This was written July 3, although I'll be posting it...some time when I have internet access. Indefinitely in the future.
Hello!
Today was fascinating . We spent the morning at a traditional tribal ceremony, and the afternoon at the hospital where we'll be doing research.
We took our bus out to a small village. Driving here is an adventure. Many of the roads are approximately as smooth as the average theme park ride, as they're either dirt or covered in so many potholes that they might as well be dirt, and, with people crammed five to a row, there's quite a bit of bouncing around and landing in each other's laps. On top of that, the streets here are terribly disorganized, with cars turning every which way with little regard to the rules of the road and people darting across the streets with baskets on their heads. I definitely wouldn't want to drive in a place like this, but I haven't seen an accident yet.
The tribal ceremony was unlike anything I've seen in my life. We were there to meet with the deputy chief about whether or not we were permitted to work in the villages in the area. He's of the royal family of the Ashanti tribe, although I forget the name of the village. There were about five men, all wearing traditional clothing--brightly patterned cloth pulled over one shoulder. They sat on chairs, and we sat across from them. The deputy chief spoke only to a linguist, who translated his statements from Twi (the local language) into English for our benefit. However, he also spoke to the deputy chief whenever anyone else, including Twi speakers, was addressing him. He generally seemed to be the go-between. They negotiated about what we would do for the village in order to get the privilege of working there--he wanted a computer lab, but our "chief" (the head doctor running our program, who strongly resembles Dumbledore), pointed out that we were helping improve the health and water and sanitation programs in the area, and that our work would directly benefit them. They then held a reception for all of the students with cans of coke (it seems to be quite popular here, and, fortunately, is safe to drink, unlike the tap water. I always worry that people will serve us some kind of homemade drink that we'll have to figure out how to refuse in a culturally polite way.) There were a few small kids running around who looked shocked to see white people--they pointed and giggled and got so excited when we waved at them. One boy, probably three or four years old, was wandering around trying to shake all of the visitors' hands.
We took a wild ride back, then went to the hospital. The main road was closed, so it took a while for us to get around to the right place. We finally ended up where we were supposed to be, then had to find the right clinic. The hospital was...different. Much of the space where people were was outside--there weren't any halls, but each of the clinic doors opened out to the open air. It was terribly dirty outside, and although we didn't go into any of the exam rooms, but just met in a classroom, I can't imagine the inside being sanitary, let alone sterile. We passed a phlebotomy lab and my hands instinctively went to the crooks of my elbows as if to protect them--I couldn't imagine letting someone stick me with a needle in a place like that. However, the doctors who we met seemed excellent. They were knowledgeable and kind and seemed to really want the best for their patients. It just felt like the hospital was so over capacity that it wasn't able to function as well as it should.
We then wandered around our area for a while--we walked over to a nearby school and watched a group of kids do soccer drills, then toured up and down the street. We saw lots of stalls, selling everything from fruit to shoes to tailoring.
We then had a meeting for our entire group. We debriefed from the past few days, then went around discussing something that was expected, unexpected, and made us uncomfortable. It was interesting to hear everyone's perspectives. Oh, and we got big news! We're invited to the wedding of one of the doctors in the hospital on Saturday. Apparently it's not terribly uncommon here to invite thirty strangers to your wedding five days before the event occurs. I'll let you know how that goes, as it's certain to be exciting.
Some other funny things--yesterday, one of the student's doorknobs fell off when they tried to open it, and another's sink fell off the wall. And we currently have no water. Not no hot water, but no water. Period. Fortunately, we have plenty in bottles, so we're just out of luck for showering. That's our adventure of the day.
Thanks for reading!
Hello!
Today was fascinating . We spent the morning at a traditional tribal ceremony, and the afternoon at the hospital where we'll be doing research.
We took our bus out to a small village. Driving here is an adventure. Many of the roads are approximately as smooth as the average theme park ride, as they're either dirt or covered in so many potholes that they might as well be dirt, and, with people crammed five to a row, there's quite a bit of bouncing around and landing in each other's laps. On top of that, the streets here are terribly disorganized, with cars turning every which way with little regard to the rules of the road and people darting across the streets with baskets on their heads. I definitely wouldn't want to drive in a place like this, but I haven't seen an accident yet.
The tribal ceremony was unlike anything I've seen in my life. We were there to meet with the deputy chief about whether or not we were permitted to work in the villages in the area. He's of the royal family of the Ashanti tribe, although I forget the name of the village. There were about five men, all wearing traditional clothing--brightly patterned cloth pulled over one shoulder. They sat on chairs, and we sat across from them. The deputy chief spoke only to a linguist, who translated his statements from Twi (the local language) into English for our benefit. However, he also spoke to the deputy chief whenever anyone else, including Twi speakers, was addressing him. He generally seemed to be the go-between. They negotiated about what we would do for the village in order to get the privilege of working there--he wanted a computer lab, but our "chief" (the head doctor running our program, who strongly resembles Dumbledore), pointed out that we were helping improve the health and water and sanitation programs in the area, and that our work would directly benefit them. They then held a reception for all of the students with cans of coke (it seems to be quite popular here, and, fortunately, is safe to drink, unlike the tap water. I always worry that people will serve us some kind of homemade drink that we'll have to figure out how to refuse in a culturally polite way.) There were a few small kids running around who looked shocked to see white people--they pointed and giggled and got so excited when we waved at them. One boy, probably three or four years old, was wandering around trying to shake all of the visitors' hands.
We took a wild ride back, then went to the hospital. The main road was closed, so it took a while for us to get around to the right place. We finally ended up where we were supposed to be, then had to find the right clinic. The hospital was...different. Much of the space where people were was outside--there weren't any halls, but each of the clinic doors opened out to the open air. It was terribly dirty outside, and although we didn't go into any of the exam rooms, but just met in a classroom, I can't imagine the inside being sanitary, let alone sterile. We passed a phlebotomy lab and my hands instinctively went to the crooks of my elbows as if to protect them--I couldn't imagine letting someone stick me with a needle in a place like that. However, the doctors who we met seemed excellent. They were knowledgeable and kind and seemed to really want the best for their patients. It just felt like the hospital was so over capacity that it wasn't able to function as well as it should.
We then wandered around our area for a while--we walked over to a nearby school and watched a group of kids do soccer drills, then toured up and down the street. We saw lots of stalls, selling everything from fruit to shoes to tailoring.
We then had a meeting for our entire group. We debriefed from the past few days, then went around discussing something that was expected, unexpected, and made us uncomfortable. It was interesting to hear everyone's perspectives. Oh, and we got big news! We're invited to the wedding of one of the doctors in the hospital on Saturday. Apparently it's not terribly uncommon here to invite thirty strangers to your wedding five days before the event occurs. I'll let you know how that goes, as it's certain to be exciting.
Some other funny things--yesterday, one of the student's doorknobs fell off when they tried to open it, and another's sink fell off the wall. And we currently have no water. Not no hot water, but no water. Period. Fortunately, we have plenty in bottles, so we're just out of luck for showering. That's our adventure of the day.
Thanks for reading!
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