27.6.06
Well..last night was crazy. I was so exhausted from all my raging passion and stuff, and then I came back and was going to cook, but I just didn’t have the energy, so I just didn’t eat. I realized that I have been totally careless and not washed dishes in a while, so I had to do that. And then I realized that there was a rotten tomato hiding behind my bottle of cooking oil, and so I had to throw that away and remove everything from my veggie basket and wash it or throw it away, and then wash the basket and douse it in bleach. And then tiny little maggoty worm things let themselves loose in the tomato juice muck, and they were in a nice ring all around my veggie basket, so I had to bleach the little table and furiously scrub the basket and bleach everything ridiculously and all of that took about an hour. I showered and collapsed in bed and died.
Today I was ready to leave at 8:00, which of course meant that we left at 8:30 for Dalive, which is a “village” in the middle of nowhere. And I mean that it is in the Middle of Nowhere. It took us probably an hour or more to get there, in a privately chartered car that we had gotten for the day, on this horrible road that, quite frankly, I should have worn a sports bra to use. I’m so glad it hasn’t rained in the past few days, because otherwise we would have been stuck on that dirt road in about four seconds. Anyway..first we went to the pastor’s wife’s house, who was the organizer of the talk today, and I saw the coolest thing. My mom had told me that weaving was famous here, and I’ve been totally confused as to why when I hadn’t seen anything. Well, this morning some women were working in the shade-weaving, but weaving these beautiful reed mats on looms hung from the trees. So that was really neat, and I actually got to do a few rows, which was really cool, and I forgot my camera today so I have no pictures. But that’s okay..suffice it to say that these reed mats are really neat looking and hard to make.
So then we went to the health post in another nearby “village.” It was actually situated between two villages, so they told me that they have had no patients. Literally..no one goes there. They go on outreach to villages and do health education and immunizations, but in the clinic itself, they don’t even have a thermometer. Nothing. And they started treating patients for things like malaria and TB (with antibiotics)-get this-yesterday. Two days ago they had no medicines in an area without pharmacies, and no way to get to a real town. It was really awful and it made me sad, but then again, I guess if no one goes there then it’s not so bad that they have no equipment.
So after that we went back towards the pastor’s house, where we stopped (completely randomly, I might add, at Ignatius’s insistence) at a school. He wanted me to go there and talk to the kids, and I said okay, but that I was not doing a health talk because we had no time to do so before my real talk. SO I left all my stuff in the car (notes and stuff), and we went to the school. Ignatius proceeded to tell the headmistress that I was going to give brief health talks to all the classes. I was absolutely infuriated that he would do that, and put me on the spot like that, to look like a fool in front of all these kids, especially after we had agreed not to do any health talks. I pulled him aside and told him that, and he laughed and said, “oh no, you don’t worry. Just say whatever comes to your head!” I hated him for that. So, I just pulled stuff out of nowhere, from memory, so that I wasn’t rude to the headmistress after Ignatius’s foolish insistence that that was why we were there. I was so mad..so mad. I was very chilly with him all day after that just because it takes a lot of nerve to agree to something and then go back on it, and then put someone on the spot to be made a fool of because of that. I’m sure he thought it was fine and that I knew everything by heart and that he was just being nice, but I wanted to just walk in the opposite direction from the school and wait with the driver.
So..after that we went to another school, which was next to the church where I was giving my talk. Apparently, at this school, the American lady who was here before me built a library. So we went there and the kids remembered Odette, and they sang songs for us, and it was really cute. Then we ate peanuts, and then the pastor’s wife told us that she had cooked us lunch, so we ate delicious rice and stew, although it had sardines in it and boiled eggs, and I ate both to be polite, but those weren’t so good. And she gave us a corn drink to drink-it’s blue and just like the stuff they make in Latin America! I was like, hey, I know this! And I don’t like it. But that’s okay..I drank some but gave the rest to Persis when I got back because I’m sure it’s not made from good water, considering people in Dalive get their water from the river or puddles on the ground and don’t know that they should boil it.
My class itself went really really well, and then we came back here, and Ghana lost in the World Cup, sadly enough. I didn’t watch the game, but when I went out later to buy bread, everyone was not happy. I went to the Peace Club to have a Coke after I ate my dinner (which consisted of poorly cooked green beans and bread; I’m such a gourmet) and then John and I came here. I was supposed to meet with the girls who work at the orphanage tonight, but their phone was off, so we couldn’t decide on a meeting time. I think tomorrow we are meeting them when John and I get back from Accra.
