Nicknames

So I haven’t really taken the time to really talk about the people that I am on this trip with. Or any of the Crystal or St. Thomas clinic staff. I would be having near the time of my life without all of them. 

There are 10 of us from BYU including Dr. Page, the director of the Global Health Internships and a public health professor. Other than him there is Rachel, Alyssa, Annie, Mary Ellen, Marissa Daniel, Gavin, Austin and myself. Marissa loves nicknames and so she insisted on picking nicknames for all of us. Rachel (Ray, or Richy as John calls her) is just a ball of sunshine haha. She was a cheerleader in high school and hates being ripped off. Out of all of us I would say that she gets the most upset over the cost of our hotel, but she's great. Alyssa is a little quieter but very smart. Her and Rachel are roommates and I have probably spent the least amount of time with them just because I haven’t been on the same shifts as them. Annie (Ace was Marissa’s nickname but it hasn't really stuck, still working on one) is from Seattle, she is Chinese but doesn’t speak the language. Super nice girl, hard working and smart. She is on a research team with Mary Ellen and myself. Annie has celiac’s disease so she cant eat gluten. Which has proven to be very difficult here! I feel bad for her because almost everywhere we go to eat she has to decline something or try and break through the language barrier to ask if they have anything different. She can eat rice though, and there is no shortage of that here! Mary Ellen (Mare, or Auntie Mary as all the Ghanians call her) is one of the nicest girls I’ve met. She can socialize with a rock if she wanted to. People are drawn to her because of her demeanour and also her height haha. She is 6 feet tall so not super tall but that’s taller than most men here in Ghana. Mary Ellen and I had a public health class together last semester, Environmental Health so I feel as though I know her the best. Marissa (or Riss) is the life of the party. She brings excitement to the group and there is never a dull moment when she is around. Her and Mary Ellen are roommates and those two are now the best of friends. Marissa is Peruvian but has lived in California her whole life. Daniel (or “D”) is just a great guy. I don't know how else to explain him, he's just one of those guys that you love because they are just…great! He is part of BYU mens chorus and served his mission in Mexico about a year and a half ago. Gavin (Vinny is his nickname) is by far the quietest of the bunch. He seems quite independent which isn’t a bad thing but sometimes we lose him because he will wander off randomly haha. It’s happened at the mall, church, outreaches and everywhere in between. He always turns up though so we are never worried when we don't know where he is. He served his mission in Paris, France and only has been home about 2 months. He was ecstatic when he found a number of french speakers at church. Most were missionaries or investigators. He stayed after church the other day to teach in french with the missionaries. And oh man does he sweat! I’ve not seem him dry once this trip. He has a big blonde fro too, just like the one I used to have in high school. Good kid, I like him. Then there is Austin (we haven’t figured out a nickname yet) he’s from Utah and is my roommate. A great guy, I love him, I couldn’t have asked for a better roommate. We have some pretty good laughs. He is a type I diabetic and has been since childhood. It has been incredibly interesting to live with a diabetic. I have learned a ton from watching him and asking him questions. I have watched him do everything from check his blood glucose, which I have done a bunch with BYU EMS, to refill and change his insulin pump to giving himself the occasional injection. He said he would let me inject him next time so I am looking forward to that! I guess I should mention my nickname haha. They call me Scoobs because I am really good at impressions they have come to find out and Scooby-Do was one of the first that I did. But thats the BYU crew! They are awesome and lots of fun. I am the oldest one of the group which seems a little weird sometimes but I am used to being the older one. I have always hung out with people younger than me. 

There are some other volunteers that I have met and worked with. Mariana was here for our first week and then went back to Australia. She is a recently graduated medical student and is interested in Ophthalmology. There is Richard from London who is here with us until June who is also a recently graduated med student interested in Ophthalmology. Jerry is the other Canadian from Montreal. He’s a funny guy. He seems pretty serious a lot of the times and we are trying to break his shell a bit while we are on an overnight outreach with him. I like him. Darren and Tia Hill and their 3 kids, Grayson, Eva, and Lila are awesome! They just left but I was able to work with Darren my first week. He is going into his last year of medical school in the states. They came out here with their whole family for 1 month! He is the only Unite For Sight volunteer so his wife entertains the kids while he is out on outreaches or in the clinic every day. She is a champ! I loved their little family and was beyond impressed with their decision to come out here together. 

Us with the Hills on Sunday. Front from left to right: Grayson, Tia, Lila, Aiva, Darren, Rachel, Merissa, Alyssa, Annie. Back row: Gavin, me, Mary Ellen, then Daniel and Austin in the very back. 

The Crystal crew…

My man John! 

