Mosquitos Don't Need A Visa to Enter Ghana
This is an actual headline from a newspaper here in Ghana. Well they finally got me. That's right, I have malaria. I thought I might get away without any serious illness here, but a part of me knew I wouldn't escape without something. "It's your welcome gift to Ghana," said the doctor at the hospital. I've been here for almost two months, I wanted to yell! But yes, malaria was actually quite worse than I thought so I guess I just didn't catch it early on. I felt weird for a while, but I mean everyone feels weird with the heat and the sun and how can you tell if you have a temperature if you're constantly sweating?
So last Thursday I started to get a really massive headache. I thought I was just tired because we had been out for Femke's goodbye party and a bunch of the volunteers had some drinks (though I only had a little) and so I just figured that I was tired. The headache didn't go away all day no matter how much I drank and that night was lights out so I just went to bed early hoping it would go away. I was supposed to meet my Dad in Accra on Sunday and go to Kokrobite a beach near Accra on Friday night for the night to say goodbye to some of the volunteers that were in Swedro. But, I woke up Friday morning and I was in really bad shape. I think I can honestly say that I had to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes for about 4 hours. I know, I'm so graphic but it was a serious problem. My host sister was also home from school because she was sick, so Agnes my host mother decided to take us both to the hospital. I was in no shape to be in public but she wanted to get us both there. I told her that I really couldn't walk the twenty minutes to the hospital, so she flagged down the neighbours and told them to hurry us to the hospital because her daughters were sick and that I had only 5 minutes before I would need a bathroom again. It was so funny because both of the men in the front just looked at me and everyone started laughing and Agnes managed to make my horrible illness into something hilarious.
At the hospital Agnes just marches to the front of the line and announces that her daughters are sick- this woman is so great I can't even describe how much I love her. I'm just trying not to throw up in public and I manage to get in to see a doctor fairly quickly because I work at this clinic and know the doctors. He says of course, you have malaria, but I insisted on a blood test in case it was something else. They give malaria drugs for everything so you really have to make sure you don't have typhoid or some other random disease. So I get a blood test and wait in the sun for about an hour and just deteriorate to the point where I'm this sweaty mess and I can't stand and Agnes offers to carry me, but I just collapse on a bench and lie there trying not to be ill for another hour waiting for the guy who does the lab results to come back from lunch. Agnes was amazing- she was running around trying to get me a bed- I really just needed to lie down anywhere. People were walking past the half conscious obruni and just staring at me. I put my face down on this dirty hospital bench and couldn't have cared less. I couldn't even climb the stairs to get to the staff bathrooms. I was dizzy and tingly and I couldn't drink water because it hurt so badly when it went down. I ended up waiting at the hospital for about 3 hours which is not a fun place to be when the world is spinning but frankly I didn't really care. Anyways, so the results came back with parasites present - clearly- and the doctor gave me 13 pills. I wanted to die from all the pills- still not even sure what I was taking but after 3 days in bed barely moving I felt a lot better! I read 4 books, so it was nice that I got to finish everything so I could give it away before I left.
Agnes brought me food in bed that I couldn't eat and kept checking on me- she kept saying she didn't want her daughter to be sick. She is the best Ghanaian mother I could have ever asked for. Some of the other volunteers came to visit, and I was surprised at how long it took me to feel better. Derek the other Canadian got malaria on the same day so he didn't make it to the beach either- I guess that's the way it goes in Ghana. You can't leave without getting it, says everyone I talked to. But I feel a bit better now. I still feel really weird and have had a headache for the past few days so I'm kind of worried that I still have it. Buttt I'm leaving Ghana tonight so hopefully I don't get sick again in Italy or I will have to brave Italian hospitals and potentially a much greater lack of knowledge on malaria! (I'm just praying I dont get it again before I leave or I'll get sick in Canada). I was actually surprised at how sick it made me because Gill seemed to be okay for most of it. (You're one lucky duck Gill!Oh and James came in and shook my head around praying for Jesus to take the poison out of me so I can imagine how you felt when he said it was God's will that you were throwing up in a bucket. Hahah oh my preacher host father.)
