Akua's adventures in volunteering

Sorry for the gap in posting: the electricity was out yesterday because of the rationing, and the day before because of a thunderstorm. But today we're back up and running!
FYI: My Ghanaian name is "Akua" because I was born on a Wednesday (right, Mama?). I've been named by several people so far, its really sweet.
As some of you know, this week I began my volunteer work. I'm working at the Police Hospital in Accra, in the HIV/AIDS support center. I didn't know exactly what I'd be doing until the day of, but its HIV/AIDS counseling. One of the social workers, Sister Leticia, quizzed me all about HIV/AIDS and pronounced that I already knew everything and was ready to counsel people. I seriously doubt that, but it was very nice. I think she meant that I've got the basics down. The only problem is that most of the clients who come in do not speak English very well, so I haven't felt like I'm being very useful. Obviously, my Twi is not that great from one week of lessons, and many of them speak other local dialects, anyway. It's fun -- I really love the nurses, social workers and lab technicians I've met, but I don't feel like I'm really helping anyone. Good news, though: tomorrow at 9am I'm meeting with the director to see if I can help out with the Domestic Violence & Victims Support Service, in evaluating DV cases and, if necessary, preparing for and assisting at court. Its disappointing that I can't be that helpful where I'd originally wanted to work, but the idea of seeing the Ghanaian court system is pretty exciting. Keeping my fingers crossed that it works out! I think that would be simply amazing.

The hospital itself is interesting. Its run by the Ghanaian police (obviously), so there are armed men in uniform everywhere. The nurses still wear cute little hats pinned to their hair. I'll try to get a picture of one soon. Oops! I forgot to start downloading my pictures. SOrry! But you've all had Jen's to enjoy. I'm lame, I know, but I'll eventually get these up!

Today was pretty funny. One of the lab technicians, named Edem (yes, same name as my Twi teacher -- all Edem's must be great based on my extensive population sample of 2 people), took me for a "tour" of the hospital's laboratory. He seems a little crazy...I never use this word but I think the only way to describe him is "zany". He's just always jumping around and making lots of jokes and cracking up. He's pretty hilarious. Anyway, he took me along and I got to see how they test for a variety of things, including HIV, Hepatitis B, typhoid fever and malaria. I got to see what they look like under a microscope, too. I also saw, under microscope, the sperm of a sterile man (ya, weird, I know). The tour was VERY informal (i don't think they really do tours -- Edem is just crazy), we were just sort of wandering around and popping into rooms to look around. I have a feeling that in the U.S. a random temporary volunteer would never be given the access that I was allowed, and probably for good reason. No one seemed to care, though. I would just come in and they'd look me over and say something along the lines of "Hi, white girl. Where are you from? Oh, San Francisco. Maybe I visit you someday."

Its funny, health insurance plans here are called health insurance "schemes". Considering the nature of insurance companies, perhaps "scheme" is more appropriate, anyway! Here's a random word on traffic in Accra (its in my head because of my commute home): Traffic in Accra is horrific. Its exacerbated by the many, many street vendors hawking their wares. They stand in the streets, soliciting cars, with their goods in buckets balanced on their heads. At first I thought it was kinda cool, like a drive-thru that comes to you ("why, yes, I would like some chocolate, thank you") but its quickly gotten annoying because they clearly slow everything down even more. But I guess if you don't have your own store, what do you do?

Haha -- side note: a group of kids in the internet cafe are watching the movie "300" on the computer behind me. The narrator's voice is SO cheesy, I can barely stand it!

Ok, I guess that's it for now. Hopefully the next time I write I will have good news about my volunteering situation! I will try to write again soon. Miss you all! xoxo

I Want Your Addresses

Hi everyone -- if you want a postcard from anywhere, better send your preferred addresses to catherine.m.gillespie@gmail.com. The influx of emails will make me feel happy and loved. If you prefer a postcard from a particular country/region on my trip, let me know. Also, the postcards might take awhile to get there, so if you're moving soon, give me your new address or a permanent address just in case.

Link to Jen's pictures

http://flickr.com/photos/jenicra84

By the way, the ugly and/or sweaty pictures of me aren't actually real; just a mean photoshop trick of Jen's. In Africa I am always perfectly composed, made up and not sweaty. Really....

And I will upload my own photos soon! My camera is charging at the house right now. The laziness is unacceptable, I know! But Jen's pictures are better and more plentiful, anyhow. Thaaaanks for letting me use your pictures, Jen!

Cape Coast

Soo here's a recap of my weekend in Cape Coast (and I'm a little tired so sorry if there are typos):

Joseph, Jennifer and I took an unbelievably uncomfortable tro-tro ride from Accra to Cape Coast on Friday afternoon. We got there and it was much cooler (temperature-wise) than Accra, but we were thirsty and hungry and dirty and sweaty (as we often are). I sat by a window and by the time we got there, the arm I'd had by the window was covered with a film of black soot from the exhaust. There are no emissions regulations here that I'm aware of, and it shows. We then tried to go to this one hotel, but it had been closed recently. Its so funny, there are signs for the hotel everywhere, and when you point them out, people look at them and scratch their heads, puzzled and say they've never heard of it. Soo then we went to this one hotel and got rooms for $1.50 for the night. There was electricity and there was supposed to be running water by morning. Definitely the dirtiest hotel I've ever been in...but its Africa, so hey. We went down to the ocean to Castle Beach's bar and restaurant for drinks (after having bucket-showers at the hotel and dinner somewhere else). Most of the restaurants here are open air, and this one we sat right over the ocean. The beach in this area is just rocks, so it actually looks a lot like Monterey or Big Sur, with huge waves crashing against rocks and making tidepools. We soon made some friends with a few random locals, reggae musicians who sang for us. One boy had a rap about HIV/AIDS and another about respecting women. Obviously, I loved it! Another guy was EZ, or Ezekiel, a former reggae musician-turned-preacher at the ripe age of 27. He was just lovely. When we left he negotiated a dirt-cheap cab fare for us and wished us well.
On the way back, we passed this bar we'd had dinner at earlier and it had turned into a huge party, spilling out into the streets, with incredibly loud music. We decided to get out there and hang out for a few minutes. We went inside and danced for awhile. This deaf boy came up and started signing, and Jen speaks ASL. He was so delighted, it was really sweet. The music was really loud so he could feel it even though he couldnt hear it, and he was a great dancer!! So we eventually headed home and fell asleep.
On Saturday we headed up to the Kokum Rainforest. There's a long canopy walkway high above the rainforest floor there that we wanted to see. We climbed up an enormous hill to the canopy. I'm afraid of heights, so this was a big deal. The canopy was very narrow, it was basically a ladder with wood over it, then really strong netting up 6 feet (so at least you couldn't fall over it). Its hard to explain, but we're uploading pictures soon. Jen is the more diligent photographer, so I recommend you check out her Flickr site (through her blog, link is at the right of the page). Anyway, walking across the canopy was terrifying. It was swaying every which way, the wood was creaking, and you can see the rainforest floor faaaar below. But you can also see amazingly beautiful views of the forest. I'm pretty proud of myself for getting through it, despite my fear of heights. I didn't outwardly freak out or anything, either.
There's an option in the park to camp out in the rainforest. We decided to try it. It was basically a wood floor with dirty floor mats and a ratty mosquito net. But the showers there had wonderful water pressure, it was definitely the best shower I've had in Africa so far!
I didn't sleep much, because I realized I WAS SLEEPING OUTSIDE IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLE. Insane. I found myself wondering what an acceptable level of bugs on my body would be. Surprisingly, I didn't really get any new bug bites. You will all meet a much tougher Catherine when I return. The sounds of the rainforest were amazing, though. So much life. We woke up at 4:45 and took a dawn rainforest hike, and saw one monkey. I'd hoped for more, but it was still nice.
Sunday (today) we caught a tro-tro and rode back to Cape Coast. On tro-tro's, they call the guy who collects fare and yells the car destination, etc. is called a "mate". On our way, the mate jumped out shortly before we got to the last stop, so I was sitting in his seat when we pulled up. I had a brief vision of me as a mate, screaming "CIRcleCIRcleCIRcle" or "Ac-CRA, Ac-CRA" out the window. Some guy asked me if I was the mate, and I laughed a lot. It totally made my day. We went to the Cape Coast Castle, where hundreds of thousands of slaves were kept and transported through the while it was the center of the Gold Coast slave trade. We went inside the dungeons. It was pretty awful, obviously. Standing inside the dungeons had a huge effect on everyone on the tour. There was also a detention cell, where slaves who had revolted or had otherwise caused too much trouble were put in. There's absolutely no light or ventilation. They were put in there to die. I could see scratch marks from their fingernails on the stone walls. I think this room had the most powerful affect on me -- this very human evidence of extreme suffering on the walls.
We also went through the "Door of No Return" to the beach outside where the ships were loaded with slaves headed to the Americas and the Caribbean. Today it was crowded with people fishing or hanging out in the sun, playing really loud music. Quite the contrast. Then we went back through teh same door, which was labeled "Door of Return". It was labeled after Ghana's independence 50 years ago, so that anyone in the African diaspora could return, symbolically. It was pretty powerful.
After the Castle, we went to the nearby restaurant for lunch. We ran into EZ (from Friday night), who joined us. He brought us his music from his "artist days" because we'd expressed interest. He's sooo great! We met a lot of wonderful people this weekend.
Now I'm back in Teshie Camp 2 (the area of greater Accra that the host family is in), safe and sound. I'm exhausted! But it looks like there's electricity, so I get to have the fan on when I sleep. Its the little things that make me happy. Hope everyone had a lovely weekend, too! xoxoxox

