A fine mess of contradictions

Jesus is my seatbelt...

Holy crap. The internet in Kumasi, how do you say, SUCKS. It takes an hour to open up one email and its making me insane. Luckily I only get the chance to use it once a week, haha. Well life in Ghana is wild as usual.

I wrote a blog update earlier this week but the computer crashed and it was all lost. Things have been really busy! I have now been in Kumasi for exactly a week, and I actually like it a lot better than Accra. It is very green, and full of lots of lizards and beautiful plants and its actually cooler- if thats possible at 40 degrees in the shade. My homestay is really cute- at first I was a little freaked out because it was so different, but my room is nice and fairly cool, and the kids are all super nice. There are 5 kids in the family, some of whom are away at school or in and out of the house. The house has power sometimes, and rarely any running water. We get our water from a well outside. I feel like I'm in Little House on the Prairie, but the water seems clean and is great for some classy bucket showers. The Opoku's are also all super religious. If I hadn't had a fairly strict Roman Catholic upbringing their zeal for God would probably terrify me, but I'm dealing fairly well.

I went to church for 3.5 hours last weekend! A guy named Lord, I kid you not, was translating the Twi mass for me. It was a lot of people shouting to themselves for a while, but then they read the bible and it was nice and cool in there so I didn't mind sitting and listening to scriptures in another language! My host mother Agnes is amazing. She is so sweet and concerned about me, and even made me a salad! I got kind of sick this past week and she brought me oatmeal in bed, haha.

My work with the African Hope Foundation of Ghana is going really well. This past week I had quite the orientation. My first day I got to sit in with one of the nurses while she did HIV tests on pregnant mothers. They have a strip here that can give you results within 5 minutes. They prick the patient's finger, get some blood on this strip, put some drops for a chemical reaction, and then call the person back in. I was so freaked out- I've never been happier to hear the word "negative" before! I sat in with her for about a half an hour and none of the pregnant woman tested were positive. I was literally watching a moment that could have altered their lives and those of their children forever. I am learning a lot about HIV/AIDS. We helped take the vitals of patients waiting to see the one doctor at this HIV clinic- the patients then wait all day until she comes in later in the afternoon. We saw patients that looked completely normal, and then some who were wearing sweaters in the heat and were so thin. A CD4 count is the level of someone's immune system basically- I'm not in science so I'm stating what I know and am aware it is very amateur. A normal person has a CD4 count in the thousands so I'm told- patients go on ART (antiretroviral treatments) when their CD4 count drops below 300. Some people who came in had ones as low as 8- Gill saw one with a count of 3. I don't know how they are still alive. One ten year-old girl came into the clinic and it was just beyond my grasp, that someone so young is battling something so scary. It is quite the amazing clinic.

I also get to teach at two different schools for vulnerable girls- they really want to learn more English and sex education so I'm going to do my best. Many of them have had parents who have died of AIDS or are at risk for behaviour that could lead to their infection. Wednesday was one of my favourite days this week. We went to the area of commercial sex workers to give a presentation on HIV/AIDS. The women live in small blue dorm style rooms with curtains so their customers merely need to stroll through. Think, red light district of Kumasi. There were kids running around and it seemed to be pretty cramped. The women were so nice though, offering us food and coming out to say hello to Agnes. We did a presentation on how you contract HIV, how you can prevent it, and how you do not spread the disease. We also demonstrated how to use condoms on a lovely wooden penis that always get a few laughs. They all knew to use condoms, but many had no idea about a lot of ways to become infected or may have had sex with many men without one. The women all wanted condoms, and we barely had enough for them. NOTE: if someone can get in touch with Western they always gave out free condoms, maybe they would be interested in donating some? We also take women to the hospital to be tested for HIV or if they are sick or think they may already have it. One woman had just had a baby and found out that day she was negative, even though if she'd known earlier she could have tried to prevent mother to child transmission...things work very very differently here. We also did a presentation to the men in the area, and so many started to crowd around us- so many questions that they had no answers to. It actually felt great to clarify the fears of so many people.

This is getting long, but I'm almost done- so much has happened! This past weekend we went to Mole National Park. It took 8 hours of driving on a very bumpy dirt road, but the organization organized a driver for us so we didn't have to take the public bus and it was not exactly cheap so we won't be doing that again! The Mole Motel where we stayed was cute- it overlooked a watering hole where all the elephants came to bathe and drink. It took about 3 hours to get your food though at any meal, and they usually got it wrong, but it had its perks I suppose! We did a few walking safaris and saw baboons, warthogs, bush bucks, birds, and tons of elephants! They were so majestic and beatiful. It was a really cool opportunity. Well thats all for now, who knows when I will write next.


Oh and Jesus is my seatbelt is because of Kersten my supervisor. To explain Ghana's roads in one phrase- she asked a taxi driver if there was a seatbelt and he responded "Jesus is your seatbelt". It's less than safe on these roads!

But I miss all you guys, and hope things are good at home. I can read most emails if I can open them but responding takes sooo long!

You can also call/text my cell at (233) 024924 5944 and hopefully I can get it, reception is not great.

Lots of love and wish my tummy a better week!

posted by Kate @ 9:36 AM