11 Weeks!!

I am convinced that the Adversary tries his hardest to stop people from going to church on Sundays because we never have problems with taxis unless it’s Sunday. Today our driver drove less than 10 mph most the way and stopped about every 5 minutes to pick up or drop someone off. Yesterday it took us 25 minutes to get all the way to Asamong but today it took us almost half an hour just to get to Agona. Once we got to church, we were miraculously there a couple minutes before it started so we sat down behind Jackie and Lauren and Sacrament began. I read my Teachings of the President book and the Book of Mormon the whole time. Sacrament got out at 9:15 and we had a “5-minute break” which actually lasted 15 minutes so Sunday school was only half an hour. The new Branch President was supposed to come but he was travelling from Accra so I’m sure he had some issues getting to the building. We normally never have Relief Society so today when they told us we were going to have it we were very excited. We went into a very small room, probably meant to be the storage closet. The books being used for the lesson were old books with pastel faded colors on the front and lessons about “How to Weed Your Garden” and “How To Prepare Healthful Meals” for your family. We mainly read through the manual laughing, sometimes out loud, at how absolutely ridiculous some of the lessons were. One section suggested each woman get an apron with pockets so she can multi task throughout the day. The pictures for the book were almost as ridiculous as some of the lessons themselves. Today was our last day at this ward so we took pictures with the primary kids, branch presidency, and Relief Society. On our way home we ran into this man with thick rimmed glasses making him look like a total hipster. We talked to him for awhile asking him if he was a hipster and he said “Yes I am the Chief” so we called him Chief Hipster although the guy had no idea what we were talking about. After we ran into him Cassie saw a kid carrying a camera so she yelled “obibini take Pitcha” just like the little kids yell at us for a picture. He gladly got his film camera ready, attached the flash, and took Cassie’s picture. For lunch we cooked four eggs and divided it up giving us each about 2 spoonfuls of egg. I didn’t have anything for breakfast either so I was pretty hungry after this snack. Lauren pulled out her peanut butter and let us dip obama crackers into it. We sat around and talked before King took us to go see the Fetish Priest. We arrived at her house but she had traveled to Kumasi but she would be back to do her show on Friday. Once we got back home we watched The Proposal and ate the most delicious tomato stew over rice I’ve ever had. Mama makes the best dinners so I’m really going to miss them. We were about to leave until we heard King cracking up in the family room watching TV. We walked in to see the British version of Wipeout on TV. We sat down and watched the episode laughing so hard right beside King. The show is one of the most ridiculous but hilarious shows. Once the show ended it was pretty late so we had to quickly walk to get a taxi. We ended up catching a tro tro back to Agona and got into a taxi to return to Wiamoase.

Day 76

Cassie and I woke up at 6:45 and left by 7:15 to meet Jackie and Lauren to go to our 1^st counselor’s cocoa farm. We got to Asamong in record time and waited outside the church for Jackie and Lauren. We walked together to Brother Tawia house and waited for him to finish his breakfast so he could take us to his farm. We made a pit stop at his storage shed so he could pick up his cutlass and put on his boots. We got to the entrance of his farm and he led us in with a little helper boy following closely behind him. He told us about how he inherited the land from his father and how he shares it with his two other sisters. There were cocoas everywhere and he showed us the difference between each one. If they were black it meant it had the black pod disease, which can spread and infect all of the other plants if not cut down soon. Brother Tawia gave us a cutlass to share so we took turns looking out for the black pods and hacking away at them. We stopped and Brother Tawia chopped down a cocoa and let us eat the middle of it. It tasted really tropical which makes it hard for me to believe this is what chocolate is made out of. He showed us the cola nut, which makes coca-cola. We stopped and took a few pictures before going back to his house. We had to stop off and return the cutlass and boots to his storage shed so while he did that we sat on a bench and watched a lady cook a whole goat. She had the goat cut up into different pieces with its head completely intact faced towards us. Once he finished up we continued to his house making a quick pit stop while Brother Tawia bought us crackers and black current Fanta. We ate them at his house and met his whole family. His older brother had just passed away so they were painting the house in preparation for the big funeral that was to occur there soon. We walked back to Mamas house to watch a movie. Mama made us delicious bean and rice stew to eat while we were watching the movie. After the movie we all took a nap. I had been feeling weird all day long so I was happy to get some rest in. I woke up in a daze while the other girls began playing Skip-Bo. We played some other card games but during the middle of one I got a call from my parents so they could tell me some exciting news. I got to talk to them for a while and hear all about their life. I can’t wait to see my family in such a short time. I got a couple of recipes from Mama Doris for me to cook for my family when I return. I returned to playing our game just in time for Mama to heat up our bean stew again and cook some more rice for our dinner. We spent the entire day there so once it started to get dark we walked to the station.

