We apologize for our delayed blogging. A good internet connection is tough to find here in Africa.
Day 1: Monday, June 30th
Monday, June 30th was a great first full day in Ghana. We arrived in Accra on Sunday at 7:30pm and James (a local Ghanaian and friend of our rotation director, Kyle) met us at the airport. He took us to our accommodations for the next 2 nights at Joska Lodge. Sarah and I each had to get our own room, as women are not allowed to share rooms. The rooms are quite comfortable and we each have our own bathroom with running water…when it works. After dropping off our bags at the hotel we went out to eat some local food with James. He took us for chicken and rice and then to a local pub where we sat outside and enjoyed authentic Ghanaian beer (Star brand), which were huge! Each bottle was about 700 mL! After that we made our way back to the hotel. To say the least Sarah and I were in need of a good sleep.
Today we spent the day touring around Accra with James. We had a very busy day. We started off with breakfast at Joska Lodge… eggs on toast. We then went to the Exchange Bureau to exchange our money for cedis. (exchange rate 3 cedis for 1 USD). We ended up with a huge stack of cash as James suggested that we get our cedis in 5 cedis denominations. We walked to a local shop called Global Mommy. It is a NGO that sells women and children’s clothes made by Ghanaian women and the proceeds go to support women’s charities. After that we walked to MTN where we purchased a SIM card for our cell phone. Then we walked to a smoothie shop where we purchased #16 smoothies (strawberry, coconut, banana). The #16 smoothies were Kyle’s recommendation. They were delicious, especially as it seems as though we won’t be having a lot of fruit and vegetables here.
After our smoothies we walked through more of the markets and headed to the Black Star Square. This is the site where the first president of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, claimed Ghana’s independence on March 6, 1957. On Republic Day, July 28th, there is a huge celebration held in the square. The square faces the Atlantic Ocean so it was nice to have the breeze to cool us down.
After seeing the Black Star Square we went to Art Culture Centre (Art Market) to have drumming lessons and basket weaving lessons. The drumming lessons were a lot of fun and 4 local drum makers led us in the lesson. Sarah bought a drum from them after we were finished the lessons. The basket-weaving lesson took quite awhile, approximately 2.5 hours and we didn’t get a lot of done but we each were able to leave with the start of our baskets.
After the basket weaving we walked further into the Art Market (it was huge). We stopped and had fresh coconuts and then looked around the market. They have so much stuff. Everyone is selling stuff! I don’t know who they sell it all too.
We then walked a bit further into the Jamestown where we went to the museum that honors Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The sun was really hot when we were waiting to enter the museum. James purchased us FanIce (ice cream in a bag) to have while we waited to enter. This was especially nice of him as James practices the Islam religion and is currently in Ramadan, which means that he must fast (no water or food) during the day and can only eat and drink between 6:20 pm and 6:20 am. The museum included pictures of Dr. Nkrumah as well as artifacts from when he was the president of Ghana. Outside there is a sanctuary that surrounds Dr. Nkrumah’s grave.
After the museum we went to a local restaurant in Accra Circle where we had fried plantain and Red, Red (beans in a tomato sauce) with fish. Sarah did not like the fish and I had to eat both of our fish. After lunch we walked further into Jamestown. The level of poverty blew Sarah and me away. The people seemed to be poorer and poorer the closer we got to the water. They all lived in shacks that lined the streets and became more and more congested the closer we got to the water. The people just sat outside of their shacks selling stuff.. biscuits, dollar store type merchandise, plantains, water in sachets, everything! We walked until we were at the lighthouse that was at edge of Jamestown. We paid 1 cedi each to climb the lighthouse stairs. From the top of the lighthouse we had an amazing view and could see all along the coast and the Accra area. Accra is huge!
After the lighthouse we walked back through Jamestown and headed to pharmacy lane. Pharmacy lane is a street that has numerous pharmacies and chemical shops. The further we walked the more people we saw and everything seemed to get more and more congested. Sarah and I were quite overwhelmed.
Before heading back to Joska Lodge to drop off our things we went to a supermarket to buy mosquito nets (20 cedis each) and to a mobile phone shop to by a Nokia phone (55 cedis). At Joska we dropped off our stuff and took a few minutes to relax before heading out for supper.
