My first views of Accra depict a crowded area with mostly deep red dirt roads. As we get closer to landing, we can see not only the nice houses, but the smallest of homes in the ghetto- everything has a bit of a film over it. We arrived only about an hour behind schedule at 9:30am Ghana time (5:30am your time). We made it through customs without any issue but when it came time to claim our bags, that is when the real adventure began!! The 1 turn style was 3 people deep so I stood back and “guarded” the bags that were already collected. When the madness calmed, we noticed that there was still one bag missing- Dr. Khan’s large bag….
Luckily the missing bag only had gifts for the people here in Ghana, not his clothes or medical supplies. It still stinks that it is missing, and given the items in the bag, he’s pretty confident that we’ll never recover it. Phrase of the day “Welcome to Ghana, this will prepare you for how well planned the rest of the trip will be!” Dr. Khan is a very funny man.
We took vans from the Ministry of Health to the hotel and boy did I see some sights. I didn’t take a lot of pictures, some images I wanted to soak in, others made me very sad and hurt my heart- I have a feeling that that is going to happen quite often while I’m here in Ghana. On some of our other trips out I’ll try to capture some of what I’m about to describe below. These first images were too much to attempt to capture then.
I saw a little boy, about Caden’s age (@2.5) in a dirt alley, all alone and squatting down to a small stream that is cutting the alley in half. As I look closer, the stream I see is a filthy mess of sewage from their open sewer system. Yes folks, that is correct- they have an open sewer system which lines both sides of the street and often cuts down streets or in the middle of intersections. You can also smell it too; it permeates your nose no matter how much you try to keep it out. The abject poverty is staggering – I already know how lucky I am to be who I am and in the car looking out at these sights instead of living them. The homes we pass are make-shift at best and some even seem to be made out of old, small cargo containers. Each house is like the next, as small as a shed, dirty, on top of one another, and many people crammed either in or around the home. These homes and images remind me of those Sally Struthers commercials “feed the children” where they are dirty and poor and in horrid conditions. I saw that today from my car window and it made me want to cry.
The area is not dangerous or totally gross, we also pass pleasant sights like children playing futbol and lush greenery due to the HUMIDITY here (Baltimore doesn’t hold a candle to this place!) I saw a man carrying a large luggage bag on his head and many many women doing the same with everything from peanuts to bananas to well, almost everything on their heads! They had the perfect posture too!
It took about an hour to get to our hotel, which we thought was more of a B&B, which it is not. Think more like the Econolodge….. There was apparently some miscommunication between Dr. Khan’s team and the hotel people (not sure, I was not involved) and they place was a tad misrepresented. It is clean though, has hot water (from what I hear a rarity in some places), air conditioning, and we do get fed. My first shower here was a cold one, despite the place having hot water- there was an issue with the hot water heater for the room, which was later fixed. The beds? Well, I thought my bed in college was hard- this bed is like a board!! Ken, tell Danno that that bedding at Balboa is still the best.
Lunch consisted of some chicken dish with mushrooms (which I picked out), 2 different types of rice, and some type of fish that was really good, but had a TON of bones in it. There was a salad too, but I have been advised by many people as well as the travel clinic to steer clear of salads as they wash the lettuce etc… with local water (which will lead to GI issues). It was all very good and we could tell that they are excited to have us here and want us to be comfortable. We had pineapple and I LOVED it, it was soft, white, sweet, and not bitter at all- smoother than the pineapple we have back home. Dr. Khan said it was just ok though- we’ll have some amazing pineapple in a few days when we go remote as well as some fresh coconut milk- I can’t wait!! The gentlemen here were eating some type of wet bread with a bowl of soup or something with their hands- that’s what I want to try, not this “Americanized” food!! It’s very nice of them to make us feel sooo welcomed, but I really want to try some authentic cuisine (remind me later that I said that)!
Today we are hanging out and resting while the rest of the crew comes in from other areas of the country/world. There are 15 of us total this year which is about 1/3 larger than previous years. I took a brief walk with Michelle Felix (nurse) and Shelly Choo (new 3rd year resident) around the block and saw some more of the housing that I noted above. The weather today though is amazing; the sun feels great (yes I have sunblock on) and there is this amazing breeze that keeps you pretty cool. I have heard that it gets yucky when we go more remote as the breeze I feel is coming from the coast. 2 more people come in tonight and I’m going with Dr. Khan and a few other people to pick them up (they won’t recognize him, just me so I have to go). I’ll try to get more pictures then to upload for this day’s entry.
Love you all and I’m staying safe and relatively cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment