Settling In

Africa » Ghana » Greater Accra » Accra » Korle Bu
February 1st 2009

Published: February 1st 2009

Edit Blog Post

jhopcian

The Road, Hostel to Hospital

My Hostel.

So, my hostel is about 1.5 miles away from the hospital... which isn't too bad. It's a nice walk each day. My roommate is Emeka. He's from Nigeria originally, but studies medicine in Germany. He's here for a few months doing surgery and ob-gyn rotations. Our hostel hosts medical students, many of which are from surrounding African nations. There is no running water (due to recent shortage)... but we do have satellite TV. Go figure! 😊 We bathe with buckets that we fill from a main water tank that is filled with water shipped in by trucks.

Food.

So I've been drinking bottled water and eating food from restaurants... so stomach issues yet! I've been venturing around town by tro-tro (pictured) and found my way to an open air market in a neighborhood called Kumasie. The various seafood (fish, huge piles of minnows, bowls of live miniature crabs) was a bit scary to me, as was the meat selection (pigs feat, cuts of unknown meat, freshly killed chickens with feathers, head and all). I did however buy some peanut butter and bread as well as rice, beans and local seasoning called peppe (hot pepper,

Hostel Exterior

garlic, ?). Along with a small aluminum pot... this has created my breakfast, lunch and dinner plans for this week... rice&beans and peanut butter sandwiches. There's always plenty of fresh fruit for sale along the street. The pineapple is amazing here.

Networking.

JP's friend Jack Tocco was kind enough to put me in touch we two friends of his who happen to live in Accra. I met up with one of these friends, Avani Patel, for dinner. We met her husband and her co-worker (both work for the Peace Corps offices here in Ghana) and ate at what must be one of the nicest restaurants in Ghana. We had a seafood platter and it was amazing. The next night, we went to her house and attempted to watch Slumdog Millionaire (pirated computer file). Unfortunately, the computer file was corrupted about 15 minutes into the film. Oh well... it was fun to hang out with Avani and her ex-pat friends.

Church.

I went to Catholic mass today with my roommate, Emeka. The church is St. Lukes, near the hospital. The mass was nice... the subject was relating chastity. The music was fun... lots of percussion,

My Room

fun beats and rhythms, clapping and dancing. The Hallelujah chorus was sung in Twi (local dialect) but the tune was very familiar from the Parang (Trini Christmas music) JP plays from time to time.