Sherie’s Blog

New Friends

Wednesday of last week I got to work in the lab.  I was really excited because the lab has AC and music.  I was hoping that my jet lag had worn off enough that I could manage to stay awake.  It wasn’t really a problem though, because I talked to the two Lab techs the whole time.  Prosper and Isaac are really friendly, and Prosper was very talkative.  He is friends with Kim, and wanted to know how she was doing and whether she got home safely.  After that we talked about football, and I discovered that prosper is also a Chelsea fan.  Isaac pulls for Liverpool, and this is a topic of much debate in the lab sometimes.  Prosper speaks 5 different languages and told me a little about the way Ghana is divided.  There are many different tribes.  In Ghana, there are at least 46 different languages and sometimes, especially up north in the Volta region, you can visit 5 neighboring villages which all speak different languages.  Prosper is Gan ( I don’t think I spelled that correctly), and Isaac is Ashanti.  Isaac only speaks 3 languages, because the Ashanti speak Twi, and they don’t have a lot of motivation to learn other languages.  Prosper’s mother is from the northern Volta region, so he also speaks her native language.  I can’t imagine keeping all of those separated in my head, especially since some are probably pretty similar.  While in the lab, I told Prosper about wanting to learn to tie a baby to my back.  He said he has friends who can teach me.  He also told me about the local cuisine, and about how Fufu is made.  His friends are going to let me pound fufu as well.  I’m really excited about it.  We went to lunch with Prosper at a local “restaurant” and I was very brave and tried Banku, some sort of peanut based soup, and fish.  The fish didn’t look like fish; it wasn’t fileted, it was cut in cross-section.   It was ok, but the Banku was a little sour and I felt a little sick the rest of the day.  I was glad I had tried it though.  I still have to try Kenke and Fufu, so we’ll see how that goes. 

Obruni

Obruni means “white person” in Twi, the most widely spoken language in Ghana, after English.  It isn’t really a derogatory term, but we hear it a lot.  The kids here will shout it as you walk by, then smile and wave at you.  They laugh when you wave back.  Some kids stare at you in amazment and watch your every move.  When we were in Cape Coast last weekend, it seemed like every child in the town yelled out “Obruni!” not just once, but every time we walked by.  It kind of makes you feel like a celebrity.  Or at least I prefer to think of it that way than think that we are really just an oddity.  It’s good for me and Leah though, because we love the kids here. They are adorable and have beautiful smiles.  I brought some stickers to pass out and it’s really fun to just stop on the street when a kid starts following us and chat for a few seconds and give him a sticker.  I’ve only had one kid ask me for money.  He was on the walk up to Fort J (I don’t remember the name) in Elmina.  His little sister grabbed my hand immediately when Andrew and I started up the walk.  She was about 2 or 3.  She was laughing and smiling and didn’t want the other kids to grab my hand.  We stopped because there were several kids there, and we took some pictures.  When we continued walking, the little girl’s brother started asking for money.  We didn’t give him any and kept walking.  The little girl was still holding my hand.  She walked up the hill with me until her brother came and pulled her back down to their house.  On the way back down she found me again and we took more pictures.  She walked with me until she saw more Obruni walking up the hill.  At that point she immediately let go of my hand, and without so much as a goodbye turned and grabbed the hand of the lady behind us.  It was quite the little operation. 

My favorite things

There are many things about Africa that I love.  The people here are really nice and welcoming.  Everyone smiles and says high, like in the South, so I feel right at home.  There’s an African woman who sits outside the hospital that we call the fruit lady, who sells pineapples and 3 bananas for 1 Ghana cedi (about 70 cents).  She also gives you an extra banana as a gift.  Even though it’s really hot here, there is always a breeze at Manna and it is mostly really nice at night.  But there are two things that are my absolute favorite:  the way people carry things and the way women carry their babies.   I know this sounds a little crazy, but really, it’s the first things I notice and I am planning on learning how to do both.  Let me explain.  Everyone carries most of their possessions on their heads.  Not just a water jugs, but things like 40 rolls of toilet paper, a bage of onions, the laundry, big baskets of plantain chips, and 8 loaves of bread.  It’s incredible.  The whole thing is started with a rolled up cloth on the head and then whatever it is that needs to be carried is put on top.  Babies are not carried on top of the head, obviously.  But they are tied to the mother’s back.  It’s so cool!  On the plane, after we touched down in Accra, the lady 3 rows in front of me slung her two year old onto her back, where the little girl perched all by herself.  Then the mom too a long piece of cloth and wrapped it around her daughter.  She tied it first at the top, and then at the bottom.  Everywhere I look, women, and sometimes little girls are carrying kids from birth to about 2 years old on their backs.  I’ve got to learn to do this.  I don’t know about carrying things on my head though.  I’m not that graceful, and i can just see an entire week’s worth of fruit or toilet paper scattering across the road in front of me.  Perhaps I’ll start small.

Manna Mission Hospital

Manna Mission is set up as a compound that includes a church, primary school, computer school, and hospital.  The hospital has two buildings.  One houses the eye clinic, radiology (an X-ray machine), a men’s ward, and laundry room, and the other has 3 wards, 4 consult rooms, a pharmacy, and a lab.  There is a pediatric ward, a women’s ward and the L&D ward.  The operating theater is also located in this building, and may be the coolest place in the entire compound (so I thought, until yesterday, when Leah and I went into the eye clinic.  I really wish I was interested in eyes!).  Our first day I sat in with Dr. Akosuwa.  She is a GP who has finished her basic training, but has not begun her residency.  Medical school here is set up differently from ours, and I think this means she has had at least 6 years of medical school.  Anyway, the first day was rough because we just watch while she interviews patients.  She doesn’t like to see kids, so it was especially dull for me.  Dullness + hot room + jet lag = nap time.  I couldn’t keep my eyes open!  but Dr. Akosuwa was very understanding.  I took a break and did a little better afterward.  I’m hoping that eventually they will let us work on our own, or in pairs, or do something a little more active.  Or maybe just turn the fan on high.

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