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!

Sure is hot out here.....babies, mall and movies

I've come to terms with the fact that I probably won't know how to do a C section on my own by the time I leave here. The reason is a combination of the doctors not being really inviting to assist, the limited supplies and me not asking because of the knowledge that I would be using up their supplies. I plan on being on the labor ward all week however and at least assist in one.

I spent the morning on the labor and delivery ward with Beth. Since I still haven't seen a spontaneous birth, I went to the 2nd floor in the hopes of seeing one. All I saw in my time there was a doctor examine a lady pregnant with twins and three C sections. I kept walking around checking on the patients to see if anyone was in labor but they were all just hanging out.

I'm at the point where I really don't want to watch another C section unless I'm assisting. I'll probably end up watching more today however. I will try to get every step, every cut and every suture memorized to keep me interested.

I went and picked Erica up in the OB clinic and we went to lunch. At MedDiner, we met up with Katie and Greg. When I went to order, the waitress finished my order for me. I think I might just be the only person who orders white rice and 12 plantains. We chatted while eating and tried to figure out what we wanted to do with the rest of the day. Some wanted to go back to the hospital, Katie and I decided to get some office work done. I stopped by Yaa's store to give her the money for my dresses. I felt really rich carrying 800 Cedis around with me. There were a lot of bills….but in the end it was "only" 300 US Dollars/ 215 Euros.

Back in my room I did some research on possible last year elective spots in the US. IT IS SO HARD! First, there are hardly schools that take international students and second, the ones that do all seem to have factors that make them not work for me: too expensive, their dates don't work with my dates, they don't have Urology as an option (although I might just have to do the general surgery part in the states if I find a program), they are highly competitive spots….there just hasn't been a program yet that looks like it'll work out. I still have a lot of looking around to do.

I had planned on maybe seeing Nana before she left but it was all getting too late for that. The gang and I decided to go to the Accra Mall. They needed to exchange money and wanted to see the mall. I suggested going to the movies as well.

The taxi ride out there took very long because the streets were packed. When we did make it, we went fabric shopping at a fantastic store called Woodin. The prints were a lot more suitable for clothing than a lot of the prints at Kaneshie. I went ahead and bought some for my mom and aunt. I could have taken one of each for me but I know I don't have time to do anything with it when I am back in Germany.

We went to the food court for dinner. I was really craving pizza. It was my lucky day in that the place has a Two for One Tuesdays. Because of this however, it took me a really long time to get my food because there were so many customers and I am sure everyone was having two pizzas made. Two pizzas for 23 Cedis…not bad at all. It took so long though that I didn't have time to eat them and I snuck them into the movie theater with us. We went and watch "About Last Night". I had already seen it in Miami but liked it so much I wanted them to see it and I would watch it again. They enjoyed the movie as well. Even though their were some technical difficulties with the sound at times. (We had had a perfect Captain America experience last week so I felt the difficulties yesterday were a bad first impression for the gang.)

The cab ride back home was much faster because there were no cars on the road.

I'm about to get ready (going to wear one of my new dresses!) and head to the labor and delivery ward to hang out with Erica!

Sure is hot out here...again...and my dresses are done!

It was incredibly hot today. One of the hottest days since I've been here I think.

I went to the Gyn Theater today because I knew Erica was there and I was not about to go to the Gyn clinic and just sit around. We watched a hysterectomy (uterus removal) and a myomectomy (removal of little muscle growth balls from the uterus). I would usually be bored just watching an operation (and at times I was) but the extent of the disease is usually much more progressed than what I would see in Germany and thus interesting. Erica and I left before the finished up sewing the last patient shut to have some lunch with Katie, Michael and Felix. I had Red Red again. So yummy but due to the heat I couldn't actually eat a lot.

Afterwards we headed to Nana's store to pick up my dresses. They looked amazing in the bag so I was so excited to see what they look like on. When I asked how much they cost I was thinking it would be about 150-200 Cedis….it was 800! So about 300 US dollars but lets be honest…these things are so nicely made and there is so much detail that if they fit…its worth it. I got three dresses, a skirt and pants.

We headed to their hotel to chill a bit and have a fashion show. The stuff fits great! Totally worth it.

I headed back to my place afterwards, walking a bit of a detour because I missed my gate but I enjoyed the stroll.

I hung out in my room until Isaac and Eugene picked me up at 9:30pm. They drove me to Nana's cousin's house. There, a few other cousins and Nana were just hanging out having drinks. I wore one of my dresses because I was so excited about them and was overdressed but it was fine. I only caught about 40% of the conversations but it was a good time. I was back in bed by 1:30.