Day 75

Today was spent deep cleaning to try to rid our room of the fleas. We woke up at 7 and spent almost the whole entire day cleaning our room. We first cleared out all of our clothes and stuff then removed our mattresses and stripped them of the sheets. While we were cleaning the power went out around 8 so we were pretty hot and sweaty cleaning up and moving around the furniture. I had to pack all my stuff into the bags and thankfully it all fits. We swept, mopped, and dusted the whole room. Not only did our room feel twice as big but actually smelt normal. While we let the floor dry I washed all my sheets while it was sunny out. Kofi came over and hung out while I organized my stuff. I absolutely adore that kid. I gave him the rest of the stickers I had and let him just hang out in the room and play. I am going to miss Kofi more than I can understand. He has the cutest laugh and is quite the troublemaker. His cousin Kobi came over and played with the rest of the stickers too. Cassie left for the school so it was just the two boys watching me as I cleaned the rest of the room. The gate opened and I assumed it was Cassie but it was just a bunch of school kids curious to see what we were doing. I shooed them away because Madam Esther said no one is allowed except for Kofi and Kobi. They got mad at me that I wouldn’t give them water and let them stay but I felt so violated that they had walked into our room without permission. Kofi is a pretty clever kid and hid while the other kids came over so I don’t think they knew he was over. Kofi, Kobi, and I played for another hour or so until Cassie came home. The school kids were still yelling at us through the window but after ignoring them for awhile they left, or so we thought. We sent Kofi and Kobi home so we could get some work done for the res of the day. I put on my workout stuff and began my workout. The kids were all watching me over the fence and looking at me like I was crazy. Afterwards I wanted to shower but since our water wasn’t running I had to put some water into a bucket and take a nice cold bucket shower. It feels so great to be clean here because it doesn’t last long. Afterwards I did some notes before Cassie and I ventured out in the town to run some errands. I needed some oatmeal and to drop off some material for skirts for my sisters. We ran into Cassie’s farming friend Baron and ended up agreeing to go to his church tonight. We had to quickly go home to finish some things and make dinner before going to his church. I read about an hour of my scriptures and from the Teachings of the Presidents: George Albert Smith book. I am amazed at every single one of our prophets and can’t wait until the ones are released for President Hinckley and Monson. We walked to the station and had some really obnoxious kids follow us the whole way yelling things in Twi at us. We waited awhile for Baron and grabbed a snack. Once Baron arrived at the station in his nice church wear we got into a taxi and practically went off-roading to get to his church. When we arrived, the church was almost in the middle of nowhere with no lights on anywhere. There wasn’t anyone else at the church yet which confused both Cassie and I because he said church started at 7 and is was 7:20. Literally everything here starts hours after they say. When we got to his church it was strangely decorated with plastic chairs and wooden benches for pews. We didn’t know but Baron is actually one of the preachers for the Pentecostal church so he sat up in the front leaving Cassie and I to sit in the audience together. We waited for awhile and only 4 women had showed up in half an hour. A nice lady said she would translate for us when the sermon began. The sermon began and the chairs slowly began to fill up. The woman and men sit separately so it was easy to see that there was more than twice the amount of women than men in the room. The first 45 minutes were allotted for praying which to me sounded more of like a competition of who could pray louder. Some men grabbed microphones and proceeded to pray at the top of their lungs.  The drummer and pianist got up and began playing which cued the beginning of singing and dancing for another 45 minutes. This was my favorite part of the night because we got to pick up tambourines and dance around. Afterwards Baron and the other 4 preachers gave a sermon on bearing good fruits. Then prayer began again and it was very different than anything I have ever experienced before in my life. Most members had their eyes closed and yelling so they weren’t phased at all when Cassie started taking pictures. One girl about 17 years old began spinning around and screaming mabababababa really loud for 5 minutes until the preachers went over to put their hands on her head and cast out the evil spirit they believed was possessing her. The sermon wasn’t over until 9:30 so once we got home I did some coursework and fell asleep pretty quickly after my long eventful day. 

Day 74

Today was quite uneventful. Before I went to the clinic I stopped by Elizabeth’s shop to pick up my skirt. I was so shocked at how great it looked. This is another skirt that I will wear once I’m home. I tried it on underneath the skirt I was wearing and decided to wear it that day. I paid the seamstress then continued my walk to the clinic. A few men told me to stop and talk but seeing that they weren’t in a quite sober state at 9 in the morning I declined. I spent the next few hours at the clinic in the dispensary helping out. Only Gideon and Edmund were working today. I did some informal interviewing on them and go some great material again. I closed at 2 and went to the market to pick up a couple of things we needed for the week. Cassie was in Kumasi so I did the market shopping alone. I picked up some onion, green pepper, egg, and bread. These have become our staples since we’ve been here. Cassie and I have had fun experimenting and cooking up new recipes. We hate it when Matilda or Madam Esther watch us cook because they are just as confused as us about what we’re making. The mixture of food seems weird even to us but we always love it. We put nutmeg, onion, and green pepper in almost everything. This experience cooking here has really motivated me to start cooking a lot more once I’m back in college. I know that if I can get creative with these few ingredients in the Wiamoase market I can do wonders with an actual grocery store of a thousand different things. After I came back from the market I did my notes until Cassie came home. We worked out together for half an hour then prepared our egg sandwiches for dinner.

Day 73

Last night I was not very happy with my body deciding to stay awake until 6 a.m. Cassie left for the Internet Café around 9 I think but I didn’t wake up until 10 getting a full 4 hours of sleep in. I too needed to go to the Internet Café so, in a daze, I walked to the station to catch a taxi. I didn’t have anything at the house to eat so once I arrived in Agona I grabbed some fried rice and ate at the Gentle Spot with a Orange Fanta to drink. I had to email professors about coursework and once I finished that I just browsed the Internet mainly seeing what was going on with Facebook. After the Internet Café Cassie and I came home and ate a delicious banana nutella sandwich. I put on my workout gear and picked a workout from the Nike Training Center App. Cassie joined me today which always makes the workouts 10 times better. I love workout buddies because when someone else is working out next to you, you’re less likely to slack off. Our power was still out which meant so was our water so I just took a nice bucket shower with the cold water. Even after the dozens of showers I’ve taken here I still can’t get used to the cold water. I do have to say that bucket showers are the most water efficient ways of showering. After we both were clean we hopped onto my bed and watched the Blindside. It’s one of my favorite movies so I was very happy about watching it. After the movie we both realized that we were itching a lot and had a lot more bug bites of some sort on our legs than were there before the movie started. For awhile we thought that we had bug beds but we haven’t been able to see any and they aren’t biting us leaving blood spots on our bed. So I pulled out my handy dandy iTriage app on my phone and looked up bug bites to see what we could possibly have. After looking at this and calling Cassie’s mom we came to the conclusion that we have fleas. Gross. I could barely touch my bed afterwards. This was the first time that I have really just wanted to be home right this second. Jackie and Lauren have huge rashes on their body, Cassie and I found black colored mold in our fridge the other day, and now we have fleas. We are all falling apart right at the end. I just hope we can all make it to the end without malaria or other serious problems. After our slight freak out about our health problems starting to pile up I wrote up some notes and recorded my women’s health info.

