Ghanaian Hospitality

When I first arrived in Ghana, I didn’t fall in love with the place right away. (In fact, I’m still not in LOVE with this place. I really like it and I’m enjoying myself, but I’m not ready to tell the world that I LOVE Ghana just yet.) One thing that I noticed right away was that it was hot and humid. It wasn’t as bad as I imagined, but still, humidity makes you sweat. Even if you try your hardest not to move, you still sweat. Back at home, I hate being sweaty. I don’t particularly enjoy the feeling of being sticky all over, of sweat dripping down your face if you walk too fast. Couple that with the dirt roads everywhere; eeek. I wanted to just shower all the time, but I didn’t because I didn’t want to waste water. I’m used to it now though, so it’s all good. ☺

Anyways, that was a tangent. Where I meant to go with this entry was… When we arrived in Ghana, a lot of my peers were claiming that they loved Ghana because of the amazing and kind people. “You will meet some of the nicest people in Ghana!” Hmmm... Personally, I felt like my first few weeks here were filled with overly friendly and aggressive men and under friendly and somewhat unapproachable women. Part of it was probably due to my own perceptions (edit: read the next entry on “fear” to understand this point more), to me still trying to adjust to the food, getting over homesickness, trying to feel comfortable and safe in this foreign place, and get into the groove of everything, but part of it was their body language and their expressions as well. I never really felt that kindness others had claimed until this past week. I mean, the people here are friendly in the sense that if you greet them, they will greet you in return and ask how you are. If you ask for help, they will try to help you even if they don’t know anything about the question you are asking. If you try, it is pretty easy to get into conversations with people here; no one rejects your offer of trying to become acquainted with them. All my encounters with Ghanaians up until recently were not too different from interactions with people at home. People respect each other (for the most part), but I didn’t feel like Ghanaians were the nicest people I’ve ever met. It’s a pretty broad stereotype.

But right now, I am overwhelmed by the kindness I have just received.

Before I get into this, I just want to say UC-EAP is a pretty legit study abroad program. Because its linked with the University of California, grades are easily transferrable, financial aid is applicable, and everyone, at home and here, really take care of you. At the University of Ghana, the EAP kids have their own office. Along with this office, we get a staff of advisers and assistants that help us adjust not only to university life, but also to Ghanaian life. They take us traveling to a couple of the major attractions in Ghana. They prepare an orientation for us, they feed us for the first two weeks that we are here, and provide extra classes about the history, the culture, and music, and the dance. All the other international students are clumped together in another office upstairs. Their orientation isn’t as extensive. They kind of have to figure things out on their own.
Anyways, the EAP-liasion for my program is a woman that goes by the name Auntie Irene. I’ve come to learn that she is a very important and well known figure at the University here. She has very extensive education (I hear 2 Ph.D.s?), has started two non profits in Ghana (one relating to dealing with children in conflict areas and another relating to women empowerment), she’s held a number of teaching positions at the university, she works closely with the president of Ghana, hold a position with the UN, etc. etc… and she is our liaison.

So here’s what happened the other day.

Part of my plan when coming to Ghana was to volunteer. Since the first two weeks here were pre –scheduled for us, there was not much time for trying to find a place to volunteer. When we finally had free time, I immediately drafted a letter of introduction and passed it on to the educational adviser for our program to submit to hospitals for me. I also made friends with a student at the University of Ghana Medical School who helped turn my letter to the executive secretary of the teaching hospital at Korle-Bu, one of the medical teaching hospital here. After waiting a week, actually, 2 weeks, I had still not received notice from anyone. Apparently, the education adviser had not turned my letter anywhere. He said it was not good for the program to turn a letter in to an organization, receive a response, and then reply with a rejection. Thus, you submit your letter to each place, wait for a response, and then move on to the next accordingly. So basically, he wanted me to hear back from Korle-Bu before he proceeded. Ah. After waiting a while, I started to get anxious. What if I never found a place. I started semi-beating myself up for not finding a place before I came. A whole month was already passed, and I still hadn’t done much with my time here. Ahh. So after class last Thursday, I go to the EAP office and walk to Auntie Irene’s desk. She offers me a seat and I ask her if I can ask for her opinion on my situation. I explained my situation, about my desire to volunteer in a hospital or some medical facility. I told her my dilemma about already submitting my letter to Korle-Bu and not sure where to proceed from here. She immediately offers me sound advice that settles my nerves. She gives me some alternative solutions, and after seeing my reactions to them, she begins to work.

As I’m standing there, she tells her secretary to draft a letter to the director the Legon University Hospital, located across the street from the University of Ghana, for me. Then, she calls the University Tro-tro driver Solomon and tells him to come to the office. She calls the director of the hospital to make sure that he is available. She give Solomon the keys to HER car, and tells him to drive me to the hospital, even though I could have easily walk there because it was right across the street from the Uni. Solomon drives me over, waits for me to turn the letter in, and then drives me back to campus and drops me off where I needed to be dropped off. It was wonderful! AND SO NICE OF HER. She did not have to do any of that for me, but she did. I maybe had one or two conversations with her before this incident, so it wasn’t like she was doing this because she knew me well or anything. It made me feel warm fuzzies inside.

So that was last Thursday. Today is Tuesday. I just got back from my third visit to the hospital. I went in yesterday to see that my request had been approved. When I went in today, I met with the second head nurse, who helped me arrange a schedule for volunteering. I’ll be starting next Friday, and will proceed to spend 3 weeks in the pediatrics ward, then 3 weeks in the general ward, 3 weeks in the maternity ward, and 3 weeks in the emergency and accidents ward. My exact jobs have not been decided, that will be determined by the head of each ward but eeeeee, it’s all worked out.

I feel really lucky right now.