A month into it ALL

Fourth Week in Ghana: I CAN’T BELIEVE IT HAS BEEN REALLY FOUR WEEKS!
Oatmeal, soymilk, and cinnamon: the meal for EVERY BREAKFAST THIS WEEK.
Waking up in the morning for a run at 5:30 in the morning and then coming back STARVING…the best thing to do is to get a quick and easy breakfast. Yum, Yum, Yum.

The Coffee Cue situation

Katie, Emma, and I decided to treat ourselves to a glorious lunch at coffee cue…but SADLY they decided to charge Katie and I over an EXTRA CD for our meal…so we have…sadly decided to only purchase iced tea and iced milo from them EVER again. 

Classes: THE LAUGHING STALK
Classes here are SO DIFFERENT. I have always been raised to participate in class and be involved in any way that would benefit my education. Here, I don’t feel like participating AT ALL…because every time I open my mouth THE ENTIRE CLASS LAUGHS AT ME …including the teacher sometimes. I have participated in every class just to see the reaction of the students and teachers in each one…and EVERY SINGLE ONE LAUGHS. The problem is I participate like I do in the United States with intellectual thoughts, but here my vocabulary and speech is to advanced and fast for the Ghanaians to fully catch what I am saying…so they are complimenting me, sort of…but I can’t help but feel like I don’t have ANY say on what is going on or I have ANY CONTROL over my education here. The classes are an adjustment because the professor repeats everything several times…making a two-hour class be able to be covered in 30 minutes in the United States. It is hard to swallow the laughing and pay attention to the content of the lectures. I wonderful if I should just be a quiet student or if I should pursue speaking until they adjust to me attempting to participate every week.

Chocolates day
This Tuesday was Valentines Day  …but interestingly enough it is called Chocolates Day because it is too scandalous of a reference for Ghanaians to handle. They think that it encourages sex before marriage…everyone is VERY RELGIOUS HERE. I think it is cute though…and I received an amazing BROWNIE FROM THE ISEP OFFICE…EPIC…I love how sweets here ARE LITERALLY THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY DAY. 

To Run or not to Run that is the QUESTION:
So running here is very challenging. Waking up at 5:30 in the morning and taking on whatever the coach asks, and then trying to perform to the best of my ability is challenging…especially when my stomach is VERY sensitive to morning running, even in the United States. It seems to be running my life and making the rest of the day drag on.

Meeting people from the students on the ship, and how I portrayed word vomit…oops

It was very odd on Wednesday Emma and I ran into a group of 6 students from the study abroad by ship folk. They are going to a bunch of different countries for a semester. We got to share our experiences with these folks. I ended up sharing it all in a big blob and finding myself talking too much. I am a little scared when I get into the United States that, that’s all I’ll want to talk about…my experience in Ghana…and how different and wonderful everything is. I am not totally sure how to approach not talking about it all the time…but hopefully I’ll find a balance…I do think it is important to understand that Ghana will always be a part of me because I will have lived here for four months.

The one MONTH BLUES: Hospital, Malaria, Bacteria Infection, and the Runs (wet stools)…but ice cream and chocolate cake can make things better.

Signs for hospital
Thursday I made it to cross country practice, but I ended up having some stool problems. Then, later that day I got a fever and a temperature and it seemed like I was showing the signs for either a bacteria infection or malaria. My temperature got worse and I was asleep by 6:00pm that night. I woke up the next morning starving at 11am and rushed down stairs to get something to eat. It took so much energy to even get down stairs. I knew I had to go to the doctors…sadly. Emma and I made the journey to the hospital at 11:30am on Friday. We went to the hospital that ISEP recommends…something like NYgoen clinic.

We got a taxi and arrived. I filled out some paper work and gave them my ISEP insurance…but they said they didn’t need it. So they told me I had to pay 53 CD to see the doctor…what? I thought my insurance would cover some of that. I got out my insurance again and then they got angry because they said they needed that at the beginning…even though that is WHAT I DID…TIA…so I actually only paid 40 CD for the doctor. While filling out the forms I GOT MY FIRST MARRIAGE PROPOSAL IN GHANA…in the guide book it said I would get that ALL the time…but this was my first one.  I told him I was already married and he didn’t believe me. He proceeded to ask for my number…it was really awkward because he was the “professional” guy behind the counter and he wanted to marry me…grrrr. But later on he saw me as I was waiting in the blood test room and he winked to let me know things were going to be okay…so all my negative thoughts were resolved at that point. I was then sent to the waiting room. I waited 3 hours to see the doctor. The doctor then sent me to get some blood tests. I waited in the blood test room for 1 hour and the went back to the waiting room with my results…waiting for my doctor to tell me what they meant. I waited 3 more hours and then FINALLY found out what was wrong with me…during all this time of waiting I watched VERY ODD Nigerian films…they seemed to be a mix of Bollywood and Asian…very interesting…half in English and the other half in a local dialect. I couldn’t follow the plot, but they were ALL SOPAPERAS, where there was so MUCH DRAMA going on.

Anyways…the RESULTS:

So apparently one of the ONLY side effects of Malarone…the malaria pill I am on…is that it takes an extra week for the malaria to show up in the blood work. So…low and behold, malaria did not show up in my blood work…but in my blood work a bacteria infection was present. He suspected that I had both…and if I felt EXHAUSTED AFTER TAKING THE medicine he gave me…that I would indeed have malaria.

A SHOUT OUT TO EMMA…THANK YOU FOR COMING AND WAITING WITH ME AT THE HOSPITAL. She was such a trooper!

After this experience, I know how to get to the doctors and what to do. Their system is very interesting and it seems to be a family event in Ghana with EVERYONE accompanying the sick one.

Friday and Saturday SLEEP AND BOY MEETS WORLD
So the rest of Friday and Saturday I was bed bound...going in and out of sleep. I was pretty bummed because a lot of ISEP were going to Coco beach this Saturday…which is what I was planning on doing before I got sick.  But hey…rest is good too.

With this exhaustion, I did have malaria and a bacteria infection together.

SO my luck FOR THE FIRST MONTH IN GHANA…I get sick to the MAX
My dreams while I was sick were very odd…I dreamed that I had marshmellow lips and I tasted food very vividly.

Probably the most frustrating thing was being inside ALL DAY. I am here to go out and explore, but I was stuck inside. Hopefully the world will become better sooner rather than later.

37th and Mall adventures on Sunday
So I decided on Sunday to go out with Lisa, Emma, and Katie for a couple hours to easy myself out for a bit…because I WAS GOING CRAZY SITTING IN BED.

We went to 37th..which has A WONDERFUL VEG AND FRUIT MARKET…and the ladies gave us some free vegs too. We got a HUG BAG FULL of carrots, onions, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and avacodos. We then went to the “obruni store” (the store for white people) where we treated ourselves to a WONDERFUL LUNCH. I got hummus, vegs, and pita…and we are talking AMAZING HUMMUS. We then took a tro-tro to the Accra Mall…WHICH WAS VERY SURREAL GOING INTO. This was probably the ONLY PLACE in Ghana that reminded me of the United States. It was like a mini-American mall. There are clothing stores, a movie theatre, and a food court. It made me actually feel sick to my stomach (even though I was sick that day). I really wanted to leave there as soon as possible because the commercialism scared me. This makes me really nervous going back into the states where commercialism is the CENTER OF ATTENTION.

We shall see how that goes because in three months I will be facing that.

Light at the end of the Tunnel Monday
I woke up Monday feeling A LOT BETTER. It seems like there is a light at the end of this malaria tunnel. 

Reflection: OVER FOUR WEEKS

I can’t believe I have been here this long. I think it has gone too fast! I love it here. I love the culture, the adventure, and the freedom. At school I am tied to so many commitments and promises that it is refreshing to let go and go with ANYTHING I WANT TO DO. If I want to go running I can or if I want to travel ALL weekend I can. This freedom is wonderous. I LOVE MY ROOMMATE. SHE IS SO SWEET. She gave me a mango for lunch and constantly checked up on me while I was sick. She is a very busy individual, but manages to include me in anything and everything. I love two of her friends, Susie and Jospehine. They are light hearted and just want to get to know who I am. I am ever so GRATEFUL for Shadrach because he is one of the ONLY Ghanaian guys I trust at this point because the first words out of his mouth weren’t…can I have your number or “oh Obruni”.

I am ever so grateful for EVERYONE A PART OF ISEP…whether it be Susan Theresa or ALL THE ABROAD KIDDOS…they are all VERY NICE.

I can’t wait for what will come next…three more MONTHS HERE WE COME!

I hope they are as eventful as the first month.

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