I love long weekends!

Hola amigos!

I had a blast this weekend! It was so much fun to be with all of QPID’s team Ghana and to travel for the long weekend! We had tons of adventures and I made so many memories! I wrote all about it in my travel diaries so read on for details!! Yay!

My favourite day of the weekend was Saturday. We went biking and I think that is truly the best way to see Ghana! We passed through hilly areas where we saw all kinds of trees and beautiful butterflies. We also biked through villages where we could see people and their homes as well as children running and playing. The best part was the waterfall that we all stopped and swam in! then we went back to Davina’s and had birthday cake for Caroline!

Now that our long weekend is over we are back to work! Both Caro & I are keeping busy! I was out visiting fishing communities today and tomorrow I will be volunteering at a clinic for general health issues. I love the variety in my work here; every day is a new adventure!

Until next time!

-Sara
xoxo


June 24th,

Work was extremely quiet today. I think everyone was in the weekend mindset! Caro & I went for a walk on our lunch break and bought cookies! I have been deprived of high-sugar snacks! Its probably a bad thing that I discovered these cookies today though! During our walk children kept following us. They were dressed in their school uniforms and they kept trying to offer us help to find a taxi. Everyone who sees us assumes we’re lost or something haha!

Afterwards we went back to work. We finally got our summer projects all sorted out. Then we went home and had Fufu for supper! Mmm there is no better way to ring in the weekend then with a big bowl of fufu!

Later in the evening we went out with George, Josafe, & Aminu. First we went to a small outdoor bar where we sat and talked. Then we went to Champs, which is a karaoke bar. There were a lot of tourists at this bar. We sang Sweet Caroline (as if we didn’t stand out enough already) and it was 100% the most painful performance ever haha. Then we went home and went to bed! I am very excited for tomorrow because Davina & Heather are coming to visit!!

June 25th,

Caro wasn’t feeling well this morning so once Davina and Heather arrived we told her to rest. Next weekend is her birthday and we are travelling to Accra so she needs to be in tip-top shape!

I went to the bus station to meet up with Davina and Heather. Then I took them to Vieanna City Beach. They had a late lunch- chicken and rice. We all got a bottle of blue skies pineapple juice. It was so delicious! This juice is very fresh and doesn’t contain any preservatives like in Canada so it only lasts for a maximum of 5 days!

After lunch we went for a nice walk along the beach and found a bunch of rocks to climb on. Davina was in heaven! Then we went downtown to market circle. It’s a very busy area filled with people and little shops. Everywhere you walk people constantly call you over to their stand to buy their product. Also the traffic in this area is very hectic! Overall it’s a congested area but its fun to see! I tasted kelly-welly which is an evening snack street vendors sell. Its deep-fried plantain with boiled peanuts on top! Mmm so tasty!

After market circle we went back to my house for the night. Caro was feeling much better at this time. We had supper and then Heather and Davina got to meet my host family. We had a little tea party in the living room and talked for hours. Then we went to bed early because we had to go to church in the morning!


June 26th,

This morning we all woke up early for church. We went to a different church this week than last week. It was absolutely beautiful inside! The church was huge and there were several arches running down the sides making it very bright inside! I look forward to going to church every week just to see all of the women’s dresses! People really get dressed up and wear their best attire for church so you see women in traditional dresses of all styles and colours and little boys all dressed up in suit pants and dress shirts. Its really nice to see!

After church we went back to the house. We went for a walk down our road to show Heather and Davina our stomping grounds. We had fufu for lunch which was Davina’s first time having fufu! It was very good! She also really enjoyed it! Then Davina and Heather left to go catch their bus back to Accra. It was a quick trip, but we had a great time and it was wonderful to see them!

Later in the afternoon Caro & I decided we were on another ice cream mission. We went for a long walk down our road and explored some other roads. We ended up finding frozen chocolate milk which was soo good! It was a block of ice when we bought it but after a few minutes out in the sun it was in its drinkable form. It was called fanchoco and it came in a little package so you just tear off the corner and drink it.