So the past week has been fun and tiring because I still feel like crap. My dad came in on Sunday and made it to Kumasi on his own (he hired a car for the week because otherwise with the bus system here we might never see anything) and he stayed with my family. It kind of sucked for him because there was no running water and the power was out and I was sick, but by Monday I felt well enough to show him around. I took him to the AIDS clinic and then we went to the Kente village and got lost trying to find the Bobiri butterfly sanctuary in the rain. Then Tuesday I took him to see the kids at Feyiase for my final day and we had an exhausting and fun day with all the girls. We went to the lake in the afternoon for some relaxation and Saskia came along. Wednesday we headed out to Ellis Hideout this amazing isolated beach area. We stayed in these huts along the water and my dad couldn't believe how beautiful it was- he kept saying it was like "The Beach" the movie. It was really gorgeous- maybe a little nicer than Green Turtle- and we relaxed there for a day and a bit. He took a canoe ride in the village but I wasn't feeling well enough. Also, I met all of the Swedes there! The friends I had made in Cape Coast were the only other guests at the "resort" and so we all hung out and I got to spend some time with them before I left. It was so random that they were all there! From there me and my dad headed to Cape Coast and went to Elmina Castle. It was similar to Cape Coast but really beautiful in a strange way that a place is when it was used to capture thousands of people and send them to their deaths in the Atlantic. It was a good tour though and I'm glad my dad got to see some of the history of Ghana. We also went to Kakum National Park and got to do the canopy walk and hike around in the rainforest which he really liked. I felt horrible yesterday but we made it to see all of the Africana Dance Team perform in Accra. They are the most amazing dancers ever so I really wanted to show my dad some real dancing here. We went out for drinks with some of the guys last night to say bye. I made my dad stay at the Volunteer Abroad house to make sure I could see everyone before I left and luckily a lot of the volunteers came down for the weekend so it was nice to get the chance to say bye. I have forced my dad to stay in places with no water and no power the whole time so he definitely got the real Ghanaian experience. (Yup, the house here has no water and of course the power was out all yesterday)
Wow, I summarized a lot really quickly sorry it's so jumbled, I feel like I haven't been online in a while. So from here I am spending 4 days in Italy before I head back to Canada for Easter. I am meeting my mom in Milan and then we are going to Lake Como for a few days. It is going to be the weirdest culture shock of life and I only have African clothes and camping outfits here so I'm going to be the weirdest looking person there. I just can't imagine what it will be like to go to the fashion capital of the world after being here in West Africa. I love it here so much. I thought maybe if I got really sick it would make me ready to leave. But it hasn't. I still love it, I love the people, I love my friends, and I just love what I'm doing here. I really want to work in the HIV/AIDS area in Canada and hopefully I can still contribute to AHFOG when I go home. I did get my dad to bring a digital camer a for Agnes (so don't worry about trying to mail one Gill) and a jump drive and a donation for the organization because it just does so many amazing things. I will definitely come back here to visit and I'm not ready for my journey to end. But, I can't wait to see everyone at home and just to warn all of you I'm going to be culture shocking all over the place. I hope everyone is doing well at home and I'll see you soon.
Bless the rains down in Africa
"The rain is a blessing," said the taxi driver. Well to us it was like the apocalypse. It started on Thursday night at around 11 and I thought the whole house was going to come down. There was lightning that lit up my room every other second, thunder shaking the bed frame and rain so intense I was sure the room was leaking. It was my first rainfall here in Africa and it definitely wasn't my last!
