Akwaaba

Akwaaba means Welcome!
And so far, I definitely feel very welcome. Being an American, I just about draw every eye on the street...and to think I thought I was going to blend in.

Flights were pretty good...minus the 10 hour last one. That one was a killer...but thinking back on it, I should have at least appreciated my last 10 hours of A/C despite how cramped my footspace was...lol. Thankfully I made great friends with my seat buddy on the last flight so that she and I stuck together to get through Immigration and baggage claim. Speaking of the baggage claim, apparently in Accra, there is no organization to that whatsoever...so it took us a good 20 minutes of watching the line of bags roll by to figure out that our bags had already been taken off and set to the side with another huge group of bags.

Nyame picked me and another girl up and set us in a cab to take us to our host families. He was truly a character and promised me that once my term in Accra was over, that I would beg my parents and Projects Abroad to extend my visa to stay longer. I don't know about THAT...but we'll see :)

I live with Mrs. Cudjoe who is an elderly lady whose children have grown and left the house and her husband has passed away. She has three hired helps...Abigail being the most friendly. Mrs. Cudjoe stays to herself but is really a wonderfully sweet lady. I share the house with 5 other volunteers...3 Dutch, 1 British, 1 Swedish. And I have no clue how to spell any of their names except the British one...Harry...who ironically is a carrot-top just like the prince. 4 of them are all studying Human Rights here and are gone on a field trip, so it's just me and one Dutch boy in the house now.

Yesterday was my induction day and Richard---a Ghanian who holds the title of Medical Coordinator for Projects Abroad---took me around the major areas of Accra. Accra, btw, is MASSIVE. The areas we visited were Circle, Danqua, and my home district...Dzorwulu (pronounced Jo-oo-loo but most of the time just sounds like Jo). Circle was super busy and crowded and actually quite terrifying. I do not believe I will ever be going back there lol. I work in Danqua which is way easier and safer to navigate for little me. I ate some traditional Ghanaian dishes...kinda. They were SUPER spicy so I did the best I could.

Culture shock has hit me right in the face...and has hit me HARD. I have lost my appetite almost completely. My tummy rumbles but it takes everything in me just to put food in my mouth and swallow. It's good food, I'm just still really overwhelmed. I haven't been able to sleep well either because I wake up every couple of hours immobilized by the lack of A/C and the extent of the humidity and heat (even at night). But today, Richard helped bargain a deal with a street seller and on my way home I will be purchasing a standing fan to aim on myself at night. Hopefully that will help. I do have running water..and it's cold...which is actually the best thing ever in this climate. You couldn't pay me to take a hot shower these days.

Today I was briefed at the Police hospital by Mr. Vieira about what I'll be doing in each of the clinics. His first question was where was I from, and I told him America, to which he replied one word, "Obama." Hahaha. I will work a week in each of the clinics. I start tomorrow in the Antiretroviral Therapy Clinic, then move to Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission, after that I will work in the Lab and run tests, and finally, I will work my last week in Counseling. He asked me my current knowledge of HIV/AIDS which was definitely lacking...but don't you worry...he spent 3 hours filling in the gaps for me. At the end of my month, I will give a presentation to a local school on HIV/AIDS and its prevention proving my new knowledge.

I can't wait to start tomorrow...that's when my real experience begins. The police hospital isn't as scary as my research made it out to be. Everyone is super nice, especiallly if you give them a big smile and say Morning! One man even called me a beauty today :) which makes me smile because if any of you could see me right now, you'd know I am definitely not looking my finest.

Scariest part so far is the transportation. I take a series of trotros, or tros for short, and shared cab taxis to get to work everyday. It takes about 45 minutes every time due to traffic. Today is my first day to travel alone without Richard's help, but another volunteer in my house has volunteered to meet me in Danqua today and come home with me. Trotros for those of you that don't know, are like super OLD vans that they pack to capacity...no air, no belts, and no personal space. They actually aren't as bad as I thought. I'm just worried about arriving at the wrong destination since they aren't marked and the trotro mates are hard to understand. But I'm slowly understanding the dialect better and better every day.

Alright well I must leave now, I'm running out of internet time on my computer in Sharpnet (internet cafe).
Post again soon! This weekend I've been invited to travel with a group to see some waterfalls so I will have lots to talk about in the upcoming week.

Stay safe everyone...Love you all!

Erin