Days 4 and 5

Day 4 May 24, 2011
Today started off great by my alarm not going off :( We were rushed to get ready because we had to be on the bus early to go into Accra to have 4 lectures today. Breakfast was just ok this morning I had fresh pineapple and bread with jelly which was good just not very filling. Then we took a 2 hour bus drive into the city and went to the Registered Nurses Guest House to have the lectures. This was the place where students stayed last year, and when peaking in to see a room I am glad that we are in as nice of a house as we are.....even if there is no consistant running water. The lectures were good the first one was about nutrition, but the level was pretty elementry and stuff that I already know mostly. The main difference is that in Ghana there are only 3 food groups carbs, proteins, and protective foods. The next lecutre was about water and water sanitation, which was kind of sad. It is so weird to me that even though the house we are staying in is a nice house with hooked up running water that it can just be turned off! It is so weird to think of....also it is weird to think that all water is isnt clean. At home if you have a cut or something what would you normally do? Wash it out with water or something; if you did that here you would just be asking for trouble. This lecture was also good, but by the middle I was getting so tired and the air was shut off becuase they lost power so needless to say I started to get very sleepy. For lunch we ran to the mall and ate in the food court. I had pizzza inn which was yummy! And I even met other MSU students who were on study abroad for social work. After a short lunch of like 20 min we ran back to have the last two of our lectures. The third one lecture was my most favorite. The lady was an RN who is the minister of family healht in Ghana. She talked about maternal and child health(main maternal) and the problems that Ghana faces. She was such a great speaker and she seemed to really care about the health of the people in Ghana. The fourth and final speaker spoke about traditional healing in Ghana. He talked about how people believe in witches and that no matter what the education level of someone from Ghana most eveyone will say that they have meet or seen a witch. Also, he talked about herbal medicine which is something I liked. His lecture was the right amount of time because by this time I had way to much school and was getting so tired, The plan was to then go to the mall to get the internet situation fixed becuase I got the modem for my laptop and sim card for it with 1 GB of like useage or whatever on it but I cannot get it to work on my laptop. I did get a sim card with phone mintues on it to call that when I put it in the modem it works with the internet. Why the other one doesn't work is unknown to me but its annoying. There has been lots of problems with the internet working and phones working (only 2 program phones work) and with getting minutes on the sim cards. Everyone has been asking to borrow my laptop and use the internet which I have let them because I feel bad, but I think that is chainging starting today because I cant get the internet to work. I think I went thought 20 cedis worth of phone mintues on internet in 3 days! that is just crazy and I cant afford to do that anymore. That is why I have no internet today and why this will be posted tomorrow.....if everything works out. Anyways, since we didnt go to the mall after the last lecture we went to dinner at a chinese place which was so good! It tasted just like chinese food would at home and it was something that I was not expecting at all. Dinner here takes min of 2 hours and I swear we were there for like 3. While there I even got stuck in the bathroom for like 5 mins and had a little freak out. We just got back to the house now and we finally have some water so I am going to take a shower and go to bed. Miss and love you all! Oh and I almost forgot I saw a dog today that looked like cheese! :) They all have her same body, the short legs, long back, curley tail, and huge ears that stand up (none have jacked up front legs however), but most are spotted. Today I saw one of Dollys color and body type...it made me miss home a little where there is running water, clean water, my family/friends, and animals :( 4 weeks here may be a little harder then I thought. Ill try to post this tomorrow and James Ill try to check my email as sson as I can becuase it takes forever to load. LOVE YOU!!!! XOXO!
Day 5 May 25, 2011
Today was a much different day then what we have had before, we didn't go into Accra which was nice! We got up around 8 and ate egg toast and I made ice coffee! I am so happy to have found out how to make ice coffee becuase hot coffee here is just plan too hot. We had lecture in the morning with Edith. She is the funniest perston and kind of has the image of a grandma. She talked about maternal health and health care in Ghana. We then had lunch which had meat in it so I cut up some avocado and had fried platane chips with it. It was soo good kind of like chips with guac. Then we were supposed to go to the botanical gardens but it started to rain so we had another lecture about finance in health care which was boring to say the least. The guy we are staying with felt bad that the plans got swithced to he gave us wine to have with our lecture. :) After the boring lecture we went to the gardens which I will just have to show you pictures because words dont do it justic. It was so pretty and relaxing I loved it. On the way home we stopped in a neighboring village and they greeted us formally and had traditional dancing and drumming and we all got to dance along with them! it was the coolest thing ever! Some of this stuff I will just have to explain in person and show you pictures becuase I cant even begin to describe it well. Afterwards we came back to the house ate dinner, drank wine, packed for the weekend and hang out. Miss you all and love you! and FYI I wont have my computer this weekend becuase we are going to the Cape Coast BUT I will call you mom and james hopefully tomorrow!!! :)

and our water is still not on...they just filled up the tanks and they are now empty.....i miss water lol