My Final Days In Tamale!

I must apologize for the length of time it has been since I’ve last blogged. I’ve been writing so much in my personal journal that I have forgotten to update my blog! There has been a lot going on since I last wrote, so I will try to touch on as many things as possible!

Health: Last week Saturday I fell very ill with a terrible cough, chest congestion, and a pretty high fever. The fever lasted well into Monday, but by Monday evening it began to break. For all of Saturday and Sunday, I remained in bed dozing in and out. I did manage to read four books in between Saturday and Monday though J On Tuesday morning, Chief and Prof’s friend, Doctor Turner, came by to examine Chief and me (since Chief had been sick since two day before I fell ill). Dr. Turner said Chief’s illness was doing better and gave her some exercises to help get rid of the cough. He said that since I still had a fever, he believe I had acute bronchitis on top of a common cold and prescribed me an antibiotic. That seemed to help, and by the end of the week I was doing much better. However, that weekend when we took a road trip, Chief’s health took a turn for the worse. On the drive home, she started experiencing extreme vertigo that led to her getting sick very often. Unfortunately, we had a bumpy 4 hour drive home that didn’t help her sickness. After a while, she was able to nap for short periods of time which seemed to help, and eventually we made it home. Dr. Turner came over that night and got her some medicine which seemed to help. Now she is doing much better.

Travel: While we are somewhat on the topic. Last weekend, I accompanied Chief and Prof on a road trip to Binaba, which is a town about 160 Km away I believe. We left very early Saturday morning (7:30) and—due to the quality of the road—arrived at their friend’s house in Binaba at about 11:30. The scenery was very pretty on the way there. We caught a glimpse of the Tong hills and the White Volta and witnessed a slight change in scenery as things grew a bit grassier and hillier. We chatted and had lunch at their friend’s house. I cannot remember his name, but I know is a retired bishop from the area. For lunch, his daughter made Red Red (fried plantains and beans) along with rice and ground nut soup (ground nuts are another name for peanuts). I would give it a definite 5 stars (that kind of falls under the food category). Then, the bishop showed Prof and me around town. Chief wasn’t feeling well so she stayed back and rested. At about 2 o’clock, we decided to head home since we had a bit of trip ahead of us. On the way out to the car, Chief got sick in the yard L. However, I believe she really wanted to get home if possible so that she could be in her own bed and seek medical attention, so we started the journey. We stopped at the market in Bolgatanga so that Prof and I could do a little shopping and so that Chief could rest peacefully without the bumps from the potholes and speedbumps in the road. They make very neat baskets in Bolgatanga, and I had a hard time not buying every single one in sight. It took a great deal of self-control, but since I only had a certain amount of cash, I was forced to control my spendings J Eventually, we started back on the road and unfortunately, Chief wasn’t feeling any better. We arrived back at the palace a little after 7:30 (a mighty long ride in what is not a very comfortable truck!) and Prof and Razak ushered her inside and called Dr. Turner. Since there wasn’t much I could do (besides make Prof and I dinner), I made dinner and went to bed.  If you factor out the cramped travel arrangements and Chief’s awful sickness, the trip was nice!

Health Work: I spent the last week observing the activities of the nurses at Kalpohin Health Clinic. All of the nurses there are SUPER nice and helpful and I had a great time working with them. Each day they placed me at a different station so that I could get a glimpse of all the different aspects of the clinic. I have found that child and maternal health is of the utmost importance in Ghana, and so, while it is not my number one interest personally, I have definitely been introduced to the importance of it in the health field in Ghana.

The first day, I sat in the family planning room which is where ladies can come for birth control. They offer two different sets of pills and two different shots. The pills are taken daily for three weeks. One of the shots is administered monthly and the other is administered every 3 months. The nurse explains the options to the women, and they are able to decide which type of birth control they want. However, before they are given any of the drugs, they must take a pregnancy test, because, I found out, many of them that come in for the pills are already pregnant and are under the impression that the pills will take care of that.

The next day, I observed the immunizations table which was basically the exact same as the one at Tamale Central. 12 immunizations are offered and each one ends the same way…with a screaming baby L Although I LOVE children, this is my absolute least favorite section of the clinic, because not only am I not able to play with any of the kids, but I have to sit there and watch them scream and cry L

On Friday, I went out with two of the nurses to do house visits. They said usually they carry some vaccines and such with them in case a child is in need of one, but that day they didn’t have enough, so we just did some routine check-ups. This consisted of going to random houses and asking if there were any children in the house. If there were, then we collected their health record book (which is given to them by the clinic for free when they have a child). We checked to make sure all of the immunizations were up to date, and then asked the mom some questions about her health and the child’s health. The nurses explained to me that sometimes the mothers won’t come to the clinic if they have problems because there are so many people around, so the nurses make house visits so that the mothers have more privacy and so that the nurses can impress upon them how important it is to keep their children up to date on vaccinations! I enjoyed the visits because it provided a change of scenery and it felt a bit more personal than the clinic. The thing I dislike the most about the clinics is how impersonal and mechanical it feels. While the nurses are very chatty and friendly amongst each other, they aren’t so much so towards the mothers and children. Not that they are mean or rude by any means, but they just don’t smile and show a real concern towards the patients. I know by now that is just a part of the culture because service is like that everywhere in Ghana, but it is something that I have a hard time getting used to since I’m so acquainted with the high customer service expectations of America.

