That's Amorre

So I guess as far as basic updates go this week, there was a birthday party last Saturday for a girl on my program. A couple people threw her a surprise party, which I thought was really sweet. We all went out to dinner. Some people went out afterwards. I went back to the dorm, originally planning on going to bed, but then I got dragged out again by some different people on my floor and ended up having a really great night. We went to this rooftop bar in Osu and had some drinks and danced and stuff. Lots-o-fun.

Sunday and Monday were pretty unremarkable, but on Tuesday I went to my internship and there was a second Italian med student there. A male one. Which I soon realized meant that no one would talk to me the rest of the day. So with Twi conversations to my left, and Italian conversations to my right, and no women having babies, I was pretty bored all day. Well, kind of. In a way, the Italians were kind of entertaining. I don't know what they were talking about, as I could only guess based on my minimal knowledge of Spanish/Italian cognates. At one point they were talking about Mascarpone and some sort of pasta, which made me crave Italian food. But anyway, whatever it was they talked about all day, they seemed pretty flirtatious with each other. I felt like I was watching an Italian romcom with no subtitles. It was cute in like a nauseating way. I hope they live happily ever after and have lots of babies, those two gorgeous, tan, European, future-doctor sonsofbitches.

But speaking of my internship, I believe that Tuesday was probably my last day at the hospital. I know I said I was going to stick with it, but I found out the hospital internship won't count for a required field experience I need for my certificate in Global Health at UW. So instead I'm switching to the West African AIDS Foundation where I can help work on projects in community education and outreach focused on communicable diseases. It's a lot more focused on what I'm interested in. Honestly, as interesting as a maternity ward is, and as grateful as I am to have had that experience, I wasn't really sure why they placed me there. But it's all good now. I start at WAAF next week.

And speaking of hospitals, we have had our very first malaria case of the semester, ladies and gentlemen! This dude in my program went to the hospital yesterday morning with both malaria AND food poisoning, the poor guy. We just got back from visiting him, and he's doing fine and probably will be back on campus by tomorrow. Since I found out yesterday, I have been using my 40% DEET bug spray like a fiend, although I still almost forgot to take my malaria pill today. But it's not like it really makes that much of a difference. This kid was taking his pills regularly and still got it so you never know what'll happen.

Anywho, I feel like my blog posts have become less frequent because as the semester rolls on, and I've fallen into somewhat of a routine, there's less for me to say on a regular basis. So I'm going to attempt to change it up a bit and just talk about things I've been thinking about?

At the hospital earlier, we were talking about some sort of weird things we've noticed that I thought might be interesting to share. Kind of some quirks about Ghana that our group has noticed so far:

• Lots of people speak reeeeally quietly. Almost whispering. Sometimes I feel bad because I have to ask someone to repeat themselves like 5 times because when I tell them I can't hear them, they don't raise their voice. They just say what they said again at the same volume and I can't hear them. We were laughing about it because sometimes in our classes, a Ghanaian student will raise their hand and ask a question, and for some reason the professor can hear them perfectly but to us it sounded like a whisper and we have no idea what the question was. Do Americans just have bad hearing? Who knows. It's even more strange to me because they blast their music so loud everywhere here, yet speak so quietly in one on one conversations. I don't understand.
• But it goes both ways. Sometimes we forget about how fast we speak English. Some of the people in my program have said they've asked questions in their classes and everyone just starts laughing at them because apparently we speak so quickly to them that they don't understand at all. It's interesting because I didn't expect communication to be as difficult as it is sometimes. I expected that because everyone here speaks English, there wouldn't really be a problem. Usually it's not that much of a problem, but you just have to pay attention to your speaking sometimes and remember to speak just a little bit slower.
• No one ever seems to have change. It blows my mind sometimes. I mean, when it's at the market or something, I completely understand. It seems reasonable to me that someone selling stuff at the market would expect you to pay exact change. But I was at shoprite last weekend (which is like a target or some sort of supermarket like that) and they didn't even have enough change when I paid for my stuff. Some people even get frustrated with you when you need change. But it's not my fault the ATM only gave me 10-cedi bills and I can't find where to exchange it for smaller ones. It's frustrating sometimes because when they don't have change, people just tell you to come back later and get it, but by the time you come back, how many people have they told that to? And will they remember they owe you money or believe you when you ask for it? And if this keeps happening, how am I even going to remember which places still owe me money? It stresses me out. The people in the kitchen of ISH still owe me like 1 cedi from a couple weeks ago but I waited too long to ask for it back. But it's like 60 cents or something. Shit happens.
• Twi is difficult. And there are some words that are really hard for Americans to pronounce because we don't use some of the sounds they use. For instance, if you mispronounce the word "hwe", (sounds kind of like "schweh") you could mean to say the verb "to look" but accidentally say "vagina" instead. Not that the mix up would cause too many problems, but it might just be pretty embarrassing.
• A lot of people immediately assume I'm either British or German. Even just earlier tonight, there was a Ghanaian driving down the street who rolled down his window and was shouting "ALLES KLAR?? ALLES KLAR???" at me. I have no idea what he meant by that. But I've been wondering why people make those assumptions right away, like whether it's based on what I'm wearing, or whatever.
• Here, the word "soon" doesn't necessarily mean "soon". I was laughing about that with one of my Ghanaian friends when we were out last night because one of my friends wanted to leave where we were and he kept saying we'd leave "soon", but we didn't leave for another hour and a half or something. Or someone will tell you they're on their way to somewhere, and that they'll be there "soon", but actually they're still in the process of getting ready and they won't even leave their place for another half an hour. I guess it's just that there's no hurry here. I kind of like that. Though sometimes it makes making plans a little more difficult, when you show up somewhere about half an hour to an hour before everyone else. I'm still trying to figure out what "soon" means.

Those are just a few observations. Can't think of much more right now, even though I know there are more.

By the way, this is kind of late to bring up, but if anyone ever wants to send me letters or anything, I would love you forever and ever. I miss all of you back home and getting mail gives me warm fuzzies inside. However, no one should feel obligated to.

The address for me here is:

Hannah Goodno

c/o Kwasi Gyasi Gyamerah

CIEE Study Center

Office of International Programs

Private Mail Bag 31

University of Ghana

Legon, Ghana, West Africa