Day 11

Just over a week and I'm starting to get used to all the little (and big) things that are different about this country. I started my placement on tuesday at the hospital in the In-Patient deparptment or medical-surgical. Basically the only work to do there was writing reports which could only really be done by the nurses. For a lot of the time I was sitting around doing nothing (literally), save the occassion morning round by the doctors or doing vital signs and such. There are only about 20 beds so its a pretty small ward.

I did get the opportunity to watch a surgery and caesarian section though - the saving grace of last week. The surgery was two-fold: a hernia repair and another operation that I had to figure out by myself. I wasn't told anything about the operation beforehand - so when I saw this big sack being drained of a yellow fluid I thought it was a bladder or something. I later realized that it was in fact the guys testacles which were filled wtih this cist fluid to the size of a cantalope. Really strange. The c-section was also pretty cool. They really don't take very long - this one was about 20 minutes to get the baby out and 25 minutes to do all the stitching back up. Also kind of strange to see a life being plucked out of another human body.

Today I've moved deparptments and I'm now in the lab. While I'm not really dealing with any patients, this department is MUCH better in terms of actually doing some work and also learning a bit too. The lab technicians are all really eager to explain the science behind the various tests they do if you ask.

I've also got a volunteer partner for this department who just arrived on the weekend from Germany. His English is OK but he's having a lot of problems understanding the Ghanaian accent - which is understandable because I do too! People like to speak really quietly also which dosn't help.

At work, it's pretty acceptable to answer phone calls, waste some time, have the radio in the background, take super long lunches, etc. etc. It's a different mentality of being productive.

I think a guy around my house has a pet monkey he keeps outside of his shop during the day. He has it on a leash and walks it home everyday. Pretty awesome. I also saw a kid carrying around a falcon - young falconer in training perhaps?

Friday was a wild day. I woke up at 5:30 to play football ("soccer") with my host sister. We went to this weird 'secret' pitch that was a decent walk from the main road. You kinda passed through this forrest then a giant set of ancient Indian Jones-style steps led about 50 feet below normal ground level to this full sized pitch with proper goalposts and such. There was no grass but it was still better than anything I've seen here outside of a real stadium. I played with the locals (who are all super fast, much more into dribbling and all have amazing ball control because the ground is so bumpy). I held my own though on defence and almost scored a goal. They sang a song for a while after and had me lead a prayer. Clearly I made some shit up about thanking god for my boots and the people to play with and such. People here don't really understand the concept of Atheism.

[I'm kind of taking on a more european style of talking because of the Ghanaians and European volunteers that are here. ]

Anywho, later that day I went to this village about 20 minutes outside of Cape Coast called Anomaabe. There's a beach resort there for the tourists a little ways away but the actual village is really poor. I brought about a full travel bag full of things to give away, thanks to my family, C-$ Kahelin, and the CAW. It was a pretty intense experience. At first, we found a small group of kids on the outskirts of the village. We gave toys to all of them and I got a couple pictures. After that, word started to spread. Dozens of kids started to run towards me and frantically grabbed things, so I gave away the rest of the toys I had and we had to get out of the area. We drove further into the village and did the same thing with the rest of the things (shirts, soaps, toothbrushes, and some other random things). It was absolute chaos - probably about 40 people, mostly kids, all reaching to take something, and eventually I had a bag full of the last of the things and brought it over. A lady basically ripped the bag out of my hands and everybody jumped on the bag like it was full of money. People were pushing and snatching and trampling - it was very intense. I think it gave me a more concrete sense of what real poverty is like. We left after that.

Friday night and Saturday night was rage time with the volunteers. Four new girls came and joined the little crew that has grown in Cape Coast. They're all at the same hospital also. Saturday we went to this festival about an hour and a half outside of town where once a year, they have two teams of four warriors release an antelope into the wild. The first team to bring it out with their bare hands wins! Pretty badass concept. We need more of that in Canada.

Sunday was more low key - jammed with some Rastas and stumbled through doing my laundry by hand.

Taxis aren't really a problem anymore - once you know the routes you have to take, you know how much the prices are supposed to be and don't get ripped off. The key is to have lots of change. People HATE giving change here.

I just hope this fucking ulcer I have in my mouth goes away. Everything hurts to eat. The locals say vitamin-C helps so I'm gonna try that. On a good note though, my travellers sickness (AKA diarrhea) went away really quickly after taking this antibiotic. Superb!

I keep having dreams about everyone back home. I miss you guys! But I'm not really homesick. I'm getting to know the people around me very well and it'll probably be a bummer to leave.

To soon to think about that though. More shit to experience here. Champions league tommorow and Wednesday - should be fantastic! I'm saying:
[1-1] Arsenal/ManU (ManU goes to Rome)
[2-1] Barcelona/Chelsea (Barcelona also goes to Rome).

I have a cell phone here. The number to dial from Canada starts with one of the following (you'll have to try them because I'm not really sure which one works):
011
00
001
then 233-54-292-3660.

Text or call me sometime!

PEACE
- sean