Finals!

Dun Dun Dun!

My first final is tomorrow at 3pm (yes, they do test on Saturday AND Sundays). It’s supposed to go until 6pm. Good luck to me!



All classes and their scheduled exam time is listed on bulletin boards all over campus. When you sign up for classes, no one really knows when exams are. You kind of just.... hope classes don’t overlap. They give you lists of departments that you are not supposed to cross enroll in, stating that if you do cross enroll, the chances of overlapping exam times will occur. This made me really nervous, but many veteran exchange students said that as long as you follow their rules, you should be okay.

Luckily for me, none of my exam times overlap. They are spread out over the four week test dates so while this isn’t opportune for countrywide traveling, it works well for my studying schedule!

Coca cola in Ghana

Get this... Coke in Ghana is made from GLUCOSE!!!! and not high-fructose corn syrup.

This makes coke taste soooooooo much better and it’s sooooooo much more addicting. It’s also usually around 60 cents, so it’s affordable too. And what’s great- you always have to turn these bottles into the stand you purchased them from, so the bottles always gets recycled!

Being someone who never drinks soda in the states, I have limited myself to twice a week. I hope I keep this coke diet up. :)

Finding God...

Ghanaians are really really really religious. 70% of the country is Christian, the other 29% are Muslim, and 1% some variety of Buddhism. These numbers are really rough, and the internet is too slow for me to look anything up right now, but one of our student leaders threw this statistic at me so I’ll take it for truth for now.

Whenever I meet someone, they not only ask me about where I am from and what I am studying, but it seems like common practice to also ask for my religion. Students stand outside my window every weekend, spreading the word of God and condemning non-believers on the megaphone, perhaps hoping to brainwash me in my sleep? Strangers knock on my door, asking if they can have bible study in my room. Friends who don’t go to church or practice any of the Christian philosophies claim they are Christian. Whenever I answer that I am a non-believer or that I am uninterested, no one seems to understand. “You mean you are a Buddhist?” Sometimes, I find it easier just to answer “Yes, my family is Buddhist,” although this response elicits a number of invites to visit their churches with them, hoping to somehow convert me.

I decided to attend a Sunday service to see what God in Ghana was all about. There was a service nearby the dorm, so I just stopped in to watch. i have never attended a service in my life, so this was a very interesting experience. I believe this was a non-denominational service, but to be honest, I am not very fluent or knowledgeable about religion, so I was pretty lost as to what was going on and what was happening. There was a lot of singing, a lot passion, and a lot of love at that service. I felt a bit left out though, having not yet “accepted jesus into my life.” I think I need to talk to more people to understand their perspectives.

Another entry on this topic to come.

Weekend in Volta Region

I just returned from the most amazing weekend trip ever. After staying on campus for two and a half weeks, I was starting to feel a little trapped. I wanted to get away form the city, from the traffic (that I can say is worst than driving east on the 405 at 6pm because the traffic here is also coupled with horrible air quality), from the litter and immerse myself in something different. I wanted to go on a hike or do something that would just get me into nature. My energy was low from being homesick and being sick and I was starting to get tired of the routine I've established. A couple others were feeling the same way, so, somewhat spur of the moment (after consulting our guide book of course), four of us decided to take a tro-tro to Lipke Todome, a small village in the Volta region. It was right along the Ghana-Togo border, and our guide book told us that it was home to an ecotourism site which included very long and somewhat challenging hike to a series of caves and a beautiful waterfall.

Sounds good.

We leave early Friday morning and after a few hours of travel, we arrive in the small village. We settle in a very nice guest house, which we each paid a little over 2 usd for (I feel wayyyy overcharged in the states now…). We also pay for a guide and set off on the hike to the caves. Although it was near sunset, the guide still decided to let us go, but told us we had to set a quick pace... The hike was breathtaking. I can't even describe how much I enjoyed the hiking, the climbing, and the reflection time as I was walking through the tropical forest. You can see the pictures on my Picasa page.

There were six caves total hidden in the greenery of the hills. Due to our late start, we were only able to visit three of the six. The first was a small cave where the ancient cheifs of the village used to meet. The second one was a little more difficult to reach, we had to scale the side of the rocky-mini-cliff (if that makes sense- before we could reach the cave.) The third was the best. It was a place where the villagers would hide during times of war. We had to climb down a ladder into the cave, and after we stepped in, we were greeted by a swarm (is that the right word?) of bats. Everything was so natural and untouched by man. I loved it!!!

Sidenote, funny story. So, imagine this. We are in a pitch black cave. The only light shines in from the 20 inch diameter hole that we climbed in. My friend Osama starts touching the dirt and exclaims to us that this is the best dirt he has ever touched in his entire life. "It's so soft and rich, you could plant anything in this," he claims. The other three us start touching it. Megan starts rubbing the dirt on her hands, all over her arms, talking about how she's exciting to have all these natural minerals on her skin. I have a bit between my fingers and yea, its soft, but so what. Then, our guide, Boss exclaims, “This is not dirt, my friends. This is the shit of the bat!”

You can imagine our reactions.

