Sure is hot out here.....we are trespassers O_O

The beach on the road on the way to town

Light House in Accra

The Memorial we trespassed on....opps

Well, today has been a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be. I thought it would just be hanging around the labor ward, grabbing lunch, maybe a trip to a market and then go out. Let us take it one step at a time.

What I wore: I decided to wear one of my dresses today. My roommate complimented me on it. The porter at the front desk complimented me on it. The random guy talking to the porter said I looked really good in my dress. While walking down the road from my hostel, a girl was coming my way and when she passed me she complimented my dress. Down the street a little further, a doctor stopped his car and asked where I was going and gave me a ride. So many people kept telling me how much they loved my dress. The dress really is beautifully made but I also think they liked that fact that I decided to wear an African style dress.

Erica and I were on the ward together today. One of the doctors from my team were there as well and told us we would be assisting today! Finally!!! Erica got first dibs because she actually wants to do OBGYN. I wasn't mad though. It turns out my patient was a 17 year old and her baby had a hydrocephalus! The doctor decided he wanted to do an ultra sound of the baby and find a heart beat before they call the pediatricians. They have an ultrasound machine?! On this very ward?! Why don't they whip that thing out more often!?

I got scrubbed in and helped the doctor perform the C section. It went well. It was the first hydrocephalus I saw live I think. I don't know how well he will be taken care of here. At the very end I even got to do one suture. It was the first C Section I have assisted on and I was not prepared for the amniotic fluid to be so incredibly warm!! It was bordering on hot.

I watched Erica assist on her second one and then we headed to lunch. There we met up with Katie and Beth. I tried something new today and ordered noodles with vegetables and shared it with Beth. I also had a banana and pineapple smoothie made. Yum.

We headed to their place quick so that the others could get changed and then we headed to the art market.

I warned them it would be chaos. We hardly got out of the car and were already bombarded by people trying to sell us stuff. They would ask us what our name is, where we were from, if we had a boyfriend. By the end of our visit I was living in Hong Kong, had a boyfriend who was here in Ghana with me but was back at the hotel and we were volunteering in the hospital. I bought a woven bag for my mother and I, two bracelets and made an order with my wood carving friend and said I'd be back to pick it up and pay him since I had no money at the time.

We headed to the memorial that was around the corner. We saw visitors inside but couldn't find the right gate. One of the last ones we saw was closed but it was easily opened. We headed in hoping we weren't trespassing. We walked to the center monument and were approached by a man who wanted a picture with us. Heck why not. Then I walked to the center piece where a group of kids were. They all seemed really happy for my arrival and all wanted to group up and get a picture with me. I obliged. Then I was approached by a man and he asked for my entrance ticket…..uh-oh. The other girls came to my rescue but we were at a loss. We explained to him that we didn't have a ticket because we were let through a gate and there was no sign of an actual entrance existing. He told us we had to pay 10 GHC each. We explained to him that we literally had only a few GHC to get home. This wasn't even a lie on our part, we had really spent all our cash at the art market and only had enough to get home. We argued and apologized and tried to explain the situation for a pretty long time. We apologized and said we didn't know, if we had we would have paid but they need to put up a sign or something. He thought we were trying to scam him but eventually realized that we really weren't and then turned the whole thing into a lesson of us all coming from the same place and that we have to stick together and such and when we thought he would let us go with a lesson well learned, he wanted any change we did have and started saying something about lunch and dinner. We were so confused by the end of it all and didn't know if he had just scammed us or what the deal was. He did have a whole ring of keys though which made it look like he might work there. Regardless, he got his 3-4 GHC and we got to go and have a story to tell for it.

We grabbed a taxi back home. Now we are in the process of figuring out what we want to do tonight. Salsa is the plan. Discussion of dinner is being had right now. We will see what happens and I will let you know tomorrow.

Totally forgot to mention this yesterday but my baby boy was released from the hospital! I hope he lives a good life. I'd love to check on him in the future but I don't see that actually working out for me. All I can do is hope my help helped him!