Blogs from Ghana, Africa - page 11

This was the fourth trip Kwesi and I did together to Accra. Kwesi has gone each year but I missed a few in between! The plants around Kwesi's mom's house are beautiful. We spent about ten days visiting in Accra with Kwesi's mom and also touching base with Faustina, the director of True Vision Ghana (TVG: www.truevisionghana.org). Fausti and I managed to get a shopping day in to buy crafts that I then help to sell in Canada to raise a bit of money for TVG.... read more

I can't believe it's already Saturday again!!! The days here are so long but the weeks fly by. Last Sunday, brook, one of the other volunteers here wasn't feeling so hot. We all have gotten on and off sick with GI bugs here and there, but she actually spiked a fever so we decided to go to the clinic. Sundays are days of worship here- mass on Sunday typically goes from 9am to 1 or 2 pm and is basically a giant party- lots of singing and dancing. I wish church was like that at home! Anyways, because it was Sunday there was only one nurse, a friend of ours named Francisca, working the clinic. She didn't have access to the medications and the lab was closed, so we had no way of getting brook a ... read more

Weblog Things here in Ghana are fine. "Fine " seems to be the word everyone uses to describe things around here... If I ask my sick febrile patient with malaria "eti sen?" (How are you?) the is ALWAYS "eh ye" (I'm fine.) Nobody in Ghana complains about anything. Everything is always "fine" On Monday I helped suture up an 8 year olds eyebrow laceration. They have almost no pain management here. The kid was an angel, he just say there while we used huge sutures (like the kid you see used to close abdomens of obese patients after abdominal surgery) to stitch up his face. Didn't even cry, didn't say a word. At the end I asked him how he was and he just said "I'm fine, thank you" in twi. Makes me really feel like ... read more

Things I missed about England 1. Cheese. Gooey, melted cheese. People just don’t eat cheese in Ghana. You can get it, but it’s really expensive and hard to find. 2. Hot showers. And hot water coming out of the tap. 3. Being able to go out in cropped trousers or shorts, and not get bitten to pieces by mosquitoes. 4. Diet Coke. I only found “Coca Cola Light” once the whole time I was in Ghana. And it wasn’t the same. And the coke there goes flat REALLY quickly as soon as you’ve opened the bottle. 5. Cadbury’s chocolate – particularly “Marvellous Creations Jelly Bean Popping Candy Shells” 6. Being able to smoke in public and not get shouted at 7. McDonald’s breakfasts (Mmmmm McMuffins) 8. Being clean. No matter how well you scrub in the ... read more

Last night, I was happily chilling on the patio at about 11pm, when Ryan and Shauna twisted my arm to go to the bar. I found out that it's called "Purple Roof". It didn't take much convincing, so off we went. As happened the night before, the dogs walked us all the way there (Bobby and Peace), and tried to even come up the stairs to the bar with us! It was such a funny night - a few Ghanaian men came over to chat, and one of them (who claimed he lived in Holland) kept coming back again and again. He was so funny, the things he came out with. He said "Me and my sister...we have a child....from China....ooks like a zebra". And I started laughing - and said "You had a baby with ... read more