Ernest is the main Optometrist but he’s also one of the youngest. He is hilarious! He loves to sing songs in the van and always makes the outreaches not only go by faster because he sees the most patients but also fun. Then there is Dennis, the other Optometrist. Dennis is a great guy but he does like to take his time and a lot of breaks haha. He sees probably less than half the patients that Ernest gets through in a day. One day we were in the Central region and Dennis sits down at the table for examinations and says to Austin “(sigh) I do not want to work today.” I think he took about 4 breaks within the first hour and a half haha. But don’t get me wrong I like Dennis he can be pretty funny. John is one of the drivers and he usually runs the dispensing table and translating. He speaks at least 4 different African languages so he comes in handy. I love John, I think he is my favourite. He loves to joke around and flirt with all the girls. He’s 41, married and has 3 kids. Mary Ellen is his favourite person in our group, he gets so excited when he sees her it funny. He was the one that drove us to Cape Coast. One day I let him borrow my pen, my nice Zebra F-701, and afterwards he says “Court…I really love this pen! When you leave I want this pen.” I told him that if he can go the whole 6 weeks without crashing the van he can have my pen. Lastly there is Bismarck, or BB, he is another driver. I believe he is the youngest of the bunch but like John he flirts with everyone. Most of the time he is is on his tablet but he is pretty chill. 

Ernest is the one in the middle. BB is in the back holding the flower of Ernest's head and you cant see him but Dennis is holding the banana. And of course Austin is the white guy. Darren has his back to us.

The St. Thomas crew…

Ema is the Optometrist and I still don’t know how much English he knows haha. There will be times where you will be talking to him and when you wait for a response all you get is a smile and a nod. But as I have spent more time with him I’ve been able to tell more when he doesn’t understand. Him and Seth, the driver, love fufu. It’s their favourite food. They have it every night. I have had it twice with them, this last time was better than the first. I will explain what fufu is in another post. Seth is a super nice guy, he is tall and skinny and I always see him in a dress shirt, slacks and dress shoes. When he drives he doesn’t try and avoid the pot holes as much as John does and sometimes I wonder how the van has survived this long without blowing a tire or the suspension. Arnold is the last of the St. Thomas crew. He’s a good guy, I like him. He has a competitive side to him and so we end up doing arm wrestles or endless games of chess on the computer etc. He loves it when I play music on my phone. He heard one Taylor Swift song and immediately fell in love with her. When I switched to another artist he as asked “can you go back to Swift? I like her.” He likes to joke around a bit as well. St. Thomas is much more lax than Crystal is, part of that is because they see less than half the amount of patients so they have more time. They never seem like they are in a rush, but that is the nature of every Ghanian. 

Dr. Ema, Mary Ellen and myself eating fufu in the Eastern region after an outreach. Ema loves his fufu haha.

Golden Tulips, Pizza and Ultron

Saturday May 16, 2015

Saturday was defiantly a “western” day. First we took a couple taxis (there were 9 of us) to the Golden Tulip, a resort in Accra. For a hotel that is $296 US dollars per night it was smaller than I expected but still nice, especially by Ghanian standards. The pool was small and not as nice as La Palm, another expensive hotel that some had swam at our first week. Initially it cost 40 cedi to swim and lounge but a couple of the girls worked their magic and got us in for 30 cedi each. Thats roughly $8 US. It was so nice to swim, sunbathe and just relax. It didn’t feel like we were in Africa anymore, well until I opened my eyes and saw all of the Obimini’s (black people). They had some pretty awesome looking food there too! I’m talking huge cheeseburgers with bacon and fries, ribs, steaks, and much more. But I wasn’t ready to fork over 30 cedi for a single hot dog and fries (and that was the cheapest item). Stakes were 80, 90 or even 100 cedi. So I payed for a coke and stuck with my Eatmore bars and beef jerky. I realized also that the pop here isn’t made with corn syrup but actual sugar cane. It tastes so much better, I love it! 

Pool side, The Golden Tulip. Nothing extravagant but still a little paradise.

After the pool we headed over to the Accra Mall. We got pizza, which was actually really good, bought a few things at Shoprite (a western style grocery store), then headed to the Theatre. There are certain things in the grocery store that are crazy expensive! For example red bell peppers were 70 cedi for 100g! can you imagine paying nearly $20 for a few peppers? No wonder they dont eat vegetables here, they cost too much! 

The movie we saw was the real reason why we came to the mall. We saw the new Avengers movie, Age of Ultron. It was SO GOOD! I absolutely loved it! Movies have become a prized possession on this trip that’s for sure. I was the only one to bring any DVD’s and it has helped us all enjoy some good down time we’ve had. But my selection was heavily limited to the movies I could find in my house. We don’t have too many DVD’s left in their appropriate cases anymore (I blame chase and his younger years of endless movie watching on our portable DVD player and never putting them back). But we are making due. 