Day 72

I woke up earlier than most Tuesdays so I could actually get a few hours in at the clinic before going to meet the other girls in Agona. Edmund, Rita, and Elvis were all working today. I interviewed Edmund and Elvis for my research and they gave me so many great answers. I did a free-list and asked them why they think parents bring their children to a clinic. They both made some excellent points that I can add to my research. Rita fed me some delicious rice with spicy red tomato sauce. There was so much rice that when she gave it to me around 9 I couldn’t eat all of it so she told me I could save it and eat it later. About every hour on the dot she would tell me to eat more rice so by the time it was 12 I had finished off about 3 cups of rice. I was so full I could barely move. I left right at noon to meet Cassie at the station to go to Agona together. We got to Agona and we were both pretty sick of rice so we opted to just get a drink at the bar. On the way to the bar I saw a woman with a glass case on her head filled with, what looked like, chocolate powdered donuts. We were both curious as to what it was so I bought a couple to try them. A lot of confusing conversations occurred all at once and I ended up with a bag of the mashed up donuts mixed with sugar, water, and milk. We continued walking to Nana’s bar and ordered Alvaros. I’m glad I waited to get my drink before trying my snack because it was disgusting. It was a ginger porridge with chunks of ginger floating around in the milk and water mixture. The other girls also tried it and agreed it was not as good as it looked. We sat around and talked for a while before going to the Internet Café. We got power last night for a bit but this morning it was off again. The Internet café has a generator so we could still use the computers thankfully. I had a ton of emails from my family. It’s getting to the point now where we are all pretty anxious to go home and see our family. I posted to my blog, wrote back emails to friends and family, and then had to leave quickly to pick up my skirt from a seamstress down the road. She had to go to her mother’s house soon so Jackie and I left our computers there and went to Mama Kates house. I was pretty bummed because my mom had just gotten on facebook chat and chatting to someone is so much better than our back and forth emails. We walked as fast as we could to Mama Kate’s house but soon found out it didn’t matter how fast we walked to her house because she still wasn’t entirely finished with my skirts. We got there and she was still sewing part of one of my skirts. I had them made 5 weeks ago with the intention of wearing them to church. We only have a couple Sundays left but thankfully I think I can wear them back home. One of them is not too cute but with alterations I’m sure I can wear it just fine at home. We walked back to the Internet Café and found that the network had cutout and probably wouldn’t return. We waited around for about half an hour but the network wasn’t coming back on anytime soon so we left for the market. I was pretty bummed that I didn’t get to return to chat to my mom but I hope I’ll be able to talk to her next week! I bought bananas, bread, and a fan-choco before hopping into a taxi. I came home at 4 with a splitting headache, popped some Excedrin, and took a nap. Kofi and Kobi came over at some point to play with me but I was so tired I just gave them a sheet of stickers and sent them home. I woke up at 6, got on my workout gear and did one of my workouts from my Nike Training App. I only did a 15-minute workout because I felt pretty sick still. Our water or power wasn’t working so I had to wipe off with some baby wipes. Cassie and I watched The Proposal after my workout. After the movie we sat and talked for a bit before doing our research and coursework. I intended to go to bed around 10 or 11 like usual but I couldn’t fall asleep at all. I just lied in my bed endlessly thinking of what I could to finally fall asleep. It was getting later and later and I still wasn’t asleep. It was about 4:30 when the neighbors and roosters woke up. The goats started bleating and the roosters started crowing making it next to impossible for me to fall asleep. People around our house were wide-awake before I remembered that I had sleeping pills I could take. I debated not sleeping at all and just going to the clinic but decided against it. I took the pill at 5 but still didn’t fall asleep until 6 am.

Day 71

Today I worked in the dispensary with Rita all day today. It was only her and I the whole day so we just bonded most of the day. She gave me some of her delicious red sauce over spaghetti for lunch. We talked about her family and her relationship with her boyfriend. She doesn’t want to be in the relationship much longer but wants to travel instead. She wants to go to the United States and is working on doing that right now. It was surprisingly very busy for a Monday. Whenever one of us sat down to talk, someone would come to the window with their chart. I was sent on a bunch of errands all around the clinic. I am always happy to help out and make it easier for the actual workers. They all call me their personal assistant. It was relatively normal except for one incident with a woman throwing up all over the waiting area for the dispensary. I wasn’t behind the window but actually out in the waiting area also while I watched her collapse over the bench in front of her and throw up. I’m not sure if she was shaking or convulsing but I watched for a few seconds before running to get a nurse to help her. I went right next door and found 3 nurses just standing around and talking. I told them that a woman is throwing up and she needs someone to help her. They all turned around and said “what do you want us to do about it?” I was so shocked at their response I sort of stuttered out “Something, quick!” But the nurses waved me away and continued to stand around and talk. I told another staff member walking by and she said “Don’t mind her, she’ll be fine soon”. I don’t know what I expected them to do but I expected someone to do something. The woman just sat on filthy floor and looked absolutely miserable. I kept remembering how I felt last semester when I got really sick and felt so bad for this woman. She sat there for quite a while before someone came and got her. I worked at the clinic until 4 before walking home. The power was out all day today so the town was pretty quiet while I walked home. I usually have parades of children at my side so it’s nice when I can walk home in peace. I got home and talked with Cassie for a bit before going out in the town. She didn’t go to the school for very long today so we just walked to Nana’s shop to get water and then to the station to buy some Obama crackers. We came home around 6 and started making dinner. We have a new dish that is so good, we’ll probably end up eating it for dinner every night until we leave. We are both so sick of the rice and want something not so heavy. Cassie made it up a couple nights ago and loved it so I thought I would try it too. We sautéed onion, green pepper, and groundnut and then added one egg with nutmeg seasoning and salt onto it. We put it on top of sliced bread and ate it like a sandwich. It’s such a strange mixture of food but it works. I am blessed with the taste buds that allow me to eat almost all and any types of food. After dinner I went inside and did some research and coursework.

10 weeks!

