Africa is not a deathwish.

When I tell you that I am leaving to study abroad and volunteer in Africa, please stop hugging me as you exaggerate about how you might never see me again. Please stop telling me that I will die of malaria, or ask me if I am scared that I will stick out like a sore thumb because of my skin color.

Please stop being so ignorant.

Please realize that 53 different countries make up this continent. Africa houses 14.2% of the world's population. Yes, parts of the continent is currently in civil war. Yes, many countries are still currently in its developing state. But come on, just like Europe and Asia is home to many different cultural communities, so is Africa. In fact, Ghana alone is home to over 1000 different language dialects.

My chances of dying in Africa are probably comparable to my chances of death in America. Ever drive down the 405 the evening before Thanksgiving? It's pretty dangerous. Tell me I'm going to get mugged everywhere I go? Yes, I might stand out as a foreigner, but I'm sure there are parts of Los Angeles and Westwood that I would feel unsafe walking through during the evening time too for these reasons. Santitation is poor, and mosquito bites can be deadly sometimes, but I am taking necessay precations to prevent this by taking malaria medicine. I have my first aid kit prepared, I have received the proper vaccinations. Come on, I've done the proper planning for this.

There is such a negative stereotype against Africa. I've realize that I perpetuated some of them initially. But now, as I am researching the country, the people, and the culture in preparation for this trip, I'm starting to realize that there is a lot more to this country than I could have every imagined.

Please stop showering me with sour comments.

Packing List

Packing list

I'm going shopping for a mosquito net for my bed today and I just remembered a packing list my friend sent me.

To Bring:

-Good shoes - good tennis shoes for hiking and good sturdy flip flops, most of the ground will be dirt or rough cement
-The Bradt guidebook on Ghana and the Lonely Plant guidebook on West Africa
-Tank tops - even though EAP says they're inappropriate, they're fine as long as they're not outrageously showy
-Hand wipes
-A money belt
-Sun glasses
-Lots of underwear
-A light weight long sleeved shirt to keep off sun during the day or bugs at night
Definitely Duct tape.
-two sets of sheets
-quick-dry towels
-soap and hair products of choice
-tell her to wear what she wears here in the summer time and leave behind low and/or short items of clothing
-a few going-out outfits ;-)
-pictures of friends and family
-a good wallet
-floss!!!!!!!!!!!
-emphasis on the good shoes
-sun screen
-lots of passport pictures (you can get them taken there actually for cheaper than here but it can be a bit of a hassle, you need them for signing up for classes)
-books she likes/wants to use as reference material
strapless bra! (for ghanaian shirts and dresses you get made)
definitely quick dry towels
tape for feet and blisters and stuff
-a laxitive
-diarrhea meds
-benadryl cream!! (for mosquito bites)
-vitamins!!!!!!!!!!
and i would reiterate:
-2 sets of sheets
-2 quick dry towels
-clothes that you would wear here (minus the booty shorts and revealing tops) and not only camping gear
TAMPONS!! enough for your stay!
and at least one pair of dressy/comfortable sandals.
because your shoes will break like WHOA.

Things NOT to Bring:

-Not too much bug spray - I only wore it on my legs at night (although some people wore it a lot)
-Not too many pairs of jeans, they're really hot and clingy (I only brought one and barley wore them)
-A lot of travellers checks - you can bring some to have a back up way to get money, but ATMs are not hard to find in Accra and many place's you'll travel to
-Short shorts - they are inappropriate in Ghana
-stuff that seems like camping excessive materials (i.e. a water purifying system (jeez, Mom), that bug spray that lasts weeks, collapsible bucket, etc.)


PS i heard volta hall got wireless from the girls who stayed the full school year. more incentive to bring a laptop i guess.
EEP. I'm leaving in 37 days. and I must admit, I'm kinda scared.

Getting a phone..

Posted 12/31/08

I just logged onto facebook and saw that another one of the girls that I will be traveling with just got an international cell phone number.

After clicking around, I stumbled upon this link about buying cellphones for foreign countries. Hm.. Should I get a phone before I leave? Seems like it would be a good idea, but then again, do I want to be tied to a phone like I am in the states? I'm not sure.

Due to time constraints, I might just pass on the phone. I hear there are computers and internet cafes everywhere, that should be enough to stay in touch right?

UPDATE 10/13/09

You pretty much need a phone. Well, I guess you don't need one, but it makes coordinating hang-out efforts with friends, calling your Ghana EAP advisers about classes, events, and trips, and most importantly- keeping in touch with people at home!

Also, don't buy a phone in the U.S. There are so many places to buy phones in Ghana, and they are all so much cheaper!!!

ex. buy an old school Nokia (the one where you can play snake!!!) for 40 Ghana cedi. (1 USD = 1.3ish Ghana Cedi)

How to get a cellphone:

1. The EAP office will help you get one if you would like. When I got mine with the Spring 2008 group, the student counselors collected 38 Ghana cedi from each person and bought it for us in bulk. If not, just go to the market, walk up to any stand, and start bargaining. :) Start 1/4 of what you want to pay, and work up from there.

