Me to the dokta "you know this hospital is really nice, I think I'll visit again"

Well in the last week not much has happened because once again I found myself at the hospital...this time it was just for some bloodwork because I wanted to test and see if I had malaria since I'd been feeling terrible for two days-extremely sore throat, swollen tonsils, ear ache, chills, fever, slight nausea..never good things to have.. **Important note: not sure if I made this clear in my previous post about my first hospital excursion but here the hospital and doctor's office are the same thing. Therefore, there is no need to be alarmed, I was there for a walk-in check-up, did some tests and received some prescriptions and my entire bill for the Dr. visit, prescrips, and tests was the equivalent of a whopping $50...if only plane tickets didn't cost so much, I'd consider coming here for all my medical needs.

Anyways, since I didn't do much besides sleep for a few days I have plenty of room for a food edition!

One thing to note is that they eat everything here that we do in the states with a few additions or in new ways.

Due to the fact that my stomach has zero interest in being a full fledged Ghanaian (note it is my stomach being rebellious not me..I would LOVE to eat all the foods!) Here are some pics of a few Ghanaian dishes. One thing to note is that there are three key ingredients in every meal: starch, pepper, and oil. By pepper I mean super spicy not this lame baby stuff we call "hot" or "spicy" in the US but spicy enough to make you cry. Even though I don't really eat the pepper I still find myself sweating at every meal my family makes (I can actually tell who cooked it based on how spicy it is).

As for the starch it is usually banku, fufu, or kenkey. These are pounded combinations of corn, yams, and cassava. I can't really eat most of these because 1. you don't chew it you just swallow it-my body doesn't like to do that. 2. my stomach completely rejects the entire thing and I feel sick for 1-2 days after with the exception of a recent second chance with fufu. They're very filling and usually just dipped into soup or stew by hand. I'm usually lame and just eat everything with white rice or boiled yams..it works for me!

Banku, fish (hopefully tilapia because it's the best!), and some kind of tomato based sauce..this pic doesn't really do banku justice but I forget to take pictures of the food that my mom actually makes..
Banku is one of the many basic staple starches that make up the Ghanaian diet, it is made of pounded corn and cassava.

Fufu is similar to banku but is made of pounded yam and plantains.

Here's a pic of my friends Brittany and Evans eating banku for lunch.

This is how fufu, kenkey, and banku are made they are pounded repeatedly until they become the dough-like balls.

One of my favorites, ground nut soup aka peanut butter soup. The first day that my host-mom came back from America she saw me put peanut butter on my toast and said "I really need to make you ground nut soup..you're going to love it" and she was right! It actually tastes like peanut butter and usually has some kind of chicken in it. Most people eat it with fufu or banku but I always opt for rice..lame I know.

One of my favorites, red red. Basically just beans in an oil sauce with fried plantains. Simple, filling, and pretty cheap most times!

I know many wonder about my water situation since the tap water here when available isn't healthy enough to drink. My family has a water cooler so I usually drink from there but it is filled with water from water sachets, small plastic pouches of water. These are purified water and cost much less than a bottle of water (one sachet costs around the equivalent of 5 cents..) you just bite off a corner and drink!

As someone from the great dairy state of Wisconsin, the thing I miss most is everything dairy!!! This is the sorry excuse for cheese that I have to eat...really Laughing Cow? No cheddar, mozzarella, colby?

How can it be called Laughing Cow? This is no laughing matter...

As for ice cream...it's not exactly the same but it's still pretty delicious. You eat it from a pouch similar to a water sachet and it's called Fan Ice. We were all outraged recently because the cost jumped from 50 to 70 pesewas..that's like 35 cents! (though that seems cheap in US dollars, we need to keep in mind that at this time I'm living on Ghanaian currency and therefore everything is relative and now ice cream is relatively expensive!)