This morning I wore the dress that Sister gave me to church. We actually got to church on time with a few minutes to spare. During Sacrament I read my scriptures. We are almost through with 3^rd Nephi with only a small amount to read until we’re finished. Reading the Book of Mormon in a certain time frame not only allows you to read it like the story it is, but also keeps you motivated to read it every day. I have experienced such an increase of blessings from reading my scriptures continually. During Sunday School I pulled out the George Albert Smith book and read the first couple of chapters. That man is amazing. I believe the prophets on this earth are the best men ever placed here. President Smith came up with 11 mottos to live by. One of them that I can’t stop thinking about was “I would not be an enemy to any living soul”. If we could all live our lives with this in mind, this world would be truly spectacular. If we could all Love our Neighbors like President Smith did I don’t think there would be a cold or hungry soul. The life of this man revolved around service for everyone. In the second hour of Sunday School, no Relief Society, I read more scriptures and got roped into answering a few confusing questions and the closing prayer. After Church Jackie and Lauren got a Priesthood blessing for the rash they have had for quite some time now. As I stood listening to the blessing I got an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the friends and family members in my life that live their lives worthily for the priesthood. I started to think of all the sweet blessings I have received from my dad as I get ready for a new school year and the blessing of safety given to me by my uncle as I left for this trip only a couple months ago. The Lord truly does use others as mouthpieces to give messages to His children. It was raining as we left church, which meant every Ghanaian was seeking cover while the Obrunis would fearlessly walk in the scary rain. We got home and started our group meeting. Since it is near the end we did a less formal version of the meeting and just talked about our weeks and emotional health. After our meeting we watched The Testaments. Once it was over I went to talk to Mama in the kitchen and learned so much talking to her in one short hour. I love to sit in kitchens and learn from them. Growing up I loved to help but mainly watch my mom prepare dinner in our kitchen. Cooking in Ghana is a whole different story so mama taught me how to put a plastic bag in the rice to make it more tender and how to make a lightly seasoned rice stew. I asked her more questions about cooking, which she knew almost every answer to. We also talked about everything from raising her kids to the Health care in Ghana. Mama is a very animated talker and made me laugh so hard. She told me that when raising kids they tell them superstitious stories so they will be more obedient. One of them is, when bathing if you sing your mother will die. They don’t want the kids to swallow the soap while bathing so this story keeps them from doing so. Once dinner was ready I helped her bring it out to the girls and she told me she would have the fufu waiting for me when I was finished with the kontomire and rice. I was so hungry I ate the stew so quickly. We sat and talked a little more before I left to talk to Mama some more. She gave me a big bowl of fufu and fish. She said the fish was only three days old so it was still fresh. I’ll try anything once, or twice in this case. Fufu is pounded cassava and yam and feels like a dough ball. The stew was light soup. I am the only one out of the four of us that actually enjoys fufu so the other girls were really grossed out by it. I love trying new foods and am the least picky out of the group. I think Mama wishes the other girls were like that because it makes cooking very difficult for her when they refuse to eat the food. For our project we have to have someone tell us stories so we asked Mama last week to prepare some for us. She told us 3 stories about Nananansi, the wise spider. She is so animated when telling the stories I felt like she was telling them to us like we were 5. I was so entertained by the stories three didn’t seem like enough. The moral of each story was that selfish and greediness will get you nowhere in life. They will leave you ashamed and living in the corner just like Nana Anansi does. King was dancing out in the courtyard so we all joined him for a few dances. Mama even joined us and showed us a few moves of her own. I’m pretty sure King can move his hips better than Shakira. It was dark already outside so Cassie and I walked to the station with King and the other girls. We came home and I read more of my scriptures before going to bed.

XOXO

Day 69

I woke up around 7 so I could leave and be in Wiamoase early. They prepared the same feast for me as they did yesterday. I ate with Sister and Rita on stools around a small plastic table. After breakfast we talked in the kitchen with Akwia. She doesn’t want to go to school but she wants me to teach her English. I said I would if she would teach me Twi. She told me to count to 20, which I did only after messing up the number that left everyone laughing so hard they were crying. Apparently I said ten ten by saying aduado instead of aduano (20). We had a few more laughs waiting around for the taxi driver. He finally came around 10. I said goodbye and thanked them for the hospitality they showed me this weekend. They really did treat me like a queen this whole weekend. Mama got in the taxi with me but only stayed in for 20 minutes before paying the taxi driver to take me to Wiamoase. The whole time in the car I wrote up notes and did some coursework. I got into Wiamoase around 12 and walked into our gate surprised to see Jackie and Lauren eating watermelon with Cassie. I gave them a quick sparks note version of my weekend. They were totally jealous of my feasts and comfortable living situation the past couple of days. I ate a slice of watermelon and went to go lie down but we had to leave to the cultural event. It “starts” at 1 so we left at 1 knowing we wouldn’t get there until 1:45. Once we got to the school half of the chairs and tents weren’t even set up. We are trying so hard to adjust to Africa time but it’s so sporadic. Sometimes you wait 20 minutes; other times you wait 2 hours. Today was a 2-hour kind of wait because they didn’t plan for anything to happen until 3. Cassie works at this school so she knew her way around. We got some homemade shortbread and sat around waiting for the event to start. Every time we get together we laugh so hard tears are rolling down my cheek. Once the cultural event at three we took our seats and waited what seemed like forever for anything exciting to happen. I wasn’t feeling too great so I tried to sleep but the schoolgirl next to me kept telling me to wake up and pay attention. We didn’t leave until 5:40 and got home right before it got dark. Cassie and I heated up our groundnut we made the other night and ate it for dinner. We ate our dinner and talked about how perfect it worked out for us to be roommates. My dad had called while I was gone at Rita’s so I called him back and we talked for about 15 minutes. I hear most everything about the family through our weekly emails but just having a short phone conversation is the best. I know that God gave my dad three daughters for a reason. He is very good with words and expressing his love to us. I can’t wait to go home and spend time with the fam!