Derek (a new Canadian volunteer), Saskia(the Dutch girl) and myself decided to meet some other volunteers at Green Turtle lodge this past weekend so everyone slept over at my house so we could take the 4am bus out to Takoradi together. The rain of course started that night. Luckily it let up enough so we could walk up to catch a taxi at 3 in the morning to get to the bus station, but then the second we stepped off the bus in Takoradi the sky darkened again. Me, being the eternal pessimist said, um so it looks like it's going to rain. Derek thought otherwise and a second later this torrential downpour started. We were trying to get a tro tro out to Green Turtle because it would be way cheaper but when this intense storm started we decided to catch a cab for part of the way. The taxi ride was hilarious. The roof above me leaked so every time we took a sharp turn rain poured down on me so it looked like I wet myself. The driver was blasting music but his connection kept going out so it would go really loud and then turn off completely and you couldn't see a thing out the front window! We actually managed to get half price on this insane water-logged drive and arrived at our beach paradise soaking wet. We changed, got some Star beers and decided what the hell, lets enjoy ourselves and played Monopoly, haha. Then we decided that swimming in the rain wouldn't be so bad, so we ventured out into the truly amazing water. It was warm and gorgeous despite the rain. Then a huge fork of lightning hit the water and I decided it was probably best to retreat! The other girls arrived and we had a great dinner of curry and chip(it's owned by Brits clearly).
The next day was gorgeous. We had french toast with honey (Gill it was so good!) and then spent the day going on a canoe ride through mangroves and chilling out on the spectacular and isolated beach. We even had guacamole and plantain chips and oh, wow, was it great. That night we celebrated St. Patty's with some other backpackers and drank some of the green cocktails they had. It wasn't an insane party, but it was relaxing and a little piece of paradise. Our way back on Sunday sucked because the bus was delayed three hours but we did have a hilarious tro tro ride where the mate sat on the top of the van! We could see the roof creaking under his weight and were sure we were going to end up sitting in a pile of scrap metal any minute now when all the nuts and bolts gave way. It was hot as hell in there but so funny especially because he had an "I love Jesus" hat on. At the bus station we met a Ghanaian who overheard me and Derek talking about Canada, and he interrupted us to tell us he had studied in Moosejaw Saskatchewan! It was so funny because he asked us a million questions on how Canada was different now and we didn't know any of the answers. He was there 30 years ago and he knew more about it than us. He was so nice though, it was fun to talk to someone who travelled to Canada, not too many Ghanaians have!
This week has been busy. On Monday, Femke and I gave all the HIV/AIDS clinic patients juice and cookies to say thank you for our last day. My last day is next week but it was easier to do it together. I think they really appreciated it and everyone was so nice. I just feel bad that we can't do more for them when they have to wait all day in the heat to be seen by the doctor. Yesterday at the Feyiase school I had a very weird day. It was boiling and almost none of the kids showed up (only the really insane ones of course) because their teacher has stopped showing up for school and they had no rice. So no rice= no lunch= no children at school. I taught the remaining kids how to write the alphabet but then they continued to beat the crap out of each other in-between songs and "learning". I'm not giving up though, I actually got them to sit down and colour for a bit! Agnes came later to try to fix the situation and the kids were insulting each other in front of her. She started yelling at them and I couldn't figure out what they had said to each other. She told me they were insulting each other's mothers vaginas! hahahah that's what they were saying Gill! We could never figure out what made the kids so angry with each other, but I guess "yo mama" jokes are international. I could not stop laughing so of course Agnes started to think it was funny too and we just ended up giggling over these wild children. I think I'm going to buy the school a big bag of rice before I leave- at least then the kids might show up !
On Monday after work I went to a funeral party. It was the one week celebration after Chief, our neighbour's father died. So I went over in my blackest outfit (consisting of some hideous clothes from the market) and we danced and met the family. It was so weird to dance when someone dies but I really liked it. I danced with this really cute old woman. It makes the whole thing into a huge party instead of something horribly depressing. Then me and my host brother and some of his friends took the neighbour out to a local spot for a drink. It was a really fun night actually- celebrating someones death.
I feel like so much has happened but I just don't have time to tell all of it. I'm really not ready to come home yet. I think it will be really strange and potentially very stressful. I don't know if I could live here forever but there are a lot of things I will miss. The fact that you can buy toilet paper from someone while you're driving, that you say hi to everyone everywhere, and that I just saw a taxi full of goats on my way here are just the most hilarious and amazing things to me. My dad is coming to visit this Sunday so I'm excited to show him around. It will be a culture shock for him too I'm sure, but it will be great for him to meet everyone. I miss all of you and I'll be home just before Easter.