One of my first days here my sister told me my food was on fire. Slightly alarmed I tried to play it cool, trusting that nothing must be wrong if she was so calm. Turns out it just meant it was cooking (way to be an ignorant American, Tera!) We often start our cooking outside on the fire especially for big stews or food that is for the whole family and then we reheat things on our gas stove inside the house. For rice we usually just use the rice cooker (oddly enough I never used one until I got here so they had to teach me how). Usually if I help with the cooking I get the prestigious jobs of cutting onions, fanning the fire, or opening the spices so Auntie Grace just has to spoon them in. Though simple things these are some of the best times with the family just sitting outside by the fire with the girls (usually when I also realize how much Ewe I've learned or at least how good I am at judging expressions because I can often tell what's going on even when they're not speaking English).

That's kind of it for food, even though there are soooo many more foods that we eat I just could never do them all justice or fit them into one blog post. All I have to say is that mom's cooking is always the best no matter where in the world you are.

One thing to note is that promptly after starting this blog post exciting things did start happening to me!
I fell in the gutter on Tuesday, luckily I didn't fall all the way down it was a pretty shallow gutter so I kind of walked into it with one leg and scraped it up a bit. I laughed a lot like normal..and my host-dad saw it and was like "again?!" haha it's never before but I'm glad it didn't surprise him that it happened. Really I'm just surprised it didn't happen earlier, I am known to be quite graceful after all.

Then I tried to pick up a package that someone sent me from the post office. It has been in Ghana since October 8th and I just found out where it was on the 17th but couldn't go and get it due to my crazy illness last week. I had to take a tro tro to the Circle post office, not exactly close. I was warned not to be "funny" which I'm pretty sure means sarcastic or I wouldn't get my package...if you know me you know I'm never sarcastic so this shouldn't have been a problem.
I went there, greeted the lady, tried to be really friendly and she decided she didn't want to look for my package and therefore I should just go home and come back again the next day. She literally didn't look for it. I couldn't believe it but also couldn't argue because then if she would've found it she would've tried to charge me a crazy amount of money to get it.

My host brother from America asked me to go with him to the Spanish Embassy because he needed a white person to get in the door..luckily I knew someone

Who's that white girl?

So I skipped class to go with him on Wednesday and he told me why he needed to go there. He and a colleague want to start up a clothing mill in Spain...there's more to it than that but it's really cool! We couldn't get in without an appointment which you can't make without their phone number, which you can't get without going there (typical problems with official business in Ghana). However, he was nice enough to offer to take me to the post office instead. After finding our way there we couldn't find a parking spot so he had to drop me off-luckily some Ghanaian woman helped me cross the street and made sure my purse didn't get stolen..soo nice! Then I went into the post office and started working my charm, a super friendly "good morning!" I was singing to a song on the radio called Sweetio (all about your sweetie), she started laughing..progress! Then I said that my package was from my sweetio in the US...more smiles! One guy that worked there asked for my number after saying how beautiful I am...typical. Then the customs man told me my package would be about 25 cedi ($12.50) not the worst but we had to go through the checklist and make sure everything was there...I slipped the lady some chocolate just to be safe laughed a little, smiled some more and used my "Have a great day!" that I perfected at Remington Quality Foods...I left smiling with a huge package of sweets.

Then, I learned more about how awesome my family is. I got to meet my uncle who is the former Ghanaian Ambassador to Spain (say what?!) coolest thing ever. Then I found out he is consulting on the case concerning the Argentinian ship on Ghanaian shores (check the news for more info).

Basically things just keep getting better (with the exception of falling into gutters and such).