Chief's wife

This morning, I had another language lesson with Edem (I misspelled his name as "Adam" in my last post). The other volunteers are learning another language that's spoken more in the region they'll work in, and their lessons seem to be very textbook. Edem is great -- its very informal. We'll go over lots of stuff, but he'll tell me what people actually say, which is different from what the books say. And I'll ask him tons of questions, like: "How can I not look like a complete ass on the tro-tro?" and "How do I say I'm a vegetarian?" and "What do I say to order this delicious porridge you're describing?". He also made me practice this one really common word over and over because I was mispronouncing it...aaand the mispronunciation is a word for "the private area of the female", as Edem awkwardly explained. I discovered that very dark Africans can blush. And as you all know, so can I. A lot. Which I promptly did. Oops!! On a less traumatic note, I also found out that children are named by the day of the week they were born on. Example: the name Kofi is a male who was born on...um, ok I already forgot which day but I think its Friday or Saturday. So, when I go back and look at my notes, I could tell you what day of the week Kofi Annan (yes, he's from Ghana) was born on. But many people don't actually use their real names. Edem's real name is something else, which I can't pronounce or spell yet. Some people don't like to tell you their birth names because in order to practice voodoo on someone, you need their real name. I joked with Edem that he must trust me, because he told me his. He laughed really, really hard about that...I think he thinks I'm crazy. At least I seem to amuse people here.
Yesterday a man approached me and (jokingly) asked if I was a chief's wife. I think this is a compliment. Sweet. And then he said Jen is a chief's soon-wife. She is a year younger than me, so perhaps this is fitting. Although I think over here I'm getting close to old-maidenhood.
So tomorrow we are going to visit a century-old botanical garden with Edem and afterwards, Joseph, Jennifer and I are taking off by ourselves to visit a national reserve rainforest for the weekend. Jen and I think we might splurge and get a $10 hotel room for one of the nights and have *real* showers and toilets. And AIR CONDITIONING.
Last night we watched the big soccer game. We asked for recommendations, and went over to this tiny hole-in-the-wall bar in Nima (an area of the city; apparently more Muslims live there, as a local guy explained). But, alas, the power was out there...I felt so bad for the little bar! They had signs up and looked so prepared for a night of booming business, and then the power situation ruined it. So then we went to the central area of Accra to a huuuge sports bar which was apparently the place to be to watch the game. It was ridiculously crowded. There was an interesting mix of people: lots of locals, but also many British ex-pats and other tourists (it was near a hotel). It was outrageously expensive -- and by expensive I mean $2 pints of good beer (how quickly I adjust...). It was lots of fun, though. I didn't think I'd really go out here, but luckily I'm with this group of people and we all look out for each other. And people are generally very helpful if you're lost -- which we often are. Next week I'll be on my own -- but I'll be working a lot, which I'm looking forward to so much.
Hope you are all well! I may not be able to write over the weekend since we'll be out of town. But if I can, I will. And I hope to return and post many beautiful rainforest and beach pictures. And pictures from the rain earlier in the week. I forgot to bring my camera, so I can't upload those today. Take care, everyone!! xoxoxo

Dabodabo

Dabodabo is my new favorite word in Twi (the most common dialect in Ghana). It means "duck" and so is not at all relevant to this posting, but its fun to say.
Sooo...a little more about my arrival, now that I have a few minutes! When I got in, I learned that there was no electricity. Apparently Ghana runs on mostly hydroelectric power and, because of the recent drought, electricity has been rationed. From what my host family says, they alternate 12 hours of electricity on in one half of the country but not the other, and then switch. It seems to happen much less predictably, though, from what I've seen.
The first night was nice. Kofi, a neighbor kid, drove us home from the airport. Driving in Ghana makes Italy look like nothing (Mike, you should try it). We got to the apartment around 8 or 8:30 and because it was dark, spent the evening sitting on the porch, chatting in the dark. I really enjoyed it.
The next morning, the power came on. There is also no running water (also rationed) but I took my first "shower" (i.e. stood in a shower with a bucket of water) and it was the most amazing shower of my life -- the weather is so hot and I hadn't showered in days and had been flyng for so long.
I kept trying fish, which was exciting, until yeterday when I couldnt handle it. We had this curry-like dish with whole minna in it, staring up at me. I can't do it...maybe I'll try again in Thailand. I did try, though! A for effort, right?
On Monday night a big group of volunteers decided to go to the beach and got in trouble for it...but it was a pretty fun adventure. The water is really warm, its nice.
On Tuesday (I think it was Tuesday? Or Monday...I'm on Africa-time) it rained...it was amazing. The water just came pouring down. Everyone went to the porch to just stare and watch it. The hot, humid air became so pleasant. We helped the host family put out and carry in buckets of water. I loooove rain. Especially here, now. It makes the dirt roads pretty rutty, which is difficult. I rode in my first tro-tro (not sure how that's spelled, actually) yesterday. Tro-tro's are like a hybrid of taxi's and buses. They seem to be privately owned, but have fixed rates. They're minibuses crammed full of hot sweaty people. Its quite an experience. I have never sweat so much in my life.
I'm learning to speak Twi from Adam, a local guy who is finishing up his accounting degree and is just lovely. Its a really fun language. If you are lucky, I will say other fun words upon my return!
This weekend, several of the volunteers and I are planning travel to the nearby national reserve to see the rainforest. I'm really excited, I've read about it and it sounds beautiful.
Well, I should wrap this up. Tonight we're planning to go watch the game somewhere, which sounds fun. PS I have INSANE respect (more than before) for anyone who plays soccer in Ghana in this heat. I can barely handle sitting still in it. No heat stroke yet! Yes, Mom, I'm staying very hydrated. You can find purified water everywhere in these funny little plastic satchels...they look like implants.
Bye everyone!! I will try to write again soon. My friend Jennifer also has a blog, so I have a buddy to run off to internet cafes with. I leave you with this parting Twi word: Nkatee. It means peanut..but sounds a lot like "Cathy". Go figure.

Ghana

Hi everyone!! After many hours of flying, I made it to Accra last night around 6pm and met my host mother and her family, who are absolutely lovely. Will write more in the next day or so!!

Eeek, I'm leaving!!!

Leaving for the airport reeeeally soon and trying to get everything ready!! I'd wanted to write a lovely and poignant post to you all before leaving, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen! I've had an amazing past few weeks with my beyond-words incredible family and friends. Aaaand with this I will leave you with a handful of pictures from the many, many goodbye parties.....love you, everyone!

P.S. I'm pretty proud: I still have a decent amount of space in my backpack!! I rule.
P.P.S. No time to rotate the pictures -- sorry!!

Spon.Joy in San Francisco

Yesss!!! It worked, there's a picture here!! Please bear with me while I figure out this blog thing -- I've never felt so technologically-challenged! I'm trying to decide if this is the site I want to use for my blog (thanks for the recommendation, Leona!).

I'm leaving in less than two weeks!! I'm scrambling to get everything in order for my trip and that whole looming law school thing in the fall, but also seem to be going out a lot and being wonderfully irresponsible. Aaand somehow also working really hard so I can help leave things in as good of shape as possible for Yvonne, my wonderful boss (didn't think those two words went together, eh?). I can finally relax when I'm on the plane, right?