The Helpless Abrunis

Hello friends and family!

I know that the last few blog posts was incredibly long so I’ll make this one a lot shorter! The days here go by SO SLOW. I’m amazed at how long my days seem. Every morning I wake up around 6, get ready, and go into town. On Thursday we met up with Jackie and Lauren’s at Mama Doris’ house. They are living so much differently from us only 30 minutes away. They don’t have running water at all and have to take bucket showers and use an outhouse. They have eaten the same meal for breakfast and dinner for the last 3 days, Mackerel Stew. They insisted we eat breakfast there even though Dr. Samuel (Esther’s husband) gave us delicious donuts to eat that morning. It is hard to eat so much fish in the morning. We went to the Internet Café and sent our first emails! I’ve been dying to let y’all know all the exciting things going on and that I’m safe! Cassie and I came back home and had our nightly discussion with Emmanuel. Emmanuel is Esther’s son visiting for the week. He is a music theory teacher and is very bright. He is informed on so many different topics it’s nice to have conversations like that. Our Twi isn’t that great so it’s usually the same conversation over and over again with the people in the village but I’m hoping to improve my Twi and understand them better. Just the other day we talked about the difference between Ghana and America. We discussed marriage, divorce, salary, politics, dreams, clothes, and many other things. He teaches us how to wash our clothes, cook our food, wash our dishes, basically he teaches us how to survive here. I don’t know what we’re going to do without him!  We are getting more familiar with the town and people so I know we’ll live. The little kids know me here as Ama (Saturday). Ghanaians are given a name based on the day they were born for the first few weeks of their life before the parents name them officially.  The little school girls come by and have taught us a few hand games and dance moves. They don’t speak English so we don’t communicate much except for our broken Twi. The fun we have with these people is amazing when you come from different cultures and don’t speak the same language. Cassie and I have 2 especially favorite boys Kofi (5) and Kobi (10) that come by every day. They are so territorial of us they don’t let anyone else come over when they’re here.

Cassie and I had dresses made for us out of fabric from Rosemary’s shop! It cost us 12 cedi for the fabric and 7 cedi for them to make it! On the first Saturday they have all the funerals of people who died the month before. Jackie and Lauren came over so we could go to one together. We went exploring all over Wiamose again and despite putting on 70 spf I got burned pretty bad. The funerals on Saturday last around 6 hours. The whole entire town dresses in black and red. The family sits in a huge U under tents while the townspeople go from funeral to funeral shaking the hands of the family members, dancing, and giving donations. We got up at one point and started dancing with some older woman. Sunday morning was a bit scary because as we were leaving for church I threw up. It ended up being an effect from my doxy but it made me nervous so I stayed home from church. I ended up being completely fine after I slept so I was bummed that I missed church. Next week is General Conference here but I suppose it will be in Twi. On Monday we went to the Kumasi market and it was crazy! I don’t really like it too much. People were grabbing us and pulling us. Thankfully we had Mama Esther’s son King to help us out but I don’t think I’ll be looking forward to our return to Kumasi soon. Cassie, my roommates, LOVES crowds like that and can’t wait to go back. I bought a phone! So I’ll be able to call soon! We actually had a really nice experience and found a store similar to a tiny Walmart. I bought some American type food that we don’t see anywhere. I bought a Dr. Sammy soda as my birthday present for myself. Apparently it’s the African version of Dr. Pepper! We went back to Asamang and ate dinner at Mama Doris’ house but as we were leaving it started POURING. We ran through the town to get to the station at night. The Ghanaians were laughing so hard at us.  I left all my stuff at their house so it wouldn’t get wet and also left our room key! Thankfully Esther had an extra and I was able to change into dry clothes but they think we are such helpless Abrunis.

I am hoping to start working in the clinic on Wednesday. I am very anxious to begin my research project and get a clear focus on things. Living in the culture for 9 days already has shown me the changes I need to make to my project. The Wiamoase clinic is amazing. I can’t wait to start working with the nurses and doctors. Most speak English really well so finding a translator shouldn’t be too difficult of a task. I went through my course contract material and realized I have a long road ahead of me but the material is exciting and I’m ready to learn!

XOXO

AMA