One last thing, my friend Jessalyn and I have started a fundraiser for the school we work at in Agbogbloshie. We are raising money for the basics like pencils and notebooks which seem simple and cheap but here they can cost as much as a parent makes in one day or week. When it comes down to how to spend that money the answer is simple..food, lights if possible, etc. then notebooks if they're lucky. If we exceed our goal of $250 we plan to use it for more desks, a door, blackboards, etc. The headmistress works really hard to keep this school running because without it most of the kids might not be in school. Please check out our Facebook event (https://www.facebook.com/events/115595391930116/)
or campaign on youcaring.com (http://www.youcaring.com/fundraiser_details?fundraiser_id=12138&url=queenslandsbarenecessities) to read more about our fundraiser and help out. Every little bit helps from $5 to $50 we will take anything because even small amounts can go a long way here. Let me know if you have any questions and thanks in advance for your support. Even if you cannot donate yourself please share our links with friends and family. Our goal is to have our money raised by November 14th so Andrew can bring it with him when he visits me on November 16th to avoid international transaction costs of sending money abroad. You can donate online through our youcaring campaign or send a check to Andrew's address which is listed on our Facebook event page.

Thanks again for reading everyone, till next time!

Where I come from...Battor, Volta Region, Ghana

Greetings all,

I believe I promised a food edition of my blog but that will have to come later because I had a fantastic weekend that I want to tell you about!

For a few weeks now I have known that my family would be making a trip to Battor, my host-dad's village for a funeral this weekend. However, they failed to mention that instead of a funeral it was a celebration of the 10th anniversary of our grandmother's death. It was an extra big deal because she was the Queen Mother of the village (basically the mayor of a town kind of deal). All week the people in our sewing center were busy sewing our entire family clothes in a matching fabric for the occasion. Friday, I decided against going to the beach in order to stay home and help prepare for the celebration..it was a great choice. I found out shortly that two of my parents' sons came to visit us from the U.S. for the event. They are awesome!

Friday afternoon Charlie (my host-dad), my sister Sisto, and one of the brothers left for Battor. At dinner the brother that stayed home told me that he was impressed that I am so hands on (basically because I helped cook and take out the trash haha). He said that he and his brother agreed that I fit in perfectly with the family thanks to my eagerness to help (everyone together now.. "awww").

Saturday, Jessalyn, Paige, Anil, Erica, and I went to watch my brother Remi play rugby against the University of Ghana team. It was really hot out and none of us really knew anything about rugby but it was fun nonetheless. By the end of the game we sort of figured it out unfortunately Remi's team lost.. The whole experience, just like any other in Ghana was interesting because 1. there were A LOT of oburonis on Remi's team. 2. One of them, a slightly inebriated Brit, came up to talk to us and brought up randomnly how his undershorts he wears for rugby aren't very clean because he told the house boy not to worry about it..he then asked us what our plans were for the evening... 3. the University of Ghana's rugby coach first tried to convince us to join the women's rugby team and then tried convincing us to give him our numbers... thank goodness for Remi, I just told the guys that Remi usually takes us out so they should ask him if they want to see us again haha Here's a pic of Remi playing:

Remi in an action shot

Saturday afternoon I hung out with the twins who are staying with us-Bernice and Benedicta and Remi. Everyone else in the house had left for Battor already so it was just us and Rachel for most of the day until Auntie Kosh came and one of my brothers and Chairman returned from Battor. I took some Benadryl because I thought I was having an allergic reaction to something..turns out Auntie Kosh thinks it is just heat rash too late because the Benadryl knocked me out for an hour and then I just woke up long enough to eat dinner before going to bed at 9pm...

Sunday was the big day! We planned to leave at 6:30am, 7 at the latest so of course we left at 7:30. I was supposed to ride on the bus but my brother told me I should ride in the car with him and Chairman, Rachel, and two of the kids. As someone who gets motion sickness so easily I didn't mind giving up a seat on the bus for a spacious SUV backseat. We were able to drive most of the way to Battor on the nicest road in Ghana...it actually didn't have ANY potholes! There were even toll booths to pay for it! We were stopped at the police barrier because our car wasn't registered so Chairman had to pay one of the police officers to let us keep going.