2. Buy a sim card anywhere. They are, on average, between 1 and 1.50 cedi each. There are a couple different companies.

a. Vodaphone: When I was there, vodaphone had the best service in Volta Hall (the all girls hall) and pretty much anywhere on campus.

b. MTN: MTN has the best advertising campaign, but it kept dropping calls for some people living in ISH (international student hostel). It was also difficult to reach friends during peak hours. Andddd MTN has this crazy thing where you get discounts at certain places, during certain times of the day. Thus, a call could be 90% off the regular price per minute, or 10% off a minute later one foot away.

c. Tigo: Tigo.. never used it. But my roommate had it and never had any complaints.

d. Zain: Zain come out mid trip, so a lot of people already had dedicated service providers by this time.

3. Buy phone credit! A lot of people sell credit all over the place. Buy in 1, 5, or 10 cedi increments and call to your hearts desire! :) I always bought in 5 cedi increments.

I spent about 30 - 40 cedi a month on phone credit, but that was because I called my boyfriend and grandma (in the US) quite often. You can receive calls for free, even international calls, so your parents can keep in touch with you at no cost to you. However, if my calculations were correct, it is cheaper to call form a cellphone in Ghana to the US (about 5 cents/min) than it is to call from the US to Ghana (about 10 cents/min).

The only thing that sucks about phone credit is... for each cedi someone sells, that person makes 25 p. (about 20 cents). It's really sad because some people live off this money. These large telecommunication corporations come in and create a market, and make huge profits off these people.

In fact, recently, Vodaphone bought out Ghana telecom, and thus, owns all of Ghana's phone lines. The pro: maybe landlines will actually work now? Con: Ghana does not have any publicly owned telecom service, or any private ventures either. Everything is foreign...

Vaccinations Part 2

I just got the second half of my vaccinations- hep A and meningitis. Once again, I decided to get both shots in my left arm because I felt that it would leave me with at least one good arm vs two semi-functioning arms (I'm over exaggerating). My left arm is still a bit sore from last week's shots, it hurts when my boyfriend squeezes my arm, but it's nothing that I would even consider close to unbearable.

Last up: the typhoid oral vaccine.

Vaccinations Part 1

Back in August, I paid a visit to the UCLA travel clinic at the ASHE center. Apparently, everyone is required to do so before they leave for travel to a third world/developing/contagious country. The clinic was painless. They gave me a yellow packet of all the diseases I could possibly contract and a list of precautions I should take when going abroad. It didn't list anything too out of the ordinary- Don't eat cold foods, don't drink tap water, wash all fruit with bottled water, maybe even remove the skin before eating, etc. When my physician came in, we talked about all the medication I would need while abroad, as well as vaccinations I would need to get. He also signed my health clearance form, and my travel clinic form. If you are traveling to Africa through EAP, you will need to have these forms filled out and mailed to the EAP headquarters (called UOEAP) to have it all processes.

During our meeting, the doctor gave me three malaria pills to chose from

1. Malarone
   
2. Mefloquine (Larium)
   
3. Doxycycline

and a prescription for 2 doses of traveler's diarrhea antibiotic. I need to review the malaria pills pro and cons, but I have a feeling that I will be going for Malarone. Though its the most expensive, it has the least amount of side effects. Plus, it isn't an antibiotic. My body sometimes has adverse affects to antibiotics when I take it for prolonged periods of time. 5 months is going to be a pretty long time so I think I'll pay a bit more for less effects.

He also gave me a list of vaccinations I need to get. Basically, after all my shots from grade school, all I needed was:

1. Hep A
2. Meningitis
3. Tetanus
4. Yellow Fever
5. Typhoid

He gave me an oral vaccination for typhoid that I will need take later on. He also told me to get the shots when school starts for insurance billing purposes. Since none of these vaccinations and medications were covered by my insurance plan, I will be paying for it all out of pocket. It will however, all count toward my $250 deductible. Now, I'm not that insurance savvy, so figuring out how this insurance stuff is a bit tricky. I called last week to talk to my insurance provider, and basically, when I meet my $250 deductible, most expenses that were previously uncovered by my insurance will be provided at 80% off, meaning the insurance company would be footing 80% of the bill. Sounds good. Thus, if I got all my vaccinations for the upcoming billing cycle, I would be able to get the HPV vaccination for about $40 per shot instead of $16o. Sounded like a good deal.