Lots of love,
Kate
Random at best
Well, this has been the first time I could get to a fast enough internet connection to blog in a while so I'm going to try to remember everything I was going to say. I have been pretty busy since Gill left- Agnes has so much for me to do, I've been working about twelve hour days! Last week after I took the bus back to Kumasi (by myself, go Kate!) I was exhausted but decided to join Femke for this performance. The group was from Cape Verde (small islands off Africa) and it was performance art. Femke and I just stood there not really understanding anything- there was yelling and jumping and shrieking. It was actually quite terrifying, but then there was some nicer dancing. Still, very weird. Me and Femke have been going out and doing things a lot at night, which is nice but also exhausting because this place just drains your energy so you need to sleep a lot!
I think it's getting hotter every day. Last week I went to PLWHA meetings with Agnes for about eight hours straight. PLWHA's (said plowas) are people living with HIV/AIDS. I feel like every time I do something with her, it turns out there are a million more projects she works on. Agnes is amazing and basically never sleeps whereas I go to bed at 8:30 every night because I'm so exhausted! So the PLWHA meeting last week was about 3 hours in the morning and it was a meeting of NGO's and PLWHA's so as not to stigmatize individuals who had the disease. It was all in Twi though and very hot so I kind of spaced out. What I did get from it though was that they are trying to do some census on how PLWHA's and their families are living and how close they are to clinics. Right now there are only twenty HIV/AIDS clinics in all of Ghana (I think -I was getting translation but only randomly). So they are trying to figure out how to get clinics closer to people and to make sure that their children aren't starving because they can't work or that they aren't being turned out of their homes. It is hard though because you can't even go into a neighbourhood without stigmatizing somebody if you are an HIV/AIDS worker so they are trying to make the census broader so that people won't assume it's only for those infected. Stigmatization is one of the biggest problems in regards to HIV/AIDS awareness here. Some people won't go to a clinic near their house because then people might find out they are sick, so they travel very far away.
From there Agnes had to go to the bank to take out some money for the NGO. There was a huge lineup at the Ghanaian bank and I was the only obruni there and Agnes was in a rush so she left me to take out a few million cedis alone! I was like, um, I'm sorry can I do this? I have no clue what its for, I'm not a signatory on the accounts and I don't speak any Twi. Plus everyone in the bank now knows how much I'm taking out and is staring at me. Louisa my host sister was left with me, but she never translates what the hell is going on so I just stood there thinking, huh? The lineup was over an hour and half, and I really wanted to just leave because I figured we could just get it later. People were yelling and budding the line and I couldn't figure out how their banking system was even working. Then some random guy I've never seen in my life ,who doesn't speak English or work for the organization, came up and stood near me with the same money order. I was like, um who are you? Did you find this cheque on the ground? Are you a total weirdo who is going to rob me? So I called Louisa over and she didn't clarify anything, and I couldn't get in touch with Agnes, so I just stood there and wondered what was happening. My life here consists of not understanding pretty much anything. Finally I got the money, ran to the office out of fear of being mugged by everyone at the bank who just saw me take out all the money and threw it at Agnes. Turns out- it was anti-retroviral treatment money for the PLWHA meeting we were having! It made so much more sense, but of course no one tells me anything. And the guy was sent by Agnes to take out more for the group- ohhhhhh he was a PLWHA. If only someone had just SAID THAT then I wouldn't have been so freaking confusedddd. Agnes gives out food and ART drug money each month for everyone that comes to the meeting. Once again it was all in Twi so it was long and hot.
