My first days... In hell or heaven??

Heaven



Saturday :)

Saturday was simple, I arrived in Ghana safely and had to go through the simplest customs process. They saw my yellow vaccination card so I went past the big rush then stood in line for a couple minutes to turn in a slip explaining where I'd be staying while I was here then went through to the baggage claim. 20 minutes later I had my five bags in tow, walking with fellow ProWorld volunteers going to meet Brooke the volunteer coordinator. We left the airport in a tro tro (a van style vehicle, no air conditioning) and we were off into the streets of Accra; with food items and water being sold right on the streets on people's heads. Old and young, women and children were everywhere selling items from cold treats like FanIce and distilled water in plastic packets to plantain chips and fried doughnuts. It was all delicious!! I fell asleep on the ride home, luckily too considering the drive took about 4 and a half hours to Cape Coast.we arrived at the ProWorld main house and met a couple volunteers that already arrived. All of us ate some great dinner: joloff rice, chicken, and some fresh fresh pineapple. Wish I would've thought to take pictures of all the food but since my iPad can't upload photos, check out the pictures on Facebook!! I went to bed around 7 pm Saturday, considering that's 3 pm where I'm from I must've been exhausted haha.

Sunday :)

Orientation into Cape Coast, Ghana was easy. We learned about the safety and health procedures with ProWorld and just standard measures to take into account when going about the city. Good stuff. Lawrence, (a ProWorld Coordinator) then took us out on the city and it was a little crazy. Trying to get a taxi by yourself as an obruni (foreigner/white person) is difficult because taxi drivers want to over charge. And since 1 USD is about 1.89 Ghana Cedi, I'd still like to get my monies worth. But we made it and learned a lot about the city of Cape Coast and how to get around. We went to lunch at a place called the Castle. I didn't think I was going too foreign with the club sandwich, well the Ghanian club sandwich includes fish, egg, green pepper and onion... delicious but different, at least it came with French fries or as the menus here call "chips". After that we came back for a Fante lesson, a dialect spoken in Cape Coast. I was a little disappointed only because I was hoping for Twi or Ewe but I guess by the time I end my life in Ghana I will know 2-3 dialects of Ghana. There are so many but at least I'm starting somewhere. After, our homestay families came to pick us up. Turns out the family that cooked dinner Saturday was my home stay family!!! Good news for good food and great kids for me :) Ghana is just beautiful, from it's beaches to its people. Everyone is so friendly and wants to say hi. I'd even venture today that it's better than the U.S in regards to actual hospitality if not overall safety.

Monday :)

Monday was a good day. Simple but exhausting. I woke up around 6:30 am to a crying baby; baby Olivia is teething. Since I didnt think I had to start getting ready until 8ish I just lounged around in my bed. It was a lot hotter than I expected at night, but I was just happy to have a comfy bed at all. My homestay mother then received a call around 7:15 from Brooke (ProWorld Coordinator) that she would be in front of my house in 15 minutes so I had to go get ready. I ran around, found something appropriate to wear, brushed my teeth and found my lunch in a little canister already on the table waiting for me. From UCC old site (Yes FM station) we took the taxi (no air conditioning ever)to Abura taxi station (same town Prozworld office is in too) then took a cab to Aktokyir. Brooke took me and Laurie (a ProWorld HALP intern) to the volunteer office at HALP, Health and Life Protection Foundation. We waited for a bit until the asst coordinator arrived then went to a very small room, which turned out to be the office but it was effective none the less. We had an interesting morning discussion with the Ghanian HALP volunteers while we waited for the organization Director Emmanuel, he didn't arrive until 1:45 pm and we had been at the office since 8 am. Well... Welcome to Ghanian time. Haha. We discussed and went over a few things, then went home around 5:30. I was glad we left around then because no matter who you are running around at night time is just dangerous, especially where I live because there's a HHUUUUUUGGGEE STTEEEEEPPP hill that I have to walk up and down everyday. Remember that hill our parents said they had to walk 3 miles uphill both ways?? Welcome to my daily commute to my project office. Got home, took a shower, and went to bed without dinner. Easier that way anyway considering she made a fish dish that did. It look appetizing at all with a side called yams.

The start of Hell :(

Tuesday

Welcome mother natures gift, a nasty stomach ache, screaming baby alarm at 5:30 and the start of terrible mosquito bites. So as I was already going to be late to my project office because it took me 20 minutes to get a taxi to Abura, but I woke up not feeling well at all but I pushed on, took the 15 minute walk down my steep hill, flagged down a million taxis looking for one that was going to Abura, ran to meet up with Spencer and Laurie at an internet cafe and went to the office. Possibly one of the most embarrassing moments of my life finding out its the time of month and have the asst director go find me pads at a local stand in the Aktokyir village....awkward.... Well then as I felt like giving up, Laurie told me to not give up and keep going on. Yay motivation :) so we went on where Spencer taught the Ghanian HALP volunteers, Ben & Stix, planning and implementation and a tiny bit about nutrition. We left as Emmanuel arrived, to go to Fante lessons with Lawrence at the ProWorld house. Then had a meal at "One Africa" which is a beach side restaurant in Elmina, not far from where I live actually. My house is right next to the cape coast University. I was so miserable with pain I couldn't even enjoy my Mac & cheese with hot sauce, but I got some great beach shots (as seen on Facebook for all my FB friends out there). A drop tro tro to my house and a couple hours later I'm falling asleep and the miserable day is finally over. I was ble to unfreeze my bank account so I could withdraw money from the Barclay bank here with withdraws from a visa card without service fees or extra charges which is very nice :) plus I finished a great book called Xenocide, from the Ender's Game Quartet.

Wednesday

Wednesday didn't have to be difficult but of course Round 3 with baby Olivia's alarm cries and the pain I'm in didn't make for a great start. Welcome to Ghana haha. Well I went to meet up with everyone at Abura around 8 am then we all took a taxi to a Catholic school in Elmina and taught hand washing and nutrition to about 8-9 year olds. Not as effective considering they spoke Ewe, our translator spoke Fante and we only speak English but we made it work and I got some great pictures. Then we went to Oasis for lunch and discussed our frustrations with HALP and their problem with communication. Wednesday was painful but boring, at Oasis I had a burger with bacon that was undercooked and apparently did not agree with my tummy. I went to Abura after for a bit to buy a phone and then to town to TiGo to buy a modem for my iPad. I was so happy to find out they could cut the chip to fit into my iPad, a relief of the pain I had been in. But it made me homesick 10 times worse because suddenly I was teased with the possibility of keeping in touch with my friends and family more but when I got home the connection was inconsistent and didn't work most of the time or t least long enough to Skype people. But the good news of the day was that iMessage on iPads connects to iPhones and iPads making it ridiculously easy to keep in touch with my friends who have iPads and iPhones!!! Which fortunately for me most of my closest friends do :) the devastating part was after walking from the ProWorld office I witnessed one of the scariest sites: watching a man crash his speeding scooter into a car then doing many flips in the air, land really rough, see him try to get up to pray and see him fall. See men carry him into a taxi going towards town, and his foot is gushing blood. It just shook me to my core. I didn't feel safe anymore. Everything was suddenly a danger :( I just wanted to go home and sleep. No dinner, no playing with the girls; just testing my iPads crappy Internet connection and going to bed.

Thursday

Thursday I woke up an absolute mess, sick and just not feeling well at all. I stayed home from work needing every second I could next to the toilet. I was terribly homesick too. I just wanted to be home, in my air conditioning, with my car to drive and with my million pillows to comfort me. Not a good day.

Welcome to Ghana... I guess