Howdy, all. For those of you that don't know, this would be my second time in Ghana, and I was only here for a few days. As a result, this will be one of my briefer posts. Much to my chagrin I was stuck on the boat for a few hours longer than I wanted to be when we first arrived while I waited for the release of my passport. However, once I'd obtained that sacred document, I ventured quickly to Accra, the capital city. I met with some of my friends from the boat, made hotel arrangements, and as it was already getting late at this point proceeded to party with them.
The next day I awoke early to meet one of my friends in Ghana, named Richard. Richard picked me up around nine in the morning and took me to Ho, a city in the Volta region of Ghana. I had spoken with Richard before arriving in Ghana and we had arranged to do an outreach clinic in one of the rural villages in the Volta region the next day. We arrived in Ho later that afternoon. We spent the remainder of the day purchasing various medicines and eyeglasses for the clinic. Major props to Dad for being the financial backer of the clinic.
The next day we woke early to drive to the village. The village is located on Lake Volta, in a rather picturesque setting. After a brief tour of the village we began seeing patients. The clinic consisted of a doctor, nurse, an eye doctor, and various other support staff. I worked in one of two stations. The first station is the blood pressure station. I took blood pressure, pulse, and temperature of the patients before they went to the doctor. The second station I worked at was the medication table. I simply filled the doctors prescriptions.
As I am sure you are curious, most of the health problems in Ghana revolve around three primary things. The first, and unquestionably largest complaint we hear of is pain. Understand that most of these people are rural sustenance farmers, as such their bodies have been shot nearly to hell. Alas, we can do little for these cases aside from prescribing them a pain medication for a week or two weeks. The second affliction is hypertension or high blood pressure. Personally, I think it is mostly because of their diets, but many people suffer from high blood pressure. The highest I saw that day was approximately 240/200 (a healthy blood pressure is 120/80 for those of you that don't know). Finally, the third affliction tends to be malaria, unsurprisingly. In addition we saw a few STD/STI cases (generally gonorrhea, etc not HIV/AIDS), some infectious disease, worms and other parasites, and very rare cases of yellow fever. We also provide prescription glasses for those with poor eyesight.
That day we saw roughly 120 patients before returning to Ho for the night. The next day I woke early to catch a bus back to Accra and the boat. In Accra I met with Dr. Senyo whom I worked with the last time I was in Ghana. He had many plans for how we could make the medical outreach program I did last spring and will do again this spring better. After that it was back to the boat and off to South Africa.
PS: Apologies to everyone, I intended to get postcards, but alas forgot to get them in my rush to finish my errands before getting back on the boat, I'll have more in South Africa though, I promise. Shoot me an email or leave me a comment with your address if you want one!
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Turkish Bath
Hey everyone, just one last brief note about Morocco before I get started on Ghana. The last day I went to a Turkish bath – if you ever get the opportunity you simply must go. The bath house was nothing like I expected, looking like an American health club or spa from the outside it took me by surprise. Once inside the décor began looking more like what I was expecting. It was separated by sex, men to the left, women to the right. After going down a flight of stairs I walked into a changing room where I took off everything but my boxers. I was lead into a room with plastic covered massage beds (the only way I can describe them, though this fails to be an apt description) and sinks lining the wall and shin height. The room was tiled in what I can only describe as a modern Greko-roman (apologies for my spelling) ambiance. From there I was led into a smaller steam room decorated in the same style. The steam room was wonderful. The steam shot into some sort of basket filled with herbs. I cannot tell you what kind of herbs they were but I could feel the toxins leave my body as I marinated in the heat. After the steam room I showered off and was led to one of the massage beds. A man insinuated that I should relax, which I did. He proceeded to scrub me down with some sort of a rough glove, almost like sand paper, but with a softer texture. The sheer volume of skin he scrubbed off my body was both disgusting and amazing at the same time. It felt absolutely amazing. I showered again, and then be proceeded to cover me completely with soap. I showered once more, and that was it. All of this for about 10 USD. If I ever live in Morocco, I think I'll go in about once a week for this treatment.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Ghana?
Hey everyone,
I'm in Ghana right now at an internet cafe. Expect more soon, but just a quick update: I'll be working at the same clinic I worked at in Ho the last time I was here. We'll basically be doing the exact same thing as last time. All is well in my neck of the woods, hope everyone is having fun. My email address is abashby@semesteratsea.net for those of you who don't know.
Morocco Day 2 (Cot'd):
First, apologies for any grammatical or spelling mistakes. Anyway, continueing on from Donkey polo... And I'm afraid its going to be brief, but I did play soccer barefoot in the same field as the polo with a bunch of Moroccans. In fine American form we got our asses kicked quite nicely (0-3). I made some nice calluses on my feet from it.
After that I rode a camel to lunch, cous-cous. It was incredible, caramelized onions, raisins, chicken, very very delicious. We rode ATVs back afterwards, all in all a great day. I have much more to say of course, but I'm trying to be brief. The pictures are much better anyway! Hopefully I'll be able to upload some as soon as I get to S. Africa.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Morocco: Day 2
The only reason you’ll believe my stories about this day is because of the pictures. Olympic Games were supposed to occupy the morning, what that specifically meant was only a vague guess until we arrived at the camel/outdoor adventure/farm we would spend the day at.
Our group was split into 4 teams of 10 to play the games. To be fair, it started mundanely enough. We learned how to wrap a turban and had a race; we played some soccer. You get the idea. Now imagine donkey polo. Yes, donkey polo. We played what is known as Berber Polo a sport, I suppose you could call a sport that at least. Now donkeys are very stubborn creatures to solve this issue, they were lead by our guides at the farm. So you have three men leading three donkeys upon which three players with sticks sit per team playing polo on a dirt field outlined in chalk with the remnants of bed frames as goals. As the piece de resistance, techno was blaring in the background.
More later, Arabic keyboard is a bit tricky. Expect pictures too.
Our group was split into 4 teams of 10 to play the games. To be fair, it started mundanely enough. We learned how to wrap a turban and had a race; we played some soccer. You get the idea. Now imagine donkey polo. Yes, donkey polo. We played what is known as Berber Polo a sport, I suppose you could call a sport that at least. Now donkeys are very stubborn creatures to solve this issue, they were lead by our guides at the farm. So you have three men leading three donkeys upon which three players with sticks sit per team playing polo on a dirt field outlined in chalk with the remnants of bed frames as goals. As the piece de resistance, techno was blaring in the background.
More later, Arabic keyboard is a bit tricky. Expect pictures too.
Morocco: Day 1
As far as the actual trip is concerned it basically started on the day after we arrived in Marrakech. The morning was spent visiting various different monuments in Marrakech, specifically the place of a former vizier built in the late 19th century, and the necropolis of an ancient king. Both places we visited were beautifully done in stunningly complex woodwork and fantastic tile patterns.
In the afternoon we visited the souk, or open air market. Now this is interesting, depending on who you talk to, I am either a decent or terrible bargainer. Either way, I’m not brilliant at it. After this trip, I have to say I’m pretty damn good. The fact that I have white skin immediately bumps the price of everything I look at by about 200-500% over an already high price. It is expected that you barter over everything.
I bought two things while I was in the souk, a purse for my little sister, and a strap for my camera. The strap for my camera came to about 200 Dirham when all was said and done. I overpaid, but I was still getting my legs back. The purse I did much better on, and sorry Ali, but I won’t be saying how much I spent.
Now, if I may let me briefly walk you through the scenario. You walk into a store and find something you like. If you dare ask how much it is, assume you’ll be buying it or at the very least spending the next 20 or 30 minutes arguing about the price. I’ll use a tea set as an example. (Translating from French) How much? For you my friend 400 Dirham. That’s very expensive 80 Dirham. It cost me 200, that is too low. What is your final price? Etc etc until you end up at whatever price you’re willing to spend. If something was 400 Dirham between 80 and 120 Dirham is probably a good price. Of course my brief explanation cannot do it justice, but at least you get the picture.
In the afternoon we visited the souk, or open air market. Now this is interesting, depending on who you talk to, I am either a decent or terrible bargainer. Either way, I’m not brilliant at it. After this trip, I have to say I’m pretty damn good. The fact that I have white skin immediately bumps the price of everything I look at by about 200-500% over an already high price. It is expected that you barter over everything.
I bought two things while I was in the souk, a purse for my little sister, and a strap for my camera. The strap for my camera came to about 200 Dirham when all was said and done. I overpaid, but I was still getting my legs back. The purse I did much better on, and sorry Ali, but I won’t be saying how much I spent.
Now, if I may let me briefly walk you through the scenario. You walk into a store and find something you like. If you dare ask how much it is, assume you’ll be buying it or at the very least spending the next 20 or 30 minutes arguing about the price. I’ll use a tea set as an example. (Translating from French) How much? For you my friend 400 Dirham. That’s very expensive 80 Dirham. It cost me 200, that is too low. What is your final price? Etc etc until you end up at whatever price you’re willing to spend. If something was 400 Dirham between 80 and 120 Dirham is probably a good price. Of course my brief explanation cannot do it justice, but at least you get the picture.
Morocco: Casablanca and Marakech
Our port of call for Morocco is Casablanca, a rather large industrial city. I would have to say the first and most immediate experience when walking onto Moroccan soil for the first time is the smell. The scent is a turbulent mixture of trash, rotting food, sewage, and exhaust. That being said it is a wonderful place. I haven’t spent very much time in Casablanca yet, but I did see one of the most impressive religious structures I have ever visited. To say the mosque is massive would be an understatement. Yet the size, while impressive, fails to be its most striking feature. The beautiful tile and woodwork is simply stunning. Alas, I don’t have a picture to post at the moment, but I will find one.
Anyway, onto Marrakech my principle place of residence since arriving here. Marrakech is the opposite of Casablanca. To begin, it is inland. It is also very clean. It is not industrial. You get the idea. Marrakech is gorgeous, located essentially in the desert it was about a four hours drive from Casablanca. I understand that it was built as a stay over for caravans crossing the desert, which would explain its location. A brief note on the color tones – everything is red, orange, brown. The environment of the city is very different from my experiences at home, in Europe, and the various other places I’ve visited.
Anyway, onto Marrakech my principle place of residence since arriving here. Marrakech is the opposite of Casablanca. To begin, it is inland. It is also very clean. It is not industrial. You get the idea. Marrakech is gorgeous, located essentially in the desert it was about a four hours drive from Casablanca. I understand that it was built as a stay over for caravans crossing the desert, which would explain its location. A brief note on the color tones – everything is red, orange, brown. The environment of the city is very different from my experiences at home, in Europe, and the various other places I’ve visited.
Morocco: The Cab Ride
To give you an introduction to Morocco, I’m going to describe my first experience with a cab driver. I had walked to the Mosque earlier in the day with some friends and had to be back on the boat at 1:00 to go on my trip. It was a long walk, and I didn’t want to risk getting lost, so I decided to take a cab. I flagged down what is known as a petit taxi, or the smaller, cheaper taxis in Morocco. After struggling with the language briefly, we established where I wanted to go and started haggling over the price. He started with $10.00 US, steep no? I told him 40 Dirham (a little over $5.00 US); he immediately dropped to 60 Dirham, etc etc. We ended up at 45 Dirham. I had cut his original price by not quite half, and was happy with it.
So I get into the cab and notice in the corner of the window, barely large enough to read is a fare rates sticker. 1.70 Dirham to hire the taxi, and an additional 0.20 Dirham for each minute there after. So yea, I overpaid by a lot. The story continues though, he proceeds to drive about 100 meters and pull over. “No, no,” I say, and he keeps driving. He then offers to take me on a tour of the city. He wanted to show me all these nice places apparently, but I needed to get back on the boat and knew it was a scam.
The cab drive is nice enough, and he is extremely friendly throughout the trip. We arrive at the port, and I pull out 100 Dirham to pay him. He takes out a 5 Dirham coin, and tries to tell me its 50 Dirham. We argue about this for a while, and he finally pulls out an additional 50 Dirham bill to give me the correct change. Welcome to Morocco!
p.s. The cab fare should have been somewhere around 10-20 Dirham.
So I get into the cab and notice in the corner of the window, barely large enough to read is a fare rates sticker. 1.70 Dirham to hire the taxi, and an additional 0.20 Dirham for each minute there after. So yea, I overpaid by a lot. The story continues though, he proceeds to drive about 100 meters and pull over. “No, no,” I say, and he keeps driving. He then offers to take me on a tour of the city. He wanted to show me all these nice places apparently, but I needed to get back on the boat and knew it was a scam.
The cab drive is nice enough, and he is extremely friendly throughout the trip. We arrive at the port, and I pull out 100 Dirham to pay him. He takes out a 5 Dirham coin, and tries to tell me its 50 Dirham. We argue about this for a while, and he finally pulls out an additional 50 Dirham bill to give me the correct change. Welcome to Morocco!
p.s. The cab fare should have been somewhere around 10-20 Dirham.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Seville, Marbella, and Cadiz
Spain:
Hello from Spain, or should I say Hola! Where do I start, the picture is Cadiz the morning we arrived, lovely no? I must say Cadiz is a lovely city. Granted I haven´t spent much time there. I arrived and almost immediatly left for Seville, another beautiful city. The train ride was quite enjoyable. Once in, I/we (I travelled in a group with 7 other people) hunted down a hostel and wandered around the town. The women were all beautiful, and the streets are wonderful, tiny little streets lined with ancient buildings. It was absolutly georgous. We came back to our hostel (hostel Pino) and took a nap before going out for the night. For those of you that are unaware, Spain parties until 6 in the morning, so it was going to be a long night.
First we found dinner, I had a selection of tapas, which was delicious, while most of our group split chicken payella. The Payella probably wasn´t worth the ~20 euro they paid for it, but my tapas were delicious. There was a bar right by the resteraunt, so we ventured over. Much to our chagrin we discovered it closed down at 12:00 along with nearly all the other bars in the area we were at. Our night looked like it was going down hill quickly. Fortunatly for us we ran into a group of guys who showed us a good time. First they took us to a beautiful out doors bar and bought us drinks. The night was picking up. Afterwards they took us to a club called Aqua, where it just so happened one of the guys father´s was in charge of. We jumped a line of probably 200 people. The club was incredible, it had a big tank where girls were swimming, hundreds of people, and fyi the Spanish love American music. Anyway, it was amazing, the guys we met introduced us to people, continued to buy us drinks, and were generally awesome the entire night.
The next day we played tourist for a while. Apparently Seville has one of the largest Cathedrals in the world, which you find pictured. It was absolutly massive, though I must admit it was no Notre Dame, or some of the other cathedrals I´ve been to... The Vatican for example.
Later in the day we ventured to Marbella which is a beautiful beach town. We spent the day wandering around and enjoying the beach. We chilled on the beach that night, it was very relaxing. We spent the next day relaxing on the beach, and eventually hopped on a bus back to Cadiz.
Cadiz is a small little port town. I´ve still managed to get lost and wander around for roughly an hour and a half looking for an internet cafe, but wandering the streets may be one of the best ways to get to know a place. I´ll be leaving for Morocco in a few hours, but my time here in Spain has been wonderful.I think thats all for now, have a lovely time folks.
Halifax and the MV Explorer
Ok, first real update of my trip, mostly dealing with Halifax and the ship. I got into Halifax on Wednesday night around 10ish. I split a cab with a few kids I’d met on the plane, and got to the lovely Westin hotel. Quite lovely accommodations for all of us Semester at Sea kids, and quite a few of us were filling its myriad of rooms. Anyway, onto Halifax:
Halifax is a lovely little quaint town. It reminds me of what I would imagine a cute little New England town should be like. It’s on the coast with great (if expensive) bars, stoic old houses, and a small downtown. I understand from the cab driver that its population is somewhere around ~350,000. I enjoyed Halifax. Perhaps it isn’t the most exciting place, but it appears to be the perfect spot to come and rest for a week or a week and a half. The atmosphere for those who know me better, is quite like Michigan. The people were, of course, very friendly and helpful. At any rate, it was a lovely little introduction to my trip. In addition, I met a quiet sum of the students I will be spending the next few months with. Granted, I haven’t seen some of them since the streets of Halifax, but that doesn’t change anything.
