My first days in Ghana

Wednesday, May 14
I arrived in Accra Wednesday night. My flight had been delayed out of Amsterdam so I was a bit late arriving in Accra.
As I stepped down off the plane, I was welcomed by the hot humid air. Having been in dry, air conditioned planes and airports for the last 25 hours, it felt pretty intense.
There were two other volunteers from America that arrived shortly after me and Nyame, who works with Projects Abroad (PA), took us each to our host families. Since I live the furthest from the city, I was last to be dropped off. I arrived at Mrs. Obiri’s house around 11pm. After meeting her, they showed me to my room and then we all went to bed.
I knew that Ellie from PA was to pick me up in the morning to take me on initiation, but other than that, I did not have any idea what I was to do in the morning. I distinctly remember wanting to take a shower since I had not bathed in quite some time. Now after only having been here less then three whole days, I think I might have been cleaner then. Because of the heat and humidity in combination with the sun block and bug spray, I always have a layer of something on my skin. I remember at first thinking I would never be clean again! But I’m already getting used to it.
There are two other volunteers staying at Mrs. Obiri’s house as well. Ellena and Naomi; they are both from England.


Thursday, May 15
I didn’t sleep very long the first night. The sun rises about 5:00 I think. I remember hearing the rooster crow…but that was after I was awake and the sun was up. I wasn’t sure what to do so I just lay in bed until about 7:00 when I got up and met Naomi in the hall. I learned that breakfast is served at 6:00 every morning. It usually consists of fruit and bread with peanut butter or margarine.
Ellie came and took me and two others that had arrived the night before on initiation. She first took us to the PA office, and then she showed us where the main tro tro stops were. We went to the post office, to change money, to buy phones, and to eat my first official Ghanaian meal. The food here is very good.
When I got home about 3:00 pm, I was already very tired. I took a nap until dinner was served at 5:30. Then sun sets early compared to TN—around 6:30pm. Therefore, I didn’t want to venture out in the dark so I just wrote some emails and finally got to talk to my family before I went to bed. It is rather expensive to call to the US; around 25 pesewa, which is about 25 cents, a minute.

Friday, May 16
Ellie from PA came to take me to my placement today. I will be working at La General Hospital, or more commonly known, it seems, as Poly Clinic. I visited the Administrator and then another woman and then ended up in patient screening for the day. I am still confused about what happened and how I ended up there. The administrator asked if I would like to go to the Pharmacy since he saw my pharmacy experience on my CV. I said my main interest was surgery. I thought that I was to sit down with someone and schedule which departments I would rotate through for the duration of my stay at Poly Clinic, but that never happened. Therefore, I do not know how long I will be in patient screening or where I will go next.
Patient screening is outpatient treatment. Where I was working, we took patient weight, temperatures, and blood pressure. From what I was able to gather, Ghana recently started a national health care plan. Those with insurance had booklets and those without had white cards. These, respectively, served as the equivalent of charts in America.
There was another volunteer working with me, Elsie. She is originally form Ghana but lives in Canada now. This was nice because she could understand the local language and knew a lot about the way things work in Ghana, but could also relate to and compare Ghana to the Western lifestyle.
I did not get to tour the facility or anything of the sort, so I cannot vouch for the entirety of the hospital. From what I’ve seen though, most everything is completely different. The patient waiting area is open air and the Emergency Room is a single room where (who I presume to be) the head nurse works. Projects Abroad told us to call them if we, personally, had an emergency because Ghana does not have an effective emergency department. I heard sirens go by the hospital while I was there, so I asked Elsie about the Emergency response. She said that most emergencies were brought in by family or friends and consisted of patients who were so sick they should have been brought in a week ago. I have only been exposed to the health care in Ghana for one day; so hopefully, I will be better able to explain it in the future.
Hopefully, I will also have pictures for my blog as well. I have been told not to “wave” my camera around, also I am not sure when and of what it is appropriate to take a picture. As I become more comfortable in my surroundings, I am sure that will change.

My Thoughts on Ghana Thus Far:
I have no clue what I am doing. As far as appearances, and physical attributes, I haven’t been too shocked by what I’ve seen. It feels like pictures coming alive. I remember the first night on my way to Mrs. Obiri’s house there was a police block where the police checked the cars. I looked out my window and there was the police officer with a rifle strapped across his chest. It actually took me a second thought to realize that this was the first time I had been a foot away from such a heavily armed officer.
The driving style here is certainly different! I mainly ride in tro tros. They are the cheapest form of public transportation. They are large vans with about four rows of bench seats, which run fixed routes. There is a driver and a mate. The mate sits by/ hangs out the window of the side sliding door and calls out the destination of the tro. For example, if the tro is going to Circle the mate calls something that sounds like, “Circ! Circ! Circ! Circle!”. Cars don’t necessarily stop at intersections and get inches away from other cars (or any object really, including people). Compared to America, driving is very aggressive here. While it seems somewhat chaotic, to me it makes more sense in a way. Traffic seems to flow more as one.
I had been told that I would, and therefore expected to be, called Obruni (white person) all the time. I have only heard it a few times, though. The first was when a beautiful little girl outside of the office said “Hello Obruni!”. Calling someone Obruni is not rude; it is just what Ghanaians call a white person. They do not know your name so they can get your attention by calling you Obruni.