We took a trotro to supper at Tawala Beach where we had chicken and rice, and ate at a table on the beach. It was beautiful! After dinner we were exhausted and went home to bed.
Day 2: Tues, July 1st
After our long day yesterday James let us sleep in. Sarah and I slept in until 9 o’clock at which time we awoke to the pouring rain. Pouring! One of the staff members at Joska lodge was very sweet and brought our breakfast (eggs on toast with tea) to my room so that we did not have to go out in the rain. Once we were all packed up at around 11am we took a cab to the VIP bus station. To hail a cab here you make a “tssssss” sound through your teeth and the cab drivers magically hear you. On the way to the VIP station James picked up some water, Coca-Cola and crackers for Sarah and I to have along the way. We sat at the back of the VIP bus so that we could all sit together. The bus ride was about 4 hours long to Kumasi and we went over a lot of really rough terrain. The played a couple of Ghanaian films along the trip. I had to take Gravol so that my stomach would tolerate the bumpy ride. Once we got to Kumasi we took a cab to meet Poppo downtown. We then walked to the trotro station. Before getting on the trotro Sarah and I had to go to the washroom. It turned out that the washroom was a very open area that women just went and stood and peed into a gutter type thing. It did not smell very good at all. After the bathroom we got on the trotro and waited to depart for Nsuta. People would try and sell you things from the windows of the trotro and I purchased some gingersnap cookies. The trotro ride took about an hour and a half. We drove past a lot of trees and hilly scenery. When we arrived in Nsuta we walked from the trotro drop off point to the American Broadway Guest House where Sarah and I are staying. The accommodations are owned by a man named Sampson, who has lived part of his life in New York so the guesthouse had a bit of a western feel to it. We then walked to Poppo’s mom’s house, Janet, where we had supper of rice and fish in red sauce. After the meal we watched some of the World Cup Soccer before heading back to our lodging. Note: today was both Canada day and Ghana Republic Day.
Day 3: Wed, July 2nd
Poppo arrived at 7:30 to walk with us to his mom’s house. We had eggs on toast with tea (seems like this will be the standard breakfast here). Sarah had a hard time eating as her stomach was quite bloated and upset. After breakfast James, Poppo, Sarah and I caught a taxi to Mampong, about 10 minute ride (2.5 cedis each). We were greeted very warmly at the hospital where we met with the Pharmacy Director and he gave us a run down on the structure of the hospital and the organization. We than met with Mr. Dominc Otchere, head of the pharmacy department, and he introduced us to the 2 other pharmacists. He then got George, pharmacy accounts manager, to give us a tour of the hospital and introduce us to everyone. We were introduced to everyone-even physicians and nurses that were meeting with patients. Everyone was very welcoming and excited to see more “obrunis” (white people). After touring the general ward we did the 1km walk to the maternity ward, where pregnant women are treated. There is a satellite pharmacy located here.
After our tour ended we bought some pineapple from a lady on the side of the road and took a cab into Mampong. We did a tour around the town . I bought about 15 small bananas in 1 bunch for 5 cedis. We stopped at an internet café to send some emails. The internet connection was extremely slow! I really had to go to the bathroom after stopping at the café and we found one at a neighboring restaurant. Again it was a very open area with a drain to outside but at least this time it was one person at a time. This was the start of my diarrhea L
We then made our way back to Nsuta by taxi and Sarah and I went back to our place to do some of our readings and rest. After that Sampson offered us a ride in his jeep to Poppo’s house for supper, which I was happy to take, as I was not feeling very good at all. When we got to Janet’s house we helped them make fufu by grinding cassava and plantain with a very large mortar and pestle. It was lucky that Janet didn’t loose her hand in the process. We helped Janet and her niece, Anastasia collect water from the well, and practiced carrying it on our heads. It was much harder than they made it look! Sarah brought her soccer ball, which was a hit with the kids and soon kids seem to come from everywhere to play with the obrunis. I mostly sat down and visited with them as I wasn’t feeling well and they really enjoyed playing with my camera.
