Week 5

So finally the time has come. I'll be writing this week about my project here. Sorry it took so long. 

So I'm working at a nutrition clinic that was set up by Point Hope (the NGO that I've been working for) when the refugee camp first opened up. The clinic gives babies their polio, measles, hepatitis, and yellow fever vaccines, along with some other ones that I can't remember and doses of vitamin A. It used to double as a day care center for malnourished children where they could come and get 2 meals for the day while mom was away at skills training (also funded by Point Hope). About 5 years ago when the government officially stopped recognizing the camp as a refugee camp Point Hope was supposed to start pulling out as well. So that means goodbye child care at the nutrition clinic. Goodbye cooking classes.  Goodbye skills training for moms. Pretty much all that is left is the vaccination part and a little bit of the supplemental feeding, funded by Point Hope still. So my project has been sort of difficult to get off the ground floor since Point Hope can't really 

put to much more money into the nutrition clinic.

I've been doing steady help on Tuesdays and Thursdays weighing the babies before they get their vaccinations. When I can tell that they are really malnourished I send them into Bismac's office and he can talk to them about breast feeding or regular feeding or whatever else they might need help with. On the other days I've been assigned 5 children that come to the nutrition clinic but have not been doing so well or have been on the program for a long time. With them, I am doing interviews with different people in their families, visiting their house, and just seeing what we can do to help them out. The camp also has a farm set up by Point Hope, which is supposed to be producing food for the supplemental feeding program, but up until the other day it wasn't really producing anything, due to the fault of- well that's some drama that we don't need to get into.  The guy that manages the farm is also living at the volunteer house (Chris, Australian- has been mentioned in previous weeks) so I've been working with him to bridge the gap between the farm and the nutrition clinic again.  On Wednesdays I go to the farm and oversee the food handout and fish the pond there for massive catfish to give out as well. Since there are only a few families that show up I also do other farm work to help out. Recently, since it is the end of the month, the nurses at the clinics have been going out to different areas of camp to set up mini clinics to reach those that can't come to the nutrition center. I've been going with them in the morning to help set up by the side of the road (and by road I mean dirt path through camp that cars drive on) to weigh and vaccinate more babies. I like some nurses better than others, most of them just yell obroni in my face when I look tired or hot, but there are a few who try to socialize with me and have even been letting me give out polio vaccines when we go out in the field (you just drop the liquid in the child's mouth, they said I'm not ready for the needles yet).  Next week we'll start going around camp door to door and handing out coupons for mosquito nets to those that don't have them yet. 

So, overall I'm enjoying my time at the clinic. Some days are better than others. Like I said some days I'm all over the place, on the farm all day, then interviews in the afternoon. And some days I play snake on my phone and watch Mexican soap operas with the nurses and call it a day, what are you gonna do?

This week has been a major recovery week from the weekend. I've been eating as much as I can to make up for losing it all and I woke up Thursday, after forgetting to take an antibiotic dose, with a crazy fever. Don't worry it broke by the afternoon and everything was good again. I had to take tro-tros to and from camp all week and I learned a few new important lessons. Being an obroni in the morning means you are going to camp. For some reason all my tro-tro mates have just assumed that, which is actually nice- less thinking that early. If your driver gets sick of sitting in traffic he will take you a back way to your destination. It's ok.. you'll still get there. Eventually.  And finally ride them like a roller coaster. Keep hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times and watch out for sliding doors.  Other than that not much else to report. My bucket shower technique is getting pretty good and I turned down 3 marriage proposals this week. I think I'm getting used to it here. 

Ghanaian food this week: Lucozade- seriously I lived off of this stuff this week. It's like their version of Gatorade except its carbonated and it's the only thing that kept my muscle cramps away after losing all my electrolytes. 

Best thing I saw carried on a head: 5 stacks of egg cartons (not just your standard 12 egg- egg cartons. These ones hold 25 each so if that fell...)

Number of time the lights went out: 5 This week wasn't bad.

Here I am weighing the babies at the clinic. 