There was a woman at the meeting who freaked out right in the middle. She had a young son with her so I couldn't really figure out what was going on. Agnes told me after that she hadn't know what the meeting was for. She was his stepmother and the boy's father was away so he told her to take the boy. She only knew he was sick, she didn't know he had HIV. He was ten years old and so smart, and I think it probably scared his stepmother because the boy's real mother had died- presumably from AIDS, so she probably figured she could also have gotten it from the father. I hate not speaking enough Twi because so much happens around me, and so many people have these life-changing experiences and I can't help them as much as I want because I can't tell them I'm sorry or that they will be alright. But the boy was amazing. He waited for his stepmother to finish counselling and he told me he wanted to be a doctor. Mike said he used to be very thin but he was looking much better. Then we played thumb wars and soccer with a piece of garbage, and it quite honestly made my day. Whenever I get frustrated something small like having fun with a little kid makes up for it. You just have to try not to think about the fact that this boy was already on ART so he probably had a low CD4 count and he was only ten years old- he may never make it to being a doctor. But you must keep hopes high and think that if he's this smart and this healthy he might be okay.
The next day was another super long day. In the morning I went to the hospital and then me and Femke met Agnes to go visit some sex workers. We went to a hotel this time that is known for the women that frequent hotels and bars for foreign men. We gave a talk to two girls and their guy friend (pretty sure he was a pimp), and they were so nice. One of them was absolutely gorgeous and she spoke english very well. The girls were sisters who had come from another region and only told their parents they were working in Kumasi. They had a nice television and speakers and cell phones, but they did live in a crappy room in a hotel. They can make so much money- one girl told me she can have up to ten partners a night . That is a lot of money for a young girl when most people can make under a dollar a day here. The only place to sit in their room was on the bed- you should have seen me and Femke hesitate when they offered. We laughed about it afterwards- lets just say you should really hesitate before sitting on a sex workers bed, but I'm sure we'll be fine. The girls asked us a lot of questions and even invited us out to Vienna City- a club in Kumasi. Femke had been there once and said it was all prostitutes and old white men- one of the girls actually recognized Femke from that one night! So I guess it really is filled with prostitutes. They said they mostly slept with obruni men, either vacationers or people working here. I thought that was really interesting because these old white men probably go home and have sex with their wives later who have no idea that they have could a deadly disease. It really freaked us out. The girls also made some hilarious comments about penises and tried to illustrate that some men are the size of air fresheners by trying to put a condom on one! She said she charged double for those one. Agnes, Femke and I were in hysterics. They were so funny and we are hoping they will come to meet us at the hospital to get tested.
So much is new here but I've been online for too long so I will sum up some quick funny things of recent. I got peed on the other day. I was trying to cross a sewer and wasn't really looking and a little boy had started peeing and I walked right into it. At least I didn't fall in the sewer though- everyone is afraid of that! And then 5 seconds after that I spilt a yogurt all over myself- hahah people were already laughing at me for stepping in pee.
At the hospital here there is a new nurse from the States. It's so nice to have her around because she really tells me what makes sense and what doesn't. They tell pregnant mothers with HIV that it's alright to breastfeed for the first 6 months. Jill was a nurse with HIV patients at home, and she was like, um nooo they really shouldn't do that or they will transmit the virus to the baby for sure. The nurse explained that women often couldn't afford not to breastfeed and if they ran out of money and their breasts had gone dry the babies would starve to death. We both decided that we should try to get some powdered formula donated to the hospital because if you deliver the baby safely and it doesn't have the virus, it is competely preventable if they have safe milk for the child. There seem to be more and more patients lately and less that we can do- they need more doctors and specialists here so anyone who knows anything about health try to volunteer here!
I'm going to go now, but this weekend I am going away to this beach area that is supposed to be like paradise. I have a cold but hopefully it will pass because I really don't want to get sick in a remote area like that! So I miss St. Patty's day, but I get to relax on the beach and I'm okay with that!I'm doing a lot of stuff on my own- such as teaching insane children, and taking tro tros and I miss Gill a lot because I always have funny stories and think of how she would really appreciate them! I can't believe how soon I'm leaving (3 weeks)- I'm definitely not ready yet. I haven't done enough work, I hvaen't travelled enough and I haven't had enough time with these amazing people! I really do think this place is so beautiful, it will be hard to walk away from. I miss everyone and have a pint for me at home!
Lots of love....
Ghana @ 50..Independence Day!
