Best Saturday Yet!

Good morning all!
It is about 10:30 am here...and I just woke up!! I was totally exhausted after my long day yesterday. Yesterday was the most amazing off day I've had here so far. Our driver John wanted to take me, Max, and Ryan to his hometown/village of Ada. So we were trying to get it all arranged to where we could rent the car for the day and he would drive us there. We wanted it to just be the 3 of us, but then someone invited all of the new volunteers that arrived on Friday. I didn't mind, it's just that there are SO many of them.... like 12 maybe..? Or even more. When you have that big of a group it's so hard to get organized and keep track of everyone...not to mention a huge pack of white people hanging out at an African festival.....? Not a good idea...We already stick out like a sore thumb!!! haha!!! But anyhow...everyone ended up going yesterday, but me, Ryan, Max, and this new girl Christine rode in the small car with John all day and the others were in the big van with Bismark. So John was able to show us around all day and we just kind of kept to ourselves...which I think worked out for the best!!

So we arrived at the festival around 10:30 or 11 am yesterday. The streets were crazy busy. People everywhere!! Food vendors everywhere... everyone was dressed in really elaborate, traditional African clothes. All of the chiefs of the villages in Ada (I think there were 7) were carried down the streets on palaquins (not sure if that's how you spell it). Girls would be like dancing and siniging in front of them as they went down the street. It was the neatest thing. I wish I could describe more...but it would take hours probably! I'm just so glad we got to experience that b/c I feel like that's a once in a lifetime opportunity!!

We then left the festival to go to the beach...which was like a 10 minute drive away in Ada Foah (another part of Ada... the festival was in Big Ada). We stopped at the beautiful resort called Manet Paradise Beach Resort....it even had a swimming pool! I wanted to dive right in...it was so hot yesterday. If I ever come back to Ghana I WILL stay there in Ada. It was so gorgeous...and the beach it was on was like totally private...it would be so relaxing!!!! Then we walked across the street to another beach (the resort was on a big river that leads to the ocean) where people were fishing. They had caught tons of fish and they were all laid out on the beach. It was so cool.

Next John drove us through a little traditional village on the beach. All of the houses were made of clay and palm frond roofs. It was like totally what you would expect when you think African village, except it was on the beach. The people were so nice. They kids were adorable. Some of them were running around naked..kinda awkward at first....but I guess that's just what they do!!! Some man ran up a palm tree (literally scaled the thing in 2 seconds) and cut some coconuts off the tree for us. We all got to drink some of the milk/water out of them and eat some of the meat/flesh. That was the first time I had fresh coconut and I honestly didn't really like it...I am glad I tried it though!!

Next we arranged to take a little boat ride down the river to the estuary, where the river meets the sea. The boat ride was beautiful. First of all the breeze felt amazing. Secondly, the scenery was stunning....I forgot I was in Africa. It felt like we were totally secluded in our own little world. The sand was so white...and there were so many palm trees on the shore. The estuary was amazing too. I'd never seen one before... there were huge waves where the river and the sea crashed into each other. John said it would be fatal if you tried to swim in there. It was so awesome to see though!! I wish my descriptions did it justice...

We then stopped by this place called Cocoloko Beach Resort where all of the other volunteers were eating with Bismark. We stayed only long enough to have a drink b/c John wanted to take us back to the festival in Big Ada. Cocoloko seemed like a neat place though. You can rent a little bungalow type house that looks kind of like a typical African hut and it's on the beach!

So then we went back to the festival for a bit. This is also an election year for Ghana and so a lot of political people were at the festival. We even saw one of them addressing the crowd. His name is Nana and he's a member of the NPP party (I think).....

Then John took us to meet his family!! He has two little kids named Isaac and Irene (ages 2 and 4 I think..the girl being the youngest.) His wife's name is Christine and she is pregnant with their third! They made a cute little family! Then we left to head back to Accra!! Once we got here we went and got some cheap local food off the streets and brought it back to the Telecentre to eat. We then just kind of took it easy and hung around last night. When the other volunteers got back last night they got ready and went back to Roof Top for a second night in a row. Max and Ryan and I were too tired to go...and we'd been out the past two nights in a row! We just played a game of cards with our Ghanaian brother, Osman, and got ready for bed! I slept soooo well last night!!!

Not sure what's on the agenda for today...I personally am cool with just hanging out here and reading and maybe doing some laundry. I really feel like yesterday I did enought sight seeing for the rest of my time here!!! haha!! I need to review for the OAT...hmm...we'll see what happens!!!

Miss you all dearly!!! I will be flying home one week from today...I can't believe my time here is almost up. I really am enjoying Ghana so much. I wish I could stay longer!!! I hope that I can make it back here someday and see even more of the country!!!

<3 you all...see you soon! XOXO
PeAcE OUT

some pictures

Roof Top

Well...we are getting ready to go to Roof Top again...... should be a fun night. Should be interesting with all of the new volunteers! We shall see....

I moved into a single room after Erica left today..I now have good water pressure in the shower and HOT water :)))))) YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

past few days...

So I haven't been doing a good job at keeping this up this week. Today is Friday... Off day again. New volunteers are here. Tons of them. They all seem pretty cool. My friend Erica is leaving today...I'm sad:( and our other good close friend Nick left yesterday :(( But I still have Ryan and Max.

So Tuesday I went on outreach to some village like 3 hours away with Robert, Erica, Nick, and Ruth. It was a great day...but VERRRY long. We did not get back until late....8ish...then went to chinese with everyone. We also saw a lot of ppl with very bad eye problems on Tuesday...lots of blind ppl....so sad.

Wednesday I went on outreach with Dennis (another nurse), Ryan, Jerson, and Max. Over 250 ppl showed up to be screened...but we were only able to see 158. This was a suppppper long day. We didn't get home until like 10 at night. We referred over 20 ppl for surgery on Wed.... Huge number

Yesterday I went to the Crystal Eye Clinic with Erica. It rained all day and so when we got there patients hadn't shown up b/c the roads were so bad. We sat around forever...then finally some came and we saw about 10 or 12 surgeries. (Mostly cataract surgeries, but also 2 pterygiums....Pterygium surgery is SOOO FAST!!!) Then we came back to the hotel and the 2 of us went to T&C to eat dinner. Then me, Ryan, Erica, Max, and Kartee went down to Osu to go out since it was Erica's last night in Accra. We went to this bar/club called Bywel...it was really cool. Live music...kinda jazzy. There were surprisingly a lot of white ppl there too!! It was a fun night!!

Not sure what the plans are for the rest of the day...but I will try to upload some pics later!

peace-