Once we weigh them their weight gets plotted on a growth chart so that we can track their status. 

Here I am with one of the nurses I actually like (left) and a mother that we brought in from the field one day.  Her baby was 4 months old and had never taken to her breast milk. The mom cried the entire time we were talking to her about ways to feed her baby. She said she was getting worried but didn't know what to do until we came along. 

Week 4

To sick to write anything about this week. Seriously, I've had more pills than food this weekend.  Sorry I didn't tell you dad, didn't want to worry you. 

On the road to recovery though.  More next week. 

Week 3

So I was going to write this week about the project that I'm working on here but I'm just too excited to describe the awesome weekend I had.

So last weekend we met 2 other volunteers, 1 British 1 American, and we decided that this weekend we would all travel, along with another girl at their placement to a popular tourist spot call Cape Coast. After having no power all night Thursday night and not sleeping very well I worked from home for half the day then the other volunteer at my house (Chris, Australian) and I hoped on a tro-tro to Cape Coast for 2 and 1/2 hours.  We arrived to meet up with 3 other volunteers who had beaten us by about 15 minutes. After settling into our beach front room we are dinner and played cards with a german guy that was sitting at the next table. They hadn't slept well the night before either so we decided to meet up with our German friend in the morning and went to bed early. We decided to wake up early to get a jump start on the day so we woke up at 7 and after sitting at the table for 45 minutes we asked what time breakfast would start being served.  '7:30' she said.. after finally getting some food we loaded into our prearranged taxi with our new friend Edwin who agreed to drive us around all day for 30 cedi per person (about $10).  We had an extra person in the back seat so when we got to the first police barrier one of the girls ducked down so maybe she wouldn't be seen. The police caught onto us and pull over our taxi. After Edwin got out to try and pay off the police one of them came up to the back window with his AK-47 over his shoulder and told us 'you can run but you can't hide'.  Eventually they took our 2 cedi ($0.75) bribe and let us on our way, I think they were just trying to scare us.  After one more police stop, this one not as scary- didn't hide and still had to pay, we finally made it to our first stop, Kakum Nation Park.  Here, we met up with our German friend again and climbed a short trail to a spot were you can walk on these suspended bridges above the rainforest canopy.  It was really awesome even though our British friend (Marin) freaked out a little about the maintenance of the bridges.  The view was indescribable and didn't translate very well to pictures.  The whole tour only took about an hour total, and we could have paid extra to go on a nature walk to maybe see a monkey and definitely not see an elephant so we opted to just move on to our next stop, the monkey sanctuary.  Good thing we did too because once we got back to the resort we ran into some other girls from our tour group that did do the nature walk and they said they saw nothing.  So Edwin drove us to the monkey sanctuary where we were greeted by 2 really weird Dutch men. The younger one walked us around to the monkey cages and introduced us to monkeys name Mr. Spock, Little Nell and a few others that I don't remember.  He explained about how they were rehabbing the monkeys and other animals and mentioned one too many times that the monkeys slept in the bed with them every night. This was probably my least favorite part of the day. The monkeys were cool but they were mostly orphans and all of the were locked up, kind of angry, and a little depressed. Next on our way to lunch we saw an ad for an ostrich farm. Obviously it was a must stop. After driving down a very sketchy road we were greeted at a gate, which was just a pole across the road, by the oldest Ghanian I've seen so far. We paid him 5 cedi to be able to go feed the ostriches for about 10 minutes. From there it was lunch time. We stopped at a place where we heard crocodiles come up to where you are eating and ask for food. We waited way to long for our food that wasn't very good and at 7 cedi to touch the crocs we passed on that attraction.  We still got to see one hunting a bird, get close enough to and take pictures of a huge one, and lunch actually consisted of a standard portion of protein (something that is difficult to find here, seriously 2 little chicken joints to get me by for the whole day?! the dietitian in me dies every time). After lunch we went to load back into our taxi and Edwin thought it was a good time to try and rip us off. He casually informed us that to continue it would cost 10 cedi more per person. This led to a heated haggling battle between the 5 of us and him that ended with us agreeing to pay only the extra 10 cedi for the police stops after we had gathered our stuff and started walking down the road. He begrudgingly let us back into the taxi and drove us to our last stop, the Elmina slave castle. As soon as we showed up we were hounded by a bunch of guys trying to scam us for money. After getting away from them and getting into the castle we were led around by a very nice tour guide. He showed us the male and female dungeons, the governors living quarters, and the door of no return where they led the slaves out to the ships (at which point an American girl in our group asked me where those ships were going).. After the castle tour was over and getting hastled on our way out again (they had written our names on sea shells and demanded that we gave them money for the "gift") we loaded into Edwin's taxi for, I'm sure to his relief, the last time and went back to our resort. We paid him the agreed upon amount, which is way more than he would have made just driving around picking people up all day, and did a little souvenir shopping. After dinner at the resort we hung out with and played cards with some more volunteers we met, watched a fire and acrobat show, and drank beers by the bon fire that the resort set up until about 2am. Everyone slept in a little in the morning but I was having trouble sleeping so I got up, walked along the beach a little bit and watched the fishermen bring in the mornings catch. We then all had a lazy breakfast of eggs and nutella crepes, went shopping a little more, and went to the Cape Coast slave castle (this one run by the British, mostly sent slaves to America, the other one fought over by the Dutch and Portuguese, sent slaves mostly to Brazil). I actually liked to Cape Coast castle a little better- more information on the tour, cooler architecture, and more cannons- even though we had to cut the tour short to go check out of the resort. After hitting all the shops we promised our money to on the way to the castle we went back, checked out, and ate our final obroni friendly lunch of pizza and french fries (chips for Marin and Chris). We took one of the nicest tro-tros I've ever seen back to the volunteer house, the whole time I can't wait to take a shower, and we're out of water. Bucket shower it is.. but not before dinner of plain rice and bean soup. It was definitely the best weekend, of 3 so far here and I spent way to much money but doing things like this on the weekend make time go by a little quicker and remind you that not everything in this country has to be depressing. Information on my project next week. Happy Birthday Mom!!

