First if all, I don't think I ever told you the names of everyone in my group from BYU or much about what Ghana is like. So it's me, Lily, Megan, Teron, Emily, Sydney, Kara, Cassady, Erin, Buffy, Hayden, Alden, and Darius. The St. Thomas Clinic workers are Seth and Mercy and the optometrist is Emmanuel. As for Ghana, it is hot! So hot! And very busy. Everyone is always selling things. There are tons of little stands all along streets and what not and there are even tons of people walking around in the streets. A lot of the stuff being sold looks like second hand stuff and some of it is super random so I'm not sure how they make money. For example, there are a lot of stands along the streets selling irons but it doesn't seem like anyone uses irons. Also, the traffic is crazy, everyone should get in car accidents but nobody does. It smells pretty weird most of the time but it's fine. Everyone is super nice! I love how everyone is so content with what they have. They don't have a desire for a better life or anything like that because they love how they live and what they have already.
So now more about the past few days! I attempted washing my clothes by hand for the very first time!! It was quite a disaster hahaha okay let me tell you, when you sweat this much, you need a super powered washing machine to clean those clothes. But nope, just my two hands and a little bit of soap. Well there was nowhere to hang up my clothes line so I decided to just hang them over the pole in the shower. I just had my socks left in the bucket to wash and one more pair of pants when all of the sudden the pole broke and all my clothes fell onto the dirty floor. Nasty. Oh well though, I wasn't about to take another hour and start over haha. At least I know for next time! So ya, that was my washing clothes experience. Better luck next time I guess!
Wednesday was SO fun! So we went back to Cape Coast which is the same place that they went to on Tuesday which was good because then I didn't miss out on seeing any cool places! We saw like 4 LDS churches on the way too and some sister missionaries. Well we showed up at the clinic which was at a Islamic Mosque but they told us the President of Ghana was coming and so we couldn't do the clinic there anymore. We walked some of the streets exploring with Mercy (the girl local worker that helps St. Thomas clinic). Then our optometrist and other workers said they wanted to take us to the castle there, so we walked over to the castle which held slaves in the past (I don't know all the history because it cost a lot of money to go to the museum part that tells the history and we didn't have time) but it was cool! Then they did some quick shopping with us and since they are Ghanaian then hey could talk down the prices so great. The guy would say a price and then they say "no. Less!" And so he would lower it and then they would say "why not *price*" and he would say okay finee. So that was helpful and I bought a skirt to wear on Sunday :)
Afterwards we went back to the mosque and the optometrist looked at 5 people that were there that were told to be there. While he was doing that, we got to play with the kids and give them candy and stuff and just chill because he didn't need our help today. The kids were so much fun and so cute! We had a lot of fun with them. The kids kept asking if we were going to go back the next day, which we aren't going back there again so that was so sad.
After being in the hot sun for far too long, we left, nice and red like a tomato. Yay for my first sunburn here... :/ haha it's all good though, someone brought aloe! We ended up getting home 3 hours sooner than expected which was nice because my sunburn was stinging the whole way home.
Oh ya, while we were in cape coast, Seth and Emmanuel took us to get fufu from a place they like and it was actually good!! Everyone in my group was hating on it because they already tried it but me and Lily hadn't had a chance yet so we tried it and it was good, we shared one bowl and it wasn't even 1 dollar and we couldn't finish it. It's weird because you eat it with your hands and at first Lily and Teron were using both hands because it was hard to tear apart and Seth looks over and goes "are you using two hands!???" And then he just laughed and taught us how to tear it with one hand. Then when we were going back we met up with Mercy and Emmanuel goes "Obruni was using two hands" and they all started laughing at us haha. They probably thought it was bad because we can't do anything with our left hand here because that is the hand they use for the bathroom.
We watched eye surgeries on Thursday!! We got all dressed up in probably the biggest scrubs ever and went in two at a time so that was fun. My scrubs were literally 2XL haha but it was SO awesome! It made me want to be an optometrist! Just kidding, but it really was super interesting. They had three patients in there at a time, which I'm sure would not pass in the US. Sanitation was a lot different too. I was in the last group to go, so I waited until 5:30 until I got to start and went until about 7:30 but it was worth the wait. When I entered they asked my name and I said Kiera but the guy said "if I say your name then I will bite my tongue. I can't say it" so then I said "okay call me Kiki" and then all the nurses and the doctor call me Kiki because it's the easiest for them to say, which made them love me because they only could remember my name haha. They kept calling me over "Kiki, come" and then they would tell me something. They even let me put the eye drops in and cover up the eye with gauze, tape and this egg shaped cover thing after the surgery, so that was cool! He mostly did cataract surgeries today, so it was really cool to watch him cut into the eye and take out the bad lens and put in a new one. The last surgery the doctor said was pointless because when he went into the eye he found that the retina was detached or something and so that surgery right then wouldn't work. So sad that he waited until 7:30 pm for a pointless surgery! I felt so bad for him.
At one point there was a patient laying down but the doctor was doing something in another room and all the nurses were talked to us and they saw my ring and were like "Kiki are you married?" And I said no and told them I was getting married in August and they got all excited and said they want to come. So I told them it was in the US in California and they got super excited and were like "wow!! We will all come Kiki!!" Haha it was cute. One asked if it was near Laguna Beach because that's the only place he has heard of in California. Anyway, I could go on and on about how incredible it was but Just know that I loved it and I am so excited to go back to St. Thomas clinic next week! What an experience it was!
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