Another Day in the Lab

So today I was in the lab again. It wasn't a clinic day so it was pretty slow, but I still got to do a couple of HIV tests. I did on on my new roommate, Deanna who is new to the HIV/AIDS project. She's in the lab with me this week I tested her today. She flinched away from the finger prick so I didn't get quite deep enough to draw enough blood, and Laura jokingly stated that I would just have to take blood from Deanna's arm instead. And surprisingly, Deanna was all for it. Mohammed (my lab supervisor) walked me through taking blood one more time, and then I just did it. I got the vein on the first try :D...I was so proud of myself lol. I was so scared that I was going to hurt her that after I was done taking the blood, my hands were shaking haha. At least I know they won't shake during the process :) But now that I have my first one out of the way and know that I can do it, I won't be so nervous for the next one. Mohammed told me that I could take some more tomorrow from the real patients if I want to so I'm pretty excited.

Last night we all went to what everyone was calling, "the music thing" and I'm still not sure if it was a concert or a fundraiser, but it was really fun. It was a group of young Ghanaian men playing the drums and they were really good. On the way there we took a taxi...and as I slid out of the seat I said out loud, "Oh I really hope my cell phone wasn't in there..." as the taxi drove off. Lo and behold... it was. So Kim called it a few times, (of course I left it on vibrate.) and left a text message saying to call her number if it was found. As I stood there kicking myself for not checking before I got out, about 5 minutes later the taxi driver drove back up and handed me my phone. What a nice guy. He could easily have kept that or sold it or whatever...but he came all the way back and gave it to me. I gave him 5 cedis for his trouble and his kindness. The rest of the night was good though :)

Today I'm going to pick up my dress from the dress lady that made it for me and pick up Carmen's present as well so I'm pretty excited to see how they turned out! And tomorrow I'm leaving with the other volunteers to go to Ada-foah early in the afternoon so I probably won't blog again until Monday. I can't believe tomorrow is the weekend; where did this week go? I am excited to get out of Accra though and spend some much needed time in clean air and the beach.

Byeee :)