We had supper of rice and a red sauce with some type of meat? It was a really chewy meat. Shortly after supper it started to pour rain and we had to move inside very quickly. It was interesting that Janet and her daughter, Monica, did all of the cleaning up outside in the rain, while the men just went directly inside. We ended up hiding inside, from the torrential downpour, with some children and James and Poppo (inside Janet and George’s house). I played patty cake with 2 of the kids and Sarah had part of her hair braided by Anastasia. It was also interesting that the parents of the children didn’t seem to care where they were as no one came looking for them. I started to feel like I really need to go to the bathroom again and asked where the bathroom was it. It was located adjacent to the house and was a small outhouse type building with a toilet with no seat. After using the bathroom I had to find a bucket of water to fill the toilet with to allow it to drain.
After that we made our way back to our place. We then both started to feel extremely ill and that marked the start of our long night of throwing up and diarrhea.
Day 4: Thurs, July 3rd
Sick day! Sarah and I spent the day at home as we did not feel well at all. As Sampson had asked James if we would have breakfast at his place, James awoke us at 6:30 am to get us out for breakfast. Sarah did not get up but I went over. James made both Sampson and I breakfast consisting of eggs (the standard omelet type thing with onion and tomato), toast, beans, and Vienna sausage. After that I went back to the room. Sarah and I spent the day watching movies and rotating between sitting on the couch and laying on the bed. James was very good and stayed with us all day. Poppo brought his nurse friend to check on us around 4pm. Everyone was very caring about our illness. I walked to Janet’s house for dinner and had plain white rice, which helped to settle my stomach a bit. Note: after we developed our illness we were warned that we likely should have avoided the sachet waters as they have been known to cause diarrhea.
Day 5: Fri, July 4th
First real day of work at the hospital. This morning Sarah and I walked to Janet’s home for breakfast. We were able to stomach some plain white rice despite our gurgling tummies. We spent the first hour in the conference room with 4 pharmacy students and the 3 pharmacists in Nsuta (Katherine, Dominic, Jacob). Dominic led an hour-long lesson on the health organization in Ghana. Sarah and I were taken a bit a back when the lesson started and ended with a prayer. It turned out that the students were the first group of PharmD students in Ghana and are currently on an attachment (internship). Previously the pharmacy schools in Ghana were similar to the ones in Canada as they were 4 year BscPharm programs, and there was an available two year top up program to obtain a PharmD degree. Students can enter into pharmacy school directly after high school. More recently the pharmacy programs have been transitioning to an entry level PharmD program but that this not yet fully accepted and they still have both the BscPharm and PharmD programs available. There are currently 3 pharmacy schools in Ghana. Sarah and I were asked to put together a one-hour presentation on the Canadian Health Care system for next Friday for the same group of people.
After the session Sarah and I observed the flow of work in the dispensary. Things are much, much different than at home. Sarah ended her work day at noon by throwing up on the front lawn in front of the dispensary. The sickness was still getting the best of her. At home one might find this really unusual to use the lawn in the courtyard area in front of the hospital as a washroom but this was apparently not too absurd here in Africa as I saw a young boy being taken outside by his farther to pee in the exact same spot shortly after Sarah had finished her business.
I spent the afternoon chatting with one of the PharmD students name Panford. We reviewed patient charts and I helped him fill the prescriptions for the patients. As soon as 3pm hit everyone started grabbing their bags and leaving for the day. The work day seems to end a bit earlier here than at home.
After work I went into Mampong by taxi to use the internet at the internet café. It is basically a line of computers cramped into a small store that has power even when the power goes out (which it does on an almost daily basis here), as there is a gasoline fueled power generator running loudly outside the store. It costs 2 cedis to use the internet for 1 hour. At the internet café I also purchased minutes for our cell phone by purchasing an MTN card for 10 cedis, which should supply 60 minutes of North American calling. I then took a taxi back to Nsuta. The taxi driver must have sensed that this was the first time I had taken a taxi alone in Africa and definitely ripped me off by charging me 5 cedis for the ride, which should have only cost 2.40 cedis.
Once I returned home, James called and invited me to come for supper at Janet’s. My supper consisted of plain white rice as I was not yet feeling up to trying the local food. It was an early to bed night for both Sarah and I as we were tired from our week of illness. We decided to watch Bridesmaids to help cheer us up.
