A fine mess of contradictions

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....

posted by Kate @ 6:02 AM