Monday I went with some nurses to one of the schools to give a presentation on the importance of hand washing. We gave one presentation to the P1 and P2 classes combined, and then we gave another to the P3 students. (P stands for primary). The nurses really stressed using CLEAN water AND soap and ALWAYS washing hands AFTER going to the bathroom and BEFORE eating!! They explained to the kids that they can get diseases such as Cholera and rotavirus if they fail to wash their hands properly.

  They also touched on the proper places to go to the bathroom. Since many of the schools (the one near Kalpohin health clinic being one of them) and most houses do not have private bathroom facilities, people will go to the bathroom wherever suits them. This is oftentimes in a grassy patch of a yard. Obviously, this can lead to MANY problems, a major one being the spread of disease. Apparently this is something that has to be stressed upon the children very often. It’s amazing to me how limited bathroom facilities are in the area. Most families do not have a bathroom in their house. Instead, there are “public” bathrooms located somewhere in town or villages where people can go to the bathroom in pits or holes that have been dug inside a building. However, considering those facilities are not right next to every person’s house or a school, many people resort to going in a bushy area or something of the sort! That was very eye-opening for me.

 My favorite part of the presentation came when the nurse was reviewing her talk with the kids and asked “So what will happen if you don’t properly wash your hands before eating or after going to the bathroom?” One of the P1 students raised his hand in answered, in earnest, “You’ll get AIDS!” All of the adults got a bit of a laugh from that, but it was then explained to the kids that that was not the way one could get AIDS, however, one could acquire many other diseases from improper hand washing.

My last day at the clinic, I observed the antenatal room where the midwife explained their process for examining the pregnant ladies. Since they don’t have any high-tech machines or anything, they can only do very basic examinations. However, they refer the women to the Teaching Hospital to get an ultrasound and they also give referrals to a nearby lab to get blood, urine, and stool tests. I was able to feel the fetuses of a few of the women and I also heard a few heartbeats through this little cone type thing they used. That part was pretty neat J

My time at the health clinic served as a very eye-opening experience for me. Although I’m aware that I would have to spend years here to encounter and understand even a portion of the problems that some people face here, I believe I have a much better understanding of the difficulties that arise in the area of sanitation and health in under-developed countries. I often find myself wishing I had they money or means to build proper bathrooms for each family and school I visit or wishing I could help all the beggars on the side of the road that are missing limbs or clearly suffering from some sort of disease. Although it is discouraging that, at the moment, I don’t really have the ability to do any such thing, it is slightly encouraging that I have chosen a profession that will someday, hopefully, allow me to do such a thing. If nothing else, this trip has helped me to validate my choice of a future career in the Health Field J

Food: My favorite topic J Yesterday, I ate at Mariama’s restaurant and she made me fufu and light soup. Fufu is basically a huge dumpling made of yam (my favorite!!) and I’m not sure what is in light soup exactly, but I do know that it has quite a kick! Overall, I would give it four out of five stars! I ate the whole huge bowl of it and enjoyed every bit, however I would have to say that I actually like banku better than fufu. Not that I wouldn’t eat fufu a thousand more time before I left, but I would probably eat banku a thousand and one more times ;)

As I mentioned earlier, when we were at the bishop’s house, his daughter made red-red and rice with groundnut soup and I can say that, without a doubt, it was my favorite meal I’ve had since I’ve been in Ghana. Probably because I LOVE groundnut soup (since it is essentially warm, soupy peanut butter) and fried plantains are to die for!! Yuuuuummmyy!!

Gifts: This week, Fatimata finished making the two dresses that I gave her cloth to make for me. They are both very, very cute! Although I might look a little goofy wearing one around in the United States, I fit in wonderfully wearing one here. Now, I have had three dresses made for me (I bought the cloth and then paid someone to sew the dress for me). Plus, two days ago, Madame Fati and Mariama had me pick out a third dress (which is a different style than the other three I have…which are all different styles themselves) that they gave to me as a gift from SCT. And yesterday, two of the teachers and one of the students from the JSS I taught at brought me a dress as a gift from the school (it was yet a different style than the other four!!). So, I now have more dresses than I think I’ve owned at one time in my life. Haha!! They are all very cute and I believe that my sister will probably want to be borrowing them when I get back ;) I also gave all of the gifts I brought from home to the people here that have helped me during my trip! That included Bro Zee and Fatimata and their children, Jehanfo, Madame Fati, Mariama, Razak, Kintampo, and Jon. And I’m pretty sure they all absolutely loved them J Madame Fati actually screeched and did a little dance, haha!! It made my day to see how happy they all were to get their gifts J I love giving people gifts, especially when they have helped me as much as everyone here has!!

I know my mom is probably wondering, so I will let her know that, yes, I have gotten gifts for almost everyone back home now ;) Madame Fati and Mariama took me to the Cultural center yesterday and a neat little shop called Colwood that sells a bunch of gifts that are made of tie-dyed fabric! It’s a very neat store J So, as long as I can fit everything in my suitcase, I will have lots of nice gifts for  my family upon my return. I made sure to save a bit of room in case I find some things in Accra that strike my fancy ;)

That leads me to my last topic: Final Plans: Tomorrow is my last full day in Tamale! And it will end with a potluck dinner for the SCT members (which I will allow to double as a small going away party!). Sunday I leave bright and early (boarding time 6-7:30 a.m) for Accra!!! I’ve already talked with Solomon who said he will be waiting for me at the airport (this time I vow not to panic if he is not there immediately when I land, and since I now know what he looks like that will make things much easier too). Between Sunday morning and Wednesday evening, I will get in as much touristy activities as possible (I’m leaving the scheduling up to Solomon) and Wednesday evening I will depart for home!!!

