I felt like breathing water and every part of me was slightly
damp. Then it started raining and was actually damp.
The three other volunteers and I took turns watching surgeries
and signing off on them in behalf of Unite for Sight. Dr. James Clark is the
head ophthalmologist here at Crystal Eye Clinic and he is legendary. He was
pumping out cataract surgeries in less than 10 minutes apiece. I was in awe. I
had just asked him how old the youngest person that he’d performed cataract
surgery on was when the nurse carried in a screaming baby. Dr. Clark had just
told me the youngest he’d done was nine months old, and this baby was eight
months old. When they’re that young, they’re put to sleep instead of trying to
do local anesthesia. Seeing this limp little boy on the table was kind of hard
but also incredibly exciting because he was going to get his congenital
cataract removed.
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| Joel, the little 8 month old |
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| Patients waiting for surgery |
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| Cleaning the tools before the next surgery |
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| Gabby watches on as Dr. Clark removes a cataract |
We finished up surgeries a little before 7:00. We piled in a
very small taxi and endured the ever-stressful driving. Tonight’s traffic was
especially bad for some reason and there was a near miss about once every 10
seconds. I was practically holding my breath the whole time. Gabby and I were
both craving a mango when we got home, so we went to our favorite fruit stand
lady and bought five of them (three for us and two to share with everyone
else). We sat on our beds and happily inhaled a whole mango each. Life is good.
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| Gonna miss this so much |
Wednesday, June 5th:
Today was a national holiday, Eid ul-Fitr (the end of the
fasting month of Ramadan), so there was no outreach today. This is one of the
last free days we’ll have in Ghana, so we made sure to take advantage of it.
Gabby, Gavin and I decided to go to the botanical gardens in Legon where they
have a high ropes course. I’ve done a fair amount of ropes courses over the
years, so I was really excited to do one in Ghana. It wasn’t until we got there
and I saw signs saying you needed close-toed shoes that I realized I was
wearing my Chaco’s. I decided to try anyways and surprise surprise, they didn’t
notice / care that I was wearing sandals.
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| The course |
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| Cute selfie before we got very sweaty |
They gave us each a harness to put on and suddenly they were
telling us to go ahead and start. No long safety talk? No helmet? No gloves? No
telling us how to work the device that connects us to the rope? Simultaneously
nice and slightly concerning. It was about $12 to do all four courses and I was
pumped. The first two were pretty easy, but by the third I was breathing
heavier and the sun was steadily getting hotter. About halfway through the
fourth, there was a moment where I seriously didn’t know if I could finish.
Like I started brainstorming the possible ways they would rescue me. Sandals
were definitely not ideal, I had several rope burns from falling and trying to
pull myself up again, and a couple blisters had already formed and ripped open.
My legs and arms were both shaking which is especially hilarious because I
think Gabby and Gavin were fine. I know I’ve talked about being sweaty before,
but I can say without a doubt that today was the sweatiest I’ve ever been. I
didn’t have any sweat stains because my entire shirt was damp. I wish I was
exaggerating. It’s safe to say that this rope course pushed me to my limits.
Gabby left to go visit a school she’d been in contact with
and Gavin and I hailed a taxi to get back home. Our taxi driver was a man named
Michael. Michael seemed like a great person. Except for the fact that for the
duration of the entire 40-minute car ride, he played the same song over. And
over. And over again. It was the taxi ride from hell. I knew every word by the
end even though I didn’t know what language it was in. When he finally dropped
us off at the mall, I was so happy to escape that taxi I just about cried.
We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed back to the
hotel. I made conversation with some of the hotel guests / staff and awkwardly
swerved the “asking for my number” situation several times. It is so funny to
me how forward everyone is here. In the words of Gavin, “they have literally
nothing to lose”. Fair enough I guess. We spent the rest of the evening watching
random movies on the limited channels available to us. We watched one about
aliens saving us from a nuclear explosion and one about fighting crime from the
future. Good times.
Thursday, June 6th:
Gabby came back from her run this morning with a bag full of
boflot for me. I cannot explain how touched I was. It’s a food they mostly sell
in the morning and I couldn’t find it in the north, so I have three weeks of
cravings to catch up on. This was an excellent start.
We began the very long drive to today’s outreach. About
halfway in, we made the mistake of talking about the various foods we miss:
Panda Express, frozen hot chocolate (I had to educate them all and what that
is), hummus, blizzards, sweet potato fries, chocolate, Texas Roadhouse, etc. We
had an hour and a half long fantasy feast and by the end I was reallyyy missing
home. I coped with the things I was feeling by making a list of everything I’m
gonna eat when I get back home. That helped.
The outreach today went pretty fast because we had three
people doing visual acuity testing; we got through 150 patients before 3:00! By
this point I was suuuper hungry because I still hadn’t had lunch, so we all
went out to get food. The place we went to only had banku and fufu, so I had
some banku with light soup and fish. Banku is almost the same as fufu except
that it’s fermented. I was able to get through about half of mine before I was
too full. Not like actually full, but just not hungry enough to eat more banku.