Well, I'm still in Accra. I decided after the insane bus ride Gill and I endured to get here that it was worth staying here for a few more days. Sure I'm sleeping on the floor without a bug net, but who really needs sleep anyways? Also, the Dutch volunteer that I mentioned earlier is quite ill and in the hospital so I decided to stay so I could visit her and spend some time helping out if she needed it. She is having some sort of allergic reaction to her malaria pills and has been sick for the 5 weeks since we got here and is really deteriorating. She has open sores now, and blisters all over her up body and I'm really freaked out. She needs to go home because the doctors here have done almost nothing to help and if anything they have made her worse. She is really depressed about going home I think, but everyone is very worried. I spent the past few days in hospitals pretty much, and I'm not a big fan of them at all! Kersten our coordinator here is also very ill, so it hasn't exactly been the best of times, but hopefully things will get better for everyone.
There was a party at the house thrown by one of the tenants on Saturday and it was nuts. Half of the backyard was filled with people dancing and having a good time and the other half of the house was inside lying down beside buckets. It was not the best party ever to say the least. It seemed like so many people all got sick in one night, it was a fight for the buckets, and people were resorting to anything! I'm not a fan of people being ill, but everyone seemed to have something different, from malaria to food poisioning or who knows what, so I tried to help out. I could never be a nurse, but I'm trying.
So, I decided I could either take a bus back to Kumasi and brave another potentially insane bus ride or stay in Accra and go visit Linsey (very sick Dutch girl) and celebrate Ghana's 50th anniversary. The former Gold Coast- now present day Ghana -was the first African country to gain independence from colonialism. We were here for the momentous event of their 50th anniversary of independence from colonialism. I'm such a nerd, but it seems like I'm actually getting to experience things that I learned about in school and it's really exciting. The celebrations were so great. I just can't believe the way things work here- half the time I'm shocked and the rest of the time I just can't believe how amazing people are. The celebrations were held in Independence Square, and over twenty five presidents were there as well as chiefs and ambassadors and other such important people. The square was packed and all of us felt a bit nervous that if something went wrong that we would inevitably be trampled. But for some reason, and I don't understand this and I think it's because I grew up in pushy Toronto, but people were nice to us. At a concert or event or even the subway at home, people will shove you and push you just to get by, and yes it happens in Ghana, but at this event it was so different. This one Ghanaian woman took us under her wing and kept trying to get us to go inside the gates and pushed us to the front numerous times. She really wanted us to see the celebration- their celebration- because we were foreigners. They were so proud of all that Ghana has done. A lot of people were very angry that the government spent over 24 million dollars on 3 days of celebrations, because hospitals are closing down, roads need work, schools need support, but some were just happy to have a day to celebrate. It was hot and we couldn't really see or hear much, but the crowd was wild. There were people jumping fences despite guys with machine guns and people were blocking everyone's view by crowding the fences. So of course the crowds in the stands decided that if they couldn't see they would have to entertain themselves. They started buying sachets of water and throwing them at the people crowding the fence and blocking everyone's view. It was hilarious, people being pelted with basically water balloons from above. The crowd was just so lively and so happy. People called to us from the stands and helped us move up to the top so we could see more (I could still only see the military marching back and forth for about 3 hours which wasn't very exciting). I just couldn't believe that people would help us out in a huge crowd to show us how proud they were. And some fights broke out among people blocking each others views, and the crowd would get so rowdy and start cheering, it was so funny. Everyone had a Ghana shirt on, braided hair in Ghana's colours and people were giving us all flags for free. It was fun, but hot and we actually had no idea what was happening in the ceremony! The sound system sucked so people at home probably had a better idea of what was going on that day than we did, but we don't have a television so we couldn't watch it on recap on the news.
We decided we couldn't take much more sun and on our way home we were called into a backyard by a group of women. They gave us free Cokes and Fanta's and were so excited to hear us speak a little bit of Twi. My name is Akua in Twi (because I am Wednesday born) and whenever people ask me I tell them that name and they just freak out. Clapping, and laughing and they think it is great. One older woman there had been around for the first independence day and had a cloth skirt on from the celebrations. They were so nice to us for absolutely no reason. Still getting used to the Ghanaian kindness, it really throws me off sometimes- it's just so different!