Playing Catchup

So its been almost a week since the last time I have written anything! I knew my diligence wouldn’t last. I had the same problem on my mission as well. Journal writing is just so tasking sometimes especially when there are much better things that I would rather be doing like reading or spending time with friends. But I know that I will be grateful in the future when I can go back and read about my adventures. So shall we go back to Thursday?

Thursday May 14th was actually a really cool day! It was the first time I was in the St. Thomas Eye Clinic. I first helped out and observed pre-surgery examinations with Dr. Ese. He seemed really young to be an Ophthalmologist but everyone here looks younger than they actually are. The other week we helped a woman that was 100 years old and she didn’t look older than 80. After that I went upstairs to change for surgeries! I changed into scrubs and went downstairs to the “theatre,” which is what they call the operating room. In the prep room there were a couple nurses prepping patients for surgery. It was a small room where organization was not the highest priority. After putting on a mask and hair net I watched as they numbed the eye(s) with lidocaine. I couldn’t believe the size of needle they used! Despite being a small gauged needle, maybe 28 or 30, it was long, around 3.5 inches. They took iodine swabs and cleaned the area under the eye then inserted the needle under the eye and all the way to the back of the eye. What surprised me more I think was how calm every patient was. They didn’t even flinch or squirm at all. But I think that was either because of the culture of doing what you're told or you’ll be beaten or the fact that nearly all of them couldn’t see out of that eye so they didn’t know what was coming. After the anesthesia the nurses put make-shift pressure bandages over their eyes but placing gauze on the eye and a tennis ball strapped to a pantie hose that was tied around the head. This kept slight pressure on the eye. 

The surgeries were very interesting. I was observing Dr. Gyasi (pronounced Jesse). He is a great guy! He loved answering all of my questions and was more than willing to show me anything I asked. I saw about 4 cataract surgeries in the space of an hour or so. The technology they have is definitely not what we have in North America but they made due. They were making certain tools from bending the needles of syringes to scrape away thick cataracts. I’m not sure if this was a well known technique or just their way of saving money but it worked. The cataracts I saw were very hard and I may never see any like them back home because people simply don’t let them get that bad. I really enjoyed watching the surgeries and I could spend much more time getting into the details of other techniques and things they did that were intriguing. 

Friday May 15th

We finished early and were back at the Telecentre by 4pm. Now there was talk that morning of going to the temple with everyone but it was just Austin, Daniel and myself at the hotel. The rest had the day off after spending the former part of the week on an overnight outreach. We weren’t sure if they were expecting us to meet them at the temple or if they were going to be coming back from swimming or wherever they were and then we all head out together. By the time we had decided that they were expecting us to meet them there it was too late. We wouldn't have made it there in time for the 6:30 session. I was kind of bummed that we didn’t get to go but there will be other days to go to the temple. 

Keep Calm, Just Swim

Wed. May 13, 2015

Had the shortest day to date! We finished around noon! We only saw a total of 31 patients today up in a small village called Agona. It’s a beautiful place in the middle of the jungle. There they speak Fante, similar to Twi. 

What did we do for the rest of the day? Well for starters we went to the beach! And when I say beach you are welcome to picture a nice beach but then dump a ton of garbage all over it. I couldn’t believe how much trash there was. We saw a man walk down to the shore as we were playing frisbee and dump a small garbage can of garbage along with who knows what else. We saw roughly 3 naked children while we were there, one of which just squat down on the spot and dropped some kids off at the pool. If you plan on going to an african beach don’t plan on having any time alone. We always had people around us, mainly children. It was lots of fun despite the uncleanliness. We had to tell ourselves to not think about what goes into the water but to just enjoy it. 

Then we went to another slave castle with Arnold, one of the St. Thomas workers and his friend Irene. It’s called the Elmena slave castle. They were just closing when we got there but they said that they would do one more tour just for us. It was similar to the one in Cape Coast but slightly different in some ways. For one this one was the first major European slave castle built in Africa. Built by the Portugese in 1492 it was and still is the largest one ever built. From the roof we could see the Cape coast castle in the distance. I didn’t realize how close they were. 

Ill give you one guess to who Arnold is. 

The beach next to Elmena Castle. 

The signage next to Elmena Castle. It's a good thing they said something. 