While I am going to be very sad to leave all the wonderful people I have met here in Ghana, I cannot say that I am not also extremely excited to see my family again and sleep in my nice, comfy bed (without tucking in a mosquito net ;) )!! I look forward to all these last few days hold and plan to make the most of every moment J!

Day 36

Today it started pouring rain around 9 o'clock this morning and now, at 1:45 in the afternoon, it is still at it. So, now that the power has reestablished itself, I will commence with my update of the weekend and my week so far.
Turns out, I ended up not going for a tour of Tamale or going shopping on Saturday afternoon, because much more exciting plans developed. While at her event, Chief ran into a lady from Louisville who teaches at Bellarmine who was headed to Mole National Game Reserve for the weekend with a group of friends!! After a bit of plan making, and some very hurried packing (which was more just throwing random articles of clothing into my bag), I was on my way to meet Angela, the Louisvillian, and her group of friends from Accra for a trip to Mole. The group consisted of Angela and five of her American friends from Dagara Music Centre in Accra. We all piled into an SUV they had rented, along with the driver they had hired to take us there, and started on our way. About 15 minutes into our drive, we turned off the paved road and onto a very rough and bumpy dirt road that lasted for the next two or three hours. The driver was somewhat....reckless, I guess you could say. Although the bumps, and cattle, and sheep, and people on bikes don't seem to slow many of the drivers down here, so I guess you could just say he drove like a typical Ghanaian. We, on the other hand, tried to make the most of our 4 hour roller coaster ride :) Angela and I sat in the very back while three of her friends, Alex, Sarah, and Tad, sat in the middle, and Griffin (the mastermind behind all the planning and such) sat in the front with the driver. The rest of the group didn't talk a whole lot, but Angela and I really hit it off and managed to find things to talk about or laugh at for the majority of the trip.
The scenery was absolutely beautiful because we were pretty far out from any urban area, so there were a ton of green fields and trees and small villages with people going about their daily routines (all outside). As we were getting close, Angela informed me that one little detail she forgot to mention on the phone was that we would be staying in a tree house out in the wilderness of the national forest for at least the first night, but not to worry, we would have an armed guard to look out below while we (tried) to sleep :) This was a little bit of a different set up from the hotel room that I had been expected, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it at that point, and, plus, it sounded pretty neat!
 Fortunately, before we headed to the tree house, we stopped at the lodge area where they had a pool, restaurant, bar, bathrooms (with toilet paper), and a place to sit and lookout over one of the watering holes. We ordered dinner and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL sunset while we waited for our meals to be prepared. While we were waiting, a baboon came running up towards the eating area, which was a tad frightening, but someone shooed it away; so it went and joined another baboon and a baby baboon in a nearby tree and contented itself on just watching us go about our business (which was mostly just watching them all sitting in a tree!). After dinner--and a huge plate of fresh pineapple for dessert--we hopped in the car and headed to the information desk where we picked up our tour guide/armed guard and some sleeping mats and mosquito nets. Fortunately, the driver took us to the tree house (since it was pitch black and I would have had an anxiety attack if we had to walk) before he left.
The tree house was basically just and elevated wooden porch with wooden walls...and no roof...that wrapped around a tree. There were holes cut into the walls as windows and, luckily, a set of stairs to climb up to the house (trying to lug my bag up a ladder would have been near impossible). There are few things I would have packed (and not have packed) if I would have known that our area of residence here was going to be in the middle of nowhere and up in a tree---such as, a headlight, a blanket, less clothes, and possibly the pocket knife---but, I made do just fine without them :). We all stayed for quite a while just taking in the sounds (which there were a TON of) and the stars (which there were even more of!!). It is amazing how many stars you can see when you're that far out :) Tad even spotted what we believed to be the Milky Way!!! The sleeping situation was not as impressive as the sights and sounds, but I managed to get a few hours of shut eye on the thin little yoga mat, and passed the night without a single bug bite :)!! In the morning, the birds had replaced the frogs and insects as our little symphony, which sounded just as fantastic as the night sounds :)
I have no idea what time we were all up, but it was well before the sun! That is when I found out that we were taking a walking safari back to the lodge area so that we could try to see the animals before they made their way too far into the park (apparently we were only about 2 miles or so in). This was exciting and all, but the bag I had brought with me (while not huge) was definitely not the most fit for a trek in the forest. Everyone else had packed accordingly in hiking backpacks. Then again, they knew the plans ahead of time!!! However, I quickly found a comfortable way to carry my stuff and we were off on our morning adventure.
We walked for a little ways before we sighted any wildlife. Our first sighting was just a glimpse of an antelope before it took off into the cover of some trees, but not long after we saw a much larger group of antelope that stayed still long enough for us to snap a few pictures before they darted off. A short while later, we came across a huge group of wart hogs, which are probably one of my least favorite animals, but even they look pretty neat and impressive in the wild!! There were quite a few babies, and unlike the antelope, these suckers stood their ground and offered us a pretty substantial staring match :) Christopher, our tour guide, next took us to the other large watering hole (there are two large watering holes in the park) and let us rest up in a lookout things with some of the guards. They told us that they have around the clock guards on duty due to poachers :/ Apparently it is such a prevalent problem that there is a school nearby for the children of men killed poaching. That made me sad. While we were resting and looking at the watering hole, we were all pretty sure we saw a crocodile just barely surface on the water, but it never came up enough for us to be totally sure. We did some really pretty birds and some more antelope though! Christopher had thought we would see some elephants there, but he said they must not have made it that far today yet and we would try to meet them on our way back to camp.
On our trek back to the camp, Christopher took us past a pile of bones that were from an elephant that had dies a few years earlier. It had wandered into a nearby village and been shot by the people there and had then managed to make it back to the watering hole to die. Apparently elephants prefer to die by water. The bones were gigantic!!!
As we approached the lodge area, we found three elephants on the other side of a little river munching on some tree branches. It seemed that they were used to human presence, and so we were able to sit down next to the river to snap pictures and take in the magnificent scene!!! As we were sitting there enjoying the activities of the three elephants, more started emerging from a forested area off to our right. You would think it would have been a noisy procession, but they were literally almost silent!!!!! That sort of creeped me out. haha. But it was a really neat thing to see. We sat there for quite a while just watching them all hanging out, eating leaves, and covering themselves in mud and water :) :) :) Eventually, they started heading towards the forest, and we started to get extremely hungry (it was about 11 and we'd been up since about 6 or so with no breakfast!!), so we headed up the lodge.
As we were finishing breakfast and trying to decide what activities we wanted to do for the day, it began to rain. Pretty soon, it was pouring so hard we could barely see out past the pool, so that limited our activities. We passed a good deal of the afternoon hanging out at a table (that was outside but under ample cover ) just chatting, drinking coffee, playing music (that was mostly Angela) and relaxing. Unfortunately, there were no rooms for us to move our stuff into, but then again, it was pretty refreshing to just sit outside and relax with the rain. Around 4 or so, it cleared up enough to walk around and not long after we got a room to put our stuff in. We decided to just stay in one of the "dorm" rooms, which was a room with three bunk beds and a bathroom with a toilet and a shower. After cleaning up a bit, Angela went a walk along a little path and saw some monkeys, antelope, and warthogs!!
At dinner, the group decided that they would join me on the 4 o'clock A.M. bus back to Tamale (mostly bc I think they could sense that I was a little apprehensive about taking it back by myself, but also because it was the cheapest method) and so we headed off to bed. Once again, I had a rough time sleeping, and before long, it was time to rise and shine (although I'm not sure I was doing much shining at that hour of the morning). It was still really dark on our walk to the bus stop, and it took us a while to wake up the driver who we realized was sleeping inside. Finally, around 4:30 or so, we were ready to roll. At first, the only people on the bus were our group plus two others, but that soon changed and before long, I was squeezed between Angela and a man with very large, very strong, very heavy shoulders that leaned on my and squished me the second he fell asleep, which was approximately 10 minutes after he sat down ;) However, his weight kept me from bouncing around too much :) Luckily, the bus driver was much more cautious than our driver on the way there, and I managed to stay in my seat with more ease (seat belts are rarely used and sometimes even non-existent in most cars here). Around 7 or so, Angela and I had breakfast in the form of Cliff bars that I had actually thought to bring along in my hurried packing. I managed to doze a few times, but my neck got pretty stiff pretty quickly so I gave that up. Around 9, we arrived in Tamale, and remembering that 9 was usually the time that Jon goes to pick up Madame Fati from her house and take her to the palace, I called Madame Fati. Sure enough, Jon had just picked her, and they came to the bus stop to get me. We gave the group a ride to the bus station on the other side of town that they needed to go to (there are no rules against packing  5 people into the bed of a truck in Ghana!) so that they wouldn't have to pay a taxi. I have Angela my bag of snacks and unopened bottle of water to hold her over on their long journey back to Accra. (I later found out that they didn't get back until 2 A.M--that's almost 24 hours of traveling on very uncomfortable buses..yuck!!).
The second I arrived back at the palace, I had to change into better clothes (my sleep/travel shorts and t-shirt weren't proper attire) to accompany Chief and her elders to call on another local Chief. This time, there were a TON of elders and spectators packed into the greeting room and there was even dancing and a lot more drumming than usual! Prof told me that this is the more traditional way of greeting. By the time we got back from the event, I was exhausted, but I managed to make it through lunch before I came back to my room to shower and nap. The "nap" lasted about 4 hours, but it was a much needed four hours!! And that concluded my adventurous weekend (which actually ran over into Monday morning!).
Now for the usual categorized updates:

Food: Monday night we had yam balls with some kind of steak and cheese sauce. Way beyond five stars i  my book!!!! They are by far my new-found favorite :) So good, in fact, that Chief and I reheated the leftovers for breakfast and ate them with butter, honey, and bananas! We decided that we should talk Mariama into making breakfast yam balls since the ones she made that night were savory yam balls and intended for dinner consumption ;))

Health Work: Yesterday and today I visited Tamale Central Health clinic to observe their "disease control" center. Since the clinic is for Maternal and Child Health, their disease control center consists of a nurse giving a bunch of babies a bunch of immunization shots, and therefore, ultimately, a bunch of crying, screaming babies....NOT my favorite scene by any means. However, the experience is still teaching me a lot. The immunizations and services that the clinic offers are free to the public and privately funded. The nurses are paid by the govt. The clinic is just one decently sized room. In the back right corner is the registration table where mothers can pick up a book with information on child health and a sheet for immunization records if they don't already have one. In the back left corner is the counseling center where the mothers get vitamins for their babies and information on child health. In the front left corner is the weighing station where Auntie Margaret works...I like her! And in the front  right corner, right next to the door is the immunization station where a nurse sits in a chair and the mother's hold the babies while she gives them their shots or drops or whatever they need. There are no partitions or sinks for hand washing or Germ-X bottles, or anything of the sort that I have grown used to seeing at such places in the U.S. This was very surprising. The mother's just sit on a little bench and hold their child and their child's leg or arm or wherever he/she is getting the shot while the nurse just goes about her business. I've gotten to the point where I don't feel tempted to look away, but even so, I can confidently say that this is not the particular area of public health that I would want to work in!!