Caro & I had a nice lazy day today in preparation for work tomorrow. I’m going to work in the office tomorrow and then I will be at the clinic Tuesday & Wednesday. Tuesday I will be volunteering for the same clinic I did last Thursday but Wednesday I will be going to a general health clinic. I’m very excited for Tuesday right now just to see babies! I better get some self-control though or else I might leave with one! : p Caroline will be travelling to a town called Half Assini with work this week. She will be going to various communities with Kwesi to do data collection. I will be lost without my sister!

June 27th,

Today I went to work at the office where I mostly spent the day doing research for PHE. Caro & I went for our lunchtime walk. People still shout “bruni” when we walk down the road and children run all around to find their friends and then they all come to the road and watch us. We’re hoping by the end of the summer they will get bored of seeing the two white girls walk by everyday, but I’m not really sure if they ever will. We had a woman come to our work today selling bananas. Here they sell bananas with a small handful of peanuts for the sweet & salty effect. Later in the afternoon I went for another walk to get an orange fanta at my friend Ivy’s store. I love going to see her! Since most soft drinks here come in glass bottles they always ask that you return it that way they can get a refund on the bottle so that gave me an excuse to go for another walk to see Ivy again! When I went back to Ivy’s it was close to when the office closed so her daughter was home from school. Her name was Precious and she is the most adorable little girl! She kept wanting to give me hugs and wasn’t shy at all! Many of the young children here are nervous of Caro & I but she had no fear and kept touching my arm almost as if she was trying to see if it was real. Caroline left around 4pm. She has gone to a town called Half Assini which is in the western region of Ghana near the Ivory Coast.

After supper I sat with the children at my house while they did their homework. Then my host uncles, Abe & Emmanuel ended up giving me a Twi lesson. I learned a lot of basic phrases and also the alphabet. I’d upload a video of me singing it but no matter what language I sing in it isn’t nice on the ears haha so you will just have to take my word for it that I know how to sing it! J Emmanuel also got the children to show me different traditional dances. They are getting a lot less shy but I really just want them to be my best friends haha so I have my work cut out for me!

Well it was a fun day but I better get to sleep. I am going to be spending the day at the maternity clinic tomorrow! Crossing my fingers to see more deliveries!

Da yie! (Sleep well!)

June 28th,

This morning I went to Friends of the Nation briefly and then I left for the clinic. I took the tro-tro (its like a mini-bus). I had to take one tro-tro to Sekondi and then catch another one to Shama. Today was my first time getting there alone, but I made it and once I do it a few times I will get to know the stops for the tro-tro.

I had a busy day at the clinic! I got to give a tetanus shot which was exciting! I was very nervous to do it though and I was shaking uncontrollably. I am scared to hurt someone and then every patient at the clinic won’t like the white girl! I watched my friend Jerry do many tetanus shots though and he kept saying ok you do the next one but I kept chickening out and making excuses. When it came down to the last patient I finally did it! Another nurse was doing HIV testing so I watched her doing that for awhile. I also witnessed 3 deliveries today! 2 of the deliveries were boys and 1 was a girl! The poor midwife at the clinic must have been exhausted!


The first baby that was born today was a little boy. This was my first time seeing the delivery of a boy and he was so tiny and cute that I became attached to him almost instantly! He weighed 1.5 kg (3lbs) and was premature. His mother was only 30 weeks along but she came to the clinic with severe abdominal pain and ended up going into labour. The baby did not survive very long after birth. He was having difficulty breathing. We suctioned his nose with a bulb syringe and patted his back to help him clear his airway but it didn’t help him. The midwife put him down on a table and I kept wanting to go and try to intervene but she told me its no use because they don’t have the resources. She said without an incubator he’ll never make it. The mother was resting but the father came in with their daughter and I felt terribly for them. The hardest part about this situation for me was knowing that if this clinic had more resources and better equipment this baby would still be alive.

