Research Training

Hello!

Ok, so the Internet here is currently quite spotty.  I’ll have to see when I can actually post this, as service goes in and out on a whim (I sent three messages to a friend at 9:40 PM, and the third one didn't go through.  Then it went on again at 9:46, and off again 9:50.  But how wonderful is modern technology?  I can make immediate contact with a friend who literally is halfway around the world to giggle over the guy she likes.)  

Today was our first full day in Kumasi, where we'll be staying most of the time we're here.  We woke up and ate breakfast provided by the hotel (featuring fresh pineapple juice, which was delicious,) then met with our groups to go over our projects.  Our program is pairing with students at the local Ghanaian medical school, so we'll be working with quite a mix of students.  I wasn't able to get all of their names, but the African contingent included a very quiet girl named Priscilla, a man named Michael in his last year of medical school, and a cheerful Ophelia, who drastically contrasts with Shakespeare's character.  

Our group is studying barriers and facilitators to craniofacial care.  In layman's terms, we're learning about what what is easy and difficult about accessing healthcare for children with facial, oral, and nasal deformities.  We're focusing primarily on cleft lips and palates (if you've ever seen the TV commercials for Smile Train, it's the same issue that they fix.  I also once read a book that discussed cleft palates which I believe was called Words In The Dust, but I can't verify the title due to the lack of ability to google.  But if that is the title, I loved it around age 13.  Literary review over.)  Our group led by Chelsea, a PhD candidate in speech pathology who is one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever met.  She can talk for hours about speech development, accents, public health, her home in New York, her fellowship in Ohio, or her various mission trips to train other speech pathologists and work with people who have had recent cleft surgery.  She's one of those people who makes everything seem really interesting, regardless of whether or not it's something you normally care about, just because of the intensity of her passion.  I admire that.  

We'll be interviewing caregivers of the children with these conditions, so today we trained in proper interview techniques, and how to avoid asking leading questions.  It's actually a lot more difficult than you would expect, just because you come in with so many of your own biases that it's difficult to filter them out of your speech.  We also practiced avoiding technical terms, because a lot of the caregivers, especially from rural areas, won't have the same vocabulary that we do.  

After our training, we went to the mall!  I'm usually not at all a shopper, and only bought one thing, but it was fascinating.  It was across the street from an outdoor market full of stalls that likely required a bit of haggling to come to a price. The mall itself provided a great contrast--a huge concrete building that would not look at all out of place in the US.  A group of us ambled around, including Andrea, a geography doctoral candidate interested in mapping illness patterns and designing maps that can be used by colorblind people (she likes maps a lot) who tells us that she takes her four-year-old to class with her; Uoni, a Persian-Armenian pharmacy student who grew up about forty minutes from me in California; and Rachel, a career-change medical student from the Bay Area who talked extensively with me about the culture shock of moving from California to Utah ("but I love Salt Lake," she told me, "it's the right place for me."  I agreed).   

We first went to the grocery store there--Rachel was still jet-lagged and wanted to buy coffee, and foreign grocery stores are fascinating to wander, as they provide a snapshot of local life.  There wasn't a drastic difference between most American grocery stores, although there was an incredible amount of rice, in many different varieties.  Most of the food here seems to be grain-heavy, with a sauce and a bit of meat.  

I have a peculiar small world story.  Being 19, Mormon, and living in Utah, I have quite a few friends who either recently returned from Mormon missions or are heading out in a few months to a few years.  I know someone who went to Kumasi, Ghana and returned before school started last fall.  In the grocery store, I ran into...Mormon missionaries.  I asked them if they knew my friend, Elder Lastname, who came home last year, and they said yes.  It was one of the oddest coincidences, to find a mutual friend in Sub-Saharan Africa.  

In the middle of the mall, they were playing music from a huge speaker.  It was a very odd mix of songs, everything from Drake ("God's Plan") to what I assumed was pop music in Twi (the local language). A group of little kids had assembled in front of the speaker to dance.  They were quite talented, and had the biggest smiles.  Some of the dances seemed to be common, as everyone was coordinated in their motions, but others were just a free expression of twirling joy.  

In the mall, we were quite popular.  Families would stop and look at us passing, and one asked us to pose for a photo with their young children.  Andrea was standing across the room at that point, so she took a photo of them taking a photo.  I'll see if I can get it from her to post on here, as it was hilarious.  Even though we stand out, it doesn't feel as uncomfortable as it would if  we were back home.  It's clear that we don't really belong here, but it's a good kind of standing out.  We have to opportunity to get lost in the wonder of being able to experience a culture that in no way belongs to us.  

Our last stop at the mall was the fabric store.  It was gorgeous--stacks of dozens of elaborately colorful prints that you could picture clothing someone in joy.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos in the store.  Most of us--myself included--purchased a few yards to get made into skirts or dresses at the local tailor shop.  The array of hues in that store was dramatic--I've never seen anything quite like it.  

Anyway, that's all for tonight.  I'll post this whenever we get internet access again.