Day 6: Sat, July 5th
Sarah and I must have been exhausted as we slept in until 11 am! I woke up very hungry and had some crackers for breakfast as we missed breakfast at Janet’s house. On our way to leave to meet Poppo, Sampson (the man that owns the American Broadway Guest House) stopped us at the main door to invite us in for tea. He is a very entertaining man and has lots of stories to share about his life spent partly in Brooklyn, NY and partly in Ghana. I enjoyed some Milo and Sarah had coffee. The Milo was so delicious as it was the closest thing I have had to a glass of milk since arriving in Ghana. Sarah and I then insisted we head out on our way but Sampson wanted to show us the wedding that was going on down the street. We all walked there together and Sampson basically walked both Sarah and I into the middle of the wedding reception, which was a bit awkward. By the time we finished our tea and wedding sightseeing it was ~2:30pm and we were running late as we had planned to meet Poppo to take a trotro to Kumasi. Luckily, Poppo had purchased our tickets for the tro and had asked the tro driver to drive towards our place to pick us up. He met us obrunis about ½ way to the tro station. We were then off to Kumasi to purchase our bicycles.
The tro was full of women dressed in black who had come to Nsuta for a funeral. It was surprising how far so many people had travelled for the funeral. Poppo advised us that weekends are generally filled with travelling to funerals and weddings in Ghana.
The trotro drove extremely fast some parts of the journey, which was a bit frightening as the tro has five rows of seats each holding 4 or 5 people, none of which have seat belts. The ride into Kumasi took about 1 hour 45 minutes due to the fact that it was really slow going to get to the trotro station in Kumasi due to the intense amount of traffic. We then walked from the tro station through crowds of people to an area where bikes were sold. There were shops upon shops upon shops selling numerous used bikes. As we perused the bikes Sarah and I could feel the dirt collecting on our skin. Kumasi felt very, very hot and there was reddish dirt floating in the air. It took us about 2 hours but we were both able to find decent bikes. Sarah’s is pink and cost 90 cedis. It took awhile for me to find a functional bike that looked like it would last a month but at the last minute I found a silver one for 140 cedis. Poppo’s friend met us at the bike shop to help us navigate the crowds with our bikes back to the trotro. Sarah and I must have still been dehydrated because we made it all the way back in the tro without having to use the washroom. Before we left Kumasi we bought stuff from the women selling things off of their head through the windows of the trotro (this is a normal occurrence in congested areas). I bought chocolate FanIce (ice cream in a bag), which was delicious!
We made it back to Nsuta by 8pm . Poppo then took us to a “restaurant” on the side of the road at which a lady was selling IndoMie (Mr. Noodles with the odd piece of carrot and egg) for 4 cedis. We each bought a plate full (HUGE PLATE FULL!). It tasted so good as this was the first “real food” I had eating in almost 3 days.
After supper Sarah and I went home and watched Identity Thief. We swear that Mellissa McCarthy’s humor helped us get through our sickness.
Day 7: Sun, July 6th
Slept until 11 again when Maria woke us up to our discussion on the results of our scavenger hunt and our questions on the Ghana health system. Our talk lasted for about 1 hour and the call only dropped once which is good for the phone system in Ghana. After our talk with Maria we got ready for the day and then road our bikes into Nsuta to meet up with Poppo. He was at the butcher’s shop with his friends playing games on the benches adjacent to the shop. Sarah and I bought Sprite in glass bottles at the store next to the butcher’s shop and then joined the group of guys to learn how to play some of the games. Poppo taught us how to play Lude, which basically involved rolling a die and moving your playing pieces around the board. Our game lasted ~45 minutes and Sarah beat us both. After the game Sarah and I went for a bike ride through Nsuta. We went to the edge of town going east. It was interesting to see people trying cassava on the street. When we stopped at asked them what it was for they told us that they dry it on the street so that it can be crushed into cassava powder to be sprinkled on food. After our bike ride we went home around 4:30 and shortly after Sampson called us to come to his place for dinner. He had prepared for us some “American” food- Kraft macaroni and cheese and fried chicken. We ate our meal and visited with Sampson for a couple of hours. After dinner we visited with Sampson’s nurse friend that was there to cook for him. She is a nurse at a nearby health clinic and taught us about the local practices for treating malaria. After supper we came home and did a bit of reading and listened to music before Poppo came over to chat with us.
Day 8: Mon, July 7th
Sarah and I expected that we would be having a big breakfast this morning as we thought that Poppo had let Janet know that we were healed from our illness. Unfortunately he did not and we had a breakfast of plain rice, which was okay but just not fully satisfying. After breaky we rode our bikes to Mampong.. It only took 20 minutes and was a much smoother ride than we had anticipated. Hopefully both of our bikes hold up for the rest of our time here, as biking is much better than taking taxis J
Sarah and I spent the morning at work going on rounds with the Cuban doctor. This is his last week in Mampong after spending 4 years here. It was interesting to see just how different medical care in Ghana is from home. For example, 3 patients were admitted with complete fractures of their femurs and it was very unclear what their treatment course was going to be..maybe some diclofenac and if they were stable enough (and could afford it) a trip to Kumasi in a taxi to see the orthopedic surgery team?
After work we went into Mampong to use the internet café and buy some things we needed. The internet was painfully slow and all I was able to do was check a few emails. We did enjoy chocolate FanIce outside before going home. We then went to supper at Janet’s and had boiled yam with fish stew. It was an early to bed evening.
Day 9: Tues, July 8th
Sarah and I had the most delicious breakfast that we have had yet.. egg omelet with green peppers and onion on bread, bananas, and I made hot Milo. We then biked to work where we spent the day in the HIV clinic with Katherine. The HIV treatment regimens depended largely on the ARVs that were available. If a patient came in on a regimen and those drugs were not available they would be automatically switched to a new regimen that was available…without resistance testing being completed. There is never resistance testing completed and viral loads are not tested. HIV status is monitored by CD4 counts only. If the patients CD4 count is declining while on treatment the patient will be referred to Kumasi for a more in-depth work up of their HIV. HIV testing is only done if the disease is suspected in a patient based on symptoms. Pregnant women are given whatever regimen is available, including the agents that are avoided in pregnancy in Canada due to birth defects. We worked at the clinic from 9:00 until 1:30 and saw at least 40 patients. It was a very busy morning.
For lunch we bought food from the ladies selling stuff across the street from the hospital…eggs, crackers, Sprite, and cold Milo. It was really hot while we were outside eating.
After work we biked home and stopped at the shop near our place to ask if they sold FanIce. They did not so we carried on home. About 10 minutes later one of the guys that works at American Broadway came to our bedroom window to tell us that our Fan Ice was here. We had a good laugh when we found out that word had spread very quickly in Nsuta and the guy that sells FanIce on his bike came to our place to sell us the FanIce. We each bought the strawberry FanYogourt and took it up on our roof top to eat it. We enjoyed some sunshine and our tasty treats. We then laid up there and did some yoga/exercises before dinner.
Dinner at Janet’s included tomato fried rice with veggies and chicken (note: minimal veg).
Day 10: Wed, July 9th
Today Sarah and I had huge Tim Bit- like donuts for breakfast. We weren’t quite sure what they were at first. They ended up tasting not that bad and were better than we thought they might be. We spent the first 2 hours of work in a leadership seminar led by Dominic in which we reviewed a speech by a leader of the army in World War 1. The session took place in the pharmacy department and people came from different departments in the hospital to join in the discussion. We found afterwards that everyone received 5 cedis for attending the seminar. We did not accept our money and suggested that they use it to buy hand sanitizer for the pharmacy department or condoms for the HIV clinic. They laughed at us, as apparently condoms are very rarely used here in Africa (which is too bad given the prevalence of the HIV here). We then spent the rest of our work day at the HIV clinic with Katherine. It was a bit of a hectic day as when we first got to the clinic Kat had to run to do something so Sarah and I were left sitting in the HIV room for about half an hour. We started stocking the shelves with ARVS as they were basically empty after our very busy day in the clinic yesterday. When Kat returned to the clinic two-week old twins and their mother accompanied her. Apparently the maternity ward was out of zidovudine and nevirapine solution when the babies were born so they did not get started on ARV prophylaxis. We gathered together nevirapine and zidovudine solution (both recently expired) for the mother and drove her with Kat to the maternity ward. Sarah and I were a bit confused about the entire situation and Kat was quite frustrated/upset by the fact that the babies had not received treatment for 2 weeks. A huge miss! We then returned to the clinic where we saw ~12 newly diagnosed HIV patients. It was surreal for Sarah and I to see just how sick some of the patients were. CD4 counts as low as 22! It was difficult to understand the full stories of the patients but Kat would interpret the key points when the patients left the room. Patient confidently and respect to the patient’s situation is a lot different here than it is at home. For example, people can just walk into the counseling room while we are meeting with another patient to ask the pharmacist a question..no knocking required. We were in the clinic until 2:30pm. After that we went outside for our lunch of crackers, Milo and Sprite. The ladies working at the 2 red tents in front of the hospital must really appreciate our service by now. By the time we finished lunch it was 3pm and everyone was heading home for the day. We decided after our emotionally exhausting day that we could call it a day as well.
Mampong market day! So so so busy! After work we rode our bikes into Mampong to check out the market. We discovered that Mampong is much bigger than we once thought and that the market is a very busy place. Luckily, we ran into Kat from the hospital and she showed us where to find the ground nuts we were looking for (turns out they were just peanuts). The peanuts here are a bit different from home.. somewhat purple and under ripe. After that we went to find the supermarket called, Attack. It turned out to be a small shop filled from the floor to the roof with stuff. It was very cramped and very very hot. Sarah found chocolate bars! 7 cedis for 2. Not bad as we had been craving chocolate since we arrived.
After Attack we rode our bikes to the Internet Café. On our way there a man grabbed me from behind and then when I hit him away he grabbed the back of my bike. Luckily a kind older man told him to leave me alone. The internet café was nothing less than its usual very slow speed..and very hot. Luckily we bought FanIce to keep us a bit more calm and cool. By the time we went home it was 6:30 pm and already getting dark.
Supper tonight was a HUGE rice ball with groundnut soup. As I was starving it tasted pretty darn good. We spent the evening reading about malaria. What a Wednesday we had.
Day 11: Thurs, July 10th
Today was a good day. It didn’t start off to a super start as I did not sleep well last night. In Africa, its hit or miss. I find I wake up midway through the night and once I am awake it is very difficult to go back to sleep. I find there are so many loud and unusual sounds that it is hard to ignore them. It is very frustrating. I was very sleepy as we biked to Janets in the morning for breakfast. It was a good breakfast. We lucked out with egg sandwiches and bananas thank god.
Today at work we decided that we would be very productive. We had the option to go spend time with Dominik in the ART clinic again but we thought we would work on some stuff. We had a really good discussion about malaria and the treatments and hammered it out. Then we discussed what we wanted to say about our presentation tomorrow for the pharmacists regarding the Canadian Healthcare System. It’s actually difficult to plan because we are not sure how much they are going to understand and we can’t make it too complex and too detailed that they fail to get anything out of it. Then we took a lunch break. Today for me that was an egg, crackers, a banana and some Milo (cold chocolate like energy drink). Then in the afternoon we started to work on our research paper by going through the articles that were retrieved from the lit search by Kyle. Pretty productive day. It was neat at the end as I was leaving, there was a very sick man on a stretcher and they asked me to get some IV normal saline as I was the only one in the pharmacy at that time. It was simple so I am glad I understood and was able to help. I have a feeling he had malaria. He had what looked like spit or vomit on the side of his mouth and I saw them do a rapid diagnostic test for malaria as well. I would like to see some more cases of inpatient malaria just to see how they progress or how they turn around with treatment.
We biked home so that we could be there in time to talk to Kyle which occurred at 4 pm. We decided to talk to him upstairs on the outdoor roof so that we could get some sun and air as it was super hot out. It was a great chat with Kyle. We told him all that we had been up to and he seemed pretty happy with the way the rotation was going. Then we had a quick discussion about malaria and it was super helpful. We did a good job at knowing the basics and Kyle definitely added on some pearls. In fact, he gave real life experience as he has had malaria in the past. It was funny that as Kyle was talking I could hear the FanIce Bike boy (who comes and delivers us ice-cream and frozen yogurt) going up the street. I jumped up and ran over and signaled to one of the workers here to go grab him because we had been craving it all day. I ran downstairs as Kyle was still talking to Katelyn to grab us 2 strawberry frozen yogurts—they were soooo good. Katelyn told Kyle what we were up to but he didn’t seem to mind J.
