Oh Ghana..

We had plans to go to the Baptist School Orphanage in Korfordua over the weekend. I was very excited to go, only to get let down. I was suppose to meet with Richard, the man on campus that you meet with before you go. Korfordua is about three hours from Accra, and he just gives you information on how to get there. Well, anyways I was suppose to meet with him at 2pm on Friday. I called him after he didn't show up. He told me he was running late and would give me a call. When I called at 4:30pm because he hadn't called, he told me he was stuck in traffic and would be there soon. Then when I called at 7:30pm, because he still hadn't shown up, he finally tells me that it won't work for us to go this weekend. His reasoning was that they weren't ready for us. I just want to know why he didn't tell me this the first time I called? It was very frustrating and so Ghanaian.
We ended up just having a relaxing, very American, weekend in Accra. We went to Papaye's in Osu and I got a hamburger! It made my day. Then we went to the movie theatre. We were able to see Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It was a great movie! The theatre was surprisingly nicer than a lot of theatres back home. It had really comfy big seats. The sound was a little funny though. Sometimes it would be really loud, and then it would get really quiet. Also, in the middle of the movie, during one of the most dramatic parts, the screen went blank for about 2 minutes. We all just started laughing-- We all know by now, this is Ghana.

On Monday I ended up spending ten hours at the hospital with my friend Kelly. It was quite the experience. We left at about 8am and took a taxi to Nayo Clinic, which is one of the nicest clinics in Ghana. We waited, as usual, for a long time before the process even began. Everything was done so different than how it is done in the U.S. First she went to a room called the temperature room, which was a waiting room with a curtain in the corner. Behind the curtain was the nurse who took your temperature. We waited at least 20 minutes in there before her temperature was taken. Then we went to another waiting room filled with people to wait to meet with the nurse. We spent more like an hour or two waiting in this room. Once she finally met with a nurse, they drew blood, took a urine sample, and sent her to the treatment room. There is only one treatment room in the whole clinic, which had two beds in it. They decided she has a very bad bacterial infection and hooked her up to an IV. I waited outside because that room gave me the hebe jebees. There was a girl in there who was very sick, and even more dramatic about it. There was also an older white man who had a really bad case of malaria. Waiting out in the hall way was an experience in it self. I felt like I went back in time a good 60 years.. Or was in the filming for the movie Pearl Harbar. The nurses wore white scrub dresses, just like they did in the 1940's. And because we are in the tropics, just like Hawaii, the hospital is very open and mostly outdoors. While I was sitting in the hallway a man was wheeled passed on a stretcher with a bandage wrapped around his face. It felt good when we finally got out of there. And I'm really hoping the whole experience doesn't make me sick. There sanitary standards are nothing like in the U.S.

This weekend we are going to Kumasi and I am very excited. There are craft villages there, which I hear are the best places to get souvenirs. I am most likely going to buy too much, but honestly, when am I going to be in Ghana again.