The second delivery which occurred almost instantly after the premature boy was a baby girl. She was 2.5 kg (5.5lbs). There are 2 delivery beds at the clinic and they are both in the same room. Basically the first woman was delivering her baby and then as he was being born the other woman came in and went into labour as well. There is one midwife and a few assistants so the scene became very hectic and crowded, not to mention stressful because the first baby that was born was not fairing well. Then right before shift change another woman went into labour and had a little boy. He weighed 2.9 kg (6.4 lbs).

I noticed that when a woman is in labour here a very common comfort and form of distraction is prayer. I have witnessed 4 deliveries now and for every one of them the woman has prayed and asked God to give them the strength to get through because they are in so much pain. One of the women was throwing up during her labour and it was really challenging to make her comfortable. Another thing I have noticed is that no men or family are in the room during the deliveries. Maybe it happens in the private hospitals but in this clinic the woman seems to come alone. There was only one woman that I have seen who came with her husband but he waited outside of the clinic. Lastly they do not put the baby to the mom’s chest after the delivery. They take it and clean it right away, wrap it and put it down. Then they deliver the placenta and bring the mother into the ward room. Once she is lying in bed comfortably they bring the baby to her. I am not sure why they keep them separate for so long. I find it interesting but I really want to share with them next time what I was taught in clinical about putting the baby to the mom’s chest right away and the benefits of doing so.

After the little girl was born I left the clinic and took the tro-tro back to the office. I worked at Friends of the Nation for awhile and then I went home. I had Fufu for supper, which was delicious as always! Then I watched a bit of a movie with the children. It wasn’t in English so I had no idea what was going on!

I am now just relaxing in my room. I am thinking a lot about the little baby boy that passed away today. It is not an easy thing to see and what makes it really hard is knowing that if we were at a different facility and if these people had more resources there would have been more hope for the baby. What scares me is how calm the midwives and assistants all were. I think they see this often and I don’t know how I will learn to cope with seeing something like that.

June 29th,

Today I went back to the clinic but I went to the general health section instead of the maternity. Before starting today I was sitting in the staff room with the nurses. They are all so friendly and I love them all, even though they laugh at me haha! One of the nurses brought her daughter in at the beginning of the day. Her name was Abrefie. I was holding her and she kept touching my face almost like she was confused about why it was a different colour than hers!

Being at the general health clinic was very interesting! We saw approximately 65 patients in between 9am-2pm. The patients ranged from newborn babies to the elderly. The most frequent diagnoses I saw were malaria and chronic cough. There was a child who presented with malaria and anaemia. He could barely keep his eyes open because he was so weak. We put him on a bed and I held him still while a nurse inserted an IV. We gave him IV fluids but once his blood results came back we learned that he had terribly low haemoglobin and he was sent to the hospital for further treatment.

I also saw a patient today who had slipped and dropped her baby. Both of them were fine but we had to clean up the baby who had a lot of cuts and scrapes from the fall.

After my day at the clinic ended I took a tro-tro back to the office. I was speaking with one of the other interns and she asked me to put together some information on STD’s and to join her and one of the other interns to do a talk at a primary school and a junior high school in a few weeks about STD’s.

After work I went to my friend Georgina’s shop. She is a seamstress and she is currently working on making me a nursing dress to wear to the clinic. It wasn’t ready today because her power was out, but she said it will be ready next week. I am so excited to wear it!

Tonight I ate supper with all of the children at my house. Before I had mentioned the way meals are served here and how Caro & I eat, then the adults, then the children but since Caro was away I didn’t want to eat alone so I asked if I could join the children. It was exciting to sit at a table with 5 children and I am hoping that they will let us eat supper with them from now on. After supper I sat with the children in the living room while they watched the animated version of sleepy hollow. I have a photo album I made with pictures of my family, friends, and my house that I showed to Emmanuel & the children. They then showed me their photo albums and we had a lot of fun sitting and swapping pictures and stories.

Well it is getting late and I am leaving for Accra tomorrow so I better go pack!

Bye for now!

June 30th,

I woke up early today to get ready and have breakfast. I did not have to go to work today so I was spoiled with a 4 day weekend! Once Caro returned from working out in Half Assini we left for Accra.

The bus station was very busy & chaotic when we got there. We were able to find a mini-bus that was heading from Takoradi to Accra and hop on it. While we were sitting in the van waiting for it to fill up various people came by the windows trying to sell us different things. Some of them were very practical like drinks and snacks but some of the other items are very random, such as placemats and inflatable animals so I really don’t know who buys them. I bought a fanyogo (strawberry yogourt) which I savoured for the first part of the drive. It only took us 3 ½ hours to get to Accra. Davina came to meet us at the station when we arrived. We were all hungry so we bought corn on the cob from a woman who was selling it on the street. It was roasted and it tasted quite different than the way we make it at home but it was still good!

Accra is a huge city and all of the traffic and congestion makes getting around the city a very lengthy process. We took a taxi from the bus station to Davina’s place and it took over an hour! Our taxi driver was our best friend though. His name was Sammy and he enjoyed laughing at us. He also got a kick out of Davina who pointed out all of her favourite shops, her seamstress, the place where she buys her pineapple, the place where she buys mango, etc. during the drive.

Once we got to Davina’s we got a quick tour but since it took us a long time to get there and the traffic was heavy we had to leave right away to go the BBQ at the Canadian embassy. The taxi driver that took us to the embassy was very mean and kept yelling at us for more money because of the traffic and because we stopped to pick up Heather and Robin. He wasn’t our best friend like Sammy.

We had a lot of fun at the Canadian embassy!I felt like I was at home to celebrate Canada day! There was a BBQ, Canadian trivia, Tim Horton’s coffee giveaway, poutine, & a big cake! We all stood for the national anthem as well! I had a lot of fun and it was really amazing to meet other people who were originally from Canada and now living in Ghana or other students who had travelled to Ghana to volunteer for the summer. One of my favourite people that we met was a chiropractor. She was from Canada but got a job in Ghana. She was slightly intoxicated though and came up to us out of no where and said, “I was deaf until I was 7..but then I became a chiropractor” hahaha. We also made a friend named John who was from Chatham, Ontario. When we first got there he started talking to us but we were anxious to go get a drink so we told him we just had to go to the bar first and that we would be right back and he congratulated us on keeping up Queen’s reputation!

After a night of fun with Canadians we were all super tired and went back to Davina’s to sleep.

Good night!

July 1st-

Happy Canada Day!

This morning we left bright and early for Boti Falls. It was Republic Day in Ghana which is a big celebration! Apparently the place to celebrate Republic day for thousands of Ghanaians is at Boti Falls! We went ane were shocked at how many people were there and how impossible it was to move! We went on a hike to see Umbrella Rock and The 3 Headed Palm Tree. The hike was stressful because people kept shouting at us “oh bruni you’re too tired!” But we weren’t tired! We were hiking it just fine! People here seem to think white people are lazy and that we can’t do anything strenuous but we can! The hiking trail was packed like a mosh pit and there were several parts where it was just a pile up of people with no one moving because people were shoving and trying to go up and down on the same path. At one point my head got stepped on. I still don’t know how it was possible but it happened haha! We stayed strong and made it up to see the 3-headed palm tree and umbrella rock. You could climb both of these and sit on them but there were so many people pushing and shoving to do so that we decided to hike back down. We bought corn on the cob from someone in a small village that we passed through on our hike to give us a bit of an energy boost for the way down.

Once we got back to the main section of the park where everyone was singing and dancing we decided that we still wanted to hike down to see the falls. Our plans changed quickly however once we started going down the steps that led to the falls. There were 250 steps but after about 10 we could not move at all and we were so tired of every person that saw us saying “you’re too tired” and “oh bruni are you sure you can do this?“ that we just left. We could see the top of the falls and that was enough for us. It was just impossible to move and it probably would have taken us hours to go down those stairs due to all the people on them. Once we left the park we found a school bus that was heading back to town. They had taken the children to the falls for the day. The teachers must have felt bad for us because we were having trouble finding a bus to take us back so they let us hop on with them.

When we got back to Accra we went to a restaurant near Davina’s called “Stages.” We chugged water and had a nice big plate of chicken & rice. It hit the spot after all of our hiking! After the restaurant our plan was to go out but once we got back to Davina’s we decided we wanted to call it a night!

Stay classy Canada! <3 Good night!

July 2-

Happy Birthday Caro!

This morning we woke up and lived the life of Davina! We strolled down the road and bought a fresh pineapple, a mango, and bananas. We then went back to Dav’s appartment to make a birthday breakfast for Caro! Our original plan was to make banana pancakes but the mix we found in the cupboard was moldy. Emily, Davina’s roommate, came to our rescue with her famous French toast! Davina went across the road and bought a loaf of fresh bread and then we were in business! Emily makes her French toast with a hint of rum. It was delicious, especially with all of the fresh fruit! After our nice big breakfast we said bye to Emily who left today to head back to Canada. She has been in Ghana for two months on an internship for Ottawa U.

Me, Caro, Dav, Heather, Robin, and our friend Chloe from France went biking in Arburi today. We had such an amazing time! We were with a group of Americans and our guide, Spider. We went out on a trail and biked for awhile. Then we stopped and hiked down to a waterfall. We stayed at the waterfall for awhile to swim and relax in the sun. Spider found sugar cane for us and we all got to try a bite! I really enjoyed swimming in the waterfall and was sad when we had to start heading back!

Something strange happened on the bike ride back and I somehow managed to lose the entire group! It’s a typical Sara move though hahaha. I was with Robin and Chloe but for some reason I thought the rest of the group was behind us. I lost Robin and Chloe after biking up a huge hill so I must have made a wrong turn. All I know was that I was in a corn field and there was no one around! I just kept pedalling and every time I found a fork in the road I would follow whichever one seemed to have more bike trail marks. I eventually found my way back and was surprised to be the last one back haha. Apparently I made my own path through the corn field though because no one else went through it! Oops! The best part of this was that today was the one time I didn’t have my cell phone with me, so when I was all alone I had no way of finding anyone! Oops again!


One of the guides at the bike place, Joe, really wanted Caro’s eyebrow ring and kept touching it. We took a nice group photo with the guys at the bike place before we left. We had a blast today!!

Once we arrived in Accra we went to pick up some things for dinner as well as Caro’s birthday cake! We had a fabulous dinner! We started with kelly-welly (deep-fried plantain & peanuts) & beer. Then we had avocado alfredo. Then to top it all off we had birthday cake!


Since it was Caro’s birthday we had to celebrate with a night on the town! We ended up going to a small outdoor bar called “This is Africa” where we sat and talked for hours. At first there was a man who came and sat with us and wouldn’t go away but once we told him that we were all married and not interested we were good to go! We decided to head back to Davina’s though once we began to see the “ladies of the night” coming out!


July 3rd-

We slept in this morning since we were up late last night! We had a nice breakfast with Davina- oatmeal with fresh mango and banana while we watched glee. Then we had birthday cake! Afterwards Caro & I packed up our things and left for Takoradi. It took us 4 ½ hours to get back to Tak. We spent 1 hour stuck in traffic in Accra. Caro & I were both feeling nauscious on the ride back and we were relieved when we got home! We had a nice big supper and went right to bed!

I hope you enjoyed the diaries! I will post more again soon! Have a good night!