Tonight for dinner at Janets we had “banku” – a mushed up ball of casava and mace with some kind of sauce over it which wasn’t bad – spicy, peppers, tomato, okra. Katelyn wasn’t a big fan but I let her have my meat as per usual – I still don’t trust the meat. Watermelon was desert. Then Poppa arrived. He had been in Kumasi and was an angel and bought us peanut butter. Its authentic, natural PB and its soooo good. Overall, a pretty decent food day for us. Now we are just packing and preparing for tomorrow as we are leaving work early to make it to Cape Coast at a decent time. I am so excited for the weekend. It will be a nice change to see another part of the country and also nice since as soon as we got here we have been feeling crappy and are finally getting back to normal. I am sure we will have lots to write about when we get back!
Day 12: Friday, July 11th
Today we took a taxi to work so that we could leave directly from work to Cape Coast. We gave a presentation to the pharmacy staff on the Canadian Healthcare System this morning. The presentation seemed to be received quite well and they asked quite a few questions. The staff were really interested in how big Canada is and how the population differ with the different geographic regions.
After our presentation we took a “coffee” break to sit outside and eat some hardboiled eggs that we bought for 50 cedis/egg. The pharmacy was extremely quiet today. It turns out that it is quite common for people to just not show up for work on Fridays. We left work at noon to make our way to Cape. We met Poppo in Mampong and he helped us find the correct trotro to Kumasi (4 cedis/person). The tro ride took about 2 hours as the traffic was extremely crazy in Kumasi. When we got off the tro (in the middle of traffic) we found a taxi to take us to the Neoplan bus station. It took close to an hour to make it the bus station as there were so many people everywhere! The traffic jam involved cars going every which way. At one point our cab driver shut off the car because we weren’t going anywhere. We saw women walking through the traffic caring so much stuff on their heads (ie. boxes stacked 4 high, huge piles of clothes, pretty much anything you can think off). When we made it the Neoplan station we bought a ticket to Cape Coast (13 cedis/each) for the public bus. The public bus was much like a tro (maybe a bit bigger) and had 6 rows with 4 people/row. It was a very tight fit and I was even too tall for it.
We arrived at Cape Coast at around 7:30 and took a cab to Sammo Guest House. We met Poppo’s friend David at the guesthouse and he helped us register for our room (50 cedis total for the entire weekend (less than 10USD each for the entire weekend)). The guest house was nothing fancy but it worked.
We walked with David to a restaurant called Castle Restaurant. Along the way he stopped and bought us Klakli (spelling?)- plantain hashbrowns seasoned with ginger and pepper. It was quiet tasty! The restaurant was more Westernized than anywhere else we had been since arriving in Ghana. The food was decent and we had Savana Dry Cider’s (South African) which were fairly tasty. After dinner we were exhausted so went back to our place to go to sleep.
Day 13: Saturday, July 12th
We got up at around 7:30 this morning as we had a big day ahead of us. We ate breakfast on the roof top restaurant at Sammo. David prepared us French toast that was very much fried in a LOT of Frytol. (Frytol- Fry it All!) After breakfast David arranged for a driver to pick us up and take us to Kakom National Park. The driver’s name was Francis and it cost us 70 cedis for him to drive us out to the park wait for us to tour, stop at Han’s Cottage on our way back, and then drop us off at Cape Castle. Kakom was very neat. We did the canopy tour, which allowed us to walk on top of the jungle. What a view we had. Unfortunately, we did not see any animals. After the tour we enjoyed some chocolate ice cream and bought Snicker’s bars! Real chocolate!
Francis then drove us to Han’s Cottage. Lots of obrunis there. It was definitely more touristy as food and drink were much more expensive than anywhere else we had been. At Han’s there are crocodiles in the water around the restaurant. They were shy while we were there so we didn’t see them come out of the water too much. We ordered yam fries and chicken pieces (full chunks of chicken with the bone and everything). It took over an hour to arrive.
After lunch we went to the Cape Castle. We arrived just in time to do a tour. It was a very sobering experience learning all about what went one just a couple hundred years ago. It felt so surreal to walk through the “Door of No Return” where the captives had been sent away form their home land. The tour lasted for about an hour and half. We then ventured down the beach to take a walk. It was terrible to see the amount of garbage piled up on the beach. Sachet water bags everywhere!
We got back to Samo at around 6:30 and showered and changed for dinner. We then went with David to Oasis, a restaurant owned by Germans that is a popular spot for obrunis to hang out. We watched the World Cup 3rd and 4th place final, ordered pizza, and had a few drinks. The pizza did not arrive until near the end of the game but it was totally worth the wait. So yummy! After the game we hit the dance floor (I mean dance sand) and danced the night away.
