Reality Check 3 - Fast Car Ambulance

On my way down back to my site from the Upper East region of Ghana I took a fast car back down to Kumasi instead of the bus that I usually take. A fast car is essentially a 15-passenger van that drives 90-100mph the whole way to your destination on paved or dirt roads saving you a couple of hours on your trip.

On our way down to Kumasi we picked up 2 passengers at the hospital in Bolga and one of them looked to be in a lot of pain as he boarded the van. I didn’t realize this at first, but my friend I was traveling with said that the one in pain had tubes coming out of his stomach. Every time the driver stopped to take a break from driving the guy with the tubes would get out and the person that accompanied him would take a syringe and drain his urine from a hole he had in his stomach area. He was obviously in a lot of pain. It’s sad to see that people being transferred from one hospital to the next have to travel this way, instead of being taken on an ambulance or helicopter like they would be back in the U.S. Another reason to be grateful for life I have had lead thus far.

Reality Check 2 - Vegetable Scraps

I usually throw my vegetable scraps and biodegradable items over a wall into a pit behind my house. I like to tell myself that I am starting a compost pile for the farming that I tell myself I am going to do (but will never happen). The dogs, goats, chickens, cats, etc. usually get to the scraps and clean them up for me. The other day I threw some rotton vegetables over the wall. When I went to go throw some more scraps out I saw 2 little girls going through my scraps and salvaging what they could.

Reality Check 1 - Wedding Reception

I've been wanting to write about this for a long time, but haven't gotten the chance to until now. This entry is only meant as a reminder/reality check for me. Sometimes I forget I am in Africa.

I went to a wedding a couple of weeks ago. It was a typical Ghanaian celebration, which involves sitting around for 4-5 hours while being blasted by the noise coming from the ultra powerful speakers that they use. To quote what a Ghanaian once told me "Ghanaians like noise too much." Anyway, after the wedding there was a small reception. It was not like any typical wedding reception you would go to in the states. They just put out a whole bunch of plastic chairs and handed out jollof rice and fried chicken in styrofoam boxes. Most of my friends back in the states would call this "pretty ghetto."

When I was leaving the reception to go back home I saw a group of kids going through the garbage pulling out the styrofoam boxes and eating the leftover scraps left by the people at the reception. Seeing this just reminded me that I am in Africa, people are still hungry/going hungry even though I live in a relatively wealthly area as far as Ghana is concerned.

On another note, Ghanaians eat the bones of the chicken. I haven't been able to try this yet, but just watching them is quite impressive.