Ghanian Hospital

Date: 24/01/2010
Time: 12:00
Location: Accra, Ghana

Macho,

So today is our 2 week anniversary and we having a lovely day of events planned. Though the first even feel through- we were going to a beach that was about 45 minutes away. It ended up being just a small visit to the beach right down the road from us. But I did not attend this part of the date. I also did not attend watching Ghana playing in the African Cup at Tante Maries, instead I opted to go on an “old lady” jog with Liza, and Sara H around our neighborhood Labone. Afterwards that is where the fun began. We ended up having such a cute little date watching “The Proposal”. For all of you that have not seen that movie- I am a little obsessed and maybe all of you should be too. Most of you would say that it sounds like a relaxed night at Loyola and I should be doing something like riding a giraffe or coaxing a leopard. But sorry guys, I am not on the east side of Africa where all the animals lie. I am on the side where the people are a lovely bunch of coconuts. As you got to the west for the people and the east for the animals- Bobs I will get to those animals though!

In my previous blog I mentioned that I wanted my classes to start. I will say this… now all they are doing is ruining the flow of our sandals trip. For those of you who do not know what “sandals” is- which you all should- it is a resort and they constantly are advertising it. I actually once received a DVD and actually watched it (goodness knows why!) but I must say…Great Marketing skills! I instantly wanted to phone to book a holiday. But now, I am thinking- I am making my own sandals trip. Not only do we live in a resort looking house, but we got the beach down the road, and now all we need is a swimming pool with a swim up bar. Man, I can’t wait until my birthday as that will be where my birthday party is. Yes, a birthday party- at 21 you are still entitled to have a birthday party my friends. Swimming, and churcheese and pop bottles all night- baby you can do whatever you like! But I digress. African Women speak (feminism class) but, it is quite interesting other than the introduction that was 50 pages and took me 2 days to skim. Then a class in topics in Pan-Afracanism. Which Douglas already said he hates people like me and Sara who have no idea what Pan-Africanism is? But don’t worry guys… I now know what it is all about. African Music and Dance which I am still waiting to bust a move in because last week’s class was cancelled. And last but not least, African Philosophical Thought is thrown in the mix to fulfill my ethics core. Overall, 3 hour classes and me do not mix, but ah well I will not complain as the amount of resort time we get is absolutely fine with me! After only have 3 classes in Scotland this past semester, and 4 classes that hardly ever meet here I will not be going back to Loyola’s 5 classes a semester schedule!

So Anthony thinks that I will get rabies here in Ghana, others have money on the fact that I will dislocate something and me I have faith in myself- I think I am just going to have a grand ‘ol time or at least I thought so! I have managed to go to the hospital after only 2 weeks here. To all of you that betted money on a knee or shoulder dislocations- do not collect your money just yet- I in fact ended up going to the hospital after two days of feeling feverish and not being able to swallow. Have any of you been to a place and you feel like you have gone back in time? Well, I had that funny little feeling. I was taken to the hospital on Wednesday January 20th at 12:30 pm. I made sure I had my travelers insurance policy number because otherwise we would have had to pay upfront (most Africans have to do this!) We got to the private hospital which I thought would only be an hour’s visit. But it turned into a 6 hour visit. I checked in, waited, went to the temperature room (who has a temperature room these days?) waited, went to, waiting room 1, waited for like 2 hours. Got checked by the doctor who told me to go to the lab Room. In the lab room I waited for another hour, finally got my blood drawn, and then waited for another hour and half. Got my results- went to waiting room 1, then finally the doctor was able to see me. After that long and very dated process I got my results. I had a throat infection and quite possibly malaria. Can I just say though, through this whole waiting process… everything was done by paper, no computers just paper walking from one place to another, doctors handing 1 piece of paper to another doctor who passed it onto another doctor. If someone was actually in an emergency I am not sure they would make it- quiet literally! As Benjamin from the CIEE program pointed out though…sounds a lot like the NHS system. Now I have not actually been using the NHS system myself as my family “currently resides” (you like that Charlie, Tia, Harry, and Amie!) in America, but I have heard just horror stories. I am going to though compare it to the USA system which is crazily expensive but they have “narley” equipment but the equipment the US has t would probably blow the whole electricity system in the continent of Africa-no joke!

