Beginning to adjust

Nothing here is as straightforward as in the US.

Getting to work either requires waiting for Eric to drive me, or soon, walking for 20-30 mins through the parts of Kasoa where the poorest live, to shouts of “Obruni” while dodging rocks that threaten to trip me, piles of trash, and rivulets of questionable liquids. Returning likewise is a question of waiting for a ride, which sometimes may be as much as 3 hours.

Looking toward my path to work from the Cheerful Hearts Foundation office (off to the left)

Ordering food usually does not happen off of a menu but instead happens by seeing what is available and requesting it or pointing to it. Or by going with the nurses from work and letting them order for me.

I live about an hour outside of Accra by tro tro, which is a delightful shared taxi van. People squeeze in and out for a very small fee (yesterday’s trip into Accra was only C1.20, or ~$0.65), and it’s hot and sweaty and full of a rich variety of odors. It’s important to tell the “mate”, who handles the money, when you want to get off, and know where that stop is.

Today I finally bit the bullet and did laundry. I’ve been spoiled all of my life. I have never appreciated my washing machine as much as I do today; I will never look at my pile of dirty laundry the same way again. When it means washing by hand in water that I don’t even want to wash my face with, my definition of “dirty” changes completely. However, there were some things that actually were dirty and HAD to be washed. Unfortunately, when I first decided it was necessary, I had no “washing powder”! So, while out yesterday, I picked some up at a gas station convenience store. Whew. And so it begins.

Washing my clothes by hand!

Hanging to dry

Amanda, a fellow volunteer, and I had to be taught by Douglas, who is a local that is also staying with our official host, Eric, how to wash our clothes. He filled buckets for us and added the appropriate amount of washing powder, and under his advice we threw our clothes in and left them to soak for about 15 minutes. Then we went back in to scrub, scrub, scrub. The process is fairly obvious after that – rinse, wring out, hang to dry, but wow, I had no idea how much work it was! Love love love the washing machine. Miss it so much.

Yesterday Amanda and I met up with Adam, a classmate of mine from Yale, one of his friends from Michigan, and several other current Michigan students. We met at Labadi Beach Hotel for lunch, and it was a wonderful escape at a heavenly oasis of air conditioning and Western food. Ahh. 

The beautiful pool at Labadi beach hotel

View of the beach from the hotel

We tried to go to the National Museum after, but it was closing 20 minutes later, so we didn’t go in. Unfortunately, the malaria exhibit they have is leaving on Monday, so I may miss it :(. We then went back to Circle, the main tro tro stop coming from outside of Accra, and walked around for a while. During our lunch, a big storm had come through, and we had seen the rain and wind and briefly the power went out, but it wasn’t until we got to Circle that we saw the real damage. A large tree had come down, huge signs had blown over, and some of the makeshift shelters that covered many of the small stalls selling various goods had collapsed. Adam and the other Michigan students left us, and Amanda and I went to the Holiday Inn to again savor air conditioning for a while, while we waited for Eric to pick us up after dropping another person at the airport. Though we didn’t get back until late, I was glad for the ride and the chance to avoid another tro tro. 

But it's not all bad. The sunsets can be quite pretty :)