School: A brighter topic!!! This is my last week of teaching, sadly, because I have to make my visits to the health clinics in the mornings which would be the times that I would also be teaching :(( Tuesday I had my regular lesson which got cut a little short bc of a meeting I had to go to with Chief. However, I managed to finish my genetics section and get a good deal into Infectious Diseases :)) I enjoyed teaching that. Yesterday, i went over to teach, but the girls were having an all day rehearsal for the talent show they were supposed to have today. I decided to stay and watch the rehearsals anyway. As usual, there were always more than a few girls at my side and more than a few of them asked me if I would dance during the dancing part of the rehearsal. After seeing their form of dancing, I politely declined!! It was really fun to watch and spend more time with the girls. I told them I would bring my camera over today and take lots of pictures, but the rain ruined  the whole program so I didn't get a chance :( I will find time next week to go over and take pictures and stuff with them, though, because I will not leave without heaps of pictures with all of them. Every time I go over to the school, I fall more in love with all the girls. I'm so, so, so, soooooo sad to have to stop teaching :( I enjoyed it SO much!!! Now at least I know it is something I MUST do in my future. Although I don't think teaching American students this age would have quite the same feeling, I know that I will definitely end up teaching some level of students, somewhere, someday :)) I'm definitely going to miss these girls more than words can say when I leave :(!

Miscellaneous: The other evening, I mustered up my courage and walked around to some nearby shops before dinner. I went into one shop that had some really pretty paintings hung outside. A young guy was working and I started talking to him about the paintings. Turns out, he painted all of them!! His name was Hussein and he went to art school at Polytechnic, a college up the road. As he was showing some of the paintings and giving me some prices, the guy that owned a little convenience store next door came over with his four month old daughter, Esther (I asked her name). Without me even asking, he let me old her! :) She was tiny and absolutely adorable!!! I got a picture with Hussein, Esther and the dad before I left. It was really nice to go out by myself and meet some nice people :) I'm glad I went. I told Hussein that I would come back so that he can paint my portrait (which he also does) and I look forward to doing so!!

I've Somewhat Lost Track of the Days...But Here's an Update

I am taking advantage of the fact that I have electricity and internet access (and running water, but that is not pertinent here) at the same time, to give a little update of the many activities taking place in Ghana at the moment. It is a bit hard to keep track of what has happened when, so, once again, I'll split events into categories!

First up, school: I think I love it more with every class I have :) The girls are still super attentive and interested in my lessons (which may have a small bit to do with the color of the skin and my age, but I will take what I can get). I have finished food and nutrition with one of my classes and moved on to heredity. Due to the cancelling of Friday classes on the past 3 Fridays--every Friday I've been teaching--I'm a bit further behind in my other class, something that my obsessive organizational character is having a bit of a hard time managing ;) This Friday, the teachers of the ZSN Jr. HS played the teachers of the primary school in a football (soccer) match. I joined the girls in cheering on the teachers, after turning down many an offer to join in the (all male) soccer match! I thoroughly enjoyed watching the match with the girls, though, and I was never at a loss for company or entertainment during the 45 minutes I spent there ;) They are all very fond of my hair....and skin, and clothes, and way of pronouncing things, and all else. One of the other science teachers told me this week that when he was teaching the girls during extra classes one day he asked me what they thought of my lessons and they all said they REALLY enjoyed my lessons and liked me as a teacher. After verifying that he was not just telling me what I wanted to hear :), I felt really good about myself! He said they all said they really, reallly don't want me to leave!

This week I also finalized my plans to start some public health work (after a little pushing and prodding..the necessary protocol for getting things rolling in Ghana). Starting Monday, I will be visiting three different health facilities to observe their disease control centers and hopefully learn a thing or two about what I plan to do in my future!!! I'm really excited about this. I may also get some time to observe some classes or activities at the medical school with the help of some of Wyatt's friends :) I'm anxious to get these things started because my busy-bodied self is having a hard time adjusting to the slow-paced movement of Ghanaian Days :)

Food: I tried Banku the other night at a restaurant in town. It is a sort of dumpling made from fermented maize that is eaten with a sort of soup. My choice was banku with ground nut sauce and chicken. Technically, this is supposed to be eaten with your hands (even more technically, your right hand), however, to avoid causing a scene and a huge mess, I requested a fork and knife :) Adnan, Chief's secretary who took me to dinner, proved very efficient at consuming the meal with only his right hand however, and I was very impressed. I would give the banku three and half to four stars out of five. Honestly, anything with that much starch would have to be pretty terrible to rank below a three in my book, but I actually really enjoyed the taste too :))