Day 68

This morning I woke up at 6 to Rita talking on her phone while lying in bed. I fell in and out of sleep for the next couple of hours until Rita asked me if I wanted to take my bath. I didn’t really have anything with me but I felt gross so I told her I would before breakfast. As Rita got a big pot of water hot for my bath we went out on the porch for fresh air and talked to Mama. Once the pot was hot enough she put it in a big plastic bucket in the bath and said I could dilute it with as much cold water as I wanted. There was a smaller bucket for me to dip into and pour over myself for a nice WARM bucket shower. I never wanted to get out. I was in heaven pouring the warm water over my body. I can’t wait to get home and take warm showers every single day. Since Day 1 I have wanted a warm shower so I am very anxious to return home to get one. Sister told me she had some clothes for me to wear once I was finished. So I reluctantly got out and grabbed the clothes that Sister had for me. It was this beautiful long dress made out of African fabric. She told me I could keep it! The hospitality of this family blew me away. The zipper was a little messed up so it took about 20 minutes to get the dress on but Akwia put some oil on the zipper and it zipped up nicely. Rita let me borrow some nice flip-flops to wear. This was the nicest I have looked in the last couple of months. I went to breakfast not ready for the feast they had ready for me. They microwaved 3 slices of bread, fried an egg, cooked baked beans, and had oatmeal with brown sugar and milk. As I was eating I just thought how I never ever wanted to leave her house. Once I finished breakfast we went into the family room and watched Big Brother Africa. They too were just waking up so it was pretty boring. Sister wants to be a fashion designer so we changed to the style network and watched How Do I Look, Extreme Home-Makeover, and a couple cooking shows. I didn’t mind being completely lazy and sitting around watching TV. I actually miss being able to relax comfortably. Rita told me she was preparing groundnut for dinner, my favorite. She told me to eat a goat kidney, which I did. I could name a few structures on the kidney, which only reminded me of my days in the cadaver lab. It was not tasty at all but I will try anything once. It tasted very metallic like and was very crunchy. I went back to watching the TV until the power went out. Sister’s friend had just come over so they were both upset they couldn’t see the ending of their favorite show. With no power to watch TV, we all went on a nice walk around the neighborhood. It was nice to get out and look at the neighborhood. Some houses were so beautiful they would have been in rich neighborhoods in Houston. We spent about an hour talking about our future homes and lives. We came home and the power was back on so we finished the episode and then ate our dinner. It was groundnut with rice balls. The groundnut didn’t look anything like the one I prepare. This was the traditional dish so it had a lot of oil and red pepper in it. With rice balls you eat it with your hands. I’m sure my brother would love Ghana because most dishes are actually eaten without utensils. There was a bowl of goat intestine, face, liver, and other meat that I didn’t eat too much of. After dinner Rita wanted to go out and introduce me to some of her friends and boyfriend. She gave me earrings to wear and did my hair before we went out. I was supposed to leave tonight to go back to Wiamoase, but her mom had already left for work so I agreed to stay tonight also and leave early in the morning. The first friend of Rita’s was this 300-pound women sitting outside of her clothing store. Rita gave her the rundown of me which is I’m from America, 20 years old, I want to be a doctor, and I’m here to do research. This naturally led into her telling me she is pregnant and wanted me to tell her what foods she should eat. She said that she is gaining weight and doesn’t want to. Based on her size I was surprised that she was able to get pregnant in the first place. She seemed pretty unaware of even the basics of prenatal care so I told her a few of the basics and told her to attend a clinic for more care. After 45 minutes we left to meet Rita’s boyfriend Gideon. We talked for half an hour or so to Gideon, a very nice looking respectful man. He is the youngest of 8 children and works as a school tutor. We discussed how he is currently renovating his house before leaving to go back to Rita’s. She wanted to go to church tonight from 10 pm- 4 am so she wanted to get some sleep in before she left. We came home, watched some TV, and then went to bed.

XOXO

Day 67

I walked up the hill to the clinic in a great mood because I had a lot planned for today. I stopped by the seamstress’ shop to drop off some fabric to make into a skirt but she wasn’t there so I would have to come by after work. I started at the O.P.D. for about an hour helping out taking vitals. Whenever I come to the O.P.D. the other nurses like to sit back and allow me to do all of the vitals. Today there was a constant flow of patients which is expected on Thursdays; Market day. Once there was a small break of patients I went to the dispensary. Edmund, Gideon, Gina, and Elvis were all working. It was a little crowded in the dispensary so I was about to leave until the Captain came in and told them to put me to work and not let me waste away. I talked to the captain for a few minutes about Esther and her family. I started to help out with the dispensary but with so many people already I felt like more of a nuisance than help. I was about to close until Rita walked in. I wanted to ask her when she was going to Kumasi so I could go with her soon and she told me she was going tonight. I figured I didn’t have much to do so I told her I could go with her tonight if she wanted. She got so excited and said she would pick me around 7. I had to leave right at 2 because I made an appointment with Serwaa to interview her. Once I got there I asked her where she wanted to have our interview. She said it was fine to do it right where we were… right in the middle of the street. So I pulled out my computer, had her consent to the interview, opened up garage band and started recording. She was very shy about answering the questions at first but she began to loosen up as the interview continued. My computer caused quite the scene because before I knew it there were at least 40 little pairs of eyes staring at Serwaa and me. There were horns honking, roosters crowing, goats bleating, and kids screaming so I hope it picked up on every word she said. Once the interview was over I left to meet my seamstress friend Elizabeth. She quickly took my measurements and told me to pick up my skirt in a couple days. I went into the market afterwards to pick up some groundnut paste, bread, rice, and green pepper. This was the first time I had gone to the market alone. It was nice to not have to worry about someone else’s schedule and greet whomever I wanted for however long I wanted. I ran into the lady I buy bread from who calls me Obama Biscuit Girl. As embarrassing as that nickname is it’s very accurate. Cassie and I buy a pack of Obama Biscuit Crackers from her every 5 or 6 days. They taste just like graham crackers and once you top them off with nutella they taste like E.L.Fudge cookies. As I was walking back to the house I ran into Kofi and Kobi. They came over to play for a little bit. I watched them do cartwheels and dance around for half an hour of so before Cassie came home. I had to do notes and get things done before I left for Rita’s so I sent them home and started to write my notes. I didn’t get too many notes before we started cooking dinner. We made our famous groundnut trying to add as much water as possible to stretch it as far as it would go. While we were eating Rita called me and said she would be leaving soon to pick me up. I packed in literally 2 minutes and finished my dinner. Rita picked me up in her car and we left for Kumasi. She had a friend in the car that was pretty friendly. We talked about Ghana and Rita told him I was going to be a Physician Assistant, which naturally led him into him giving me symptoms of his latest health issue. There was a lot of traffic so we didn’t get into Kumasi until around 8:30. We dropped off her friend and drove to her mansion of a house. Their housemaid opened the gate and revealed a big beautiful two story with a fleet of cars lining the driveway. Rita and her family live on the second floor. Rita’s sister, who goes by Sister, met us in the driveway and grabbed all of Rita’s bags. I was instantly escorted to the living room where E News was on. I haven’t watched any American TV in the last 10 weeks so it was pretty exciting to see what was going on. I don’t like celebrity news but that is the closest I have felt to being in America I have ever felt since being here. Their housemaid Akwia came in with a bottle of Fanta and told me dinner was almost ready. I told her I had already eaten but that didn’t matter to them, they still fed me an absolute feast. They set a huge plate of rice, noodles, and sausage topped off with spicy red sauce. I only ate about ½ of the food because I was still full from my first dinner. After dinner we went back into the living room and watched Big Brother Africa. It’s a group of Africans living in house with cameras on them constantly. Unlike our reality TV shows, this one is on 24/7 with one channel for the boys and another showing the girls room. We watched the boys sit in the hottub for an hour talking in hushed tones and the girls were falling asleep in their room. We were all pretty bored of the show so once Rita’s mom came into the room she asked to change it to the Africa Movie Network. Sister hates that show but Ghanaian children are told to obey their parents their whole life in everything so she changed the channel with out any groaning. I bet every parent wishes their kids were that obedient even at 23 like Sister. I sat and talked to Sister about her life in Accra, news from Twitter, and looked at all 1650 of her photos on her phone. I didn’t even mind looking at the seemingly endless amount of pictures on her phone. I felt like I was chatting with a girlfriend in America. She was so friendly and knew a lot of phrases and slang that goes over the head of most people here. I went to bed in Rita’s bed where she was already asleep. Sister put a mattress in the room so we could have a sleep over. I read a few chapters of scriptures before falling asleep.