Now I am wearing my new skirt and about to head to the labor and delivery ward to see what happens :)

Sure is hot out here.....another fantastic weekend...so good!

As with most of our plans here, we didn't quite leave Accra when we wanted to. Greg (one of the Massachusetts students) was held up in the hospital. I had gone to Micheal's place to hang out and wait for Erica and Katie. Once they both got there, we grabbed a taxi to their hostel. These guys live in the lap of luxury compared to me! The have AC, warm running water, the place is clean and beautiful. We hung out in their room until Greg made it.

We grabbed a taxi to take us to the Kaneshie Station. Its right next to the Kaneshie market where I bought the fabric. There we found the trotro that would take us to Cape Coast. It was really hot outside and we had to wait for the trotro to fill up. Little kids would come by and touch us and a mother came to my window, tapped me on the shoulder because her son wanted to say hi to me. He was very shy though. A few minutes later he was standing behind the bus (the door was open and I was in the very back seat) and I waved to him. He looked at me for a second and then burst out crying. I felt so bad. This kid is terrified of white people.

Winneba Beach

Google maps in America always seems to over estimate the time of my travel. Here, I feel it only tells me half of the time it will actually take to get somewhere. We were anticipating a 2.5-3 hour drive. It ended up being around 4 hours. In Cape Coast, we had to find our way to the hotel which was a bit out of town. Pablo had called his taxi driver friend Maxwell for us. Since we only wanted to go to the hotel for the night, we didn't want to bother him and just take the first taxi we found. When I told the driver we wanted to go to Brenu Beach Resort he said it would cost 10 Cedis…..per person! Mind you we had paid 11 GHC to get to Cape Coast. I was not having it. I told them it was in absolutely no relation to what we paid to get to Cape Coast. Then Maxwell walked up out of nowhere and introduced himself. He wanted 8 GHC per person. I still thought it was ridiculous but we didn't really have another choice.

Winneba Beach

The problem was also that we were 5 people plus Maxwell requiring four of us to squish in the back. Along the drive, Maxwell told me that we would pass through a police check point (there are a lot of those in Ghana, especially at night and I don't think they are that effective). He said it would be best if one of us got out and walked through the check point and then got picked up on the other side. He said this and looked at me. I thought he might pick out Greg because he is the guy but after Greg said he is terrible at lying…..I let my inner actress emerge and hopped out of the car. My mom and grandma are probably having a heart attack at this point reading that last sentence. I walked past the officers and said good evening. They asked where I was going (they were probably shocked to see an obruni walk the streets in this deserted area alone at night) and I said I was just going to a friends house. (I had no Idea what was past the border..houses? farms? nothingness for miles to come?) They asked where exactly and I told them I didn't have an exact address and wasn't from here so I wasn't sure how to explain it but that they were on their way to pick me up and it was no problem. They seemed to be either satisfied with that response or too shocked to do anything about it. On the other side of the barrier was another police officer who asked if I needed an escort. Not quire sure if he said that out of pure concern for my safety or if that situation would have ended in a marriage proposal. I told him I was just fine and kept walking. It was really dark and the starry sky was beautiful but having semi trucks pass you on a road in the middle of Africa in the dark is not the safest feeling in the world. A taxi passed me and honked. I had no idea if that was my taxi or just any taxi in Ghana that wanted to get my attention. It pulled to the side of the road in front of me. I figured it was them but the thought of a super sketchy situation definitely crossed my mind. Luckily it was them. I got in and we continued on. They told me that they didn't take their eye off of me the whole time and were freaking out to Maxwell when he drove past me thinking he was leaving me. He just needed to get passed the second officer though.

Winneba Beach, Isaac photobombed us

The road down to our hotel was long, bumpy and had lots of holes. It was well worth it though. Even in the dark the place looked nice. We got our two rooms and they even still made us food although we didn't get there until 9:30. The food was delicious, really surprisingly good actually. We sat around a bit longer for drinks but then went to bed knowing we had to get up at 5:30 to be picked up by Isaac to be taken to the funeral. The beds were amazingly comfortable so I slept like a rock.


Saturday:

I had told Isaac to call me when he is in Cape Coast so that we would have about a half an hour time to get ready. All I did was braid my hair, throw on my jumpsuit and put on some mascara. Isaac came with his friend Eugene. The drive to Winneba took about an hour and forty-five minutes. We three slept most of the way. The funeral took place in a huge enclosed square. Red and black tents where set up around an open square area. The first familiar face I saw was of Nana's "crazy" aunt. Isaac had told the ushers we were with the family and they wanted us to sit in the elevated area at the front of the square. We all felt that was not necessary and wanted to be more in the back as observers. The aunt asked where she was supposed to sit and apparently the organization was switching at the moment moving the family members directly opposite from where the signs had hung. We positioned ourselves in the third row and waited. We probably sat there two hours before it actually started in which time we observed things still getting set up, people arriving, the different groups of people (distinguished by their identical groups of clothing) greeting the family members. Nana, Sandra and Sarah eventually arrived and introduced themselves to Katie and Erica. The other aunts and cousins that I had met a few nights ago recognized me (lets be honest, in comparison it is not that hard being the only obruni around) and said hello. We three were starving and sweating incredibly and were so thankful when they started handing out water bottles to the guests. Nana also handed us little pamphlets. We had felt a bit awkward attending a funeral of a person we didn't even know so these pamphlets were great. I later learned that families who have the means tend to make these books. It consisted of the program, tributes from the widow, the children and the grandchildren, a biography about the passed and a photo gallery. After reading through it (not trying to cry during the written tributes) I actually felt like I had a sense of what a great man this person was.

At the reception after the ceremony with Nana

The scene was filled with commotion with a choir singing, the music system playing music and the MC announcing various things through it all. Nana told us that we were getting ready to see the body. We got up with her and went to the tent that was at the top of the square decorated with flowers and a red carpet leading up to the door. We walked silently through and passed the body and then retired to our seats. A bit later the actual ceremony started.

There were multiple priests there that were introduced as though they were rock stars. A prayer was said and then a hymn was sung. Afterwards, the respective people read their tributes. I am amazed they made it all the way through without breaking into tears. The widow did as soon as she was done reading but had that been me, I would have been weeping in the first sentence. The rest of the ceremony was build around gospel singing, preaching, lecturing and what seemed like a lot of chaos at times. It was definitely an experience we were glad we had.

Sunset at our Brenu Beach Resort

Nana arranged for Isaac and Eugene to take us to the beach while the family went to the grave yard for the lowering of the body. We grabbed some drinks and headed to the water. The beach was gorgeous. We rolled up our pants and held up our dresses and ran to the water. It felt so good after feeling so hot. We took a lot of pictures and drank our drinks. It was rather odd being on the beach in complete black outfits though.

After a bit, we headed to the reception. There we found Nana and the rest of the party. They had set up a buffet of Ghanian food. The line had gotten pretty long so Nana put us in the front of the line. I felt really bad budging the others (those stupid obrunis) but Nana insisted. Being a vegetarian, I got white rice and plantains (classic. although she really didn't want to give me a lot of plantains, probably confused by the fact that my plate was not filled with meat), fufu and some sauces. Nana had her own basket of stuff and gave us some of her homemade sauce and asked what we wanted to drink. I asked for Baileys thinking it would be a sip….she filled up a red solo cup. After eating, they gave us corn wine (corn, sugar, salt and water, locally brewed) to drink. Not so much my favorite. There was a little 6 month old on Eugene's lap and I asked if I could hold him. I still hadn't held a child since I've been here so that was exciting. He was precious. He didn't protest at all when I held him and just looked at me with big eyes probably confused as too why I looked so weird. He didn't really seem to care though and laid is head on my chest to nap a bit. So. Cute.

We decided to head back to the resort after eating. Before we left, Nana asked if I wanted to dance with the tribal dancers who were there. I headed over with her and there was a man, a woman and a little girl getting their African tribal groove on. I joined them. Just that simple. I probably looked like a complete fool but I didn't care. When would I get a chance like that again? Some guest actually complimented me afterwards.

We grabbed Isaac and Eugene and headed back. The drive took a wee bit longer due to traffic but we were back in time to throw on a bikini and hop into the ocean. The waves and tides where pretty strong so that we didn't venture out far. Some locals came and wanted to chat and swim with us and have their picture taken. It seems a lot of people here love having their picture taken. The rest of the day was spent eating, relaxing and talking until about 11:30pm.

The Wisconsin Badgers played the Kentucky Wildcats in the middle of the night.‚ I had dragged my computer along the whole way hoping I would have internet and could watch the game. My mom did a great job at representing my though and got all dressed up back home and actually watched the game!!! Her and my dad went to friends house and watched. Sadly they lost by one point. My mom informed me of this and for about 20 minutes I laid in bed devastated. This game was a personal one for me….but I'll survive….sniff….cry.

Sunday:

I had originally planned to watch the sunrise at 5:45 but I must have fallen into a depressed deep sleep after the game results that I didn't hear my alarm and woke up at 6:20. I quickly got changed and went to the beach where I ran into Katie. She had missed the initial sunrise as well but said it was fairly cloudy so I didn't miss anything. I pulled a lying chair onto the beach and into the morning sun and laid there. Eventually Erica joined us and then Beth. Breakfast was included and consisted of an omelet, pineapple and papaya and toast with butter and jam. We had missed breakfast the day before but Beth said they had french toast!

Fresh coconut!

We spent the next four hours on the beach tanning, swimming, taking pictures and talking. I boy climbed up one of the palm trees and got me a super fresh coconut for just 1 GHC, I gave him 2 for risking his life. It was DELICIOUS! The waves were not as strong as the day before and Erica and I had some fun getting knocked over by them. At 11:30 my alarm went off to head to the room and get packed up.

Playing in the waves

Getting my coconut!

Cape Coast Castle

Cape Coast Castle

In the mens dungeon in Cape Coast Castle

On the other side of the Door of No Return, Today happiness

Panorama at Cape Coast Castle

Winneba Beach making Uncle David Hasselhoff proud

When I got back to the group and wanted to pay, I was informed that there had been a little misunderstanding. When Katie had read the website and made the reservation, the site said "100$ in Ghana Cedis". She (and I would have done the same) interpreted that as 100 GHC because she thought the dollar sign just meant monetary value. If they had used it correctly, the $ would have stood before the "100" or after would have been "USD". Apparently they really meant 100 USD in Cedis (so about 250 GHC). Well….$100 and 100 GHC is quite a difference. We all only had around 220-250 Cedis with us because we thought housing and food would only run us about 170. Now our bill was 1240 GHC and all our money pooled together was only 1197! Katie and Greg went to talk to the manager to see what we could do. She agreed to take all our money and tolerate the 44 GHC difference. So there we stood with absolutely no money!

I had called Maxwell, the cab driver, to come to the resort at 12. He drove us to Elmina where we wanted to see the castle but first had to find an ATM. The ATM in Elmina was shut off. So we drove to Cape Coast. The first bank we stopped at the one ATM was out of order and the other one was shut off. A sign directed people to either the university or Elmina (haha, because that one totally works). Luckily, there was a Barclay Bank around the corner. To add to the fun, me and Katie were the only ones with Credit cards on us. I went ahead and got money since I had to anyways. For the rest of the day I felt like a mother of four children paying for everything.

With money in my hands, we went to the Cape Coast Castle. We had heard from some people that they liked the Elmina tour better. Although I can't compare the two, the tour we got from Francis was absolutely great! It was so informative. Cape Coast Castle is one of three castles in Ghana and was the main point of slave trade a few hundred years ago. The story of this castle is truly sad and what happened there is horrific. He did such a great job explaining everything and showing us the different aspects. I highly recommend a visit to anyone in the area. Even the Obamas were there and have a  plaque on the wall stating they were, in fact, there.

We were rather exhausted afterwards because it was so hot. We had Maxwell take us to Oasis for some dinner before he took us to the trotro station. There was a bit of discussion and inguiries before we found a bus to Accra. It was a bus with actual individual seats and since we were the first, we all got seats with AMAZING leg room! It took about a half an hour for the trotro to fill up and we were off.

I don't know how the bus driver managed to do so but we got back to Kaneshie Market in about 2.5 hours!

We all headed back to their hotel so that I could do the math and get the money from them. After collecting my money, I headed back to my room. A new person moved into my room on Friday but I had missed her since I was gone. I was a bit hesitant to meet her because I wasn't psyched about the whole getting to know your roommate game all over again. She seemed very nice though and is also here for exams so she will be studious. I took a shower and tried to tidy up the hot mess that is me.

It was a great weekend, even if we did pay a lot more than we thought we would. The funeral, the beach and the castle were all great experiences I can add to my list!

Good night!

Sure is hot out here.....From beaches to puppy love

The burial site

Puppy Love

Tried some yummy sugar cane

Bojo Beach

Bojo Beach

 (Sorry about the unorganized pictures, when I use my cellular data, I can't really move them)

About 5 minutes after I posted the last post, waiting for Nana to come, it started down pouring….I'm talking not buckets but more like bathtubs full. Greeeeaat.