So..tomorrow I go to Accra and then Thursday I leave for the orphanage place. I got some lovely e-mails from Cass today, and I’m calling him tonight, so that should hopefully help me be less stressed out..but I’ve just been going a mile a minute today and I know it’s going to be equally tiring tomorrow and Thursday with all the traveling. I should be back here in time to use the internet tomorrow, but if I’m not, I won’t be back until Monday. So..yeah. Have fun.
Today I was ready to leave at 8:00, which of course meant that we left at 8:30 for Dalive, which is a “village” in the middle of nowhere. And I mean that it is in the Middle of Nowhere. It took us probably an hour or more to get there, in a privately chartered car that we had gotten for the day, on this horrible road that, quite frankly, I should have worn a sports bra to use. I’m so glad it hasn’t rained in the past few days, because otherwise we would have been stuck on that dirt road in about four seconds. Anyway..first we went to the pastor’s wife’s house, who was the organizer of the talk today, and I saw the coolest thing. My mom had told me that weaving was famous here, and I’ve been totally confused as to why when I hadn’t seen anything. Well, this morning some women were working in the shade-weaving, but weaving these beautiful reed mats on looms hung from the trees. So that was really neat, and I actually got to do a few rows, which was really cool, and I forgot my camera today so I have no pictures. But that’s okay..suffice it to say that these reed mats are really neat looking and hard to make.
So then we went to the health post in another nearby “village.” It was actually situated between two villages, so they told me that they have had no patients. Literally..no one goes there. They go on outreach to villages and do health education and immunizations, but in the clinic itself, they don’t even have a thermometer. Nothing. And they started treating patients for things like malaria and TB (with antibiotics)-get this-yesterday. Two days ago they had no medicines in an area without pharmacies, and no way to get to a real town. It was really awful and it made me sad, but then again, I guess if no one goes there then it’s not so bad that they have no equipment.
So after that we went back towards the pastor’s house, where we stopped (completely randomly, I might add, at Ignatius’s insistence) at a school. He wanted me to go there and talk to the kids, and I said okay, but that I was not doing a health talk because we had no time to do so before my real talk. SO I left all my stuff in the car (notes and stuff), and we went to the school. Ignatius proceeded to tell the headmistress that I was going to give brief health talks to all the classes. I was absolutely infuriated that he would do that, and put me on the spot like that, to look like a fool in front of all these kids, especially after we had agreed not to do any health talks. I pulled him aside and told him that, and he laughed and said, “oh no, you don’t worry. Just say whatever comes to your head!” I hated him for that. So, I just pulled stuff out of nowhere, from memory, so that I wasn’t rude to the headmistress after Ignatius’s foolish insistence that that was why we were there. I was so mad..so mad. I was very chilly with him all day after that just because it takes a lot of nerve to agree to something and then go back on it, and then put someone on the spot to be made a fool of because of that. I’m sure he thought it was fine and that I knew everything by heart and that he was just being nice, but I wanted to just walk in the opposite direction from the school and wait with the driver.
So..after that we went to another school, which was next to the church where I was giving my talk. Apparently, at this school, the American lady who was here before me built a library. So we went there and the kids remembered Odette, and they sang songs for us, and it was really cute. Then we ate peanuts, and then the pastor’s wife told us that she had cooked us lunch, so we ate delicious rice and stew, although it had sardines in it and boiled eggs, and I ate both to be polite, but those weren’t so good. And she gave us a corn drink to drink-it’s blue and just like the stuff they make in Latin America! I was like, hey, I know this! And I don’t like it. But that’s okay..I drank some but gave the rest to Persis when I got back because I’m sure it’s not made from good water, considering people in Dalive get their water from the river or puddles on the ground and don’t know that they should boil it.
My class itself went really really well, and then we came back here, and Ghana lost in the World Cup, sadly enough. I didn’t watch the game, but when I went out later to buy bread, everyone was not happy. I went to the Peace Club to have a Coke after I ate my dinner (which consisted of poorly cooked green beans and bread; I’m such a gourmet) and then John and I came here. I was supposed to meet with the girls who work at the orphanage tonight, but their phone was off, so we couldn’t decide on a meeting time. I think tomorrow we are meeting them when John and I get back from Accra.
So..tomorrow I go to Accra and then Thursday I leave for the orphanage place. I got some lovely e-mails from Cass today, and I’m calling him tonight, so that should hopefully help me be less stressed out..but I’ve just been going a mile a minute today and I know it’s going to be equally tiring tomorrow and Thursday with all the traveling. I should be back here in time to use the internet tomorrow, but if I’m not, I won’t be back until Monday. So..yeah. Have fun.