Visits to Chiefs: This week, I went with Chief and her entourage to visit the Choggu Naa at his palace. The Choggu Naa is actually the co-chair of SCT from what I gather, so it was nice to meet him. This reception was a bit more fun than the previous two because I believe Chief and the Choggu Naa are a bit closer and he also seemed a bit more laid back or something. Also, one of his elders was quite the jokster and he had the whole group rolling quite a few times (I didn't really follow, but I did enjoy his dancing at one point). The most interesting part was when the Choggu Naa offered Chief a welcoming gift of about 10 yams and 2 guinea fowl. The guinea fowl were handed to Bro Zee who handed them to Adnan who was right next to me. I could have sworn that one of them blinked when Bro Zee handed them off, but I figured I was just imagining things. Then, as Adnan was standing there holding them both upside down by their feet, I saw (much to my horror) one of them strut their neck just a bit and realized (much to my horror, again) that they were both still alive and most likely just in extreme shock...same as me, only I was right side up!!!! I'm not sure exactly what they all went through when we returned to the palace, but I do know that one of them ended up on the table (in a much altered state) last night at dinner. I can now tell you what my least favorite meal has been during my trip ;) Though as was raised in what could be termed a farm town, I am most definitely NOT a farm girl as you can see!

Electricity and Appliances: Now here's a funny story. A few nights back (the night Adnan took me into town for dinner) I returned to the Palace and decided to take a shower before going to bed. During my shower, all of the power went out in this entire part of Tamale. Fortunately, I know my way around my room well enough and I am always certain to know where my headlamp is that no injuries were suffered while I was left in complete darkness for a few minutes. Then, the power stayed off for another two days or so!! After two nights in a stifling a hot room with no A/C or fan and two days of not being able to charge any electronics, Chief decided it best that we move to a hotel across town (in a part with power) until the power was fixed here. We left around 6 and ate dinner at the restaurant. Just as we were finishing, we got a call from someone at the palace informing us that the power had been turned back on! How convenient! We decided we would rather just stay at the hotel and return to a nice cool, lighted palace in the morning :) At the moment, I am sitting in my room, with electricity (although no A/C bc my unit seems to be malfunctioning, but at least I have a fan) and internet access (still with the help of Chief's modem, but internet nonetheless) and a supply of water!!! This is a very rare occurrence!!

One other thing that falls into a category of its own, which may be named "My Crazier Moments": I woke up at 5:30 to go for a run this morning, because according to the people here, that is when locals work out, especially on Saturdays. I believe I saw approximately four other people doing any sort of physical activity, but it was nice to get some exercise, and it was still a bearable temperature to do so in! I imagine that I will be needing a nap this afternoon at some point, though.

Today Chief's schedule is pretty open, which means I may have access to a vehicle or a tour guide, and so hopefully I will be able to get a little tour of Tamale and possibly even do a bit of shopping. I know there are more than a few people who will be expecting gifts when I arrive back home...as if I'm not a gift enough myself ;)!!

Day 22 (ish)

Today marks the 22nd day I have been in Ghana, the 20th day I have been in Tamale, and the end of my third week of the SCT internship (I'm over halfway done already)!! 

So, I know it has been forever since I have posted last and it is not because I haven’t wanted to! Unfortunately, we have had major problems with the internet provider, Vodaphone, that we use for our wifi connection and we have been completely without it for over a week now. Luckily, Dr. Herlin (Chief) has purchased a portable modem that we can use! Unfortunately, it charges by minute or data used or something, so my time is limited. In any case, I will summarize everything that has been going on with as much pertinent details as possible!

We will start with school. I began teaching last week and I absolutely love it! I only taught on Tuesday and Wednesday because Thursday and Friday were the annual “Sports days.” Which is somewhat like a “field day” in the states. I went to sports on Thursday and had a great time. It was quite a sight to see! The event took place in a large arena type area that was basically a huge dirt field surrounded by a chain-link fence with barbed wire on top. Inside the fence, there was a “track” of sorts. Basically, it was a large circular indented path that had just been created by so many people running it. This is where all the races took place. There were students from many of the schools in the region; some were competitors and some were just spectators. I would say there were at least 200 kids there. There were all kinds of events that took place and a student from each school would participate in each race. First were short sprints, like a 100 meter dash. Eventually, there was the longer race which would compare to our mile race I believe. None of the races had a defined starting or finish line, they were both just kind of outlined by the teachers who helped organize it all. I saw a great deal of racers passing out at the finish line!!! In fact, it actually seemed like a somewhat common thing to do. I got to see a lot of the girls I teach while I was there and they were SUPER excited to get pictures with me, so I have quite a few pictures with some of my students now J

As far as actually teaching, I LOVE it!! Despite being totally terrified every time I walk into the room (due to the 50 plus faces staring back at me each time), I have a wonderful time. So many of the girls are so excited to participate and answer any and all of the questions, and they also seem to understand what I’m saying and teaching! I do hear a great deal of giggling as I’m writing on the board which always makes me self-conscious, but it usually ends up being directed at my pronunciation of some word.  Especially “water.” I’ve found that they emphasize different syllables in their words and sentences as well which I’m sure makes many of my statements and questions sounds a bit odd to them. At any rate, I’m really enjoying teaching!!

In the Public Health setting: I met with the director of Administration again last week and he gave me a rundown on the health care system in Ghana (which I will have to review a few times, but is fairly straight forward)! He also offered to set up some meetings with other doctors as well, but that has yet to pan out. This Monday, however, I am supposed to be working with Mubareck, the SCT secretary on setting up some work in that area. One of Chief and Prof’s friends from England, Patricia, is actually a professor of Occupational Health at the medical school here and offered to set up some meetings with people there to get me introduced and hopefully start with some work! Apparently, it is the only public health school here that sends students out into the field to do the health work while still in their beginning levels (from what I understand). Another contact that I have acquired is Nash, who is an alum of the Zo-Simli-Naa scholarship and aid fund and who now works in the Health Department of Tamale! I think with the help of Mubareck (and a great deal of determination and pushing on my part) I will be able to set up a pretty good program for the public health part of my internship!