Nana and Sandra both came to the hostel. Nana came in a taxi with her driver Isaac. Sandra just stopped by to see how I was doing and what the plan was for the day. Nana, Isaac and I made our way towards Bojo Beach. The rain had subsided at this point. On the way, we stopped by her friends house, Sarah. Sarah's husband is a designer and I think he might make a dress for me…that would be pretty amazing. Sarah joined us and we drove to the clinic build by Nana's auntie. It took us a while to navigate there because of the bad road conditions. Nana and Sarah kept saying what a shame it was that people who build such big houses (this area had some fairly large houses) have the money to spend on the house but don't at least invest a bit into the streets directly in front of their homes. Apparently the land plots get sold before the people start building and then the government doesn't feel obliged to pay for the infrastructure of the roads. This all leads to big holes in the roads around. It doesn't get any easier after a large rain storm.

We eventually made it to the clinic. Nana had one of the workers there give us a tour. The whole place seemed rather empty. The nurses were chilling in chairs or on the beds, the lab person was just relaxing in his chair when we walked in. I was shown the little theater as well where Arthur, Nana's husband, has performed a lot of surgeries. Arthur was/is very active in this clinic and wants to come back with my dad and I to work there a bit. I didn't see a single doctor on our whole tour which might be the reason for lack of patients. Nana was telling me that when Arthur was working there for two weeks, the place was full. I guess once the people hear there is a doctor, they all come in. Nana's auntie, the one who build and ran the clinic dedicated her life to that place. She died about a year ago and is actually buried on the grounds.

After our clinic visit, Nana, Sandra, Issac and I drove a bit further and where then at Bojo Beach. The set up was quite nice. A lot of palm trees and the seating areas under the umbrellas build of natural material. I imagine this beach being so amazing if the sun is really shining! We had to pay 10 Cedis entrance. To get to the actual beach, we had to take a little boat ride across the river. There were actually a few people on the beach playing volleyball, drinking, tanning (which I don't think was extremely successful for them) and hanging out. We grabbed some spots at a table and ordered some food. I had Yam fries and a little side salad. After eating, I attempted to go into the ocean. The water was warm but the beach was a bit trashy and the water wasn't clear at all. I guess I am extremely spoiled from being in Miami a few weeks ago with crystal clear water. I walked in the water a bit and collected some sand and shells for my mom.

We took the boat back to the other shore and then drove to Nana's other aunt's house. A lot of family members where there for the funeral taking place tomorrow. I met cousins, aunts, uncles and friends. Nana, Sarah and I sat outside and chatted. Over the next few hours our group expanded a bit. They had four dogs running around and the smallest called Pieces became my new best friend.

Around 9:30pm, Issac drove me back to Korle Bu and dropped me off at Pablo's place. The apartment was packed with people! They had ordered Pizza and watched Ride Along. Sadly, the almost two giant pizzas left over were all covered in meat….I was so looking forward to pizza. Oh well. I didn't stay too much longer because I was rather tired.

When I got back to my room, Joy was already in bed although it was only 11:30. She got up and gave me a perfume and a book she was giving me as a present to remember her by. So sweet. I asked her how her clinical exam went. She didn't pass. I felt so bad. She was studying so much. She said she had hoped that coming to Ghana would be more objective than in Nigeria but even though she did well with the questions and apparently could answer more than others, some of those passed and she didn't. She told me she has taken this one several times….I can imagine her motivation must fall after every defeat. I think she will definitely go for it again. Her faith will help her cope.

This morning, she left at 5am. She had three girls come help her pack up her things…before 5am….don't know why this couldn't have happened the days before. Oh well. I saw her off and went back to bed. I wanted to sleep again but soon after the yelling started again. It is starting to get out of hand. This time some girl was screaming around because the water wasn't running or something. Seriously people…..take a damn chill pill otherwise one of these mornings I will come out of my room and start yelling at you and cursing you out with words you may have never used before just to shock you out of your unnecessary hysteria.

I packed my things for the weekend and then there was a knock on my door. It was the porter wanting to inform me that the cleaning people would have to come into the room later because a new roommate was coming today. Nooooooooooooo. I had gotten used to Joy but I really don't feel like a new roommate. I had secretly hoped I'd be alone for a week or so. Oh well.

I came to the hospital for OB ward rounds. I didn't find any of my consultants however. I met a resident of family medicine currently in his OB rotation and he told me to go look on the fourth floor. I went there and still didn't find consultants but two of the students in my rotation. I talked to one of them. He was preparing his patient for the clinical exam. He told me the consultants were pretty busy with exams. I wished him good luck on the rest of his exams and headed down a floor to the NICU.