Afterwards, we trek back down the mountain with the sunset and make it back to the village in record time. By the time we arrive, however, it’s night. Young girls are cooking by candle light and little children are running and playing in the dark, shouting oburoni and running up to wave hello to us as we pass. I remember feeling so safe and comfortable during that moment.

Sorry this entry is such a jumble and random string of thoughts. Now that I have apologized, I hope it's okay that I continue to jumble and throw down my thoughts.

My favorite things about this place was that it was completely sustainable. The waterfalls by the village supplied drinking, bathing, and cooking water for the entire village, as well as to the other villages in the nearby vicinity. The houses were all built of supplies indigenous to the area. Goats and chickens roamed freely across the village. The village people ate and fetched water with calabash, a gourd they halved and hollowed out from a tree that grows all over the area. The women would hike to the bat caves to gather the bat poo to use as fertilizer for their tomatoes, onions, and other crop. The children made spinners out of leaves and sticks, built small forts with sticks that had fallen off the tree. Everything was just so.. sustainable.

Ah, I loved it.

After talking with Boss, our tour guide, we eventually discover that the World Bank is importing cement and supplies to build a concrete path along the hike. There were also giving money to the chief of the village to pay the workers 3 cedi (about 2.5 usd) a day to build this concrete path. The four of us on the trip were a bit skeptic about this. Boss was so excited about this though, saying that these people were coming in to help them so much. "Now," he said “all the kids and bigger people can hike this trail too.” This seemed skeptical. I don't know too much about the World Bank and it's relations with Ghana, but something about this exchange of aid didn't seem.. right.

We ended up running into the village chief’s son as we were leaving the village. We gave him our concerns about the World Bank coming in, and told them to beware of their aid and service, for there might be smallprint in the contract that they might not be aware of. This place was so nice, I think Osama, Megan, Kevin and I all agreed that this was our favorite place in Ghana so far. We didn’t want to see it become commercialized and the natural beauty of this place to be taken away by foreigners. The chief’s son began asking us for our opinions as to how to help them develope and expand the place so that the small village could make some money to sustain itself and to continue development. We gave him our suggestions, and he seemed so genuinely appreciative of all we had to say.

At the end of these amazing conversations and exchange of ideas, we gave them our names, phone numbers, emails and mailing addresses so that we could all keep in touch in the future to help this small village known as Lipke Todome.

Sigh. What an amazing weekend. So many other things happened, so many other wonderful conversations, but I would probably bore you if I spoke of all of them. Boss told us that we were his favorite group of all the groups he has taken out for the past 26 years. I felt so blessed and happy to have spent the weekend with such amazing people.

What I’ve learned: Be open, be honest, be genuine. I have heard from other many times, stop and look around to take in the beauty of the scenery and the places around you, the places you love and call home, that you might be taking for granted, and just take it all in. Many times, especially for me back at UCLA, I got so caught up in how much I had to do and so focused on what I needed to accomplish, I never really stopped to appreciate everything and everyone that had already accomplished so much already. This saying of taking in the scenery also applies to people. Stop and talk to others around you. Talk to the person that sits next to you in class that you have no idea about, the co-worker that you merely greet everyday. I have tried that here, and each time, I have been surprised by not only what I learn about them, but also by what I learn about myself. The times where I have been authentic and generous to others, even if just in my interactions and conversations with them, I’ve be surprise at how much I’ve received and at how happy I have been after these conversations. Some may say that this is the nature of Ghanaians, they are naturally so giving and so friendly. Perhaps, but what makes them any different from any other human being in this world. I think we should all try to be a little more human. It’s a nice feeling.

Now to upload the hundreds of pictures from the weekend. ☺

There are a lot of lizards in Ghana.

They hide in trees and blend in with leaves.


They scamper on ledges and jump over bridges.


They come in many colors and run really fast...


But sometimes, not fast enough, squish squish.

My one word

In most traditional African dances, there are drummers that provide the beats and dancers that perform the specific dance that accompanies the beat. There’s usually a song too that the entire group sings. All members of the performance are important. However, the drummer (sometimes drummers) clearly dominates and leads the relationship. If their tempo is quicker than normal, the dancers must speed up their dance moves to match. When there are multiple drums, if one drummer is off beat, it is evident when the dancers are not in sync.

I mention this because the other day (actually yesterday), we were divided into groups of eight to perform in dance class. I felt like during my group’s performance, the drummers were getting tired of playing the repetitious beat and as a result, their tempo was not consistent. The dancers of my group were forced to speed up and slow down our movements to match, and it made the entire group fall in and out of sync. I wasn’t thinking about this too much, until later that evening. At the end of each night, Megan and I usually end up in each other’s room to talk about the day, or to share our thoughts about anything and everything that happens to us. It’s almost like an unwritten debrief date we have set at the end of each day. Yesterday night, we were chatting and she brings up this one snippet of her day. She was talking to a Ghanaian who had walked into her internship office. They began chatting and somehow, he ended up describing his work relationship with his boss to her. He used a single word in Twi to describe it. Megan couldn’t remember the word, but this one word is an adjective that sums up the relationship between the dancer and the drummer. This one word describes the dancer, saying that he or she has to be attentive and adaptable, so that whichever tempo and beat the drummer dictates, he or she is capable of following and perform. I want to find out what this word is. I feel like it is the perfect word to describe me.