The worst part of going to the hospital though was the fact that, that night I wanted to go out. I wanted to go to the Reggae night on the beach with everyone else but after speaking with my mum, I realized it would be completely irresponsible of me to go drinking on antibiotics- but hell you only have one life and so you should go big or go home! (Shame I went the go home route instead of going to reggae night!) Taking my antibiotics worked wonders, it was like “I was flying high and it shot me out the sky…it feels so damn good” Liza said I was a new person, and I was. Friday night was where love came around. Joanna was turning 19- so we made sure she had a good time around the lovely group that we are. We sung out hearts out at Champs, we met South Africans and we had an adventure. Douglas and Sara I can’t even explain the night they had. Their night was a night of epic adventures- basically like Nick and Norah’s infinite playlist. Liza, Tess, and Ava and me had a slightly less adventure almost comparing it to Simba and Narlas little adventure to the hyenas den but it was still none the less the punch line to Friday night. Maybe I would compare it to the night out in Windsor and afterwards Hogg Charlie and myself trying to leave Holloway to get some pizza in the grand ‘ol city of Egham, and ended up eating mini rolls (I am not complaining though because Mini rolls are the greatest things in the world!). Like who even thought of mini rolls? For my 21st just give me some mini rolls and I will be a happiest person in the world!- I will eat a mini roll by the pool deck, with churcheese, and then jump into the pool and swim to the swim up bar. That is my birthday wish!

If any of you like Ghanaian music you would have loved the solidarity concert for Haiti. I will admit although we had big artist’s come- I had no idea who any of the people were! Ghanaian music is bumping though everytime Little Sammy (1 of the drivers NYU has) picks us up for dinner, these tunes are playing and you just see all the good girls go baaaaaad! Look up Swagger by ruff and smooth- that is out jam. You will see all of us “obrunies” with the Ghanaians partying together, and then they just say, “Girl I wanna party with you, Girl I wanna party with you” One rule here in Ghana. If a person asks you to go to lunch, or coffee, or whatever, then they have to pay. So note to self: Never ask anyone to do something as I will be paying.
I realized I have been rude and never mentioned who Douglas was. Can I just say for any Loyola Kids, PMAC you would love this: he is Matthew Suprunowicz. To all those that do not know either Douglas or Matthew, just think of a person that is up for anything at anytime, ready to “do it up!”, and ready to take a bottle of wine to the face (Doug!)
Alright well this is where I say my goodbyes for right now, as more stories will be coming to your home town soon and hopefully you will hear my adventures of riding a Tro Tro, and going into the nooks and crannies of Accra.

Medarse

They Have Lost My Buisness!

Date: 17/01/2010
Time: 22:10
Location: Accra, Ghana

So, orientation has been over for about 3 solid days now. Can I just say- thank goodness! I will say though that it really wasn’t that bad. It kept us all from crying about missing family, boyfriends/girlfriends, and friends. It was full of memorable moments and a way for us to understand the lovely cultural do’s and don’ts. Did you know that you always have to use your right hand, and if you ever use your left hand it is disrespectful and you must apologize straight away. Not sure how many times I have disrespected people already as I always forget I can’t use my left hand. Oh and if you ever think about calling an elderly person just by the last name- be warned- again disrespectful. You must call them Uncle _______ or auntie _________. For example one of our securities guards at my residence is called, Uncle Eugene- Love him by the way- ask him what he does when there is an intruder in the residence.
Food is a different story here; it is no fast McDonalds service that one finds in Europe or America. It is something of the opposite. And a place has already lost my business! This place The Coffee Shop- not only does it have horrendous service but the food is not even that good in the first place. We spent 3.5 hours for lunch because they do not believe in bringing all food out at the same time. They bring it in pairs. First 2 people would get their meal, and then about 30 minutes later the next 2 came and it kept going in this pattern- and with a group of 20 people that is not the way to go. I was literally fuming, I even turned to Doug who’s lunch didn’t show up long after all of ours and said, “I am angry for you, like where is your food!?” Doug finally asked the waitress where his food was and she said, “What did you get again?” (we all know that, that is the sign of…shit I forgot to put the order in!) But anyway Doug said, “ Red Red with Plantains” and she said, “Right yes, it will be just a minute.” She leaves and comes back in literally a minutes time and says, “I think I mixed it up with another order, do you mind eating that” pointing to someone else’s dish. In the USA if you ever got such bad service one would not have to pay for the dish- but here… as us Krieger-Redwood’s would say, “Alles Easy!”