Ghanian food I ate this week: ground but soup (soup made from peanut butter with some added chicken and eggplant)

Best thing I saw carried on a head: sewing machine

Number of times the lights went out: Maybe only 9 or 10 but since it has been more rainy, and I heard they might be doing some electricity sparing, it lasted longer these times. Like all day Friday instead of just maybe an hour. 

Puppy that was living at the resort. This was actually the first dog I have given attention to here, mostly because he was well fed and wasn't roaming around the street. 

Our tour guide at Kakum talking to us about cocoa plants.

The best I can do to show the canopy walk.

It was scarier than I'm making it seem. I'm only smiling cause I'm like super brave. 

Marin and I excited to have survived.

Here are some of the monkeys at the sanctuary playing with the Dutchmans hair. Like I said, they told us a few to many times that the monkeys sleep with them.

Feeding the ostriches. The farmer told me I could ride them but it never happened. He didn't speak any English and just nodded when I talked.

Crocodiles at lunch. Some other guy had paid to touch them. I just took advantage of picture time.

The outside of Elimina castle and at the bottom you can see Chris and Taylor (American) getting hastled by the locals.  We did actually buy some bracelets from them but I wanted to smash that stupid shell on the ground.

Our tour guide in front of 'the door of no return'. 

On top of the castle standing guard for Dutch invasions.

Chris on top next to one of the cannons.

Day 2. Cape Coast castle. Check out all those cannons. 

'The door of no return'- it used to only be large enough for one person at a time to exit so as to keep order but in the 90s they opened it up and renamed to other side 'the door of return' so that people can come back and discover their roots in Ghana. We saw a plaque that Obama unveiled in 2009 during his trip to the castle.

