Afia African Village Accra

... br> i spent just one hour going rounds this morning in the maternity ward, and even though it was quick i really enjoyed it! today wasn't a delivery day or anything so they said i could come back "when things will be more interesting"--but after today i think i might try to come observe again on a regular basis: maybe every wednesday morning before my biopsych class.
speaking of, here is what made my morning to intellectually stimulating (i ...

... twi to english when i told her that it was hard for me to learn anything when i couldnt understand what they were saying, several of the girls asked me when i would be back and told me they were going to try to get scheduled to be at the hospital then, and all of the girls insisted on calling me by my african name (its akua, by the way...pronounced like ay-kwee-yuh) instead of calling me "Leighann" haha it was really funny---i'm still not used to responding to it, yet ...

... day in Ghana we went out to a grocery store with some friends and loaded up on snacks and chocolate bars. It was a very rewarding day. Once all stocked up with food we headed back to the ship and set sail for South Africa at 8:00 p.m.

The main thing I am taking away from Ghana is being more grateful for the little things in life. In the US we are so privileged to have the commodities that we do, but sometimes we take these for granted.

... obama's hand on the wall in the living room, so i assumed wherever we were it was definitely the living room of some one important. I think everyone else there was a little confused as to what we were doing too. At one point, several men at the party got pretty heated with mr. passah. We listened in on their argument and realized they were mad because he had let us all serve ourselves before them. When we heard this, we interrupted and told them to go ahead ...

... We are still on the search.
how amazing will it be when i can say i walked across an entire country?? i am totally doing it and i am SO excited--its perfect. THIS is what i look forward to most out of all these 4 months.
i think today was my best day here. i kept busy enough to not notice that i was living on only 3 hours of sleep--thats good!! and i didn't get bored or homesick. the only reason i got on my computer at all tonight ...

... and Katie. Catherine and I had met Matt, and Jordan at RDU, but split up in D.C. where we met Kayleigh during a layover.

The final flight from Frankfort to Ghana was interesting. For all I have heard about how Ghanaians have little concept of time, people sure were in a rush to get off the plane. People were standing and grabbing bags before we stopped moving. The pilot came ...

... involving at least the two of us in the future. I mentioned that I really miss my teachers, Kobla and Dgidzogbe, so we decided to call them. It was so good to talk to them. Then we called Sminga (Andrew, my other teacher- “sminga” is what they call the white people, it’s kinda like the “n” word, only not nearly as bad). He, of course, didn’t pick up his phone cause he’s always working (sound familiar?), so we left him a message ...

... a stop at the big sup**market Shop-Rite wh**e we stocked up on all sorts of really exciting goodies like tins of corn and tuna and sardines!! We visited some lovely falls on the way out of Ghana and had some beautiful bush camps and visited Lake Volta for a swim before ent**ing Togo through an awesome hilly road with some beautiful views. Only spent a couple of days in Togo, driving to Lome, the capital wh**e we shopped and ate some yummy food, then ...

... seemed OK, so she booked it for the two nights it was available and we caught a taxi straight th**e. Well, imagine our surprise and delight when we arrived and found that it was not just any suite, but the 'Presidential Suite' - the penthouse apartment on top of the hotel, with a huge room, king size bed, massive bathroom with show** and bath, our own private balcony, flat screen TV with pay-tv, our own fridge, ev**ything!!! We laughed our heads off at the ridiculousness of it all ...

... 1 hour, and kept breaking down every 2-3 hours or so. At one point we ended up having to board off the bus and had to wait at a bus depot somwhere in Ghana for 2 hours, fighting against an army of mosquitoes wanting our blood. That would have been just about ok, if the driver didn't decide from 11 pm to 6 am to put the volume of the made for TV Ghanean DVD he was playing at full volume... You ...