Giving Thanks

Things I am thankful for this year:

1. My work keeps me busy, yet allows me to be independent. Always challenging me with new questions and obstacles, yet no retracting, no rounding, and no note-writing!

2. I am travelling in a country where not only is my country's president admired, but actually revered. Electing a half-Kenyan man to our top office has spoken volumes about the American people to Ghana, and made my travels much easier. Not only that, but I can purchase:
-Obama biscuits
-Obama underwear
-Obama boxers
-Obama earrings
-the services of a taxi driver who has christened himself "Junior Obama"
and counting!

3. I live in a room with an understanding roommate, amazing wireless internet, and a very effective fan. And also that this room is in a coastal (cooler) city in an otherwise sweltering country.

5. My most recent bout of sickness was not malaria, cholera, or anything worse, especially since it came on just 72 hours before my planned trip to South Africa. *knock on wood*

6. I was accepted to present my work at a conference for the first time. *crossing fingers for the presentation next week!*

7. I am able to travel to see friends in East Africa for the holidays, which might otherwise have been pretty lonely at the ISH.

8. I have not been forced to eat any Banku/Fufu/Kenke against my will.

9. I have wonderful friends who write me emails. And fantabulous friends who comment on my blog. *cough* write a comment now *cough*

10. I was able to come to Ghana on a research fellowship for almost a full year, and still have 6 months left!

Benefits of Living at the ISH

Did you know that Nigeria is the densest nation in Africa, accounting for close to 80% of the population of all of sub-Saharan Africa?

Neither did I, until this year.

I live in the "International Student Hostel" (the ISH, as people call it) here at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, which means that I live with roughly 75% Nigerians, 20% Ghanaians, and 5% "Other." Accordingly, I have lots of opportunities to learn about Nigeria.

Just last night I spent an hour discussing political perceptions of the country versus actual living standards with Kola, a Nigerian student studying medicine here in Ghana. I learned that yes you do need to be really careful in Lagos as opposed to Accra, that Nigerians may actually have more in common with Americans than with Ghanaians, and that the countryside is even more beautiful than Ghana's. And last week my dorm hosted a "Durbar" to welcome new students: a Durbar is a giant Nigerian party. I've also learned that Niger and Nigeria are two totally different countries. A little confusing, but hooray for improved geography skills. :)

This opportunity has been really interesting. Who knew that by coming to Ghana I'd learn so much about Nigeria?

Unfortunately, this article

http://allafrica.com/stories/200911180368.html

shows the downside of Nigeria. Most of my colleagues here agree on the levels of corruption and danger in the country. They did come to Ghana to study for a reason after all...

Togo

Another stamp in the passport! This weekend I visited Togo, or more specifically, Togo’s capital city Lome. Actually, I was required to leave Ghana to renew my visa, and Togo is the closest border to Accra. This was not only my first venture out of the country, but also my first time traveling alone! 4 hours in a tro-tro found me staring across the border at a different country, one with more recent civil unrest than Ghana, but with an even more beautiful coastline and the home of Voodoo.

I walked across the border (a first!), and although I tried to take pictures, my camera was met with hushed “Obruni! Put that away! The police will arrest you!” Although getting thrown in Ghanaian prison would make for a great blog and perhaps even a future book deal, I chose to not enfuriate and terrify my family and took the locals' advice. After one quick shot of course…

(if you look very closely, you can see the black star of Ghana over the border, kind of right above that lady's head....)

Lome has been referred to as the “Paris of Africa,” and immediately after crossing the border I understood why: Most obviously, everyone speaks French. But beyond that, the women sell baguettes on the streets rather than Fufu, cabs are overshadowed by Vespas, pretty flowers and trees line the roads, and the streets include lots of European style bistro seating. (I’ve been looking for shady places to sit and enjoy the streets of Accra since September; now I know they’ve all been annexed to Togo.) Amazingly, the streets also actually had street signs (what a concept!) in French. Lome even takes advantage of its beachfront locale. The palm-lined beach stretches wide out to the Atlantic, and most of the city’s streets are actually sand. (I avoided the beach though, because Lonely Planet told me that's where I was most likely to get mugged. That and people poop on the beach. Ew.) The city reminded me most of New Orleans. Very cool.

I stayed at a (very cute) Swiss French hostel called Le Galion on Rue Camomilles, with the nicest garden area to sit and read.

It was great to have my own bedroom for a night and I settled in happily before dark. The night was not as pleasant as I’d hoped, however, because my nice soft bed turned out to be infested with bedbugs. Around 4am when the first roosters started crowing and I was still swatting at various crawlers, I decided to cut my time in Lome short and leave Saturday afternoon.