The other night Doug, Sara H, Liza, Heather, and myself ordered Churcheese- which may I add was the most insane experience of all time. Not only was the pizza just epic, but the great phone call leading up the the pizza was a story. Do not ever expect fast service in Ghana as everything is done at the slowest pace possible. So our first churcheese experience was me ringing up, “Hi, I wanted to order some pizzas and was wandering if you do indeed deliver” churcheese, “yes we do!” Me, “Great, thank you I will ring back in just a few minutes.” Doug, Sara H, liza, Heather, and myself sat there wandering how many large pizzas we should order as we were HUNGRY! We had made the mistake before ordering a large somewhere else and realizing it was not a big fat American size large but a personal pizza where I could eat like 3 of them! So we decided we had to ask the Churcheese people how large the large actually was. I rang back, “Hi, I want to order 4 large pizzas, but was wandering how large the large was.” Churcheese, “The large is large!” me, “okay, soo how many pieces are in the large?” churchesse- this is where I started to get very annoyed as I had no idea what she was saying. So me being the smart person I am I say, “so is it like 8 inches, or 12 inches?.. .How many pieces?” she still did not understand. .and then she hung up on me. This is where I got very angry, and I rang straight back, “umm. Hi you guys just hung up on me.” “Oh, is your name sophie” “Yes, yes it is and I wanted the 4 large pizzas” “so, you want 8 pizzas?” “nooo, I just want 4 large pizzas” At this point I was beyond annoyed, and people getting in the way of my food will be executed! Anyway after like a 15 min phone call, it took another 2 hours for our food to actually arrive. I made someone else ring to ask when the pizza was coming. Needless to say they also almost lost my business- but you know the pizza was great so I have let them off and will order from them again.

With food just note- I am pretty sure in the kitchen they must make something then take a break, and then make half a dish then take a break. At Churcheese they have a play area- perhaps they go and play in the play area after every pizza they have made- I would!

Enough about food, shall we talk about the almighty Christa? I think so. She has just made this experience even more exciting. For those of you who did not read my first blog Christa is the Director for NYU in Ghana on the Ghana end. She is basically Tyra Banks. Here is a story to start off. So in one of the other groups that have passed through this program, one of the students decided to take across to Togo. This girl had lost her passport in Togo thereby meaning she would not be able to get back into Ghana. The girl was told she had to stay in Togo until she was reissued another passport. Christa was informed about the situation and went up to the boarder of Togo and Ghana where this girl was and negotiated with the boarder control people to allow her to come back over without a passport. This girl was “smuggled” back into the country by Christa, and the embassy was not informed and was never told! Crazy right? Gotta love the bizaz that she has. “Do you want to be on top?” Pretty sure Christa is the boss of Ghana thereby Tyra Bank’s slogan is answered by the queen of Ghana, “I am on top!”
So I have only given you story after story so far, I have done some educational things since I have been here don’t you worry. It is not all just fun and games. Although Sandals beach resort is pretty much where we live. Orientation even had us on a bus tour with the former Mayer of Accra. Everyone say, “ooooo”. Yea pretty cool right… he even is one of the teachers for a class here at the NYU center in Ghana. But anyway, I will say I felt like a real tourist. I hated it. I want to be a Ghanaian, and being stuck on a white bus was the ultimate way to make me feel white! – Kind of surprising right? When we went into the poorest of towns Jamestown, we definitely were very unwelcome, people were practically eye sniping us. But do not worry all; because before I leave here I will be a Ghanaian! I have a bet with a Ghanaian where he said I better be leaving Ghana being as black as a fellow Ghanaian. Challenge- Marky Mark would you challenge this? Not only did we do a tour with the mayer we also managed to go to the market to check out what it was all about. I will say London and New York City have nothing against Accra Markets. You have to hustle and bustle your way around. I was so overwhelmed by the fabric I wanted to buy every single piece. But I only bought 2, and with those 2 pieces I am making a dress and a skirt. Be ready people- another step to Sophie becoming Ghanaian.
Overall, Orientation was a blast. But I am ready for some good old fashioned school work lovin’! Two classes at the NYU center and 2 classes at a small private Ghanaian University. One class of which is African Music and Dance. Be prepared for some African dance moves to be pulled out on the dance floor.

