A typical day...

So my typical day thus far is something like this:

I wake up around 6:15 (Ghanaians are very early risers) and eat breakfast which usually consists of bread, peanut butter (tastes like the natural kind you buy at Trader Joe's), and a banana from the tree outside. I leave the house around 6:50 and walk between the houses to the street (there is no street that takes you directly to our house) heading to work. I arrive at the hospital around 7 and immediately start taking blood glucose levels of the patients, some of whom have been waiting a half hour already. I take FBG levels for about 2 hours and then, depending on how many volunteers are in the ward that day, we take turns taking blood pressure & patient history, entering prescriptions into the computer and talking with the patients. I enjoy talking to the patients best. Ghanaians are extremely friendly and are very curious about where you are from and how you like their lovely country. And they love to laugh - especially at my atrocious accent when calling out their names or trying to speak Ewe.

I leave the hospital between 12 and 1 pm (I sometimes stay later if something is going on in the other wards) and then stop by the internet cafe (mostly because it has AC which most Ghanaians think is much too cold ha!) and then head home for lunch around 2pm. Lunch is usually rice or fufu - a native dish which is kinda of like a ball of dough in a very spicy soup (an acquired taste...). Then I spend the afternoons either wandering the city, at the market or, if it is raining, I sit on the porch with my host father and host brother while they give me Ewe lessons and we discuss America, Ghana, traveling, the meaning of life, etc. I have spent hours on the porch and met many neighbors and friends of the family. People don't have TVs or computers so their form of entertainment is a bit of fashioned - spending time together!

Dinner is usually served around 7 and is a variety of things - fried yams, Ghanaian salad (nothing like ours), beans, rice, sweet potatoes...the list goes on. I'll take picture of their foods so you all can see. After dinner is more time to hang out, read and talk. I turn in around 8 to work on grad school applications and GRE studying (ha!) and go to bed before 10 - I have truly turned into my parents!

I am looking forward to doing some outreach projects such as going to orphanages and the leprosy village in the upcoming weeks as well as traveling the country. Tomorrow the other volunteers from a nearby village are coming to Ho and we are going out to dinner and to get a drink! Speaking of drink, I tried Ghanaian wine - veryyyy different. I liked it but it tastes...fruity.

More stories to come, but now its time for lunch and the market. I think I'm going to buy some fabric to be tailored into a tradition outfit :) I won't be mistaken for a Yavoo (white person) soon!