10 Days in Accra

Hello Everyone,

This is my last day in Accra for a while. It's been a nice break from site, a much needed one. My ear is fine, just an irritated canal.....apparently i need to start bathing with cotton balls in my ears.....and what i thought was acne on my back turned out to be some kind of skin infection. That's a funny story....let me tell you about going to the doctor in Accra....

Ear doctor first, technically the ENT specialist at the Military Hospital near the office. First, I get 'Bruni' privileges....I walk into the office 5 hours late.....for various reasons....and get to see the doctor right away......he briefly looks into my left ear.....mind you my right ear also pains me, just not as much.....tells me there's no infection, let's give me a hearing test....i take the hearing test......i pass...whoohooo.....doc says i hear as good as a 14 year old......yay!.....but why does my ear pain me?...so i go back to Agnes, the PC nurse and give her the report and then I ask her about what i think is acne on my back, hopefully she can give me something for it....and she takes one look at it and says....that's not acne, you need to see the skin doc.......thus the beginning of my 10 day stay in Accra.....

So Wednesday I go to the skin doctor....this time I arrive one hour early! Ooops, thought it would take longer to get there. I get in 30 min late....not too bad....the doctor is an extremely large woman, with coke bottle glasses.....she can't see and tells me to come near the window where the light is better....she doesn't know what it is.....we sit back at her desk, she asks me, have i had chicken pox before, when? I told her when i was 10...she says "oh that’s a long time ago, maybe this is chicken pox" !!!!!!!! Can you believe that? So she gives me Rx for about 4 different things, including a mega dose of antibiotics.....i don't want to take all this medicine so i read the inlet of the Anti Biotic and the dosage she prescribed for me is for severe infections (which i don't have) so i took the dosage for non-severe infection, which is half as much.....anyway, yesterday i had my follow up appt and no it's not chicken pox (are you sure, doc? haha) it's most likely Folliculitis or something like that....when i ask how to prevent it, she tells me that given the right conditions is just happens......gee wiz, I’d like to know the conditions so i prevent them, but by that time all i wanted to do was be done with her....ms. banker in the morning and dermatologist in the evenings........anyway, the little bumps are starting to go away and I’m not contagious or anything....

Plus.....I got to spend a week with Angela! Her site is much different from mine. Her village is about 1,200 people...mine 6,000. There's no paved roads by her and hardly any traffic.....my village is divided by a main paved road with plenty cars. She's about 25,000 cedis away from Accra, I'm 2,800 cedis from Kumasi.....her village is known for its Salt....there's a lagoon there. Mine is known for wood carving....her "smalls" are 17 and 20 mine are 11, 13, and 14 years......so it was different, quiet relaxing. oh! and she has her own house, while i live in a compound house...

Since, her village is known for salt....her friend Vincent gave me about 5 kilos worth! Talk about heavy! But it'll be my gift to my friends in Foase....everyone needs a little bit of salt, and this salt is good salt! I’m telling you! hehe....

oooh the exciting part of being in Accra....real Ice Cream!!!!!! oh my goodness, heaven! Real Pizza...it's thin crust, which is not my fave, but it's still pizza and it's still real pizza cheese! And Angela’s site has cream soda :) Yummy! And we also made Corn Bread (thanks for the Jiffy Mix! Send more!) and black beans and rice, since we didn't have red beans.....mmmMmmmMmmm good.....and we made chips from Ga Kenkey with a nice salsa....I tried Akpetishie for the first time....( i spelled it wrong, but it's close) it's def'ly hard hard liquor, but it's smooth.....much smoother that whiskey, etc......Oh! and Anglea's counterpart has a TV and VCD player, so she bought 4 movies!!!! and we had a movie marathon on Sat, how wonderful! Original Sin, Dance with Me, Troy, and Robin Hood prince of thieves, it was a wonderful relaxing, rejuvenating time :)

So, yes, I'm feeling better, oh! and he mom sent her this book called "the velveteen principle : a guide to becoming real" it's a really good book about being true to yourself and how this woman realized the meaning behind the velveteen rabbit story when she heard her daughter read it to the other daughter.....if anyone of you feel lost, you should check it out :)

And after reading the book and talking to John, my supervisor, I’ve decided that when I get back to site I must start my young person's club.....and teach about reproductive and sexual health.....that's my passion, that's why i wanted to join peace corps was to educate people about sex, and keeping your mind body and soul healthy, and i wanted to learn more of that along the way as well.....gotta start doing work that makes me happy, not just what i think the community or the children need......cuz the community needs a lot!

Oh! and about the computer center....we just switched it over to my name.....so please donate now, hehe. I talked to john about my concerns and he said we can tweak it a little to make it more of a community center, or youth center, kinda like FreeZone (is that was it's called in A2?) anyway, the kids do need a safe place to go, and i am excited about getting that set up, and having a few computers wouldn't hurt.....so hopefully the next volunteer can put up latrines since this project is already half finished. John’s pretty certain we can have the building up and running before i leave, which would be amazing.....so donate whatever you like and remember it's tax deductible....:) and to donate go to peacecorps.gov website and click on donate :)

ok, i think I’m finished, for now :)

Miss you! please keep sending emails, cards, letters, and I’ll try to do the same....

Kris