The town we are staying in seems small in my eyes but it seems like a major fishing town. They have a large port and tons of fishing boats. The streets were filled with people too. Many who would call out to us, some who asked for money and others to come and buy their goods. You learn to play dump like you can’t hear them because many of them know we have money and take advantage of us. For example we took a short taxi ride up to the castle and the driver said 80 pesewas which is like 21 cents. When we get there we give him 1 cedi which is more than what he told us and then he says that its 80 each! Never had I heard of people paying individually for a taxi ride. He was cheating us for sure. Arnold didn’t want confrontation and we didn't want arnold to pay so we did. When you think about it, it’s hardly anything but I don't like getting taken advantage of no matter how little it seems. We ran into the missionaries again today and they were telling us that they cant take a taxi for 2.50 cedi up to Agona 45 minutes away where we were working today so we know taxies are cheap here. So a taxi driver that is trying to get 3.20 from us when we went 3 blocks is ridiculous. But it all worked out. 

There is so much more that I could share about Ghana but its hard to put it into words and I don’t have the time nor the patience, if I am being honest, to write it all haha. I am loving it here and I am glad that I am here for another 5 weeks! There will be some awesome adventures for sure!

Oh I almost forgot about a funny thing someone said to me as we were walking down the street after the beach. I was wearing my swim suit and tank top and I was waving and saying hi to some people in their shops as we passed. One guy says hi and I return the greeting, then he says “you have a nice body!” haha I didn’t really know what to say so I said thank you and continued on. I think its the skin more than anything. I have had many children look in awe and touch my skin. I am sure for many of them its the first time they have been this close to an Obruni before so touching white skin is pretty big deal. Nothing is as cute as a small black child waving back to you as you pass. They always have a huge smile on their face and you feel like you just made their day! 

Central region here we come!

Yesterday (sunday) was a pretty chill day. We went to church and watched the Sunday morning session of conference with the members. I am not sure if that was the first time they had seen it or they are just watching it as a repeat. Afterwards all the girls and Gavin left for their outreach with crystal eye clinic this week. Which left Austin, Daniel and myself alone until the next day when we left on our own overnight outreach trip with St. Thomas eye clinic to the central region. There were two new guys that arrived Saturday night. Richard and Jerry. Richard is from London and Jerry is from Montreal! I’t not the only Canadian anymore! Although I kind of liked it haha. They seem like great guys. I wont see them until we get back but I look forward to working with them. 

Monday May 11, 2015

Today we drove a few hours to a place called Bronyibima. A small village in the central region. This was my first time working with the St. Thomas clinic outreach team and I may be biased because I started with crystal but I enjoy working with the crystal eye clinic team more. It was a long day but we didn’t see nearly as many patients as I am used too, only about 60-70 total today. Crystal eye clinic usually sees twice that. I think they are a bigger clinic though and they have more staff so thats understandable. Not a bad day overall though. The area we were in was one of the poorest I have been in so far. A lot of the children didn’t have any other clothes on except for their underwear. But it always amazes me how happy they are! Despite the conditions they live in they are as happy as ever. I guess they just don't know what life is like otherwise. It makes me understand more about how the scriptures talk about how we need to be more like a child; submissive, meek, humble etc. 

We are staying in a hotel close by in another village. No air conditioning but we have a fan at least. The 3 of us are sharing a room which is nice. The price is more like what it should be, 40 cedi per night. That is roughly $10 a night. 

We had fufu for the first time since I have been here tonight! It was just like I remembered it from my mission in Toronto. Fufu is ground down cassava into a big ball of dough almost. Then the put it in a spicy soup over it and put some meat in it. Tonight it was goat meat. You grab a piece of fufu dip it in the soup and swallow it straight without swallowing. Haha it takes a bit to get used to but its good. Austin loves it! Daniel kind of struggled to overcome his gag reflex haha. I told him it took me three times on my mission before I was able to eat all of it so he was doing fine! Afterwards we got some fruit for dessert and who do we run into on the street? The missionaries! Haha it was awesome! They were from Arizona and Alabama. We talked about the culture, food, and what it has been like to live here. They knew something was up when they saw my BYU t-shirt so they stopped and said hello. 

There is another slave castle really close to where we are staying so we are hoping to make it there before we leave. We are staying really close to the beach as well which is awesome! We cant wait to go swimming! 