What’s your word?

Malaria Scare

I woke up Thursday morning with the worst soreness and achy-ness I have ever felt in my life. It felt like I had over worked every muscle in my entire body, even though I hadn't been to the gym or put on my tennis shoes since I left the states in the beginning of January. My head felt a little light, but I thought it was maybe because I hadn't eaten yet. However, my lack of appetite seemed to say otherwise.

My grandma has ingrained into my mind that that I should never give excuses for not being able to do something. This was mainly applicable homework in grade school and chores at home, but her words have left a strong impression in my mind. Since my health wasn’t horrible, my limbs were still in tack, and I could still walk, I didn’t think it was necessary to confide myself to my room and skip class. Plus I hate skipping class. I’m almost done with my undergraduate career and I have just realized how much I love learning (nerd…..). I wasn’t going to give up four hours of lecture time to stay in bed and feel sorry for myself. Thanks grandma. So yea, I went to class. Everything seemed alright. It wasn't until after class that I felt like something was actually not right. Seriously. I hate complaining about my health to others, except for my grandma and to Evan since I feel the most comfortable around them. There are so many less fortunate than I am and when I think of others, I feel like I’m blowing my own illness out of proportion.

So yea, I ended up sleeping all Thursday afternoon. I woke up with a fever, more aches and pains, and a pounding headache. The fever was what scared me, so I end up deciding to go to the hospital. I was too far from home to try to stick it out, and if this was malaria that I had, I wanted to get rid of it asap. Megan accompanies me to Trust Hospital in Osu, and I get it checked out.

A lot of people have had some pretty negative experiences in the hospital. There have been stories about people being refused treatment initially, being treated very rudely, long waits to even see the doctor. My experience was quite the opposite. The doctor was very friendly. The guy who drew my blood was very reassuring and told me about what he was going to do with my lab tests when he stuck the needle in my left brachial artery (haha PHYSCI). When my results came in, the doctor explained everything to me very clearly and gave me my treatment options.
Basically, my lab results tested negative for malaria. However, because of the malaria cycle, the malaria parasite they were looking for might have been isolated in my liver, or it could have been in very low concentration since I was taking Malarone. The doctor told me that I could wait to see if it got worse, or I could just start antimalarial drugs since all my symptoms were of that of malaria. He included that many times, people taking Malarone had to get tested 3 or 4 times before the parasite shows up in the lab results since it is the strongest prophylactic. Since I had a test the following Monday, I decided to begin the antimalarial treatment. I began my cycle Friday morning, stayed in bed all Friday. Woke up Saturday feeling 80% well and spent Valentine’s day with the UCLA girls. I was 100% by Sunday. Thank goodness for the antimalarial.

Some emotions experienced during this time..

1. PISSED OFF- I had spent hundreds of dollars on Malarone. Because I was leaving the country, my UCLA SHIP insurance would NOT cover my malaria medicine. A lot of others on this trip had the same problem. Since Malarone comes at about $8 a pill retail price, I assume insurance companies are very hesitant to pay the costs. Also, since it is a prophylactic, it is considered a “preventative” measure, and some other friends had the problem of getting it cause some insurance plans do not cover preventative measures. A pretty corrupted system I’d say. But yea, where I was going with this- I was pissed off because I had gone through SO much hassle to get the medication, had spent SO much money on Malarone- and I was still getting malaria. (Even though the results were negative, I’m pretty sure considering all my evidence, that I just got malaria.) Agh. It wasn’t even like I was skipping pills like some of my peers. I was pretty diligent about the bug spray and about covering up at night as well. What horrible luck.

2. THANKFUL- that I had friends who were willing to accompany and wait for me at the hospital, for friends who went to the market the next day to buy me herbal remedies for malaria, for friends who brought me my meals and fruits when I was too tired to leave the room. It was really nice. I was also thankful that it’s the year 2009 and not 1909, when British colonialists were still dying left and right from malaria because a remedy did not exist.

3. REFLECTIVE - This reminds me of why I want to be a physician. To be sick and not have access to health care or medical services is such a violation of basic human rights. It only cost me about 45 us dollars to get treatment, get a lab test, pay for medicine, and to take a taxi to and back to the University. Compared to the 80-dollar copayments I had to pay sometimes when I was kid without health insurance in the states, it wasn’t that expensive at all. I received excellent and prompt treatment in a relatively up-to-date private facility with knowledgeable and friendly doctors. There are so many others in Ghana who could never even imagine getting health treatments like I did.

All in all, I guess you could say this was a positive experience. Getting malaria wasn’t that bad. There’s a really bad stigma against it in the states. Yes, it has killed many, but with pharmaceuticals and drugs for the parasite now, it’s kind of like getting a really bad cold..
Don’t worry about me though. I want to be a physician one day, so I will take care of myself. If I don’t, how will I be able to take care of others?