XOXO

Day 66

Happy Independence Day! 

Today at the clinic I started it off at the dressing room while taking observational notes. The chief did most of the procedures with almost 4 nurses in the room standing around the whole time at this beck and call. They didn’t do much except hand him the occasional piece of tape and cotton ball. Once we were finished in the dressing room I went to the Dispensary to help out again. Today I felt that I wasn’t useful but in the way most of the day. Only Gina and Edmund were working but Gina was sick the whole day.  She slept while Edmund filled out the prescriptions. I closed around 2 to go home. As I was walking home I saw Serwaa Antwi the plantain seller and asked her if I could interview her for my project. She said she was more than happy to do it and I could meet her at 2 tomorrow. My 30-minute walk home made me annoyed at every child in Wiamoase. I am surprised every single time but whenever I am upset my friend Kofi always shows up. I was just about to turn around to the noise of little feet chasing after me to tell them to go away until I realized it was Kofi. I don’t know what it is about this kid but he always makes my days better. He probably speaks the least English out of all the kids we know; yet he is my favorite. He is such a spunky kid that you can’t help but fall in love with him. He asked me for the drum to play with so I handed it to him and sat in my chair and watched him. I remembered that I still had sheets of stickers left so I got those and let him play with them. I can’t wait to be a mom one day and have craft days with them. Little kids imaginations are so funny I just want to know what they will create with markers and stickers in front of them. We were playing with the stickers on the patio bench but it started to rain so we moved under the covering and continued our craft day. Kofi filled up a little sheet with all of his stickers so I gave him a bigger piece of paper to fill up. He spent the next hour while it poured filling up the whole page. Cassie stayed inside the whole time doing notes so Kofi ran into to show her his page of stickers. He was so proud of it. Kobi came over too so I gave him the rest of the stickers Kofi didn’t use. Cassie and I had to go out and meet a friend so I told Kofi he had to go home. He handed me his page full of stickers but I told him that he should keep it. His face lit up as he said something to me in Twi and ran away with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on him. While out in the town Cassie and I bought more of our favorite Obama Biscuits and bread. We went out to meet our new friend so she could teach us Twi like she promised but she wasn’t home. Once we got home Kobi was still doing stickers so I sat and watched him for a while. Once he left I went in and did some coursework. I made dinner and had another great discussion with Cass. Honestly I can’t believe how close we’ve gotten over these past couple of months. We help each other out in ways I can’t even explain. As different as we are, we help each other so much. I read my scriptures after our talk and went to bed.

Day 65

Today I woke up early because we were going to spend the day in Kumasi. We met the other girls in Agona, got on a tro tro and left. It was raining a bit when we got to Kumasi so there was hardly anyone on the streets. Better for us. I called our friend Emmanuel who painted a couple of paintings for me but he didn’t answer his phone. We found it much easier to navigate Kumasi and found everywhere we needed to go. We went to the Immigration office first. It was a very painless process. We gave them our receipts and they came out 10 minutes later with our passports. They extended our Visas to the 30^th so we aren’t going to have any problems thankfully. I got a hold of Emmanuel while we were waiting so we decided to walk back to Vic Baboos but he still wasn’t there. We were good on time but we wanted to go to the cultural center quickly. We made a stop at the obruni market. Afterwards we trekked up to the Cultural center, which took about 30 minutes. Thankfully we had Jackie and Cassie to help navigate us. I got a hold of Emmanuel again and he said that he couldn’t bring me the paintings that I’ll have to come by again to get them. Our time was very limited in Kumasi so I didn’t want to waste it walking all way back. He said that he can’t meet me so if I want my paintings I have to come get them. About 20 more minutes of angry phone calls back and forth proceeded until he finally agreed to meet me at the entrance of the cultural center. We made our way to the art area and craft area of the very confusing laid out center. We saw how Kente cloth was made and went to an art gallery. I wanted to go to the entrance to meet Emmanuel so we left after the art gallery. We all had words for him about how rudely he acted on the phone but he was too nice for us to actually say anything we planned. When I got my paintings I was floored at how beautiful they were. Each brush stroke was a different color but they all worked so great together. After I paid him and thanked him for making them we went to the museum. People have been telling us the whole time that we must go to the cultural center before we go. We each paid 4 cedi to enter the museum no bigger than a large family room. It was a guided tour, so the lady came around with a ruler and quickly told us most everything there. She spoke very quickly and basically read off the plaques available for each item. We tried to slow her down and ask more questions. After awhile we realized that was useless so we let her talk as fast as she wanted. I started to feel sick again and so did Lauren. She actually felt so bad she left with Jackie to go to the bathroom while Cassie and I stayed behind. She told us about the King and the Queen Mother and the history about the Ashantis. The coolest parts of it all was this drum made with leopard skin that when scratched actually sounds like a leopard. During war times the Ashantis would hide in the bushes and scratch the top of it to make the enemy think that there were jaguars or lions in the jungle. Cassie left with Jackie to meet a family friend while Lauren and I stayed behind and broke into our nutella cookies. We each had one and then decided to go to the restaurant. It was raining pretty hard so we sat under the cover until Armstrong and his whole family came. He has two sons, one named after Cassie’s Great uncle, and a wife pregnant with their third child. Cassie’s Great Uncle and Great Aunt came to Ghana 7 years ago on a couples mission and found Armstrong. He told us how his own mother was elderly and he has always felt compassion towards older people which led to him befriending Cassie’s Great Aunt and Great Uncle. He was converted before they left and met his wife, Doris, 2 years later. We were impressed the whole time during dinner how sweet he was to his wife and family. When ordering he said that his wife could choose and he’ll be happy with whatever she chooses. He held one of his sons while his wife held the other. In Ghana it is hard to find a man who respects his wife as highly as Armstrong does and treats her like a Queen. We left the restaurant and out to the vendor area because Armstrong wanted to buy something small for Cassie’s Great Aunt and Great Uncle. I talked to this painter for awhile before the other girls called me over and told me that Armstrong had bought rings for us and we need to pick out which one we want. We ended up buying the same ring with the Gnyame (Jin-Yah-may) symbol on it. The symbol means With God or Only God so we are going to use it as our Ghanaian CTR ring. We walked to the Tro Tro station and got in a very long line. It was still raining but the women had their caps on and were ready for the rain. As the tro tro pulled up the people actually got into the tro tro in the order they were in line. We have never, and probably will never see that happen again. The same friend that helped us climb through the tro tro window last time helped us again by letting us get into an empty tro tro. I was so tired from not sleeping last night that I actually fell asleep in the tro tro, a miraculous feat. We got into Agona and stepped off the tro tro to do some market shopping quickly. I was so groggy I could not comprehend anything going on around me. We only bought a couple spices and then left for the Internet café. We had to wait about ½ hour for a computer to be free. I spent about 2 ½ hours talking to my Mom, Audrey, and friends. I finished up and Cassie said she was almost finished so I sat and waited for her. We came home and made our groundnut over rice. We made enough for ourselves and for one more meal tomorrow but we were so hungry we just split the leftovers too and had a feast. Matilda gave us some of her palm nut soup, which we had been anxiously waiting for the past couple of days. It had A LOT of red pepper and fish in it but I still really enjoyed it. I even ate all of the fish. The rest of the night I did some researching and some notes.