So I waited until now to get my shots. Today, I got my tetanus and yellow fever vaccinations. The nurse asked me if I wanted to get all 4 vaccinations, two in each arm. I thought about it for a while but decided against it. My reason being that I didn't want to have two sore arms for the rest of the week. It might interfere with my note taking abilities in class. Note taking as a physci major is extremely important, and I didn't want yellow fever antibodies to get in the way of that. :)

The vaccinations weren't too bad. I remember speaking with a friend who had just returned from Africa this summer, and that he had said that yellow fever was the worst vaccination he ever received. I went in prepared for the worst, but the shots itself weren't bad at all. I left the ASHE center with a yellow immunization card stating that I had the yellow fever vaccination. Apparently, the country only needs proof of that one. Yesss, this small 4x6 yellow card is better than lollipops and balloons combined.

I have an appointment to get my hepatitis A and meningococcal meningitis vaccination next Tuesday. I hear those aren't bad at all. Bring it on.

Welcome

Hello!

Welcome to my blog. I'm not big on blogging, but it seems like an appropriate time to start one of these-you know? Traveling to Ghana for five months will probably be a pretty defining experience in my life. :)

So where exactly am I in life and how did I get here?

Earlier this year, right after winter quarter ended in March, I decided I was going to travel or study abroad. How? Not sure yet, but I felt that studying abroad was one of those college, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. It was also one of the few remaining things left on my college to-do list. With the start of my senior year spring quarter, I knew it was time to make some decisions and figure out what I was going to do with my life. I had already decided to stay an entire fifth year, but what I wasn't sure of was how I was going to spend this fifth year at UCLA. After weighing various options from all angles, I decided to finish up my last four classes during fall and spend the remaining two quarters abroad..somewhere. I wasn't ready to graduate and to exchange my happy UCLA bubble for the "real adult world." The pieces seemed to fit together very nicely.

After deciding this, I remember going to the study abroad offices on campus to take a look at the list of programs they had to offer. First, I went to the career center. They have a travel study office on the second floor that basically acts as a liaison for independent and private travel study programs. From my understanding, travel study give you a very hands on experience while you're abroad. At first, the hands-on, field study experience was very appealing. Then I asked for the cost, and ouch, my wallet hurt. Plus (or maybe moreso of a minus), FAFSA financial aid could not be transferred and used for these programs. Other sources of aid (like scholarships and such) could be obtained... but I felt like a loan was inevitable.

I wanted a program that was affordable, something unique, and something that would offer some new perspectives to my life. From the career center, I traveled to UCLA's International Education Office in Murphy Hall. There, I found programs that were much more in my range financially. Class credits from these foreign institutions were much easier to transfer over. FAFSA aid could be applied toward these programs.. I felt like I found a gold mine. I eventually selected the University of Ghana program. It would give me a change to volunteer in a developing community, something I have always wanted to but could never afford to do, while taking classes at the University. Horrah. By this time, it was mid-May and finals week was approaching. I began my application, but senior year nostalgia and hanging out with friends prevailed. Everyone was in the "let's-hang-out-because-we-will-probably-not-see-each-other-for-a-while-since-we-are-all-graduating" mood and thus, much fun was had and little work was done.

Before I knew it, it was the middle of June. I was officially done with my fourth year at UCLA. Many of the friends I had entered college with was graduating and I still wasn't done with classes for my major. The thought of graduating and being completely done with my undergraduate career was extremely daunting- there were so many things I hadn't had a chance to do yet. I was enrolled in an MCAT course and had planned for social isolation for the coming summer. (Ah, I remember being so anxious for the exam.) Plus, it was time to start the application.

The application process was not too difficult, but it required a personal statement, taking a course on Africa, and getting two letters of recommendations. Admist studying for the MCAT, getting all this stuff done was a drag. Luckily, my wonderful boyfriend was very encouraging and made me finish the application :)

So here I am.. in my last quarter at UCLA. Holy cow. Hopefully it'll be a good one. :)

-Alice

Financial aid problems/fixtures

original: 12/31/08

So today was a bit stressful.

I leave January 4th and my financial aid has not been processed yet. UOEAP isn't open until Friday (the day I leave), and the UCLA financial aid office isn't open until then either.

Apparently, if you are a financial aid student, your university's financial aid office is still the institution linked with your FAFSA account. Thus, when you accept your aid, the financial aid has to process it before they send it to UOEAP, where the paying and processing occurs. UOEAP then disburses the money into your account.

Sounds complicated. The UOEAP people are pretty good at e-mailing you and keeping you informed. Just make sure you read your e-mails. I didn't realize that my financial aid has not disbursed yet until I checked my application status today. When you log into myEAP, you are able to view your accounts and the status of your financial aid. After discovery of this new tool, I was shocked to see that my money had not been disbursed yet. They said I would recieve it 10 days before my departure. It is definitely less than ten days and no word yet. Ah, I'm nervous.

At the same time, the Gilman scholarship has not been posted yet either.

Update: 01/31/09

All moneys came through soon after I arrived in Ghana. Good thing I set up automatic deposit (make sure you do this!)

The Gilman check came a little late in the mail, but my mom was able to deposit it for me so everything is all groovy now. :)