Money in real estate

Thursday, September 2

Today was full of getting all the samples organized and labeled for leaving tomorrow, doing laundry, and packing up everything since it is my last night in Kpong. While we were in the lab getting the samples ready, Eugene (one of the lab guys) brought in his scrabble board and challenged Brietta and I to a game. Little did I know, the two of them are the type of people that have all of the scrabble approved two letter words and the “Q” words that don’t require “U” memorized. Needless to say, I lost by a good 70 or so points. Later that night Ruthfirst made Brietta and I a really yummy (and seriously spicy!!) mushroom stew with local mushrooms from Accra. It was the best Ghanaian dish I’ve had yet-yummy!!

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed that there are many abandoned, half-built houses and buildings, even hotels in both Accra and Kpong. They look as if the land is trying to reclaim them, with weeds and grass growing all over. I asked a few people if something happened awhile ago that caused all these people to abandon their building projects. I was informed that the buildings and homes were not abandoned and that the owners had just run out of money for now. I learned that most people don’t save up the money to build a house all at once. Instead, they save some money and start building until the money runs out. Then they will go back and work until they have more money to return and continue building again. Since inflation happens so quickly (and banks don’t really offer house loans), it doesn’t make sense to save up the entire amount it takes to build the house; the saved up money would lose value too quickly to be of much use.

Life at a slower pace

Wednesday, September 1

(Photo is of me grinding a chard-type lettuce after it was steamed)

Today, after clinic, we took Brie to the market and bought the ingredients for dinner. After another yummy cooking experience directed by Ruthfirst, Brie and I watched a movie before heading to bed.

While I am excited to return home in a few days and see my friends and family, I am going to miss living life at a slightly slower pace. Many of the demands I have while in the states are on hold while I am here and the amount of time I spend on communication is also far less. I have a cell phone here, but I rarely use it and often forget I have it. Internet access is also something that is limited. Without all the constant demands on my time and attention, I have really been able to relax and sort of recharge. Since there is not much to do at night I usually go to bed around 10pm and am consistently getting 8-9 hours a sleep a night, which is wonderful. It was also nice to read a few books just for fun. I’m finding that with fewer demands I am able to spend more time being fully present rather than constantly having my list of things-to-do running in the back of my mind. I also really value being able to take the time to cook and eat together rather than eating on the go running from one thing to the next. The cooking in addition to getting enough sleep just seems like a healthier way to live.

Random Note: For anyone who was wondering, my pants are fitting much better this week. After the first trip to the grocery store, I was able to come up with some higher calorie meals that were easy and quick to prepare, which has made staying fed much easier!

Bucket shower

Tuesday, August 31

After a day of observing the lab in Atua, Brie and I came home and got ready to head to Volta lake with a bunch of the girls from the house. It is only about 20 minutes away from where we are staying and we decided to rent a boat to take us out on the lake (about $1.50 per person), which was beautiful! A few minutes after we left the dock we came to a stretch of mud houses along the shore. There were wooden fishing boats pulled up onto shore, women collecting water from the lake, kids playing in the water, and even a man bathing who was probably not too thrilled by our appearance. It was exactly how I imagined Africa to be and it was so fun to get this glimpse into life near the lake.

Upon arriving in Ghana three weeks ago, one of the first things I noticed was the bucket sitting next to the bathtub. The second day at the hotel, the bucket had been moved into the tub as if the housekeeping was letting me know I should be using the bucket to shower. I stared at it for a minute contemplating using a random bucket that other people had used to shower and quickly decided to use the “sea shower” approach that I used while boating with my parents (turn on and off the water for a total “on” time of about 2 minutes). Up until today, I had been successfully taking sea showers with the shower bucket sitting nicely next to the shower. However, since the water has been out for the past two days, I reluctantly had to consider the bucket shower approach.

I had planned on taking out my braids when we got back from the lake because they were still hurting even though it had been 4 days. Since I definitely need to shower after taking out the braids, and because baby wipes can only get you so far, I finally decided that I would just have to take a bucket shower. Pricilla came over and she and Brietta quickly undid the braids. Instead of feeling relief, there were two spots on my head that were still really painful. They look and feel like I was burnt a few days ago with boiling water or a hot curling iron. Pricilla said that this sometimes happens when they braid it too tight :(

In the end I was surprised at the bucket shower, it was much more refreshing that I would’ve guessed. We have a big drum of fresh water in our kitchen for when the water goes out, so I just filled up my shower bucket from that. The actual showering involved a mini bucket, in addition to the shower bucket, used to pour the water over my head. I’m definitely not planning on making the bucket shower a regular thing, but for one time it worked out pretty well.

Baby wearing

Monday, August 30

Brietta came to clinic with me this morning so she could see the protocol for infant saliva collection. While we were waiting for mothers to arrive we walked around the hospital grounds and then along the road near the hospital. It was so fun having Brie see everything with fresh eyes. She had her camera out and was snapping pictures of things that I’ve already started taking for granted, but that I was totally fascinated by when I first arrived. I was really glad to capture some of the things that I would’ve forgotten to take pictures of.

When we got back to the clinic our first mother was just arriving and unwrapping her baby from her back. Mother’s all over Ghana carry their babies in a very similar fashion (young girls and boys will also carry their siblings like this). They use a cloth or sometimes towel and, with the baby placed on their back, they first tuck the cloth like you would a towel after getting out of the shower. Then they tie the bottom part of the towel around their waist; this supports under the baby’s bottom. After seeing this countless times, I wanted to try it! One of the babies today was pretty calm and not scared of me, so I asked her mom if she wouldn’t mind me carrying her. Naadu helped place the baby while I bent so my back was parallel with the ground. The baby is so used to being carried this way that she actually helped the whole process by placing her hands on my shoulder blades, sort of holding on, and her feet on either side of my waist. She’s only about 16 months old, but sort of clung on while I tied the cloth. It was surprisingly easy and really comfortable. She felt all snuggly back there and felt really secure even though it was just a cloth that was securely tucked. When I wanted to take her off, I twisted her to one side and she totally leaned and placed both of her hands around to my front so that I could easily swing her onto my hip. It was so fascinating to watch this little infant be so comfortable with the process and know exactly what to do.

On African time

Sunday, August 29

Amidst a culture where 11 o-clock routinely means 12:00 or even 1:00pm, I realized that I have not been late practically my whole life, I’ve actually just been on African time. In fact, if I’m going by African standards, I’ve actually been quite early!

This morning Robert arrived at 10am so we could go to church together. I asked him if I had time to grab a quick breakfast (7 minutes to be exact) and he quickly agreed that I should eat. On our way to church I asked what time the service started and Robert replied 10am. I though he had misheard me since we had agreed that we would meet at 10 and then head over, but no we were just planning to arrive after it had started. I later had good reason to be seriously thankful that I not only ate breakfast, but that we also showed up an hour late to church. Even being so late, we still ended up being there for the last 2.5 hours of the service! While the worship was really interesting (with fun dancing), I am not used to such a long service and was antsy and hungry by the end!

After church I went back to the guesthouse to meet up with my classmate Brietta who arrived from Davis. Brietta will be analyzing the saliva samples that will be collected from the study mothers for her dissertation. We went to dinner later and just had so much to talk about! After being here by myself for the past couple of weeks, it is really fun to have a friend from home here with me.

Cape Coast and Kakum

Saturday, August 28

I arrived in the morning at a major intersection where I was to meet up with Tiffany (the American girl I met at church last week) and her host family to head to Cape Coast. While I was waiting, a herd of sheep crossed the intersection completely oblivious to all the cars whizzing around them. It was so funny to see the sheep, apparently with no shepherd, cross a large intersection in the middle of a big city and to have traffic continue around them.

Cape Coast is about 2 hours from Accra (which is 4 hours with bad roads and traffic). It has one of the old castles that was used to gather slaves that would then be shipped all over the world. It is now used as a historical museum for tourists. We stayed with the tour group for about the first 30 minutes and then we “accidently” lagged behind taking pictures and peeping in different doorways and rooms. Nothing was barricaded as off-limits and no one cared if we separated from the tour, I guess they assume you’re smart enough to not get yourself in any trouble. J It was so weird to think of such a beautiful site being a place of such sorrow and human injustice.

I had heard that there is a canopy walk not too far from the castle where you can walk on rickety bridges high up in the trees, so we planned to go to Karcum after finishing up at the castle. We asked someone working at the castle for directions and they told us it was only about 15 minutes away. An hour later we pulled up to the canopy walk after what felt like Mr. Toads Wild Ride on a dirt road littered with potholes. The canopy walk ended up being such a fun experience with no harnesses or helmets required! It was one of those really surreal times where I just couldn’t believe that I am actually in Africa and was traipsing around in trees.

On the ride home we passed through the same intersection I had waited at in the morning. I’ve never seen traffic that chaotic! There had been some construction started 2 years ago and the intersection is still unpaved and without lights. There were cars everywhere, inches from each other, and facing in all different directions. There was absolutely no order and it looked like a disordered parking lot where there was absolutely no hope of getting your car out. I think the police were trying to direct traffic, but they were basically wandering about with their guns strapped around their backs, being completely disregarded. It was such a fascinating experience that it didn’t even bother me that it took 4 times as long to get home!