The Adventures of Cape Town

Saturday May 9, 2015

What an amazing day!! WOW! We did so much today it was great! Today was the first day off we all had together. John agreed to take us to Cape town about 4-5 hours away. We left early around 6:30 and arrived at our first destination around 10:15am. We first did a canopy walk where we walked along seven rope bridges that were spread out through the canopy of the rainforest preserve we were in. It was so fun! But dad would have hated it! We were about 40 meters (130 feet) above the ground most of the time. I took some great pictures. After that we drove about and hour more to the crocodile tourist spot. They took us out a bit into the river where they knew some crocodiles were and brought some out with food and had us pet them! Wild crocodiles! There was one really big mama that the lady fed probably a 10-12 footer but she didn't come to the shore like the smaller ones that we pet. We asked her if anyone has ever been attacked by one and she said no but I don’t know if I believe her. They have a restaurant right on top of this large pond or river where it’s filled with crocodiles! And there are no gates, fences or anything keeping them from mingling with the people! They only thing that keeps them at bay is the heat of the day. Apparently they come out more at night and roam around. Either way it seemed like a crazy place! haha but an awesome experience. A cheap one too! 2 cedi each which equates to about 56 cents. 

The first of seven rope bridges we crossed 

 From front to back: Me, Gavin, Daniel, Mary Ellen, Marissa, Elisa, Annie, Rachel and Austin

Petting a crocodile. What!

After living the life of a crocodile hunter we moved onto the Cape town slave castle about 45 minutes away. That was such an interesting experience. We went on a tour of the Cape town slave castle that housed around 1500 slaves at any given time. It was right on the shore so boats could come in from Europe, trade their weapons, gunpowder, food and other raw goods for slaves that they then took to North and South America. Then they sold the slaves for raw materials like sugar cane and tobacco and then returned to Europe to trade and start the process all over again. They called it the trading triangle. 

Cape Town Slave Castle

Our tour guide took us down into the male dungeon first where there were 5 large rooms made out of brick and mortar. Each room housed roughly 200 slaves. When you are in the room though it looked like it could barely fit half that! The rooms were about 15’ wide, 20’ long, and 20’ high. The first room we went to had brick floor that you could see but everywhere else had what appeared to be packed dirt. We were told however that the floor was covered in old, packed, human faces, urine, blood, vomit and everything else that could have been left behind from the slaves. They had excavated the one room down to the original floor to show people what it was like originally but let the rest. At one point the slaves would have been standing on about a foot or so of their own excrements for up to 2 or 3 months at a time. 1 in 4 slaves didn’t survive the stay. Slowly they were moved down room by room (which were all connected) until they reached a tunnel that bumped up to what they called the door of no return. Once you walked through that door there was no chance of you returning to African soil. I can’t express in words the feeling in those dungeons. It was a mixture of eerie, sacred, frightening, sickening, and honoured. I definitely felt a difference in spirit when we entered the dungeon. So many people. So many lives. I definitely hope that some day I can meet some of the brave men and women that had to endure such a horrific life. 

Austin and I jumped in the ocean after at the beach right next to the castle. The water felt great! Very salty! It was my first time swimming in the atlantic. 

Definitely my favourite day so far. 

The beach is beautiful, you just need to ignore the garbage everywhere

Baboons!

Thur. May 7, 2015

Today was another long day. We didn’t get home until 8:30pm. It amazes me how long it takes to travel in such a small country. I haven’t looked at a map of where exactly we have been going but I would assume it would take us normally less than an hour what we do in 2 or 3. It’s mainly because of traffic and bad roads. Just in Accra, the capital, there are 8 million people with not very many main highway systems. Even though these highways dont have speed limits the sheer volume of drivers makes it difficult to do so even if you wanted to. And with the random bundle of speed bumps to slow the drivers down and all the pot holes etc. it makes for a pretty uncomfortable ride. Its not too bad though. We talk and have fun along the way. Today Ernest, one of the Optometrists, was singing all the American pop songs that he knows haha. 

Once we got out of the city we pulled over next to a wilderness sanctuary and saw some baboons on the side of the road. They came right up to our car because I think they know that we give them food, which we did. Darin, a med student, gave them some biscuits. I have a video of them. It was pretty cool to see them in the wild. After that we came to the river crossing where we had to take a ferry across. As soon as you stop there are tons of people trying to sell you stuff through your windows. Mainly food but also random things like steering wheel covers and q-tips. Some of the food kind of sketches me out as far as cleanliness goes. I am definitely going to be a bit more cautious now given my recent experiences. The seafood I especially don’t trust. The shrimp and crawfish, snails and oysters are all bottom feeders and if you saw the water that is in Ghana you would feel the same way. No regard for sanitation whats so ever. Trash fills some gutters and covers many banks. 

Today we were in a small village called Juapong. It was beautiful! I tried taking photos but they didn’t do it justice. The church they had was actually pretty nice by Ghana’s standard. We helped about 170 patients today and I got to play some frisbee with more kids! These kids were older and caught on quicker than our first day. It was super fun! The people cooked us dinner afterwards which was pretty good, I didn’t like the yams (potatoes but they call them yams here) very much but the rest was good. I can feel myself getting closer with the crystal eye clinic workers. They are pretty awesome! John and Ernest are hilarious and Dennis has his funny moments. Bismarck is one of our drivers and he checked out our Facebook accounts today and added us as friends. 

All in all a pretty solid day including my stool.

Kofi’s Birthday!

Wed. May 6, 2015 

Today was Kofi’s birthday! He turned 21! Kofi works at the telecentre hotel and drives Austin and I back to our hotel every night because its too dangerous for two Obruni’s to walk back with bags at 10:30pm. He is a great kid. Everyone loves him in our group and so we wanted to throw him a party of sorts. We made a card on the back of a piece of paper and then when we all go back today we watched the Bourne Identity and ate Oreos. He loves action movies and had never seen any of the Bourne movies. He had also never had Oreos before. They ate those up pretty fast haha. One of the other girls at the hotel loves just the cookie part. The icing she says is too sweet for her. I think Kofi really enjoyed his birthday even though we couldn’t do much. He seemed really happy. Ill get a picture with him sometime for sure. He actually was taught by missionaries last year and almost got baptized! He went to church and everything! There were a couple BYU students that stayed at the hotel, one of them became his best friend he said. They introduced him to the gospel. I don't know exactly why he didn’t join the church. Perhaps he was nervous about being pressured into serving a mission, who knows. We have inviting him to church so we will see if he comes again. 

Today was kind of a rough day lets say haha. The food kind of caught up with my digestive tract and I didn’t have the best nights sleep. I think it was some bad noodles or chicken that I had the night before. The thought of it would make me nauseous. I thought of staying home but I figured I could tough it out and push through it. In the middle of an acuity test I just looked at Mary Ellen and told her that I wasn’t feeling well and walked off. A few violent regurgitations of the recent contents of my stomach and I was back at it! I felt a lot better but I was very dehydrated and tired. Good thing the work today was pretty chill. We didn’t have that many patients and there was no rush to get through them all. The people were kind of quite where we went. I forget how to spell the name. I will try and remember for tomorrow. 

I slept for most of the ride there and back. it was a long ride too, about 3 and a half hours both ways. Hopefully tomorrow I will be feeling better and be able to enjoy the day a little more. 

Fruit, Refugee Camps and Excel Programs

Tue. May 5, 2015

Today Austin and I got up a little late so the bus was waiting for us when we arrived at the telecentre. We had to stop and buy fruit on the way though. We have heard so much about it and I know that fruit is just better in hotter climates. We bought 3 pineapples and a huge mango for 13 Cedi’s. Cedi’s is the currency they have here. I tried to barter but I didn’t know what a good price was for fruit so I just payed what she asked for. Found out later that she had likely doubled the price. I should have payed 6-7 Cedi’s. One cedi is about $3.80 US dollars. So 13 is still really cheap but you still want to get a good deal. The fruit was great though! The pineapple was so sweet! Not acidic at all! The core was so soft that you could eat almost all of it as well. The mango was delicious as well. Makes for a great breakfast. A lot better than the toast and coffee/tea they provide for us in the mornings. We went to the bank the other day to withdraw money from the ATM and we all pulled out 1600 Cedi’s which is about $420 US. That will more than last me while I am here. 

Today we went to a Liberian refugee camp about 45 minutes away. In Ghana there are tons of people that walk the street carrying things on their heads to sell to cars as they wait in traffic. Anything from water to ice cream to data for your phone plans. Its funny because you just stick you hand out your window and wave one of them over. They come running with 50 pounds of stuff on their heads and sometimes have to keep running with the car to make the exchange haha. I don't know how they do it. But they do, and they do it all day. The refugee camp was just like you see in the movies. Scrap wood and metal as walls and roofs. We had to do a bit of off roading to get to the church in the camp. I was amazed with how many children there were in the camp. They would wave to us and some would shout “Obruni!” which means white person, then get the occasional smack over the head by their nearby mother haha. It really isn’t considered an insult at all so we don’t take offence. 

There were only about 120 people there today. A lot of muslims actually which was surprising until I remembered they were mostly from Liberia, a very muslim country. Not too many children today and I forgot my frisbee but there was no room to throw it around anyways. I was on the little 8 inch laptop that the clinic uses to record patient records in an excel spreadsheet. So because I spent all of my time starring at a very dimly lit computer screen (to conserve energy) I didn’t get that much human interaction today. I wasn’t to upset though the people there were not as open or talkative as the Ga people. It took me a little bit to get a hang of using the laptop but after I figured out the fastest keys to use things went much smoother. I also helped out with dispensing glasses and medications. They have to purchase them at a discounted rate. 

 Mary Ellen and John dispensing glasses and medications

 The refugee camp we went to 

This was the school that they had there. The teachers said that we should come back and teach there sometime. It was very sad to see the conditions that they lived in but humbling as well.

So Ghana is going through a power crisis (as in electrical power). The country receives all of its power from one huge damn a little further inland. When the country became independent 10 or 15 years ago (I cant really remember). They were fine and distributing power was not an issue but they never set up a solid transition plan to account for the increase in population and economy or the pulling out of other countries providing energy. So just this year they dont have enough power for the country with no way of fixing it! There are periods of time, sometimes all day, where the power wont work so everyone has to turn on a generator if they need light and things. Luckily we are gone all day and when we come back the power is usually on. But there have been times where the power has been off and so the AC doesn’t work haha. Those are the worst times. You are just praying for the power to come back on or for them to turn on the generator. The country though is in an uproar about the issue and it doesn’t make for a very happy people. 

I am loving it here. The people make me so happy because they are just so nice and accepting. They will do anything for you usually and they always greet you with a smile on their face. When you shake hands you do a similar hand shake to what “bro’s” do in north america but when your hands start to come apart you use each others fingers to snap your own. It’s hard to explain in words, I will have to demonstrate when I get home but its really cool and everyone does it, moms, dads, grandmas and kids! 

I hope I don’t curse myself by saying this but I don’t think I have gotten one mosquito bite since I have been here. Its great! Don’t worry I still take my malaria meds, I’m not stupid. I wont take my chances. 

Acho-meh Court!

Acho-meh is the phonetic word for “my name is.” This is how Ernest, one of the Optometrists here, had us introduce ourselves on our first outreach today in Teishie. It was a blast! Long but awesome. We were planning on leaving the Telecentre around 8-8:30 but left closer to 9:30. Time to Ghanians is very relaxed. When they say they will be there at 8 expect them at 8:30 or even later. It’s just how the culture is here. Everyone is pretty patient with each other. The outreach we went on today was the shortest travel time we will have while we are here, a mere 30 minutes from the hotel. I spent most of my time doing visual acuity tests. That was a ton of fun! 

There are many languages is Ghana. Each belonging to a different tribe. And there are tons of tribes! Many people speak multiple languages, including English. Today we were in the Ga tribe. I learned some simple words to help with the testing which was great! Now I dont know the correct spelling on all of them but I wrote them down phonetically to help me remember them. I learned how to say how are you, “toyo-teh,” I’m good “yo-mah-do,” sit down “tashi,” stand up “teshi,” thank you “oira-do.” It was really fun to learn other languages, I am excited to learn others! 

I brought a frisbee and taught some of the kids how to throw it. They had never seen a frisbee before so it was fun to see them learn. They learnt really fast too! By the end of the afternoon we had a full game of Ultimate going! African children are the cutest things in the world! I missed seeing a lot of black people from when I was on my mission so it has been great to be around so many here. 

The food has been pretty good! Ive only had the chance to have Jolloff with chicken and goat since I've been here but I plan on trying many other things too. Jolloff is spicy rice with fried chicken or other meat, coleslaw and extra spicy sauce on the side. I like it! Apparently the pinnacle here is amazingly sweet and delicious! The cores are not hard like in North America but soft and fibrous so much that you can eat the whole pineapple. We are planning on getting some fresh fruit tomorrow morning for breakfast. There are some fruit stands just down the street from where we are staying. 

There is a family staying at the hotel from Pennsylvania. The Hill’s (for some reason every Hill family decided to come to Ghana haha). They aren't related to any of the other Hill’s that are here on missions. Darin is a medical student who just applying for residency in Ophthalmology. He came over here with his wife and 3 kids under the age of 4! I give them huge props for making such a journey with a young family. Sister Hill spends all day with senior couples or at the temple etc. while Darin is on outreaches with the clinics. I think her job is harder than his is sometimes. 

Here are some other photos that I have been meaning to throw on my blog. 

Left to right: Austin, Merissa, Mary Ellen, myself. Walking the streets of Amsterdam 

Us again in one of the main squares down the street from Central station in Amsterdam 

The kids that we played Ultimate frisbee with. I will miss these kids. I hope they will be there when we go back next month. 

Its been a great adventure so far! The lack of reliable internet is a blessing and a curse, which will prove to be my nemesis on this trip. I will succeed however and post as often as I can. I still have to talk about my first couple days. 