Well tonight I head back to Kumasi- it has been a holiday so I will have to get back to work tomorrow. I also forgot to mention that I got my hair braided. It took 3 and a half hours, but I get so much funny attention. It's much cooler despite the fact that its hard to sleep on. Rasta's love it, and yell "hey rasta!" or "rasta baby!", and people seem to get a good laugh out of this obruni with braids. I don't look too bad, a little like a pumpkin head, but its really fun to have while I'm here. Me and Gill did it together and had our heads pulled in a million directions at once, each of us surrounded by 4 or 5 girls ripping at our hair! When in Rome...
I will post some pics- it has been next to impossible with the internet here, but check them out if they work! I really don't know how to rotate, and I know its dumb, but the internet isn't so great and I just can't be bothered in case I lose my whole post. The pics above are from Mole National Park and Kakum National Park. Sorry there aren't more, I will definitely post lots when I get home of the insane children that I kind of love!
"Obruni? HOW ARE YOU!!!"
The phrase "obruni" haunts my nightmares. I don't know why but for the past week the children in the neighbourhood have been going insane over us. I know that I stand out and that I'm a foreigner, but I have been here for a month now! They see white people or foreigners all the time, so whyyyy why do they feel the need to yell at me whenever they see me? In Kumasi I maybe see one other obruni a day but they still exist. We scare little kids, who always cry when they see us. Gill thinks its our blue eyes that they don't understand. Sometimes its funny, and I wave and sometimes I'm harassed in kind of a mean way. I hate it when kids ask for money. I dont know who teaches them to say "obruni? MONEY!" but almost every kid knows this phrase. I tell them no I don't have any money, and one kid actually called me a liar! Other than that most kids just accept it when I tell them I won't give them money. I want to explain to them that in Canada I'm technically unemployed and that I have no income at all so while I do have a lot more than anyone here, I personally have a limited budget that I have to live by here. I would also rather give my time and energy to the school and hospital than hand out money to kids who may or may not need it.
I guess its been a little bit of an insane week. When me and Gill were on our way home on Tuesday we got mobbed by a group of twenty children outside out house. We saw them down the road and thought, oh God, and then all of them started running towards us, yelling what is your name? and how are you? and then they started grabbing us. Lots of kids want to touch us because we look different but when there are over twenty grabbing at you, and pulling your hair it starts to get scary. I was getting a little panicked and Gill had to actually shove kids out to lock our gate and they all waited there for us to leave again. We had to get our host brothers friend to yell at them and then we just ran out the gate through them while he told them off. Eric, my host brother says they want to talk to me because they can see that I'm a good person, but seriously, it scares me when they run after me. It hasn't really happened that often but it seems that the past week if we pass a school or a bus that's letting kids out we have to run just to avoid the mobs of " howww are youuu? obruniiiis!". I know that they only know that basic english and I can't fault them, I only know the same equivalent in Twi, but its just funny because they have no clue what to say if you say "I'm fine, how are you?". Most kids just stare at you! So the nutty week continues...
On Tuesday morning to backtrack a little I had a truly horrible day at Fiayse. The language barrier between me and these kids is pretty rough. Gill leaves tomorrow and then its just me and them. I can tell them to sit and come and stop doing something, but thats it. I can't explain anything to them, so when we teach them the alphabet or to how count they just don't seem to know what they are saying even though they can repeat it. I decided to bring out some of the supplies I brought thinking they could do some quiet drawing. These kids have no fine motor skills as Gill would say, and most don't know how to hold a pencil because they never write anything. I brought out pencil crayons and gave one to each child. Then they went nuts. They all wanted more, or wanted someone elses colour and it became mayhem. One kids actually crawled up me trying to grab the box, they started ripping at my shirt, hitting me, yelling at me for more. Then when I wouldn't give them another one, they started to beat the crap out of each other. It was insane and I almost started to cry (I didn't though, can't let them see my weakness!) because I just couldn't stop them, and I couldn't tell them to share because I dont know the word in Twi. I managed to grab all the pencil crayons back (no one was actually using them they were just beating each other over them) and put them back in the storage room and then they continued to yell at me, running after me trying to get them back. It was horrible, because how am I supposed to teach them anything, even basic drawing ,if they can't even use a pencil crayon?! It was really discouraging that it caused a complete uproar, but I guess if you don't have very much then anything seems pretty exciting. I'm going to keep trying, but it was a really bad day because I really felt attacked. Then they started ripping apart the school wall and throwing parts of the rock through the windows at kids outside who clearly weren't in school and were trying to see what was going on. It was just a bad, bad day. But I think these kids are cute, and very smart, I just need to figure out how to structure their "lessons".
