Who Knew?

Who knew that country is popular in Ghana? And I’m not just talking about crossover pop/country like Taylor Swift or anything like that, but legit hick-ish country music. The radio was on at work today and they were playing Kenny Chesney, Dwight Yoakum, and a bunch of other stuff. That combined with lame 90s love songs made for quite an entertaining morning. But, before I get too far into that, I will share the events of the weekend.

Sunday morning I got up and went with my friend Nadine who I met at BYU to get a taxi and attempt to find the church building. We had the address, but no one really knows street numbers, or even some street names for that matter. I had never been there before, so I didn’t even know any landmarks in the area. Twenty minutes and several detours later, we found the church building. It is actually in the same compound as the Accra temple and the church office building for Ghana, which is pretty sweet. I don’t have any pictures yet, but hopefully this week I will have some time to take pictures. It’s beautiful. There are a bunch of other obrunis in the ward, including a missionary couple and a guy who is a lawyer for the church and his wife. The four of them talked with us after church for a while and made sure that we are taking our malaria medication, staying in at night, and being safe. They were very sweet, and the Thompsons (the lawyer and his wife) gave Nadine and I a ride home afterwards. It’s so nice that the church really is the same everywhere. When we got home, people asked if it was different, but other than having a somewhat difficult time understanding what the speakers were saying, it was the same as back home. The members of the ward were so friendly and welcoming and seemed excited that Nadine and I are staying for the summer.

I also went to Langma beach this weekend. Langma is about a half an hour east of Accra, but depending on traffic, it can take up to 2 hours to get there. The beach was beautiful, lined with palm trees and little huts to sit under. The water was perfect, too, which made swimming very enjoyable. Langma is heavily trafficked by obrunis, and the majority there were middle eastern this weekend, which was kind of weird. I haven’t seen any middle eastern people except for at that beach. It was nice to be able to relax, walk on the sand, and swim in the ocean. And, because it is an obruni beach, I did not have the pleasure of seeing someone defecating on the beach like I did in Elmina. Bummer.

Today, I got to work knowing that we were going to be going to some of the towns outside of Accra to interview cured TB patients. My coworker told me that we would leave around 12 and then get back into town about 6; a little late, but ok, fine. We didn’t end up leaving until around 2:30 and then got to our first destination at 3:30. We interviewed 5 people in Bortianor, went to Kokrobite to interview 3 more, and then Langma to interview the last person. I didn’t end up getting home until a little after 9. Most of the way home I was with my coworker, but then we got to a tro-tro station and he made sure I got on that safely, but then I was on my own to get home. I told the guy collecting my money where I wanted to stop, but the driver ended up missing it. I had to walk an extra block, which normally I wouldn’t mind, but it was dark and late and I was walking by myself. I had to walk under a bridge where people sleep and there were other people just hanging out and making me nervous. I made it home safely though, and now am so exhausted. I leave my house at 7:45, so being gone for 13 ½ hours is kind of a long time.

Luckily, tomorrow is a holiday so I don’t have to go to work! It’s African Unity Day, or something like that. It was started only a few years ago, so some people still don’t really know it’s a holiday. But at DIF, it definitely is and I definitely need tomorrow to recuperate from today. Maybe I’ll go to a market to buy some fabric and have some sweet clothes made…hmm…that would be awesome.