XOXO

Day 64

Today I was absolutely exhausted so I slept in till a lot later than normal. Once I finally did get out of bed I made some oatmeal and went to the clinic. Gideon was working again, which meant he was going to keep me busy all day. The other days he called me his personal assistant and kept calling me Auntie Ama when he needed to talk to me. Today Isaac spent most of the day in the Dispensary too so we all had a nice talk as I dispensed the drugs. It’s funny how easier it gets once it isn’t all new and scary at first. I was on my feet all day and loved it. Most of my friends at the clinic know I hate sitting around so they will give me little tasks but Gideon gives me hours of work at a time. Today I filled out a report of all the drugs needed at the pharmacy and Gideon filled in the quantities. Once the drugs arrived, we arranged them on the shelves while still filling out the patient’s prescriptions. Gideon bought me a coke to thank me for helping out but I couldn’t thank him enough for keeping me busy all day. Around 1:30 the other pharmacologist Gina came into work so Gideon left. She told me to just sit and record the folders as they come because I don’t think she knew Gideon taught me how to help out with the dispensing. I filled out the 50 charts and dispensed for a few patients. Gina was very impressed that I knew where the drugs were. I left around 3 and had a pretty silent walk home. Not too many people stopped me to talk to them, which is always a nice break. I got home, pretty tired from the day, and laid down for a bit and finished reading the second book of the Hunger Games. It’s kind of a joke between us how much we feel like we’re in the Hunger games sometimes looking for familiar food in a foreign land with new predators. I so wish that I could have the third book to read here! It looked like it was going to rain so I worked out and showered before then. Cassie had already started dinner by the time I was out of the shower so there wasn’t much for me to do. We made delicious groundnut stew with rice. I could probably eat this for the next 4 weeks and be satisfied… and fat. After our dinner Cassie and I came in and had another really long discussion about everything. When we start talking we really get into so many topics I don’t even remembered what started it all. We talked about relationships, friends, and changes we’ve made. We made nutella cookies for everyone to eat tomorrow while we talked. I could not have picked a better person to room with if I tried. I am so happy with how well we have all adjusted here and glad that we still have a few weeks to enjoy ourselves here.  