 

Week 2

When I go to music festivals with my friend Joe he always reminds me about port-o-potty moments. These moments are usually the only time you get alone to gather your thoughts. Here I go through a similar thing but I like to call them Tro-tro moments.

Tro-tro is an Africian word (I'm not sure if it's Ghanian since apparently they are all over this part of Africa) that means 'it stops'. Tro-tros are these vans that travel along predetermined routes picking up and dropping off people along the way. The vans are all fairly clean but they differ in their level of.. let's say 'put togetherness'. One of my favorite games to play is how many dashboard lights are on in the Tro-tro.  The Tro-tro is owned by the driver but my favorite thing about Tro-tros is the mate. His job is to hang half way out the window and yell where the Tro is going. He is also responsible for filling it to max capacity even if that means having people sit on his lap. I once saw 2 guys hanging off the back of the Tro-tro standing on the bumper. I wonder if they got to pay less.

As I sit squished into a Tro-tro, shoulders and legs touching I like to look around and guess what everyone is doing there. On their way to or from work, on the way to the market, off to visit friends?  But no matter where they are going I know they are thinking 'what is this obroni doing here?'

Obroni is the magical term of endearment the Ghanians have assigned to all white people.  They don't use it in a derogatory way, it's just what they yell at you as you are walking down the road. My favorite way to hear obroni is yelled at me from the little kids we are constantly walking by around town. They will chase after you while screaming it then when you turn and respond they have very little to say, they just wanted you to know that you are, in fact, an obroni. My least favorite way to hear it is from the people I work with while they are speaking Twi which has only happened a few times.  There is a term for a black person that we'll yell back at the kids sometimes. I wonder what it will be like to go home and walk around without hearing obroni. How will I know what my skin color is? I also wonder what would happen if I start yelling out the skin color of everyone that walked by..

Anyway back to Tro-tros, I have come up with a few ground rules for riding them:

1) Ask twice where they are going. If they hesitate, they aren't going there.

2) Never pay more than the locals.

3) Bag goes on your lap. This is to protect it both from other people and from falling through the floor. 

4) Take up as much room as you can when you sit down. The entire trip will be a silent war over who can get the most leg room.

5) If the tro breaks down, start walking. It's going to be a while.

6) Pee before you get on. Its going to be a bumpy ride.

Week 2 has been all about my work site. I was assigned my project and got started on it (more on that later). I met the director of the American side of the NGO that I'm working for. And I participated in 2 very busy clinic days (again, more on those later). During the evenings we get so bored we've started spying on our neighbors and now we are convinced the orphanage is just a cover for a very lucrative international drug ring (it's actually more plausible than you would think). I got so sick one night I thought I was going to die. And over the weekend we went to another beach resort to meet up with some other American volunteers. After the beach we stopped on the way home for pizza and chocolate.

Getting comfortable here wasn't difficult. I can now walk through camp with very little supervision and I'm practicing my haggling skills (they are still a work in progress). I was struggling at first with the idea that it seemed like I was insulting people when I said I was here to volunteer but as I talk to more Ghanians I realize how they feel about their country and the help they receive. One guy that I met explained it to me this way 'if you have 2 pineapples and you give 1 to your neighbor, they will wonder why you didn't give them both'. And apparently it's worse with refugees. It seems wrong to say we should stop helping so much but it seems like we need to do less handing out and more helping out. 

Ghanian food I tried this week: Fufu (a very sticky mashed mixture of plantain and cassava (potato-like plant) that is eaten with very spicy chicken and fish stew, usually with your hands (right hand only))

Best thing I saw carried on a head: a clear wooden box with a live chicken in it.

Number of times the lights went out: 9

The concept of appetizing advertising is lost here. These are just plain crackers.

Usually the only wildlife you will see here are the chickens, goats, and sheep of the local farmers but we got a glimpse of this guy on our way to the beach. We fed him a banana and he followed us to the gate of the resort where the security guards had to chase him away. 

Here's a really terrible picture of an acrobatic act that came out during the live music at the resort this weekend. The kid was juggling hats while balancing on his mates head.