My time at WAAF is flying by. The Kid's Fair I'm planning is this Saturday. It has taken so much time but everything is coming together. We finally picked up one of the checks from a sponsor today so that was a relief. Now I know for sure I can pay for the Kid's Fair so that is good. I'm also spending a large part of my time writing a proposal for the Ghana Aids Commission. Funding from this proposal would help WAAF establish a program to reduce HIV prevalence and increase health for sex workers in Ghana. I'm learning a lot about international proposal writing. However, the time crunch is that it is due Monday and the Kid's Fair is this Saturday. A very busy week for me....

Now for a short story (my mother probably thinks I was irresponsible but really we were safe, I promise).

Jessica and I went to Kakum National Park last weekend. We heard you can stay at the Park and maybe see monkeys and forest elephants so we thought that would be great. Well...you just never know in Ghana. We arrived at the park and the guy said that we can't see elephants. Apparently they are deep into the forest. So then he asked if we wanted to stay there and do the early morning canopy walk. We said yes and he asked if we wanted to stay at the lodge or camp. He said camping was on a platform. So we were thinking that the platform was in a tree because we had heard you can do that. Well, when we got to the "platform" about a five minute walk into the forest from the tourist center, we found out that the "platform" was actually on the ground with mattresses on it and mosquito nets. So Jessica and I stayed in the forest. There is a security guard at the park and people do camp there a lot. However, after it got dark, we heard a noise, really close to us. We started getting freaked out. It stopped and we settled down but then Jessica said, "Something is moving that bag!" So we both freaked out until I saw the foot of a rat that apparently chewed through the bag to get to some bread we had. So we took the food and put it away from us. However, we were so freaked out that we barely slept (maybe 2 hours) the whole night. Needless to say, we saw no animals on the canopy walk the next morning...and we left the park dirty and gross as soon as the walk was done. We went into Cape Coast and find a nice, cheap hotel to stay our second night (it actually had hot water). Needless to say, I don't plan on staying in a forest for a long long time. That might have been the longest night of my life. At least I can laugh about it now.

When you go to another country, the word "integrate" gets tossed around quite a bit. For those of you unaware, it means to be able to accept the culture and go further. You actually mix with the culture and adapt to the new surroundings in acceptance. Now since I've been here, I'm sure I haven't completely integrated since it's only been a little more than 2 months. However, I do find signs that I am integrating. Here are a few of the amusing ones.

1.) When I arrived, I walked faster than all Ghanaians. People here tend to walk slow and I am used to getting where I am going. Granted my mom walks way faster than me, but here I was passing everyone like crazy. However, today... four Ghanaians passed me on my way to work.

2.) I have picked up vocabulary that I previously did not have. Here are a few phrases Ghanaians use that I find myself using often now.

*"I'm coming." - (You say this when you are actually leaving but you are coming back.)

*"small small" - (refers to when something is just a little bit)

*"Sorry, ok" - (This one you really need to hear how it sounds to understand it)

*"eh heh" - (in mid-sentence, if you agree with what the person is saying, you say this...but you say it very very nasal. extremely nasal. If you are reading this...you should try it.

3.) When you call or go to see something you always say good morning or good afternoon. I realized if you don't say this...you probably won't get what you need. The only problem I have is when it is 12pm. I don't know which to say.

So maybe I'm not completely integrating but I'm trying and in process. Everything else here is going well. Work is crazy, busy but I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm working so hard on this Kid's Fair on July 26. I think it will go really well...at least I hope so. I'm leading the team that is planning it so it's on me to get it done well. I'm getting sad that I leave WAAF in less than a month now. I'll be taking a class the last two weeks I am here. I think it will be good, but right now I'm sad to leave work.

Happy 4th of July! I actually forgot that today was the fourth until someone reminded me yesterday. Crazy as it sounds, Ghana doesn't celebrate the Fourth of July. So today I am working just like a normal day. Time is passing quickly. I'm already halfway through my time here. Work is really busy all of a sudden. There are new volunteers and since I've been here for awhile now, I'm leading the Education Team. It's really good but a bit of pressure since the Kid's Fair is coming up soon. I'm really loving Ghana though. Living life here is good and I enjoy it.

Some things are hard to take in. I did two home visits on Wednesday. The children are orphaned because their parents died of HIV. It was difficult to see the pain these kids go through as a result. One child is HIV positive because her mother passed it to the child. Now the child's great-aunt is taking care of the child. The aunt is trying but it is difficult for her because her husband doesn't know the child's status. Because stigma is so great in Ghana, the aunt doesn't want anyone to know the child is HIV positive. As I looked into the child's eyes, my heart was heavy, knowing that this child would have a difficult life as a result of the parents.