We finally got to Battor and I couldn't believe it. Our house in Battor is even bigger than our house in East Legon!! The contrast between our house and the thatch roof houses across the street was amazing.When we arrived at our house everyone was screaming to welcome me, it was like they hadn't seen me in years! I got a tour of the house from Rachel and then went to join the women who were cooking outside. I helped cut plantains and provided some general comic relief for everyone who was around..the white girl it cooking?? Then I went to church with pretty much the entire family. I sat in back with Yaya, Chairman, Remi, etc. It was neat to see the sea of people in our family wearing the same pattern. I noticed a lot of police standing around and asked about them and was told it was because my dad's house often hosts dignitaries. Halfway through mass I noticed that they kept talking about the Vice President...lo and behold the security detail pulls up clears a path into the church and the Vice President just walks into our mass!! Eventually he gave a campaign speech of course and some other chiefs (including one of my uncles) and dignitaries...including my dad were introduced! It was awesome! Here's a pic of the VP talking at church:

No big deal, the Vice President of Ghana just visits my dad and  his family village for our party...

Yaya said we needed to leave church a bit earlier because they needed help at home. So we went to our house where the food was being prepared and began taking it over to our Auntie's house. I carried the Kelewele or fried plantains on my head which amused everyone, I'm pretty sure that comments like (look at that white girl!) were being flown around. Luckily, I knew how ridiculous it looked. When we got to our Auntie's house I was surprised by how big of an even this was. We had at least four tents with tables and chairs under them, a band, a huge tent for the food, many coolers for drinks, and an all around party atmosphere. I found my place in the buffet serving line ironically serving white rice. This was one of the many things that surprised so many people, especially the older ladies who have never been served by a white person before. Luckily, I have a lot of experience serving from my volunteering for the rodeo's bbq chicken dinner haha

Ironically-the white girl served the white rice..

After serving people for awhile including the Vice President's entire security force and the VP (of course he didn't come through line and he only ate rice and chicken which convinces me that he's not actually Ghanaian...we had four soups, stews, three kinds of rice, chicken, tilapia, crabs, etc and he chose rice and chicken?!?! how western of him!). I was able to eat a nice combo of random things that were left but unfortunately there wasn't very much of my favorite soup left. My Auntie Mary pulled me out to dance and I mad Remi come with..it was hilarious being the only white person...I definitely draw attention to our family. Then I tried pulling one of my brothers out there but it was unsuccessful. I helped out a bit more and then my host-mom pulled me out to dance with her...once again, quite entertaining. Two of my brothers who live in America were visiting and we had a good conversation about how impressed everyone was with my hands on approach to the family. I'm not sure what they expected me to be doing while everyone else worked...I can't just sit their and watch and look like everyone should do work for me. I wouldn't do that at home and I would never think of doing it at my second home here. It's also a lot more fun to get involved because that is when those little moments that make you fall in love with your family happen.

We started cleaning up the food and taking it back to our house and by the time we got back most of the guests were gone. We ended up going to another house which actually belonged to my grandmother, the Queen Mother, where we did plenty more dancing. I was actually dancing in front of the chiefs and elders...unfortunately that meant that the amount of people who knew how to work a camera were in short supply..but here's a pic of others dancing.

After the dancing, Rachel and Sitso took me to the statues of the Queen Mother and her mother. Here is a picture of one of them.

Statue of the Queen Mother whose death we were celebrating.

We went back to our house to pack up everything and then loaded up the cars and were on our way back to East Legon. On the way I couldn't stop looking out the window at the beautiful sunset and landscapes. I just kept thinking over and over about how much I love this place and these people. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

Siril and I at the party

My host-mom, Auntie Grace and I

A few of my sisters and I (Rachel, Sisto, Yaya, and Gifty) please note how we're all wearing the same fabric but non of our dresses look exactly the same.

My sister Gifty, brother Remi, and I waiting to leave for Battor.

Bernice and Benedicta, a set of twins who are staying at our house right now-they are hilarious.

The view out the car window on our way home from Battor...absolutely beautiful.

Building things by hand and hack saw =>best day ever

Buenos dias mi familia y amigos!

