Akwaaba (Welcome) to my fist blog entry!!
We arived safe and sound in Accra on January 29th :) in the very late hours of the night. We (Tara, Cherie, Justin and I) took 2 cabs to find our accomodations, neither cab driver could find it so we drove aound for appox1.5 hours until 230 am Ghana time trying to find a place. We went though some questionable neighbourhoods and fo a fist timer to Afica I must admit I was at times a little unsure of what was going on. We finally just found a different place to stay, it was so nice the ownerClement and his son Quincy were sooooo nice to us. Clement dove us aound a few times,to the taxi station or to change ou dollars into cedis (Ghanian curency). We had a great day on the 30th went into Accraand bought a cell phone and power adapter, walked around and enjoyedthe city and the people. I drank from my first coconut!! It is definately not like Canada here we areso fortunate to have clean water and roads and nice pretty non bumpy roads. I feel soooo soooo very fortunate, and will not be complaining about anything when I get home.
In one area on our cab ride there were about 200 people sleeping on the sidewalk, it was heartbreaking to see I have never seen anything like it in my life. They said Africa would be a life changing expereince and they were right. I have expereinced some of the happiest and saddest moments in my life in these past few days. The people here are beautiful. It is so hard for me to see them struggle, I want to help them all. There are little children who will come up and hold your handbecause they are hungry and want you to give them food or money and sometimes you can but you cant always and for me thats hard
Ghana is beautiful there are many palm trees and it had been about 30 degrees since we came here. The Ghanians are so proud to be Ghanian its truly amazing. There was a African Cup Football (Soccer) game tonight the final game Ghana VS Egypt. Unfortunately, we lost :( but only by one and it doesnt even matter. Everyone cowded around a tiny tv in the restaurant we were in, to watch because they are all so proud.
I had the very fortunate opportunity to meet Vidas sister Phillomena yesterday. She is so very sweet and I cannot wait to spend two weeks working with her in Enchi :). She is a very special woman and he and Vida share the same wonderful laugh.
Last night in Accra, we relaxed at the hostl after a wonderful dinner with all of the Nursing students, Phillomena, Muriel and Sinbad, and had a bottle of wine and wonderful conversation. I am vey fortunate to be on this journey with these 15 amazing people and in particular Tara Cherie and Justin :) I love you guys soooo much!!
Today I seen a crocodile!! He was a little scary, we are staying at Hans botel in Cape Coast it is on a lake and there are crocodiles in it :)
Today we visited Cape Coast Castle. We had a tourand were told about the slave camps there. I am very glad that we went and became informed about the history. I was almost in tears a few times during the tou because the conditions the slaves were kept in were horrible. Our tour guide was named osca he was so passionate about the history and so proud that it is a world heritage site and that president obama and the first lady visited recently.
Food has been good they have been very supportive of my vegetarianism :) I havent really been sleeping at night but it should get better soon (hopefully??). There are lots of Geckos :) I Love them they are sooo cute and they run around and bob their heads.
Cape coast is sooo different from Accra. Accra was soooo busy. It is so relaxed in Cape coast it is an ocean town and there ae chickens goats and pigs roaming around the town. I like it i think the more rural we get the more I will like it.
Random facts: we are 8 hours ahead of BC time and there are very few street names and no where has an address, even if you have a map cab drivers do not look at it they just say they know where they ae going even if they dont (which is most of the time). One of our cab divers nicknamed me Acooyah which he told me meant monday but today I seen that it means wednesday :) which I like better its not monday for one and wednesdays just have a special place in my heart, for reasons i wont mention.
What else do I have to say.......Ghanians are crazy drivers, not like albetans lol soooooo much worse. The R Key rarely works on this computer so if you ae wondering about previous words just stick an r in there somewhere. :) My feet are puffy Im quite sweaty and unattractive with extra puffy super curly hair and im dirty and probably dont smell the sweeetest, but I am so aware of how fortunate I am to have been given this oppotunity and to be bon in Canada. I appreciate my life back home so much and all of my beautiful fiends and family, 2 days in and I love Afica so much and I have truly changed my perception of my life. This is the best practicum expereince I could ever ask for and we really havent even started yet.
Love to you all from Africa, thank you for reading my blog, stay tuned.
Katrina Katharine Davis
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
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