There I introduced myself to the doctor and asked where my baby was since he wasn't in his bed. He told me to ask the nurses. I was sent from one room to the next until I was in the third room and asked for my baby. They showed me where he was. He was looking good, no more oxygen mask! I asked if his mother had seen him yet and the nurse turns to the mothers sitting in the room and points to one of them. I asked if the mother spoke English but unfortunately she doesn't. The nurse offered to translate. I just wanted to tell her that I was the one who had taken care of the baby after the birth and have been checking on him almost everyday to see how he was doing (I didn't necessarily want to have attention for that, I just didn't want to be the creepy white girl that came and looked at her child everyday). She thanked me through the nurse. I am so happy to see that he is doing so well and feeding.

Now I am sitting in the doctor's room waiting for the other students to be done before we head out on our weekend trip. We are attempting to take a tortro to Cape Coast today. Tomorrow morning, Issac will pick up me and whoever wants to join me and take us to the funeral in Winneba. We will experience the funeral and the big feast afterwards before having Issac drive us back to Cape Coast and back to the others. We will return to Accra on Sunday. Sunday night Nana wants to take me out to a club on the beach. I will try to report along the way if possible, otherwise there will be a post on Monday! Have a great weekend and…

GO BADGERS!!!!! Kick Kentucky's butt in the March Madness tournament. This game is personal for me…get the WIN!!!!! ON WISCONSIN!

Sure is hot out here......starting with a death, ending with a birth...the circle of life I guess

Vikers was my nickname at one time

Hey little guy, the spontaneous we missed

My day yesterday was quite diverse.

Once I got to the labor ward, I met some anesthesiology students. I was chatting with them when they said they were being called to the recovery room and I followed. When I arrived, there were about 6 people standing around a bed and one person was already performing chest compressions. The patient was intubated on a ventilator and her eyes were covered. There was another obruni girl there that I hadn't seen yet so I introduced myself while still focused on the situation. I wanted to get some information on the case. There were so many things that were bothering me about the situation. The chest compressions were not being administered correctly, they had her on the bed with no board underneath her so the chest compressions were basically not as effective. Everyone except Erica and I seemed pretty chill in the situation. Erica and I kept on commenting to each other what should be done but due to limited supplies and lack of authority….we were at a loss. I rotated in on the compressions and the anesthesiologist told the students to take note of me since I was doing it right. The anesthesiologist continued lecturing the students and directed their attention to the EKG. She then said, in this rhythm, we would usually defibrillate….but we don't have one. WHAT! Then one of the students suggested running to the cardiology department and getting one and supposedly the anesthesiologist said she wasn't going to start running around. I thought this was really harsh but maybe she knew it wasn't worth it. Later on I found out that the patient had already had an episode of cardiac arrest the day before and needed an emergency C section. She was in the maternity recovery room because no other ventilator was available.

It was all a bit crazy and after about half an hour of CPR we stopped and the time of death was called. So that was my first patient to die while I'm around.

Erica and I spent the day together. We followed one of the doctors around a bit and hung out in the ORs to see something happen. We grabbed lunch at MedDiner where I met Katie. I took them to get some fresh coconuts afterwards and we were met by Tolu there. He is friends of mutual friends of Erica so they actually hadn't met. My group of people that I know just keeps on getting bigger which is exciting.

Back on the ward, we watched a manual evacuation of the uterus…..it was not pretty. We also watched one C section. We missed the one spontaneous birth we could have seen because we were in the OR. Around 3:45pm we left.

My little guy still in NICU

At home I took a very nice 2 hour nap. I slowly got ready, texted Tope to get ready and we left for Epos Spot again for the rest of the soccer match. There we met up with Erica and her friends but also Nelly and her friends who I had met last week. Pablo joined us as well. After the match (I really didn't even pay attention) we all headed to a really nice Indian restaurant. The food was delicious! Alex, Alexis and two others met up with us there as well. From the restaurant we went to the Republic Bar for drinks. There we were met by the two anesthesiologist students I had met in the morning. Our final stop for the night was Bella Roma club. The music started off pretty old school and slow. At around 1am however, the music started shifting to the kind I like. We had a really fun time. Erica, Katie, Pablo and I left and I was in bed around 3.

Now I am chillin in my room until Nana picks me up to take me to the beach in Bojo. I've heard great reviews so I'm looking forward to it!

Sure is hot out here.....really hot again...

Nothing quite as nice as waking up to screaming arguments two days in a row…..seriously people….take a chill pill.

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.

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.