Why good morning in spanish you ask? We currently have a set of twins around my age staying with us and last night they asked me to start giving them Spanish lessons on the basics haha

I've been just as busy as ever now that I have decided to try and go to my internship three times a week now...crazy!! Luckily, I really enjoy being super busy because I hate being bored...I no longer have time to be bored while I'm here! This past week I also had one of my favorite days here so far, let me tell you about it!

Tuesday of last week, was pretty normal except that one of my professors called me out in class...once again in the class where I'm the only other white girl. Luckily, it was just to thank me for coming to class regularly because the three oburoni guys and most Ghanaians are just occasional class attendees. He also shook my hand after class to thank me again haha I know, I know..as my dad would say "you brown noser!"

Wednesday, Jessalyn and I got a ride to school from my host dad. I don't remember the last time I was driven to school (as a loyal school bus rider up until I got my license). He just happened to be parked on the side of the road outside our house when we were walking past and he called us over and said he'd take us! 

Thursday was a great day for me in Ghana. I went to my internship alone and it was the first day that I've been here where I really felt like I was just another person going to work in the morning, not the white girl struggling to get somewhere. I wasn't called oburoni all day until my way home around 6pm. I was able to easily catch a tro tro to my internship, paid the fare easily, got dropped off at the right place and everything! While these seem like small things, when you're in a place where you draw attention immediately upon entering someone's view it's the little things that matter most. I was able to do entrance interviews for our new trainees at SISS which was really nice being able to meet these new students and get to know them right away. 

Side note: I don't think I ever showed you all what a tro tro looks like so here it is:

This is a nice looking tro tro, please note the large number of heads inside and random things on top. Things missing that are characteristic of the typical tro tro: back door being held shut with a rope, a "mate" hanging out the side door yelling the destinations the tro tro will go to, the general rust and poor conditions on the outside of the vehicle. You may wonder why we take these if they're so crowded and in poor condition...well to get to a location five hours away it cost us about $5...when I go to my internship it costs me 20 cents each way...not too bad!

Friday, we went to Agbogbloshie again to work at the school. This time I didn't get to teach because the entire first floor of kids (which I started counting and my previous guess was a complete underestimate!) spent the day singing and dancing. They taught Madam Tera a few songs and dances and I had to lead them in a few primary school songs though my brain was blanking on any except for the ones I learned when I was in Yoruba (another African language class I took at UW).

Saturday, was by far one of my top two days so far in Ghana. CIEE did a community service project at Future Leaders, a small school in Teshie. For some reason quite a few people skipped this event either for no reason or because it was too early (we left around 7am), unfortunately for them, they missed out on a fantastic and rewarding day. We sanded, painted, and put up walls to separate the new additional classrooms. If you know me at all, you probably have noticed my ridiculous love of random hard work, especially if it's something that a man would typically be seen doing..for example..working in a cast iron foundry making car rotors and furnace boilers (if you don't know me...that's 100% true...I did that and LOVED it). Therefore, it may not be surprising that I LOVED working at this school. I tried to make sure I was always busy which led of course to me being super dirty between paint and sawdust. I was fortunate enough to work with some fellow Midwesterners on really important projects like painting the gate. Please note my enthusiasm:

Winner, winner chicken dinner!

More pictures and possibly a video from our community service day will come in my next blog since I didn't take my camera so I'm waiting on others to post pics of me so I can take them.

A week or two I gave you all a link to my friend Anil's blog and I still highly recommend it because I'm often featured in it (3 weeks in a row, yeah!). You should also check out my friend Matt's blog. He is also quite hilarious http://topoftheworld18.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/is-that-your-giraffe/

I'm planning to do my blog next week on food so you can see some of the typical Ghanaian dishes (even if my stomach won't allow me to enjoy them as well) and also talk about the funeral I'm attending this weekend in my family's village, Battor.

Till next time!

New friends and a sampling of music for your enjoyment...

Greetings all!

It's that time again, weekly update! After my crazy tro tro experience last week the week wasn't super exciting until I got my phone fixed on Thursday. For the beginning of the week I just studied for my developmental studies mid-term that was on Wednesday.