Medarse,

Coming back to the Homeland

Date: 15.01.2010
Time: 13:10
Location: Accra, Ghana

I am sitting in air-conditioned room, where everyone in the complex has wireless internet access, a television, sitting room, dining room and a kitchen. I sleep with two other Loyola students one of which I share a bunk bed with. From the days end we plonk onto our beds or desk chairs and try to decide if we can be bothered to take a shower. Now, everyone that knows me knows I have a problem with getting into bed when I am dirty, as I used to even make my boyfriend shower before getting into his own bed, but my strange habit...still holds true in a country where clean water is very limited! Some may say I am selfish- I say do you know how many diseases we learnt about that one can catch? None of them are funny unless I catch Rabies and according to Anthony that would be hilarious. But everyone I have news for you- it is not aids! As educated people we should know that Ghana’s aids prevalence is only 2.6%, and if one is so entitled to sleep around then be my guest but just know- safe sex should be practiced- and Christa would tell you how many condoms she bought back from the United States just for us students! How very kind of Christa. Now for those of you who do not know Christa, she is the NYU director on this side of the pond. Many refer to her as Tyra Banks. You will find that everyday her outfits are incredible with the modern day style with the beautiful African cloth. I don’t think we can ever go through an orientation discussion without her interrupting and adding a disaster story, or just putting her two cents as if she were Tyra, “but, you are still in the running to becoming Americas next top model, congratulations!” I will not go on talking about our director as some may say that I have a girl crush on her, which I may add I am pretty sure all 30 of us on this program do, so Boys wait in line. But people don’t worry Cheryl Cole is still my number one, with Christa and Stacey Solomon close behind!