The other child we visited lived with a family friend. The caretaker said sometimes the child just lies on the floor and cries for hours. I know this child is still suffering from the loss of the father just a few months ago. I was able to talk and encourage the child, but it is still difficult knowing that I cannot do much for the child.

Although the home visits were eye opening, I really did enjoy getting to visit the children and check on them. My compassion for them is large.

First...could someone please teach me the metric system. Ok...I learned it in school but why remember it when no one uses it in the US. But almost everywhere else in the world uses the Metric System. It is so frustrating to try and remember how to convert measurements. 

Other than that...things are going really well here. I have always hated fundraising. But here...I am either good at it or I just had good luck. I now raised enough money to put on an HIV Anti-stigma Kid's Fair at the end of July. On Friday I met with a guy and he asked how much we needed. I told him we had all but 1500 and he said, "ok, you can take 1500 from us. I was so excited. Now I'm really busy planning this event. We have 500 kids come and invite the media and representatives from AIDS organizations in Ghana. I have a lot of work to do but I am excited for it.

I will start visiting the orphans Wednesday so I'll have an update on that soon. I'm also doing quite a bit of micro-enterprise advisement with the Almond Tree (the group of people living with HIV). They are having a bit of difficulty with their products so I am helping them come up with new ideas to expand their businesses. This is really difficult when resources are limited. I'm learning to help them come up with their own ideas and empower themselves to work hard. It's definitely a good learning experience.

So there is a short update. A lot of you knew I have been sick but I am feeling much better. My antibiotic cost me $1.80. 

A short, frustrating story....I was in a taxi yesterday stopped at a stoplight. The driver suddenly told me to look at the motorbike passing us. There was a man and a woman both wearing helmets. But the woman had a baby wrapped on her back with no helmet (obviously). The driver looked at me and said, "If they crash, that baby is going to die." Now I know that here no one follows the traffic laws, and the police don't enforce them. But I decided to ask the driver anyways so I said, "If the police see that, will they stop them." And he said, "Well, he could stop and arrest them because it is illegal, but the police won't pay them any attention. They don't care." 

These are the things that can be really frustrating when you are in a different culture. There are bad things in the US obviously, but when you enter a new culture, it is easy to see the flaws that make no sense and are completely ridiculous. But this is the process of learning to respect a new culture and also seeing where major improvements need to be made.

An update on me...Work is going well. I went around to all 10 schools yesterday to pick up posters the kids drew for the anti-stigma poster competition we are doing. I was overwhelmed with the response of the kids. We got so many posters and it was so encouraging to look through them and see how they think HIV stigma can be stopped in Ghana. I'm excited for the Kid's Fair that will be the beginning of August to celebrate anti-stigma and give the winner a $500 school scholarship.

I'm also about to start doing home visits to the orphans that WAAF supports. Most of the kids were orphaned because their parents died of HIV. Some of them also have the virus as their mothers passed it to them. I am sure this will be a very interesting learning experience.

I can't believe I've been here almost 7 weeks now. It's going so fast and I'm still loving it.

I am traveling a few days right now with my friends from Norway. We went to a beautiful Green Turtle Lodge on the beach and now we are in Kumasi. I've seen some interesting things. It's kind of weird to feel like a tourist for these few days because I have been working and living in Accra for over a month now. It's weird to be a white person just traveling around. But it's ok.

I am pretty sure that my food poisoning was actually Malaria. I went to Ho in the Volta region last Friday. We went around and took some HIV educational tools to different VCT centers and spoke with the directors of the centers. It was really interesting. However, on the way back I got a fever and felt very sick. Fifi, a guy a work with, said it was probably Malaria so he took me to get the medicine and I just started taking it right away. Saturday morning was awful. I could barely walk. But by Saturday night I was able to eat, so that was good. I felt much better on Sunday. They say when you start the medicine, it kicks in really quickly. I think they were right. I think the sickness last week was just the start of the Malaria...not food poisoning. But I am much better now...thankfully.

One interesting thing...when I first came to Ghana, I found I wanted to greet everyone. They all say O'bruni and I wave. But I realized that after a while it gets really tiring. I noticed that other white volunteers that had been in Ghana longer just kind of ignored the attention. I find myself wanting to do that now. So I'm trying to figure that out now. How to be friendly when I just want to blend in sometimes. It's difficult. But i still love Ghana. It's a good country.

So I have now experienced food poisoning in Africa. And I was sick all day yesterday. I won't go into all the details...but lets just say nothing was left in my stomach at the end of the day. Thankfully I think I got all the bad food out and I'm feeling better today. I'm still a little weak but at least I'm not still sick at my stomach. It was quite the experience because the water is off at my house...so....everytime I got sick in the toilet, I then had to carry buckets of water into the back of the toilet to get it to flush. Not quite as convenient as in the US. But I managed and I'm alright. 

At work I have mainly been calling potential sponsors for the kid's fair at the end of the summer. I was surprised on Friday when Anna and I went to a company and the guy offered us $500 on the spot. I was shocked and didn't really know how to react because I didn't expect to get money right away. I know fundraising is not always that easy. But that is what you have to do for projects...get money.

Friday I am going to Ho to do some VCT and CD4 testing. We will also being giving out information on healthy living and HIV prevention. The whole community will take part so it should be a great experience. 

You know...It's hard when real life kicks in. Real life is that people get HIV and then their lives change. I've been hanging out with some of the The Almond Tree, a group of people living with HIV that are participating in an income generating activity to become self sufficient. Yeah they make things and are bonding as a group, but their lives are still so hard. They have to take medicine everyday. And finding ways to sell what they make is difficult. I can't imagine what it would be like to have a disease that I knew would never go away.

Real life is also when a mother passes HIV to her children. Yesterday a boy came in...very sick. He was maybe five years old. He was infected with HIV at birth from his mother. Now his mother is dead and his aunt takes care of him. But she has not been giving him his medicine everyday so now he is very sick. Seeing this little boy crying with a high fever, my heart broke. He will never be able to live a normal life. He will have to take medicine everyday for the rest of his life. If this is not injustice...then I don't know what is. Working in another country is great. It gives a picture of life different than what I've grown up knowing. It's exciting and a great adventure...but when real life sets in...it gets tough.

I've recently been learning a lot about the culture here. The following is an example of how you just have to go with the flow here.

Anna and I have been doing Anti-stigma HIV workshops in Accra schools. So last Friday we had scheduled one at 9am and then a combined workshop with 2 schools at 12pm. I called to confirm the times on Thursday. When I called the first school, the teacher said he had to go to a village so he was not in town. But he said the headmaster knew about it so I said ok. Then I called the next two schools that were supposed to have a workshop at 12. One said that they wanted to change it to 1pm and the other said that 3pm would work better. So then we talked about it and called again to confirm these new times. This time...the one that said 3pm now wanted it at 12 and the one that said 1pm now wanted it at 2pm. This kind of thing is very common in Ghana. You can plan but that doesn't mean it will really happen.

So on Friday we went to the schools. The first one went well and we arrived at the second school around 11:45 for the workshop at 12. We sat outside in chairs waiting and didn't start until 12:45. The funny thing is that I've heard that a lot of international volunteers get frustrated when things like this happen. But to me...it's part of the culture. Getting frustrated makes no difference. If we did more workshops, similar things will happen. It's good to be aware of this and learn how to really adapt to a culture. You have to adapt, or you won't really be happen somewhere other than your home. It's a good learning process.

On a different note, life is good here. I haven't gotten sick at all yet but I hear everyone gets some kind of sickness when they are here. I hope I escape this. I had a relaxing weekend with rain and cooler weather. It was nice. The only problem is I now know where the "good" coffee shops are and I'm tempted to go there often...especially know that I can get around easily now.

My mountain biking adventure.

The past few days have been really busy. Thursday night we went out to an area where there are a lot of prostitues and did HIV testing. I did pretesting counseling. It was quite the experience. I was really nervous at first, but then I got more comfortable was able to relax. People ask so many questions and finding out about their history and lives is really a learning experience. I was so tired after three hours of counseling and we had to turn people away because it got so late. We are going back this Thursday as well.

Friday I went to Aburi with some friends and we went to the botanical Gardens (no flowers, but it's nice). We went mountain biking on Saturday morning. I pretty much hate mountain biking and I always have, but I was in Africa so I did it for the experience. It was neat to bike through villages and see new things, but by the end...I was ready to stop and walk back. I kept falling into corn plants and trees. The paths were barely paths. We got pictures of which way to go on the trail. It was pretty amusing but we made it. I don't plan on mountain biking for a very very long time.

Monday was African Union Day so I got the day off. I went with Anna and Inga (friends from Norway) to a beach resort to a pool on the beach. It was beautiful there and relaxing. I had a great time.

Today Anna and I went by ourselves to do the workshops in the schools. I really like working with the kids and educating them on HIV. It's really great and the kids love us (basically because we are white). But it's such good experience to communicate with them and integrate with the culture by understanding their educational system.

So, that is a quick update on my life. I like it here....I'm still hot, but it is good and I'm definitely learning alot. And now I can get around the city without really getting lost so that is a good thing. I will write more soon when I have more internet time.

Life is going well here in Ghana. I posted a few pictures so you can see a little of what I see. I am realizing that my first week at the house I was lucky because the water ran all week. Not so lucky this week. I've taken two bucket baths now and it's quite interesting. Also, to flush the toilet you have to carry enough buckets of water to fill the back and then flush it. It's very time consuming.

I went to a UN meeting yesterday to discuss the HIV status in Ghana. All the stakeholders were there and I learned alot. 

Tonight I am going with the Salvation Army to talk to Prostitutes on the streets about where they can come and get help with job training and financial assistance. I think that should be an incredible experience.  Tomorrow I will be starting anti-stigmatization workshops in the Accra schools. We will go to 10 schools and then there will be an anti stigma poster competition. The winner will receive a scholarship that will be awarded at a kids fair in August I will help plan. I'm excited of all I am learning. I know my way around better now so that is also good.

The first picture is my room. The next one is the railroad I walk on to work everyday. Next are three beautiful girls that followed me home for a few blocks one day. Then there are amazing grilled sausages and onions. And lastly, a street in Accra. Just a few to give you a glimpse.

Yesterday Anna and I went with Belynda to 10 schools in Accra to invite them to our Anti-stigma Poster Competition. We will go to each school and do a 1 hour workshop on anti-stigma of HIV. We went all around in Taxis and Tro Tro's (the public buses). It was hot and I was so tired after but it was good. I'm excited to go to the schools and work with the kids. 

Last night I had natural cocoa (Ghana is a major producer). It's really bitter but if you put a little bit of sugar in it then it's quite good. It's funny, here I go to bed at like 9:30 or 10. I've never had so much sleep in my life. and I actually woke up a little chilly and not sweating so that was nice as well. This is a busy week, but I like having things to do.

Thursday Anna and I went with Fifi to some communities to recruit peer educators for HIV/AIDS. The goal is to train someone in each community to be a peer educator so they can then help their own people if they need assistance with HIV/AIDS...like where to get tested or treated. So Fifi was basically like...ok go start talking to people. It was pretty intimidating at first. We would just go up and ask people what they knew of HIV. and then talk to them for awhile. It was a good learning experience. 

Yesterday I trained Momma Lu, a nurse, how to use Microsoft Word and Powerpoint. It is a slow process but it was good. I take for granted how I grew up and learned the computer.

Today I went with Fifi to a community and he talked to students about HIV/AIDS. We then did some testing and handed out flyers for WAAF. It is really hot today but it was good. I'm feeling more comfortable here and am learning my way around slowly. I have been here one week now and it went quickly. I am so excited about all I am going to learn. I will put up some pictures soon.

Yesterday was a good day overall. I went to a REAL coffee shop for lunch with a Anna, also a social work intern from Norway. She is really great and will be here for the next month so that's good. It was the first REAL coffee I had since I got here and most people now how much I love coffee.

Last night I tackled bugs. After killing about 50 ants, I decided I should kind of unpack. I got the clutter put away and then swept the floor. I'm not sure when the last time someone swept the corners of that floor, but I know it was not recently. I then sprayed mosquito stuff all around the corners of the room. I was really proud of myself until I woke up this morning to find a huge roach in the middle of the room. I'm not sure where he came from but I am getting bug killer today and spraying my room. I can handle ants but I don't want to sleep with roaches. Henning, my landlord, saw me trying to sweep it out but it wouldn't really go because there is a slight step up out of my room. So he came and picked it up with his hand. He said I would do that eventually but I'm not really sure about that.

Other than that I think all is good. Still hot and humid.

Last night was was good. The girl living next door to me got back from a weeks travel. She is from Holland and knows her way around well. She has been here for a few months already. She showed me how to get to certain grocery stores (actual stores, not stands on the side of the road) and other places. It was very helpful. 

I've basically lost my appetite because it is so hot but I'm trying to eat. The heat just takes it out of you.

Another highlight....I did not get lost on my way to work today. The girl next door (I have no idea how to spell her name) showed me a shortcut I could take to work so it only took me 35 minutes to walk there. 

I plan to attempt to go to the store after work today. That should be an experience for sure but I feel more confident about where I am going now. Thanks for those of you that are praying for me. I appreciate it.

I have been in ghana four days now and I have learned a lot already.

1.) you will sweat all the time.

2.) If you are a white female, the men from Ghana want to marry you.

3.) There may be traffic laws but the real law is "If you can do it, then do it."

4.) Cars do not stop for people.

5.) I do really love Africa.

A few highlights...

*I went to Osu and ate at Frankie's with Fifi (He work at WAAF and is showing me around). It was very good food.

*I got lost on my way to work but a guy that new where WAAF was helped me find it. He was very helpful.

*I had fish yesterday.....still not my favorite but that is ok

*It rained yesterday and was cooler. It was good.

*I'm sure I will have more.

Ghana

Well, I leave for Ghana one week from today. I don't feel quite ready as I still have three papers to write to finish out the semester. I am so excited for this new experience in a different culture.  My love for the people of Africa has grown over the past few years and now I have the opportunity to learn and grow while working in Ghana. Please pray for my travels and first days in Ghana.