Friday morning Jessalyn and I were catching a tro tro at 6am to get to Agbogbloshie for our first time teaching at their only school. We got there about 30 minutes early and just sat there meeting the children while they petted our hair and skin non-stop. Because this is the biggest slum in Ghana it's not exactly a tourist destination which means that they see even fewer white people than most in the Accra area. I helped teach a class of kids ages 8-10 with their science class. It's very interesting because since not all kids have books or pencils most of the teaching is done through repetition over and over and over again.There was a lot of dancing in the afternoon because it was Friday but it's so crazy to be teaching in this school. It has two floors. The first is an open room that houses three different classes the youngest age is 3 and goes up to at least 10 on my floor. There are no room dividers so the classes are just taught simultaneously leading to a lot of chaos. Upstairs the rooms are slightly more defined and most of the older kids are up there but it still can get pretty chaotic because I can't even guess at the number of kids that are in that school. What was great is that you can tell the kids really want to learn which is key if they want to get out of the slum in the future.

Jessalyn, Paige, Anil, Erica, Cassie, Cassie's brother Nana and his friend Nana and I all went out for a fun night of bar hopping before going dancing at Hollywood again. If you know me at all, you know I'm not a big dancer...however I can't stop myself from dancing in Ghana...and it's not the alcohol. I mean it! The music here is just so catchy and makes you want to dance! Here are some of my current favorite songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu1_tYAhE8E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAqv3mtlDNY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17vC8qZILJE

This is one of the newest dance crazes in Ghana that has recently gone international, called Azonto...it's just the repetition of random movements similar to what we would call the "shopping cart" etc. haha it's pretty fun though all the Ghanaians make fun of me for not doing it right: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTUIlOudlHI

Saturday we had a Durbar (party) for all of the international students on campus. I went mostly for the free food which didn't dissapoint...there was mashed potatoes and lasagna among other things!! Delicious! The rest of the event was cultural performances and performances by students. There are two videos at the end of this post of some of the professional cultural dancers...they always make me wish I could dance or was in a dance class!

Saturday night my sister Rachel took me to a friend's soccer game. Afterwards we went to Jerry's for kebobs and what ended up being a couple drinks...it was fun until the 30-year-old in the group decided he really really likes my personality...even though we hadn't talked to each other in at least an hour...I was stupid and gave him my number and am now dealing with the consequences of numerous calls per night..I haven't been answering but I know that if I want to hang out with Rachel and her friends I'll have to see them again and most likely him...going to have to answer soon and let him know that I'm taken haha.

Sunday, I went to church with my Aunt Edith and then came home and rested for most of the day because I was thinking I might be getting a cold.

Monday of this week we went to our internship again and started getting ready for the new class of trainees to come in and we'll begin teaching them on Monday! I also spoke with my Auntie Grace about some problems I was having with the teenage girls in the house going through my things but luckily she was super nice about it and took care of it right away! She also referred to me earlier in the evening as Tera Aduovo (our family's last name) which made me smile all night long because I've been waiting to really feel like part of the family and being called by their last name is about as close as it gets. I'll also be able to spend the weekend with the family in our village called Battor next weekend for a funeral and I'll get to wear the same fabric as the rest of the family which is really exciting because the entire family wears the same pattern...and I'm part of the family!! :)

**It's important to note that I have a new pet... he's been in my room for over a week now with no signs of leaving...I'm not a big fan of lizards .or anything with hands..but I just keep reminding myself that he is harmless and actually helps me out by eating mosquitoes ..but I'm really struggling to keep it together when he gets close to my bed!!! I'm taking suggestions for names if you have any!

Jessalyn, me, and Paige on another fun night out dancing.

Abena and Boatemaa who work in our CIEE office are AMAZING...they help me with literally everything and I'm going to miss them an incredible amount when I leave! They both checked in on me at the hospital and even took me home from the hospital when I first got here! (thank goodness that seems so far in the past!)

Here are some videos of the dancing performances at the durbar on Saturday: