Days 10, 11, and 12

Day 10 May 30, 2011
Today was our first actual day of research, and man it was as exciting as it sounds. We got up around 8 and started lecture at 9. This has become our new standard for the "school day." Lecture was all about the different types of research and all that jazz. We then ate lunch, and during lunch we had a huge rain fall! It was so nice and calming. It lasted about an hour and everything was soaked. We even had some rain coming into the house through the roof! Luckily not in my room! :) We were going to go into town after lunch, but because it was raining we got to have a 2 hour break instead. It was nice to have a break to just sit on our pouch and watch the rain storm. After the rain stopped we did eventually go into town. Our goal was to walk around with our research groups and to do participant observations. Pretty much it was people watching, but we had to take notes on it. It was nice to go into the town and not have people bothering us all the time. After this we decided to eat dinenr and Connie and Lindas house (they are staying 15 min away on the other side of town). They made mac and cheese and it was nice just to hang out for awhile someplace other then our house. After dinner we tried to watch a movie, but couldnt get anything to work so we settled for a few episodes of friends that someone had on their computer.  We ended up going to bed early becuase tomorrow we have a day full of lecutre and focus groups. And the best part of the day was talking to my best friend on the phone! LOVE YOU!!

Day 11 May 31, 2011
Today was a lot like yesterday, but instead of participant observations we had a focus group. We woke up, had lecture, lunch, then went into town again. This time when we went into town it was to do our focus group. A focus group is where you get people to come in and have a converstaion about a topic. While they talk we take notes and one person leads the group in conversation. Everyting that could go worng with our focus group did. We were in this open bar with children running around and we were supposed to have people ready to go in our group, but they weren't, the lady in charge just pulled some women off the street to come participate. Even with everything that went wrong we got a ton of information. Caitlin was our moderator and did a great job and I learn a few things about teen pregnancy in Ghana that I was kind of suprised about. And that reminds me yesterday we changed our topic from prenatal health to teen pregancy. After coming here and talking to people prenatal health is not a concern for people of this community and teen pregnancy is. Anyways, what we found out was that sometimes when a teen has her baby she will wrap it up and throw it away in a different city. This way no one every finds out and she tells people that she miscarried. That was the biggest shocker to hear, even tho this doesnt happen a lot. After we were done with our focus group we had dinner at a local restraunt with the chief and the man who is the head of the police department.  After I hung out with a bunch of the girls. We drank some beer and wine that kind of tasted like salad dressing. Tomorrow we get to sleep in an extra hour which will be nice!! MISS AND LOVE YOU ALL!

Day 12 June 1, 2011
Today we got to sleep in which was super nice, however, the bright light and people working woke me up early. I got up early and did some more homework, and had a very relaxing morning which was a nice change. We had lecture today and then we sat around the rest of the day waiting to talk to Linda and Connie about hour research and where it was going. We were the thrid gorup to go and the two groups before us eachtook about an hour each, so needless to say it took forever and we spent a lot of today waiting around. Once it was my groups turn to talk and get feedback a lady who has been helping us named Edith came and stopped by. She wanted to take us around the village and give her impression of everything (she is from Ghana and I think the village). We drove around at first and she showed us the cemetary which looked a little like the one I saw in Poland where people are burried above ground (kind of). Then once we stopped driving around we walked the walk that the local women have to take to get water. This was of moving and it made me really appericiate where I come from and that I dont have to do this. The walk was long and steep, and the underground spring where they get their water from was just an open cememnt container that had leaves and even a turtle in it. It was so sad to see and it really put everything into focus. After we did this walk Connie wanted us to learn how to use local transportation so a few of us grabbed a trotro (a bus like taxi) and took it back to the house. This was a much needed break from all 17 of us together. Once we got back we had mac and cheese for dinner (which was sooo good!) and then we had our discussion about our research and how it is going. The talk took forever, but we got good feedback and have a good idea of what we need to do next. After this we took showers and went to bed. Tomorrow will be more lecture, and I am not sure what else!
P.S. Everyday for breakfest we eat egg toast and for lunch some meat with rice (so I only eat rice) when I come home I do NOT want either of these within my first week. Please and thank you! lol :)