I Speak of Africa : Off Week...

Hello Everyone,

So this week has been a little weird...bound to happen eventually I expect. There must be something in the air though, because all of the other girls are having similar experiences. One of my friends is really sick and we went to the WORST hospital I have ever been to and I spoke to some of the most incompetent people I have ever encountered...included the Americans from my travel insurance company, one of whom asked me which state Ghana was in....also this was the second time I had spoken to them in 24 hours (because I had to get pills for my HUGE bug bites that were swelling my ankles) and one person told me my account had been canceled in 2011 and the other told me she didn't think they covered Africa...

...travel insurance...insurance for those traveling in another country...who may need assistance faster than the HOUR I spent on the phone...

yep.

Anyway, I left work early this afternoon due to mounting frustrations with the lack of really any education at the center and took my friend to the dr. (the good one this time) where we found out she was misdiagnosed with malaria, which she does not have, and was prescribed something completely unnessecary...thankfully yours truly was there last night and told the hospital no way was she taking anything (shots none-the-less) unless they did blood work and found out what she actually had. It just is terrifying because there is a lot of "malaria" diagnosis here with very little/ no actual medical questioning or tests, which means there could be a serious amount of people who are very sick and taking the wrong medications or letting it go because "malaria" is so common... there's the big picture thought for today.

Oh, another reality check was there is a fast food place (Chicken Republic) down the street and one of our Ghanaian friends got nuggets last night (I wasn't eating there, I came home and she had brought them with her) and she took one bite and spit it out, "What is this?! This is NOT chicken!" To which I replied, "that's actually what most children in America think of when they think of chicken." She was speechless.

In other (brighter) news, I found a school in a region called Tamale that is an arts high school- very very small- which does Theatre of the Oppressed- look it up, it's amazing and I'm kind of obsessed- which has offered to pay me for a week long workshop, so I will be headed up there on the 27th of July to actually teach acting in Africa...which is something I have been talking about doing for years. It should be amazing and one of my friends is coming with me because she's a film maker and wants to check out the school as well...also, because we are both not being utilized at the school and it's torture and heartbreak and that is to be honest, and entire other blog entry (or novel).

OH. Also, here are some questions I have for the US that have sparked conversation here...

1. WTF, Florida? (Casey Anthony, OJ Simpson, George Zimmerman, Jodi Arias...)

2. Rolling Stone cover with the Boston Bomber??

3. Name the top 2 issues in the Supreme Court right now...you can't but Ghanaians can for their country and ours...

4. The US just shipped millions of condoms here to help prevent aids...some Ghanaian government officials want people to have to be Baptised before they can buy them...

5. I have seen the following t-shirts on people with no shoes who have to sleep in the street (where they also defecate) Louis Vuitton, Dunder Mifflin, The Steelers, the WYOMING COWBOYS, Chanel, Florida (see #1)...the list goes on. Watch where you donate your clothes...because it all comes here or somewhere similar where people sell it for pennies...

Sorry- didn't mean to get on the soap box, but it's serious food for thought....