XOXO Ama

9 Weeks!

Today was absolutely beautiful. Sunday is always the prettiest day of the week even here in Ghana. Cassie and I left around 8 to go to church at 9 but still ended up being pretty late. Our first taxi ride went without a hitch but the one to Asamong our taxi driver never went faster than 20 km/h while he texted on his phone and stopped randomly to wave to his friends across the street. The lady next to Cassie had just given birth a couple of days ago and was going to the Asamong Hospital opposite from the church building. She looked like she was struggling to carry all of her stuff and newborn baby so I offered to help her to the Maternity Center in the Hospital. She hasn’t been feeling well since giving birth at home so she was going to the clinic to get checked out. We got her situated and quickly walked to church right as they were singing the Sacrament Hymn. The funniest part was when the Branch President was off by a word every single verse and was singing like it was MoTab tryouts or something. We tried our hardest to stifle our laughs but I think everyone but him knew he was off by a beat. It was fast Sunday so a few members got up and bore their testimonies. One man had us pull out our hymnbooks and sing Come Come Ye Saints. The Branch President was not happy with this and refused to sing. During Church I read the scriptures and my book Teachings of Presidents of the Church George Albert Smith and can’t get enough of either of them. Prophets of the church are truly destined for their calling since birth. I’ve been reading about George Smith’s life and not only was he the perfect man so were his parents. After Sacrament we had a ‘5’ minute break that turned into 15. We got asked to go to the Primary room and teach the Primary lesson for 2 hours. We didn’t have any warning but agreed to teach the lesson. The Primary room is upstairs in a small room with a chalkboard and 40 little kid chairs set up in neat rows. It became evident in about 10 seconds that none of these kids understood English well enough for us to teach them. We had the Book of Mormon storybook for Kids and a ton of those pictures from the library. The only thing I could think of was to pull out the pictures of the animals and have a lesson on the things God created. I got the kids going on naming animals which they seemed to like. We remembered from weeks past that they could sing Book of Mormon Stories and I am a Child of God. We sang those songs but then we were stuck. One of the counselors came in to see how we were doing so we told him we need someone to help us translate. She got one of the Young Women to help us which made it so much easier. We pulled out the kid’s story book and went over the tree of life and Nephi building a boat. The girl helping us out was fairly new to the church so once I summarized the story to her she translated it to the kids. I have no idea what she was actually saying to them but there were 4 kids on the front row that had the biggest eyes and were nodding every now and then as she told the story. I could tell after two of these lessons the kid were starting to get restless and we needed a singing break. We taught them Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes in Twi successfully but we didn’t have so much success with popcorn popping. They mumbled the tune and repeated the actions I did but they were thoroughly confused at what we were doing so we stopped that and I pulled out the pictures of Jesus. The other girls were sitting down on the other side of the room writing in their journals but I was loving spending every moment with these sweet kids. I pulled a picture of Jesus out of the bunch and asked who he was. Some kids told me it was God and others said it was the Prophet. I continued to show them other pictures of Jesus teaching little kids and asked the kids what we learn from Jesus. The discussions were all in Twi with the translator but the way the kids popped up in their seats to answer so quickly was so sweet. There were a few pictures of moms playing with their kids so I asked how each of them help out their mothers at the house. The little kids were telling me how they help fetch water, sweep the floor, and do the dishes. The responses are very different with American kids with responses like ‘Pick up my toys’ when they probably don’t actually. These little kids about 7 years old are actually fetching water for their moms and doing the dishes. The sweetest moment that I can’t stop thinking about was when I asked the kids to share their favorite Bible story. One kid who had participated regularly throughout the whole time shot his arm up and asked if he could tell the story of Lazarus. He gave it all in Twi but it took about 5 minutes for him to give the story. I just nodded along faking like I knew exactly what he was saying but I was really thinking about how amazing this kid is going to be as a missionary. He is just 8 and so reverently giving the whole story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. After he gave his story every other kid wanted to give their favorite Bible story too. The really little kids, about 4 years old, even gave a quick story. I was so impressed with the variety of stories and their sweet high-pitched voices giving them. We sang a couple of songs before ending a couple minutes early. The other girls were joking about how one day I’ll be a primary president and honestly I hope so. Primary is the best place ever. To teach and learn from the special spirits each one has would be such a blessing. After church we went home and had our meeting. For our spiritual thought, Lauren read from my book that my mom gave me before I left. In it was a quote from Sister Dalton’s talk Dare Great Things. Her main three points were Dream Big, Move Out of our comfort zones, and go forward with full confidence. These three points pretty much summarized our three months here. We dreamed big to come to Ghana, moved out of our comfort zones and became part of a foreign country, and can now move forward with full confidence. At the end she mentioned how when we make transitions, we are never alone. Our Heavenly Father knows exactly where we are and will always be with us. We all could testify of the presence of God in our life in these past few months as we have struggled to keep our sanity. After we went through our Pits, Peaks, and Praises. My pit of the week was my clothes taking almost 3 days to dry and my peak was the joy and peace I have felt this week. My praise was that today I felt satisfied enough here that if somebody told me I had to go home tomorrow I would be ok with it. I have been stressing out about not learning everything I need to learn here. I started to reflect on everything I have changed from my actions to attitude that have made me a happier person. I want to continue these changes when I am home and glad that this opportunity facilitated for all of those changes to happen as quickly as they did. After our meeting we watched Forever Strong, ate dinner, and waited for the World cup game to come on. We watched as Spain scored 2 goals in the first half but Cassie and I had to leave so we didn’t get back too late. As we were driving away we passed Lauren and Jackie walking back home so Cassie yelled out her window “Obruni, Where are you going?!” just like every child does every 10 seconds here. The other passengers and taxi driver thought that was the funniest thing ever and couldn’t stop laughing. We came home, ate more of our Obama Biscuits, and read our scriptures. We are in 3^rd Nephi now and love having late night discussions about what we’re reading. Today was the perfect start to our 10^th week here. 

Day 62

This morning I made some oatmeal and went to the clinic. I don’t normally go to the clinic on Saturday but since I missed 3 days this week already I needed to get some hours in. I was in a surprisingly great mood and stopped to talk to a lot of people on my way. It takes me about 45 minutes to get to the clinic when I do stop and talk but it’s totally worth it. I got to work at the dispensary again all day with Gideon and I stayed till 4 with him even though it was such a slow day. Today he taught me how to give out receipts, the difference between some of the similar drugs, and what drugs patients need to pay for. I got to help him organize the shelves and dispense out the drugs. I began to feel a lot more confident dealing with the patients than yesterday. I started to think about how my program at BYU has me dealing with people all day long and how nervous I used to get thinking about it. This experience has given me so much time to talk to people I don’t find it an issue anymore. I’m sure I will be a little timid at first like I was yesterday but once I get the hang of it I’ll have the best time helping out with the athletes. Even though it had been about 2 hours since the last patient I had a lot of work still to do recording the drugs prescribed and filling out receipts for the in-patients. Gideon and I had a nice discussion about family and religion. I told him all about Mormons and he told me all about Pentecosts. When I did leave, I was in such a great mood that I stopped and had the best conversations with a couple of people. The first was with a man Kwaku. At first I didn’t really want to talk to him but I decided to actually stop and we ended up talking about everything from Hunting to Washington D.C. He told me his dream was to go to America but he not once asked me to take him there or give him an invitation. We talked for about half an hour before I told him I had to go home. Then I met Adjuba who taught the other girls some Twi and wants to teach Cassie and I some Twi also. I explained to her what my research was when she asked but she wanted to know why I was doing it. I told her I wanted to become a Physician Assistant which must be a cue for people to give you their medical history so you can fix their health issues. Her friend too started showing me all the bumps on her body, flashing me a couple of times in the process. I told them I’m not a doctor yet but they can call me in 7 years when I do have my license and I can help them out then. They insisted I help them out now so I told one that couldn’t sleep to drink something hot before bed and the one with all the bumps to put a cream on it. They seemed to be satisfied with those answers and let me continue walking home. I was almost home before these little kids stopped me to get pictures of me on their camera phone. Times like these I think it would be nice to be a celebrity with random people wanting your photo no matter how you look. Once I was home we cooked the tomato stew into the rice and added our avocados to make such a delicious meal. For dessert we had Obama crackers and nutella. Then we had one of the longest talks ever. We talked about our first impressions of each other and how we adjusted to each other in the first couple of weeks here. Although we are a group of girls that wouldn’t normally be friends in normal situations, we have been split up in the best way possible. I have learnt so much from Cassie and continue to everyday. After our super long discussion it was only 10 so I read my scriptures for a long time still trying to catch up and then went to bed.