This still left plenty of time for exploring, however, and I spent all of Saturday morning on a walking tour. Lome is smaller than Accra and I easily walked across all of it in a few hours, including a meander through the market where I saw a woman carrying 4 cow’s heads in a bucket. Not sure what you’d cook with them, but hey, there’s something for everyone.

One of the nicest things about Lome was the people. Togo seemed a bit more off the beaten path than Ghana, and there were even fewer tourists here than in Accra (which is saying something). As such, people didn’t seem as intent on getting my attention as they usually do. One quick nod, and they left me alone. This was a nice break from Ghana. Or maybe it was that I just didn’t understand anything people were saying (beyond Merci or Ca va mon cherie?) and I could enjoy the city blissfully unaware of any catcalls.

Some of the more residential, quiet, tree lined streets outside downtown:

(My photography skills leave a LOT to be desired. These looked so much better in person. So I guess you'll all just have to go for yourselves!.....and I can practice on the camera....)

For those who are interested in the tourist route, Togo is the original home of Voodoo. "Wait!" you might say, "I thought Haiti was the home of voodoo!" Well the African slaves who established voodoo in Haiti and the Caribbean were originally from Togo, and it's there that you can explore a great market filled with fetish trinkets and the like (leopard skin potion anyone?). I didn't make it to Togoville, the best fetish market, because I wanted to leave before dark, but it could be fun the next time.

I also noticed a lot of UN vehicles and police around Lome, and even crossed the border with a few UN officials. I'm not sure the specifics of their missions there, but I do know that I could happily live in Lome for a while. A very neat place, and I'm sure the rest of the country has plenty of awesome things to discover. So for any of you seeking employment with the UN: request placement in Togo!

Research Update

This week has shown me in oh so many ways how difficult research can be, and especially how difficult it can be in a foreign country, or when you're working with 2 advisors. The wrapup:

-The lab samples from last week were thrown into the trash. Into. The. Trash.
How did this happen? I'm not exactly sure, since I escorted the laboratory man halfway to the virology lab. I guess next time I'll have to escort him the whole way. And we should outlaw "emptying the refrigerator" in hospitals. Seriously.

-My advisor decided this week that we should change our survey form. On the order of adding close to 50 questions. My other advisor thinks this will be a huge waste of our time. Ah, the life of the middleman.

- My advisor here told me this week that since the project I'm working on is a two-year effort, I won't have enough data by May to present at the annual conference. She told me I should come up with a new research question. By tomorrow.

Time to hit the drawing board.....


Addendum: 5 min after finishing this post I got an email stating that The Positive Story Project, something I've been working on at Robert Wood Johnson since 1st year, has been accepted into the 5th annual SAHARA conference in South Africa! I guess God is good, and wanted this post to be a little more balanced :) Ah the ups and downs of research.....

Halloween

Unfortunately the internet (and most of the electricity) has been down all week, which is why I'm late in making this post. That said, last weekend was Halloween! My favorite Holiday!

When I first arrived in Ghana, I was a little sad to find out they didn't celebrate Halloween. Most people don't even know what it is. This really surprised me. I just assumed Halloween was like Christmas or New Years--something the whole world could appreciate--or at least something they know about. And since Halloween's my favorite celebration of the year, the fact that I would miss out was a little sad.

Anyway, fast forward a few weeks, and enter John and Becks, my new British friends. They're volunteering here in Ghana, and have been making the rounds of various beach towns every weekend. Thank goodness to all the undead, John and Becks were invited (and invited me) to a Halloween party in Busua, a beachfront town in the western coast.

Kerstin and I headed down to the beach Friday night with very little idea of what to dress as, but as with any awesome Halloween costume, inspiration came at the eleventh hour. We dressed as an evil Doctor (Kerstin) and her dead patient (me).


I guess we were actually really scary though, because as we walked down the street to the party, people actually ran away from us. When we were joined by John and Becks (also in costume), the situation was just too much and people (adults, definitely not the children, who remained cowered in the shadows) stopped us to ask about this "Halloween."

I tried to focus on the Christian ties of the holiday. My explanation went something like this:

All Hallow's Eve precedes All Souls' Day (Nov 1). The night before All Souls' Day, all the souls rise from the dead and walk among the living, trying to bring company back with them to their graves. The only way to avoid their plot is to disguise yourself as a ghoul so they'll overlook you. I tried to bring Trick Or Treat into the story by telling the villagers they could appease the undead by throwing candy at them, but no one threw any Mars Bars my way. Anyway, they did seem fairly satisfied with my explanation, so off we proceeded to the site of the party.

Amazing Coincedence? Just as we finished the stairs and staggered (we were going all out) in to the party, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" came on. Perfect. Kerstin and I won the costume contest as well.

Hooray Halloween!