So enough about the insane interactions I've had with children in this country. The rest of the week went alright- we did some HIV/AIDS presentations to pregnant women and the doctor came in early to the clinic so she helped a lot of patients. One patient that had been really sick- a middle aged man who was basically a skeleton- was admitted to the hospital. He could barely stand, talk or swallow he was so ill. I felt so bad. "He will not live long," said another volunteer. It was really strange to look at someone that might die, but you kind of have to detach yourself a little so you don't sit there crying because that's not going to help anyone. I took notes for the doctor for the first few appointments, and the first few were all the really really sick patients. One woman just sat there and cried the whole time. A lot of them have shingles or tuberculosis so they really feel horrible, and the doctor is an amazing Ghanaian woman who does her best to relieve their symptoms. One man had CD4 count of only 46 but he looked perfectly fine, it's so bizarre.
This post sounds horrible, but this week wasn't actually bad just full of really bad sounding events. Femke, the most invincible volunteer I've ever met actually got sick. This girl eats kenke off the streets (its like fermented maize balls wrapped in leaves with a fish juice and it would probably kill me if I ate it ), she had sketchy lobster that didn't look like lobster- this girl can eat anything and everything. She's been here for 6 weeks and this week she got sick! I couldn't believe it, but she's finally better. Linsey the other Dutch volunteer that I did my orientation with who has had a horrible rash from here malaria pills, then got malaria, and now has an infection, ended up in the hospital because she was so ill. I think she is doing better now, but I haven't seen her yet. Her mom almost came over from Holland because she was flipping out. Sounds like something my mom would do! I was like, what is going on this week! Gill had been doing alright as well with the malaria, but then yesterday morning she woke up very ill. We couldn't figure out whether it was something she ate, but she was violently ill. And everyone who knows me well knows how well I like vomit. We also had to get on a bus that morning for a 5 hour bus ride to Accra so she could catch her flight out tomorrow.
The bus journey started with us actually getting an earlier bus and ended with it taking over 10 hours of the most unorganized transportation system ever. The bus kept stopping on our way there, and then after about two hours died at the side of the road. We managed to get it cooled down to make it to a rest stop where we waited for another two hours for them to send another bus all the way from Kumasi. They sent a really crappy city bus with no air conditioning so I sat by the open window and inhaled about a tonne of diesel fuel, burning garbage and dust. I told Gill I just might throw up a pile of sand in a minute. When the bus finally came we sat in traffic for over 4 hours. We just didn't move at all. Traders came around selling stuff and one guy tried to sell us some dead alligators that he had hanging by the tail. At this point things had started to get so ridiculous that it was funny. Gill managed to take enough pills to stop her extreme illness but she must have felt like crap. The bus decided to start off-roading around the traffic and so did a bunch of HIGHLY FLAMMABLE tankers. So we were competing with them while we weaved in and out of oncoming traffic. It was insane. And neither of us had the chance to go to the bathroom for about 5 hours so I was starting to get extremely frustrated at the end. Luckily we made it to Accra, Gill is feeilng better and we have a hilarious story to tell.
I miss everyone at home, but its never dull here.One minute I love this place so much and the next its the most insane moment of my life, but I really just think its such an experience. I will never ever forget all of the amazing things that I've seen and done. I'm going to miss Gill. Now I spend a month here by myself but I've made some other volunteer friends so I will try to update soon and hopefully it will be a much better post!
