Goodbye

1/27

Today at outreach we went to a private school we have been to several times. There are over 900 students and we treat about 200 kids. One boy had his head covered in white cream, as if his mother had been treating the head fungus at home. I started wiping the several day old cream off his head and the second I touched it he started squirming and crying. At first I thought he was just faking, but then I realized that by wiping the cream off I was wiping some skin off too. Then some places were raised and there were cuts that were oozing pus. The fungus had gotten so bad there were boils under the skin on his head. I told him to tell his mom to take him to the doctor. Turns out he was an orphan. His grandmother was taking care of him. Hopefully she will take him to the doctor and get him some antibiotics and maybe change his pillowcase!

Kasper, Louisa, me and fluffy at our host families house

1/28

Today was my last day at outreach. We set our table up under a covered area in the middle of the school. The kids here were very excited. They could not wait their turn in line and constantly wanted to see what we were doing. Almost every kid at this school had some sort of head fungus. The kids with the slightly longer hair are very difficult to treat because the cream cannot get to the scalp. I was told that the kids are required to have their hair cut short and now I understand why. After we treated all the kids and checked the teachers, we got some good pictures with the kids. They almost knocked us over trying to all get in the picture.

Amelia and me

me and Enoch

me with all the kids

1/29

This morning Ben left at about 5am for the funeral of his brother-in-law. Agnes, my host mother, stayed the night with Philomena, her daughter and the widow. Junior, Roselyn and I left at about 830. We arrived at the church for the service. At 5 that morning was the viewing of the body and the mourning. The body was laid on a bed and for some time people pray and cry. If you cannot cry then you hire someone to cry for you. By not crying you make it look as if you are happy the person died or that you killed them. And it is not just enough to “cry” the hired mourners really wail! Afterwards the body was put in a coffin, much like ones from home, and brought to the church. When we arrived the crying was over and it was just preaching and singing at the church. Everyone wears black on this day to the funeral. If you are family of the deceased, you where black and red. After the service we all walked down the road to the burial. People gathered around the grave and laid the flowers in with the coffin. We then went to a family members house for lunch. Everyone sat around and mingled and ate jollof rice and chicken. It is evidently also popular to drink before hand. Many of the younger men showed up obviously very intoxicated. Between eating and mingling people would go to the actual funeral. This is where chairs are set up under tents surrounding a shrine of pictures of the deceased and flowers. People would come up as they arrived and shake the hands of all those sitting on the front row. These are the family members. Then they would donate money to cover for the cost of the VERY expensive funeral. Once you donated money, you got a receipt. You would take this to the people playing music and they would stop the music and announce your name and how much you donated. If it was a sufficient amount people would clap. You could also use the receipt to get food and drinks. Agnes stayed busy most of the day attending to the guests and making sure everyone was happy. When I sat down to wait for some food. She snapped and told the people serving that I should have gotten my food first and to hurry and serve me. Several times today, 4 to be exact, young men came to me and either said I should marry them or asked if they could find them a “white lady” to marry. At about 6 when the funeral part was over, they put on modern music and people dance like they are at a club. At about 7 that evening I helped carry extra food and drinks to the car. We finally got home about 10. It was a very long day!

junior, roselyn, akosi, Agnes and junior, me, Roselyn's mom, Ben and Maabenaa

me and junior

1/30

Today was the second day of the funeral. Today everyone wears black and white. They tell people what pattern they will wear and most people showed up wearing an outfit made with that particular fabric. The church service this morning started at 7, but we did not get there until 12. It ended about 1. After the church service we went to another house for food. People would come in and eat then go to the same funeral part. At the funeral there were traditional drummers and again people collecting and announcing monetary donations. 

me with baby junior

Also at one point Philomena, the widow, stood up and started dancing. Then people would get up and surround her as danced around the chairs. People would come up and stick money on her forehead or just throw money at her. 

people dancing around the widow

We had more jollof rice, chicken and kebabs today. Because Agnes was going to stay with her daughter this night she would not be back at the house before I left the next morning. We said our goodbyes at the funeral. She was a wonderful host mother and she and her family really made this trip special.

1/31

This morning I woke up at 5 and got dressed so I could throw the last of my things in my suitcase and cross my fingers and weigh my bags. After sitting, standing, jumping and ripping seams on one bag I finally got it closed! When I went to the STC bus station that would take me to Accra, my fears were confirmed and my bags were 5 kilos over the allotted amount. I had already left behind clothes, toiletries, shoes, and what was left was necessary things. When I got to Accra, I had GHC8.80 left with me, which should have been enough to get me to the airport. The first taki driver I talked to said GHC15. I laughed and said GHC6. He got angry and walked away. I yelled back and said, “I though this was how your bargaining game worked. You say something ridiculously high and I say something ridiculously low.” He said he was being fair and gave me a good price. I ignored him and walked away. Another guy told me the same price and I started to get worried. This time I did not want to bargain so I straight up told him how much money I had. He said he would find someone going near there and would only charge me the money I had left. We had a deal and I made it to the airport with a backpack, purse and 2 huge rolling bags. My flight was scheduled to leave Accra at 11:15pm and arrive in Nashville after a layover in DC at 936am. I noticed the United counter was empty and there were no united workers at around 730. I found a United ticket and info desk. I said that I just wanted to confirm that my flight was on time. She said there were no flights scheduled for today. I whipped my ticket out and she typed some numbers into the computer and said it was rerouted via Frankfurt, Germany leaving at the same time, but arriving in Nashville at 540pm…So my already long day and a half has now turned into a really long 48 hours! I went through customs only to be asked what was in my bags and that was sufficient for them. Going through immigration was a little different. I knew my passport was expired, but I was told by immigration services in Kumasi that there was a one week grace period. The immigration officer told me the passport was expired and there was no such thing as a “grace period.” He told me instead of paying the fee for an expired passport and getting it restamped I could just pay GHC30 or $20. I told him all I had was a credit card. He told me I would need to pay or he would turn me over to his supervisor. I insisted that I only had a credit card and he told me to go downstairs, buy something and get cash back, but that when I returned upstairs I needed to some directly to him. At this point I knew he was lying to me. I said I would like to talk with his supervisor and the head of immigration and he immediately said, “don’t worry about it, go on.” HAH! I was so angry as I walked away. I feel so bad for poor people trying to leave and getting scammed by jerks like this. I knew by reporting him, it would go no where…things in Ghana are not like the US. That man would be fired on the spot for trying something like that at home! Finally I boarded my Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt at 11:15.

2/1

We arrived in Frankfurt at about 7am, German time. German is such a rhythmic funny language. I think I was tired and a little delirious because I had to think about something else every time someone spoke in the airport to keep from laughing. When we arrived our gate was occupied so they made us get out of the plane in the 14 degree weather onto the tarmac. (I was wearing capris and sandals!) Four hours later we boarded a plane to DC. Finally from DC to Nashville! Mom and Dad met me at the airport when my plane arrived at about 530pm. I was welcomed with a bouquet of BACON!! :)

me and mom with my bacon bouquet

me and dad

 I am so glad to be home and see my family and friends. I will always remember this trip and the people that made it so special. I now have many great friends around the world and especially in Ghana. I will someday go back to visit!

Thanks to all the support you blog readers have given me!