I can't believe a month has already gone by!!!
The past 2 weeks have been so different than the first couple! I have been travelling around with Ken and Sam of Step FaR. Last week, I posted how we were at Tema General Hospital. This week we are at Koforidua General Hospital. This week we have organized a whole continuing education course. I was not prepared at all for this and so I spent most of this past week creating presentations to give to them! Day 1 went really well! I demonstrated a lot of core and abdominal exercises in the morning. We are on GMT (Ghana maybe time), so the course did not start until 10:30 even though it was suppose to start at 9am! We didn't get there until 9 am since our driver also follows GMT! Haha! I am always on time so its such an adjustment for me! The world doesn't end if I'm late, so I'm learning to just let it go. There was 3 times where I tried to get the course started this morning since I was sick of waiting. :)
When I wasn't preparing this weekend, I traveled around with Sam. We stayed at Sam's brother's place in Accra. Traffic is horrible in Accra. A 20 minute drive in the US takes an hour and half since the roads are so bad and there are so many cars! We also went up into the mountains to visit his parents. We were in the coldest part of Ghana. It would probably be a hot summer day for most Midwesterners. Haha! I met Sam's grandma. She was such a feisty sweet lady! She was a teacher and still knows American geography. She could list all the major cities and Great Lakes. I don't think most Americans could do that! I really enjoyed Sam's area that he grew up in. It was in the jungles and hills! Also, it had a nice breeze. If I had a swimming pool and a cold beverage, I could have stayed in that area for forever!!! The towns are neat too! The first white settlers went to that area since its cooler, so I think the villages were probably planned off of European towns. The car ride was a little scary. I'm adjusting to that too, just like GMT time! Haha!
I'm getting spoiled right now. The guest house we are staying at this week has running water with a water heater. Sam's brother had running water. Also, my internet works well in Accra. I think Kpando will be an adjustment all over again. I miss my African family, though.
Funny event of today: We were driving in the town of Koforidua to our hotel at the end of the course, and completely naked Bush Man was walking around. He looked like the men from photos a 100 years ago. No one made a big deal about it. I think he's sort of like the homeless in the US. More often than not, they have untreated medical illness and slip under the cracks.
Then not so funny, 10 feet from him was a lady with a goiter the size of a grapefruit! I'm assuming she has untreated thyroid cancer/disease since most of the spices have iodized salt in them. We take for granted in the US how amazing our medical care is. I've already seen so many things in here that if you lived in the US, would have been medically managed at birth or in childhood. Most Africans do not think malaria is a big deal, but it kills more Africans than AIDS every year, so it is a really big deal!!!
Tomorrow we are presenting on back pain and injuries! I did most of the talking today, so tomorrow I'm just assisting. My throat is very dry so I'm okay with taking a back seat!!
Love, Kari
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