June 8, 2012
We got to sleep in today!
The alarm went off at 7:30am. Woohoo!
At breakfast I had the usual roll and jam. As a special treat, I had a hardboiled
egg. Yummmy! They also have instant coffee in individual
servings that has all the sugar and creamer already in the packet. You just mix
it with hot water, and voila! Hot
coffee! It’s soooo good. The only downside is the fact that the knob
on the hot water container is just as hot as the boiling water, so you either
have to be careful or be burnt.
We had a lot of informative talks afterwards about
training overview and expectations. We
looked at a calendar of events that told us what the next 10 weeks would
consist of.
Following the talks, we had a short language lesson. We went off of what we learned yesterday, and
added a few more things. The main topic
we are focusing on is greetings. We have
learned how to say good morning, good afternoon, good evening, goodbye, and the
responses to those phrases. We also
learned how to say “What is your name?” and “My name is…”. Definitely very helpful things!
After learning Twi in a stuffy and humid room, the fun
began. Round 2 of vaccines. I got a Hep A shot and a typhoid shot. My “typhoid arm” is still soooo sore! I can’t lift it above my shoulder. Oh well.
I guess I’d rather have that pain than typhoid.
After lunch, we had a malaria discussion. Ooli, one of the PCMOs (Peace Corps Medical
Officers) in Ghana, told us ways to help prevent malaria, ways to treat it, and
what to do if it gets too bad. There is
a test you can do to see if you have malaria (which was part of this massive
first aid kit we got today). You have to
prick your finger, suck the blood up into a tube, squeeze the blood onto the
“test pad” thing, squirt a serum type liquid onto the test pad, and wait. Different lines appear (kind of like a
pregnancy test) telling you what type of malaria you have or if you are
clear. Ooli asked if anyone would like
to volunteer, and my hand shot up. I
have no idea why!! I was hoping the
thing that pricked your finger would consist of you pressing a button and the
needle would release. But no. It was this small metal looking strip that
had a very sharp end that you stuck into your finger. I worked up enough courage to stab my
finger. I squeezed the blood out, and
Sam told me there wasn’t enough to take a sample. Damn.
Try number 2. I do the same
thing, prick my finger, wince, squeeze.
Same thing. Double damn. Prick, wince, squeeze. When I squeezed this time all sorts of blood
came out of all the puncture wounds!
Woohoo! I did everything I was
supposed to, and after about 2 minutes of waiting, the result came back
negative!! So yay to being malaria free!!
Before dinner, we had to sign up for time slots for the
talent show we are having tomorrow night. Ummm…what?! I can’t do anything! It took most of dinner, and most of after
dinner activities to come up with something.
I am going to (try to) juggle! I
brought some bouncy balls to give to my homestay children, so I’m breaking
those out and practicing tonight!
Hopefully I can still do it.
Fingers crossed on that one!
We had dinner, and afterwards we were told what
tomorrow’s activities would consist of.
We get to partake in Accra Quest!
It’s kind of like The Amazing Race, but we don’t get $1 million at the
end. We divided into 6 groups, were
given 10 cedis (local currency), and got handed a sheet of paper saying where
in or around Accra we have to travel, what sites we need to see, and specific
questions we need to answer. I don’t
have my sheet with me, but I know we are going to Accra to the main stadium and
the National Theater. There are a couple
more things we get to see, but I can’t remember. We have to be up at 6:00am to eat breakfast,
and be on our way by 6:30am. We have to
walk outside the Valley View Compound, call a trotro (bus-like vehicle), and
tell them where to take us. I am beyond
excited about this!! I LOVE The Amazing Race, and think this is soooo fun! We get to use our language skills whenever
possible and navigate our way through the city.
Sam and I have been practicing all night on our phrases without looking
at our cheat sheet. I’d say we’re
rocking it. Ahhh!!! I totally cannot
wait for this quest!!
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