Saturday, May 2, 2015. Amsterdam was amazing! It was so cool to just be in a foreign country and experience, even for a few hours, the people and their culture. Everyone it seemed smoked in Amsterdam. I felt like I was in Ontario again! The air was just filled with it but it was still beautiful. The old buildings brought such a charm to the city that I could feel the history radiating from their walls. As we walked the streets we saw many things from cheese shops, to every kind of restaurant, souvenir stores and boats on the canals. I could hardly believe that so many food vendors and shops could exist in one place! They seemed to be in every other available space. The smell of fresh bread, sweets, and meat filled the air and we found a new smell it seemed with every step. The waffles there were really good! I had a chocolate covered waffle with smarties haha I could feel the cavities forming haha. Note to self and and future traveler's to Amsterdam. If you find yourself on a oddly quite street with not many people or shops…just leave. And don't ever go back there, especially at night, because whether day or night there will be men there satisfying certain…desires. Thankfully it remained PG-13. After our adventures on the streets of Amsterdam we got back on the train and headed back to the airport. Got on our last flight to Accra. 6 and a half hours later we arrived! 

There were 6 of us on that last flight, the other 2 would be arriving before us. WE walked straight out onto the tarmac and onto an old city bus that drive us to the arrivals gate. I was afraid to touch the handles or anything else haha it was pretty dirty and the lights would flicker in the bus as we drove. Before security we all had to be scanned for Ebola we we walked through the hall. Each person had to walk in front of an infrared camera. I’m not sure if those that had symptoms or any signs of the disease would appear colder or warmer than they should, I didn’t see anyone get turned away. Security and customs were a breeze! No questions, just scan and go. And all we had to do at customs was hand in our declaration card. They didn’t even look at our bags or ask us any questions! We found out later that they do this when its really busy. One of our guys, Austin, lost his luggage. Another stayed back and helped him talk to the baggage reclaim desk but because he did that, by the time he went through customs it was not busy anymore and all of his bags were searched. 

We made it to the Telecentre Bed and Breakfast Hotel around 10 o’clock that night (ghana time). Austin and I are roommates but we have to sleep at a nearby hotel because there was no room for us in the Inn so to speak. They say we will be moving in on Tuesday. Church was great! We walked about 10 minutes over the highway to the church building. It was so awesome to see the church in another country like Ghana, thriving and nearly just the same as back home! The ward had recently been split into 3 smaller wards and they called an all new relief society, you mens, executive secretary, and priests quorum while we were there. We forgot it was fast Sunday, I guess traveling will do that to you, so we ate the toast that was provided that morning as our “continental breakfast” they also had coffee and tea but we had to sadly deny those. When we got back we had orientation and then had the rest of the day to ourselves. There is so much I could write about but I just don't have the time or patience to be honest haha. But what I will say is that I love it here so far. Yes there are some completely sketchy stuff that go on but its amazing. It’s hot! like really hot! And of course humid. I’ve never been in a more humid place in my life. Then combine it with the 35 degree (that’s Celsius for you americans) weather and it equals constant moisture. You are wet ALL THE TIME. I met a missionary at church from Nigeria and he says it is too hot here. I agree, but I don't mind it. My hair is curly again haha, I can thank the humidity for that. 

Well that’s all I have time to write about today. Tomorrow we have our first day working with the clinics on outreaches. Should be a great time! 

So my journey begins! I can't thank everyone enough for all the love and support they have given me as I have prepared for this trip. Thank you to those that donated to my fundraiser! I was able to raise $2375 in just a few short months! That money will help a lot of people while I am in Ghana.

This blog I will try and update on a regular basis to share my adventures and near death experiences (just kidding mom). I should let you know that I have never kept a blog before in my life so bear with me here as I learn the ropes.

In a few hours I will board a 9 hour flight to Amsterdam! There I have an 8 hour layover (ugh) until my next flight leaves straight for Accra, the capital of Ghana. But out of the 7 other BYU students that are going 2 or 3 of them will be there around the same time as me. So we will hit the streets of Amsterdam and party hard! Well as hard as a few BYU students in a foreign country can party at 9 o'clock in the morning. And with this being Amsterdam we will seem like a couple of students from some monastery.

The travel troubles have already begun as I found out that the one large suitcase that I had packed with all of the 600 pairs of reading glasses and food for lunches that I have to bring weighed almost 100 lbs. Whoops. And the suitcase itself was "too big" by itself so Ive had to repack everything into different suitcases this morning which has just been my favourite thing to do the morning of my trip (not!). But I'm not bitter, ok?! Whats nice about having to pack a lot of things that I wont be bringing home is that I will have plenty of room for souvenirs!

I hope I packed everything I need to but I know there will be something that I forgot, there always is. Anyways I need to go. I just discovered that my carryon weighs too much now and need to repack-again!