Monday night, I continued my non productive run and watched movies until I went to bed. Tope, one of the guys in my hostel, stopped by for a chat and he gave me Nigerian music to listen to.
Tuesday: I woke up to two girls arguing very loudly in the room next door. From the intensity and loudness, you would think the one chick slept with the boyfriend of the other chick and she just walked in on them. Joy left our room and I figured she was going to settle things. She didn't return for about half an hour. When she did, I asked what all the commotion was about. Apparently, the one girl likes sleeping with the windows and curtains open where as the other one can't sleep when its bright and thus wants the curtains closed. Are you kidding me.
Since I was up so early, I figured I could go ahead and go to the theater since sitting at home wasn't very productive and I didn't want a repeat of Monday. I walked in the hot sun to campus. Once I was changed into my scrubs, I headed into the prep room to eat some of the fresh mango I had just bought and see when these operations would begin. The sitting around took a bit over an hour. Then I moved my location into the theater and snagged a chair. Even here, things were slow to begin. Quite different from Germany. I don't often have the opportunity to be bored in Germany so I don't sketch a lot. I sketch when I am bored, so this was my opportunity. I don't really like people seeing my work while I am in progress so I tried to be a bit secretive about it….didn't work. Everybody walking by took a peak and some even ripped the book out of my hand to see. One doctor and a nurse both said they wanted me to sketch them….
I watched the doctors perform a hysterectomy. I didn't know the patient and they didn't brief the operation in any way so it was a guessing game for me when it started. The patient had an enlarged stomach which made me think it was either an ovarian tumor or a uterus with multiple myomas. The latter was the winner. After the incision, the uterus that they pulled up was enormous! It looked like they were removing an octopus head from her abdomen! At some point, anesthesiology needed to do something so the surgeons stopped operating, the anesthetist even let the curtain drop from in front of the patients face to do things. What seemed to be students also all took a turn listening to the heart beat. My inner hygiene person was freaking out a bit at the sight.
At 12:30 they still weren't done. They had removed the uterus but weren't sewing up yet. I was in contact with Felix and had him order us food and I went to change. After a quick lunch at MedDiner, I headed back to the hostel. Tope and I had planned to leave around 2 to get some groceries at Shoprite….a real, functional supermarket like I know it. We grabbed a taxi and it was probably a good half hour drive until we got there. It was in the Accra mall near the airport. We also decided to go watch the second Captain America movie in the movie theater there. Since we still had a half hour, we browsed the supermarket quickly. The movie theater was the first time since I've gotten here that I felt cold. I liked it. The movie was good, I can definitely recommend it. I grabbed a few things at Shoprite and then we were off to meet some people to watch a soccer match.
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| Sign in the mall bathroom....okay, got it, no sex. |
I knew the place was called Epos Spot and even had google maps open with the exact location. We tried finding a taxi that would take us there. The situation was absolutely ridiculous! The taxi drivers had no idea how to read the map! For the first 10 minutes of the discussion, they thought we were saying Airport Spot….although I had shown them the name on my phone. Once I spelt it out, the taxi driver claimed to know where it was. He got us in the general area and I tracked us on google maps. He should have made a turn and didn't so I thought maybe there was a one way or something. We were standing in the parallel street when he said the place we were looking for wasn't here. I told him to take a the next right and then another right and low and behold we were there. Tope and I were the first of the gang to make it. We paid 2 Cedis to go to the upper roof top level. The place was jam packed with people. We were directed to two seats in the first row. Two games were on parallel. The only one that interested me was Manchester United versus Bayern München. Obviously I was for Bayern. I was about the only one too. This made it fun though because it was me (and a few random people) against the huge group of United fans. Elena and her boyfriend, who I had not previously met but knew from our WhatsApp group and had been traveling around before they leave today, had arrived and gotten seats in the back. During half time, she came and introduced herself. Felix arrived around that time as well. We watched the rest of the game, 1-1, and then started looking for the fish place we wanted to eat at.
Google Maps couldn't tell me where it was so we just started asking random people. Elena knew it was near the Republic bar we were at last week. My orientation isn't that great in Osu yet because I am only there when its dark and usually have a guide so I don't have to know. I finally could orient myself a bit once we got out of the smaller streets. We found the fish place and had a seat. In the next few hours, we grew from a group of 5 people to one of about 12. We all ordered fish, plantains and couscous and had a really good time. Alexis and Alex were back from their one and half week trip, one girl was back from a quick visit to the states and one girl even just arrived an hour earlier and had been picked up by Pablo. Around midnight the group split up into those going home (which I belonged to) and those going to the Republic bar for a drink and then who knows what else.
This morning I woke up to some man and woman arguing. Sounded intense but who knows, maybe they were just fighting about some insignificant thing. I'm about to leave to go hang out in the labor ward and see what I can witness there.
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