Then while eating the fish, I found some very small, hard balls in my mouth.
When I asked one of the staff what it was, they said it was the eggs? Seems
fake but okay. I didn’t eat any more fish after that.
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| Dallin testing visual acuity |
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| Evidence of how we spent our car ride |
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| Just look at the thickness of these slices |
Friday, June 7th:
We were blessed with a shorter drive today, and it was to another
outreach that I’ve been to before! The last time we’d been there, the village
hadn’t had electricity for two days and it was super hot. Today, however, it
had rained all morning so it was relatively cool. Maybe it was the weather or
the fact that they had electricity, but everyone was in such a good mood! Many
people came up to us and hugged us and spoke to us in Twi.
At the beginning of
every outreach when one of the staff members is explaining to the group what
they’ll be doing and such, they have us (the volunteers) go up to the front and
introduce ourselves. I’ve learned that when I introduce myself in my Ghanaian
name, Ama, they all cheer and clap. Depending on the day you were born, you
have a corresponding name. Since I was a girl born on a Saturday, my name is
Ama. If you are a guy born on a Wednesday, your name is Kwaku, etc etc. Everyone
cannot pronounce / quickly forgets my name if I say Natalie, but I love how
much they remember me if I go by Ama đ I had one woman come up at the end and tell
me she is also Ama and she offered to sew me a dress! I might capitalize on
that.
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| Found some friends |
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| A very typical vendor setup |
Screening went by pretty fast today and we were done by
4:00. They gave us banku for lunch after, but I decided to just buy a couple boflot
from a woman nearby instead and I have no regrets about that decision. When we
got back to the hotel, a couple of the guys and I did some shopping for soccer
jerseys.
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| A very informative sign in the washroom |
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| The banku and fish |
Kaden was teaching Jaden how to make stew for dinner tonight,
so I helped out in the kitchen a bit. It was great fun navigating the gas stove
that spewed a single (very large) flame and chopping things up in the very dim light.
We also fried up some plantains and cassava which were bomb! The fried cassava was
especially god because it tasted pretty similar to a French fry. The whole
group came together for the family dinner and it was nice to eat all together.
Bryan also brought to the table several mangos and even found some donuts! They
looked remarkably similar to ones at home but definitely weren’t as sweet. Still
great though.
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| Kaden at the stove |
While the boys played video games, I got wrapped into a
conversation with two of the hotel staff. One was convincing me that we could
make long distance work and I gave every excuse in the book. The conversation
finally drifted away from that and we compared dating in the U.S. to dating in
Ghana. I knew there were differences, but I was shocked.
Some highlights
(lowlights):
-
If you are dating, it’s the man’s job to provide
for a ton of stuff, like her hair appts, food, new phone, etc.
-
Once married, it is the woman’s job is to make
the man feel like a king. She should be “submissive” to him.
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Bank accounts are to always stay separate, even
after you’re married. The woman should be very frugal with any money that her
husband gives her.
-
As tests of loyalty, the dude will call from a
different number (or have a friend call) and ask her out to see what she’ll
say. Apparently tests like these should be performed every couple months or so.
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It’s less bad for the man to cheat than the woman
(direct quote)
Needless to say, it was quite the conversation. We talked
until 11:30 before I realized how tired I was and that I needed to go to bed.
My mind is still racing at the blatant inequality between husband and wife and
I’ve never been so grateful that I grew up in a place where equality is valued.
Saturday, June 8th:
Day off today! The day started out on a wonderful note when one of the other hotel guests made some crepes and offered us the leftovers. We were resourceful and used some old ice cream in the fridge to make ourselves some gourmet crepes. It was as good as it sounds.
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| Devouring dessert for breakfast |
After a series of plans falling through, we
ended up at the nearby internet café and spent a couple hours doing homework.
It was super muggy in the room because the AC was broken, so soon I broke down
and left the café. On the walk back, Gabby and I saw a little store that was
telling tons of dresses. I wandered in, just planning to look around a little
bit, and I left with four dresses and Gabby left with two. I still don’t know
how it happened.
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| One of the dresses I bought! |
We went to the mall for lunch and met up with the rest of
the group at CC. I went all out and ordered the double-double. And THEN. We
went to a frozen yogurt place. They only had two flavors and it was super
expensive, but I ordered the chocolate hazelnut with Oreo bits on it and it was
such a good decision. That will curb my blizzard craving just long enough until
I get home.
Back at the hotel, I watched some of the shows I’d
downloaded while at the internet café and Gabby took a little nap. When she
woke up, she was hungry again, so we ventured out to find some Indomie (instant
noodles). There’s a lady I really like going to for Indomie and egg sandwiches,
so we paid her a visit. We were eaten alive by mosquitos while waiting for her
food so I was very grateful that 1.) I’d taken my malaria pill that day and 2.)
I was wearing long pants so all they could bite were my feet and ankles.
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| Seated at our favorite chop bar |
Gabby spent a long time talking and bonding and such and I
realized how much I’m going to miss her when this trip is over. She’s applied
to BYU and will find out at the end of the month if she got in, so here’s to
hoping she’ll be there in the fall!
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