So far, I have interviewed 33 scholars!!! And I have yet to hear a story that isn’t truly inspiring J I have also visited a few of the alums at their jobs now! My favorite visit was to the Shekinah Clinic where Mariam, one of the first batch of scholars, works. This is a health clinic that offers its services free of charge to the severely needy . Mariam’s husband is the head doctor and Mariam is one of the nurses that volunteers at the clinic. It was a truly amazing place!

Probably the most important announcement I have to make is that Dr. Herlin, aka Chief, and Wyatt, aka, Prof, arrived in Tamale on Sunday, June 10^th. I was fortunate enough to join the welcoming posse at the airport to greet them! The group consisted of at least 10-15 people (3 of which were drummers). It was quite the little ceremony I must say and I was happy to be part of it. Back at the palace, there was another welcoming ceremony in the greeting room (where Chief sits two days a week to welcome people who come to visit her) and I was formally introduced to everyone. This week Chief has been very busy with greeting people and scheduling events and all, but we are all able to eat lunch and dinner together and sometimes meet for mid-morning or afternoon tea, too J Today, I joined Chief on her first visits to some other local chiefs, and that was very, very interesting! I borrowed one of Chief’s traditional outfits to wear for the occasion (the print on the dress is actually Sister Cities 25^th anniversary print!) complete with the head garment and all (someone helped me tie it on my head!). We visited two nearby chiefs, Lamegushu and Dakpena (the spelling is just an educated guess). The chiefs sat in their welcoming hall in a big chair with the crew of their elders sitting around their feet, and Chief and Prof sat in chairs to their right. I sat with Chief’s crew of elders in chairs to the welcoming chief’s right. The whole ritual was really interesting and intriguing and fortunately I was not expected to do or say anything because taking it all in was almost too much for me!

The food here continues to be amazing! My favorites remain the same, but so far I haven’t tried anything that I haven’t liked (and I’ve tried quite a bit!)

There was a bad storm last week that blew down a mango tree and the electrical wires and Bro Zee had quite a time trying to get it all back in order before Chief arrived!! For a while, we were without electricity and wifi. Then the electricity was restored, but there was a water shortage in town that left us without running water for about a day. Soon after the electricity was restored, there was a power surge that ruined a great deal of our appliances, including the refrigerator, microwave, toaster, and my A/C unit. They fixed most of it, but still haven’t been able to fix the A/C unit, so I have been relocated in the other guest room that does have a working A/C unit J Now, the only thing we still lack in a reliable internet connection! But, that is not a huge worry to me!

I’m getting to know more and more people that frequent the palace and Razak is working on teaching me Dagboni phrases so that I can greet them in their local language! I have also formed quite a strong bond with Magi and Ediya, the two littlest kids that live here. We play for an hour or two every evening in the courtyard around the palace. We have played hopscotch, had wheelbarrow races, and practiced writing numbers and letters in the dirt. I absolutely adore them both! And I believe that they have taken a strong liking to me as well!

So, in all, I have started adjusting pretty well to the new culture and environment that I have been living in for a little over three weeks now! There is still a lot that I have to learn and understand about how things works around here, but I’m slowly catching on, and everyone here is more than happy to help me along ;) Hopefully, I will be able to keep you up to date a little more frequently soon!

I've Arrived!

Okay! It's been quite a while since I have had an internet connection that would allow me to post, but fortunately, right now I have one (for at least a few minutes!). For those of you that don't know: I have traveled to Tamale, Ghana (in Africa) for a summer internship through the Sister Cities of Louisville (SCL). SCL partners with their sister city in Tamale and the Sister Cities of Tamale (SCT) to send at least one student to Tamale each summer. The program is about 6 years old now and I have been chosen as the intern for the summer of 2012. I live at the Zo-Simli-Naa Palace. Zo-Simli-Naa roughly translates to "Chief of Friendship" and that title belongs to Dr. Susan Herlin from Louisville who was voted a chief in Tamale about 17 years ago. Dr. Herlin ("Chief") was enskinned as a chief because of all that she has done for the people of Tamale. She set up a scholarship and aid fund that pays for "brilliant but needy" students from schools in Tamale to go to Senior High School and into their first year at University. The fund has been around for about 17 years and had aided more than 200 students in their educational endeavors. This summer, it is my task to meet and interview as many of these scholars and possible in order to document their stories and achievements!

So, I arrived in Ghana one week ago today. I flew into Accra, Ghana where I was met by Dr. Herlin's "son", Solomon. I stayed at a hotel in Accra on Thursday and Friday night. Solomon and his friend, Bismark, showed me a bit of Accra which is a very busy, bustling city with a lot of people and a ton of stuff going on! I experienced the true Accra rush hour traffic while leaving the airport with Solomon. Solomon took me to KFC for dinner. It was three stories!! I had a chicken leg and fries. It tasted quite different than KFC here. On Saturday, I met my first two scholars at the Accra Shopping Centre, Saaji and Kiram. Both have graduated from University. Kiram is doing his national service and I just found out a few days ago that Saaji was accepted to a Master's program where she will continue her education!!!