As we on the subject of the great people of the NYU Ghana group- I must say NYU has some interesting kids! First let’s talk about the fantastic Loyola Kids. Now- overall, there were 11 brave students from Loyola that came for the “dangerous” ride. 3 of us though, decided to go through NYU and the rest of them went through CIEE. Liza Schreiner and Sara Hayward are my two roommates, and let’s just say we will all be having a fantastic semester together. As I am in a bunk bed and have not been since I was a little girl living in the country of kings and queens, there is still something magical about them. I don’t know if it is because of the story that Mr. LoPresto once told, or because I want to make a tree house out of it. For those of you who do not know Mr. LoPresto- one of the coolest lecturers I have had. When he was a little boy sharing a bunk bed with his little brother, his little brother put his feet up onto to the bottom of the top bunk and was pushing against it when all of a sudden he pushed too hard and the top bunk came off the hinges so he was holding the bed up with just his feet as the bed was swaying side to side. Everytime, I get into that top bunk, my mind just keeps on thinking, how would I react if Sara was holding the bed with her feet? Would I be laughing in true Sophie style, or would I just think, “What on earth possessed Sara to put her feet on my bunk bed?” Anyway, to stop the rambling I will say that we are a great trio as we have developed a small little group with the three of us and a few other s from the program.
We have BU Sara, Loyola Sara, myself, Liza, Lizzie, Melisa, Tess, and Eva. Something about the Heathrow group that is just inseparable. Oh the magic of Terminal 5 Heathrow airport. Not only did most of us meet at JFK and spend like 4 hours chatting because BA was delayed at JFK but we also spent 3 hours at Heathrow chatting about all sorts. The Journey that started on Saturday 9th January and ended Sunday 10th January at 11pm ended up being a fantastic travel time. Though, one question came across me whilst taking 2 7 hour journeys… What are people doing in the airplane toilets that they take so long? Seriously, all you need to do is do your business, wash your hands, perhaps your face quickly and get out of there! But, who knows what people are actually doing in there- do not want to even think about it!
5 days into Orientation and we are all absolutely pooped. On the subject of poop... thankfully I have not yet gotten sick from any of the food so all please do knock on wood for me. Most people have not yet, though today we had our first cases of not feeling too well with a few members of the NYU group. Orientation has been a whirlwind- Ms. Tyra likes to run an army regimen where there is no time to stop only one thing after the next. But, that is not to say that we are not having fun. We enjoy the company of lovely Justice- Yep his name is Justice- please do ask him the story behind his name…but I won’t as he may take a couple hours. A simple question asking about his African Necklace ended up in an hour and half Fraternity talk- but the thing is… I left after an hour and half and people told me he kept on going. Oh and just so you guys know- he knows he is coming home because he is black, but has no idea really where his origins come from- but he is black so it is okay! Now, do not even get me started on Lil’ Hustler and Drama teacher…if you really want to know just let me know.
Meba Accra, and menom insuo daa. That is right- look at my Twi skills. Twi= Ghanian language. In the 1 hour lesson I have managed to learn: I go to Lego, I come to Accra, I eat bread everyday, What is your name, My name is, I eat a lot of _______, How are you, where do you come from. As I sat there learning I decided that there was no language class that I have enjoyed more than this. I was learning an African language, but then I stopped to think, when on earth will I use it in later years? I could just marry one of the many guys that ask to marry you that way I would always be able to use it. As the US embassy says, “Ladies, you will receive A LOT of them, and be warned a lot of them are asking only because they want that United States visa”- Oh great, so you saying these lads don’t like me? I actually thought that they truly wanted me after a minute of meeting me. But, unfortunately for me long distance does not work which if I may add- sucks; some may be fortunate enough to carry the courageous act of carrying on a long distance relationship, but I seem to run scared- but you know what I say- we will get back together, he just does not know that yet! But I digress. Citizens of America do not be worried, as the United States of America has your back… but for everyone else- we are screwed. Who would have thought that after paying and going through the process of getting a Green card the United States will not help you out when outside of the country- I thought with a Green Card you had all the same rights? This is where I say- sorry to say Schroeder, Anthony, and Loftus, - God Save the Queen! Another question I have always had, Americans constantly say, PROUD TO BE AMERICAN, and sing the national anthem to innocent British girls as they enter the doorway to enjoy a night of partying. But, they constantly say… “I AM A 16TH THIS, AN 8TH THIS, PART THIS” And Justice just confirmed this observation of so called national pride by asking the embassy speaker… “So, because of the situation with America and the rest of the world, should we just pretend to be from the UK or a different country and not be American?”
It is amazing how spoilt we are over in the western cultures. Do you know how long registration takes over here? Those that are taking classes at University of Ghana have taken 2 days now to register, and it’s taken a good 5 hours each day- and they said that they considered this pretty fast compared to usual. It amazes me the amount we take for granted. Today the IT person came into to talk to us- and I have legitimate problem where it says that I am connected to the internet but then it does not let me online. But people were complaining that we get kicked off the wireless, and that it is slow. Hello people, we are in a developing country where it is a luxury to have internet! The common everyday things that we use I am using in a very different light. By the way… does anyone know how to take apart a Mac laptop put in all new parts and it will work all the same? Well, can I just say I am fully going to take an offer from a 22 year old girl who thinks that she can get all the computer parts here in Accra!

For now, this is where I end- But don’t you worry I will be back as I have much more to say about this 1st week in Ghana. Seems that I can take a few events and just completely elaborate on the events- Benjamin and Jack would completely agree as they both told me this past summer that I write essays to them not messages! But hopefully you all seem to sort of understand the great events that have been happening on this side of the pond.

Medasee.