As for the boat, it is essentially a luxury cruise ship converted into a floating campus. We have 9 classrooms (including a large audience hall), small little two (or more) person cabins, two dining rooms, and a pool deck. Given the fact that I’ve been on the boat for nearly a week without sight of land, I’d say it’s alright. Hell, I could even get used to this. The food is a mediocre brand of decent. Lots of pasta, not much else, it has been increasingly more difficult to stomach as the days have progressed, but tapas and wine are in my near future, so I can’t complain too much.
As for the program itself, with the exception of a few minor complaints, it seems pretty good. The staff is more or less well prepared and informed, granted I’ve had few if any questions. The first day was interesting as they failed to inform anyone in the student body about any sort of program, schedule of events, or anything. This left us to wandering around the boat, going about and meeting the ~500 other confused students of our trip.
As for the kids, I must say I like most of them, nearly all of them in fact. Aside from the fact we are (nearly) all white, it’s a fairly diverse group, hailing from many different countries and every state. Still, Colorado and California make up a sizable percentage of us.
Classes are going well, and to be honest I don’t really have much to say. The work load is significantly reduced from what I’m used to, but you’ll have no complaints here. Most of my teachers are interesting and helpful. Global studies regularly proves itself frustrating as it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand what the professor actually wants us to understand and know through his plethora of anecdotes and statistical rhetoric. C’est la vie.
Anyway, I’m off to explore Spain, if you’re lucky I’ll update again before I leave, but if not be sure something is coming in Morocco which is only two days after Spain.
Cheers
Ps you´ll get pictures in the next update, which will be in about 20 or 30 minutes.
Halifax is a lovely little quaint town. It reminds me of what I would imagine a cute little New England town should be like. It’s on the coast with great (if expensive) bars, stoic old houses, and a small downtown. I understand from the cab driver that its population is somewhere around ~350,000. I enjoyed Halifax. Perhaps it isn’t the most exciting place, but it appears to be the perfect spot to come and rest for a week or a week and a half. The atmosphere for those who know me better, is quite like Michigan. The people were, of course, very friendly and helpful. At any rate, it was a lovely little introduction to my trip. In addition, I met a quiet sum of the students I will be spending the next few months with. Granted, I haven’t seen some of them since the streets of Halifax, but that doesn’t change anything.
As for the boat, it is essentially a luxury cruise ship converted into a floating campus. We have 9 classrooms (including a large audience hall), small little two (or more) person cabins, two dining rooms, and a pool deck. Given the fact that I’ve been on the boat for nearly a week without sight of land, I’d say it’s alright. Hell, I could even get used to this. The food is a mediocre brand of decent. Lots of pasta, not much else, it has been increasingly more difficult to stomach as the days have progressed, but tapas and wine are in my near future, so I can’t complain too much.
As for the program itself, with the exception of a few minor complaints, it seems pretty good. The staff is more or less well prepared and informed, granted I’ve had few if any questions. The first day was interesting as they failed to inform anyone in the student body about any sort of program, schedule of events, or anything. This left us to wandering around the boat, going about and meeting the ~500 other confused students of our trip.
As for the kids, I must say I like most of them, nearly all of them in fact. Aside from the fact we are (nearly) all white, it’s a fairly diverse group, hailing from many different countries and every state. Still, Colorado and California make up a sizable percentage of us.
Classes are going well, and to be honest I don’t really have much to say. The work load is significantly reduced from what I’m used to, but you’ll have no complaints here. Most of my teachers are interesting and helpful. Global studies regularly proves itself frustrating as it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand what the professor actually wants us to understand and know through his plethora of anecdotes and statistical rhetoric. C’est la vie.
Anyway, I’m off to explore Spain, if you’re lucky I’ll update again before I leave, but if not be sure something is coming in Morocco which is only two days after Spain.
Cheers
Ps you´ll get pictures in the next update, which will be in about 20 or 30 minutes.
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