Saturday, I woke extremely early and went to the airport to Solomon to buy a ticket to Tamale. Fortunately I was able to get one for that day (you have to buy tickets from Accra to Tamale at the airport). It was a short and pleasant flight and I was met at the airport by Jehanfo, Madame Fati, and Mariama! They took me to Mariama's restaurant, the Crest Restaurant, for lunch since I had forgotten to eat breakfast and it was going on noon. I randomly picked something off the menu: Boiled Yams with egg. Apparently they were all pretty hesitant to give this to me because they asked me multiple times if I had tried Yam before. I replied no but I would like to try it so they agreed that I should try it. They gave me boiled yam with a plate of boiled vegetables in a red sauce for me to put on the yams. I'm no sure what they were so hesitant about, I LOVED it :)

Since then, a whole lot of stuff has happened. The rest of Saturday and Sunday they gave me to rest and get acquainted with the place and I started up with my internship on Monday. It hasn't even been a full week, but I've gotten so much accomplished. I made a visit to Tamale Teaching Hospital with Jehanfo where there was a very small opening ceremony for the building that Sister Cities helped fund. This building is a resting place/wash room for mothers who have sick children at the hospital. Before the place was built, the mothers would sleep and pass time under a big tree in the parking lot. This new building will prove to be such a great addition to the hospital. I also met with the Director of Administration at the hospital who was kind enough to set aside some time to speak with me about the hospital. I found out they have only about 50 beds in both the Maternity ward and Children's ward, but upwards of 100 patients in each at one time. They also only have one functioning Ambulance. Some of the stuff is just so hard to fathom. I also got a tour of the lab section of the hospital where they do all of the blood/urine/skin testing and all. I was able to see the bacteriology room and the parasitology room ;) For me, it was SUPER interesting. I am supposed to visit again tomorrow and hopefully more before I leave :)

In addition to the interviews and hospital visits, I have also agreed to teach general science for three hours each week!!! I am teaching Form 2 which is the second year of junior high school students. There are two classes of Form 2, so I will teach one of the classes for an hour on Tuesday and 35 minutes on Wednesday and I will teach the other class for 35 minutes on Wednesday and an hour on Friday. The topics I chose from the syllabus to teach are 1. Heredity 2. Food and Nutrition 3. Physical and Chemical Change and 4. Infections and Diseases!!! I observed my first class today and I must say that I will have my work cut out for me :) There were about 50 girls in the classroom I am in today and while they all pay very good attention, the number of students in one room is quite intimidating! Since it will be my first time teaching a real class, I'm extremely nervous, but I'm also very, very excited!

Besides that, I keep myself busy by editing interview videos (which I've grown quite fond of doing since all of the scholars have such interesting stories), reading, playing with the little kids that live at the palace (yesterday I gave them bubbles...they LOVED it!), and eating some delicious food. At the moment my favorite dish is a toss up between boiled yams served with just about any sauce and fried plantains. Although, I had fresh mango slices with my lunch today and I must admit that it was absolutely delicious as well.

The people at the palace are all wonderful. I have so many different people looking after me that it is hard to keep them straight at times. I'll give a brief overview now because I'm sure I'll be mentioning all of them very often. Jehanfo is the past president of SCT and he is helping to arrange my meetings with the scholars as well as transporting me to meetings at the hospital and other places. Madame Fati is the treasurer of SCT and quite possibly the cutest and sweetest little elderly lady I have ever met (and when I say litte, I mean little!). Mariama own a restaurant in town where I eat quite often. The food is delicious and one of the waiters there is helping me to learn Dagboni (the local language that is spoken along with English.) Dagboni is not a written language, it is strictly verbal from what I gather and they use English as their written language. Razak is my "caretaker"; he is a younger boy..around my age I would say and he helps me with just about anything and everything I could possibly need. We have become really great friends already and he is trying really hard to teach me Dagboni...thank goodness he is a very patient guy. Brother Zee also helps with organizing my meeting and showing me around the place. He lives at the palace with his wife and kids. Gomda is the handyman at the palace and he sometimes takes me into town for lunch. Today he gave me some tips for when I start teaching next week. (I think he kind of looks like Ghandi..haha.) For the life of me, I cannot remember the cook's name at the moment, but I'm sure it will come to me eventually. He is a very sweet elderly man that makes me all the meals I eat here, which is always breakfast, sometimes lunch, and usually dinner. He already has my habits all figured out, too, Coffee and juice at breakfast, water at lunch, and a Fanta and bottle of water at dinner :)! There are even more people than that, but at the moment, I think that is quite a bit of information.

So, hopefully I will be able to access the internet a little more often so that I can keep an updated record of all the wonderful, exciting, new things that I am experiencing every hour :)

Preparing for Takeoff

As I begin to pack my clothes and sunscreen and bugspray and soap and whatnot, I'm starting to get very anxious about my trip! Even with the research I've done and the all the wonderful (experienced) people whom I've talked with, I still have hardly any idea what to expect. However, I've learned to keep myself from expecting anything, and in doing so, I find it is very easy to adjust to just about anything. Still, I always grow very anxious in the last two or three days before I depart. I think mostly because I'm somewhat impatient and so, therefore, I really hate waiting for my summer adventure to start. Anyway, today  I stumbled across this quote on the cover of my Global Initiatives folder and I think it's fitting for me at the moment:

"It is only in journeying for the world's sake, even when the world bores and sickens and scares us to death, that little by little we begin to come alive." 

Two more days in the states :)