Day 14: Sunday, July 13th
We awoke early this morning so that we could spend some time at Coconut Grove Resort before having to catch the bus back to Kumasi. We had planned to have breakfast of pancakes with chocolate at a little hut across the street from Samo but unfortunately they were closed when we got up. David offered to make us pancakes at the roof top restaurant at Samo and we felt somewhat obliged to so we said okay. The pancakes turned out to be very egg-like dough fried in a lot of Frytol. We ate a bit of them but they were a bit too greasy to stomach.
We hired a private car to drive us to Coconut Grove (about 30 minutes from Cape Coast). He charged us 40 cedis to drive us there and then pick us up and drive us back to Cape Coast. We found out that we got quite a good deal as other obrunis at the resort had to pay 70 cedis for their ride. When we arrived at the resort the lady at the reception told us it would cost 50 cedis each to use the pool. We said we would not be willing to pay that amount and walked to the pool where the pool attendant told us it would only be 20 cedis each, which we were okay with. Before beaching ourselves beside the pool we went to the nearby restaurant for breakfast. We enjoyed an awesome buffet for 25 cedis each- pancakes with honey, omelet bar, cereal with MILK, and coffee, fresh fruit! We then spent the rest of the morning laying beside the pool, swimming, and walking down the beach. The Atlantic Ocean was way to rough for us to swim in but it was beautiful to see.
Day 15: Monday, July 14th
Today started out with an awesome breakfast of oranges, eggs on bread and oatmeal. We were stuffed. We thought we would be working on our inventory project when we got to work but unfortunately things weren’t quite ready for us to start on it yet..we are slowly starting to get used to the pace of things here but it is still a bit frustrating. We went on rounds this morning with a Ghanaian doctor. It was interesting to see his perspective on teaching. We spent the rest of the day working on our presentations for the hospital staff.
After work we got back to our place at around 4:30. Our FanIce arrived shortly after J We did laundry and uploaded our pictures from the weekend.
Supper consisted of boiled yam and tomato stew with egg. Although the stew was still quite oily it was more tasty than what we had been having. We also spent time chatting with Poppo’s brother Cisse who is back from university for a month.
Day 16: Tuesday, July 15th
This morning breakfast consisted of a smaller version of the timbit like donuts and bananas. We were a bit disappointed as we were quite hungry this morn. First thing this morning (ie. around 8:30 am) at work Sarah and I had scheduled to do a discussion on HIV with the PharmD students. It has proven to be quite difficult to have a discussion or meeting occur exactly at the time we have planned it to. Also it has proven difficult to create handouts for presentations. For example, when trying to use the pharmacy computer to print a document from my computer via USB the computer gave my USB a virus, and after finally getting 1 copy printed we found out that the photocopier was broken so we had to re-plug in the printer to get things printed. The discussion lasted for approximately 1.5 hours and overall it seemed as though they were interested in the information we were presenting. It is a bit hard to gage based on their facial expressions as they are sometimes different than what we would see in Canada.
After our presentation we went outside for a “coffee” break—again hard boiled eggs on the lawn in front of the hospital. At lunch when we were sitting on the lawn a Ghanaian woman came up to me and scolded me in Twee about exposing to much skin.. my capris were rolled up just passed my knees. It was both awkward and funny. We spent the rest of our work day working on our inventory project and research paper.
We left work a bit early today so that we could go into Mampong and interview the pharmacies and chemical shops regarding the selling of antibiotics. We were fairly successfully as we interviewed 2 pharmacies and 2 chemical shops. Mampong proved to be quite crazy again (people, cars, animals everywhere!) so we had to relax with some FanIce part way through our Mampong adventures. After FanIce we were on a mission to find a fabric shop we had been referred to by Kat. After asking several people for directions we finally found the shop. Selecting fabric to make Ghanaian dresses proved to be more difficult than we had anticipated and we spent close to an hour in the store before we both decided on our fabric of choice.
After we finally returned to Mampong around 7:00 we had an awesome dinner of roasted plantain and red, red. (Janet’s red, red (tomato bean stew) was much better than the one we had in Accra)