Tuesday the 17th

So i followed through on my plans.

Monday, yesterday, i did some much needed laundry and then went off to town. I brought the Nigerian called shola along with me as well as the Venezuelan (alberto) and a chinese girl called carleen. It's funny being considered the resident expert on ghana, capable of showing foreigners around. Hilarious.

So we went to town and i was already hungry so we went to the vegetarian restaurant first off. I got plam nut soup again. I was super happy since there were so many vegetables in it, also TOFU! Oh the joys of nutrition. I let the Nigerian try it. He liked it. The Venezuelan got some tofu kebabs and hilariously they were too spicy for him. Just adorable. While at the table there was a pamphlet about how eating too much meat might make you impotent. The Nigerian was quite offended by the suggestion. He told me proudly that African men can give birth to 12 children easily. I then explained that no Nigerian man is giving birth at all. Also African men don't eat sweets because they think that sugar makes them impotent. Hrm.

After lunch i bailed on all the others and went off by myself. I don't like shopping with others in the best circumstances but particularly with other people who are tourists and draw a lot of attention to us. It's simply more convenient to shop by myself. And efficient. I love efficiency.

So i went and bought some beautiful indian fabric. i'm gonna have another dress made. Don't judge me. They are 8 cedis each, this is only my third one and my last one too.

After that i had found my way to the central markets. If i thought the kejitzia markets were hustling and bustling these were a whole new level. They are under cover and winding and narrow and crowded. Think Arab shuk in jerusalem but narrower, darker, dirtier and so much bigger. The central markets in kumasi are the largest in all of west africa. And i believe it. But they are relatively organised. There's an area dedicated to baby products, to candy, to school uniforms. It's kinda like a giant sprawling third world department store. The equivalent of myers or chadstone.

So i found the area dedicated to the kente cloth makers. It's this tradition woven fabric in bright colours that are normally worn by chiefs or wealthy ghanaians on important occasions like weddings or festivals. They are priced at the cheapest plain ones at about $60 and then can easily be $400. so obviously only the super wealthy in ghana own one. And then they only own one and they wear it till it falls to pieces. I knew what type i wanted. The trouble was that there were infinite varieties of the similar style and various qualities. It was over whelming. Wall to wall covered with this cloth for a whole narrow street in the markets. i'd seen so many options i began to feel nauseous. So after a few hours of looking and thinking my brain might explode, i chose my favourite even though it was a bit more expensive than i planned. I was a bit nervous about spending that much money so i do what you always do when in doubt - call your mum. Even though it was 3 in the morning in australia. So i called the house and she immediately answered and was like "are you ok? Is everything ok?" adorable. She gave me the go ahead, though she might not have been sure what she was saying since it was 3am.

After the acquisition of the fabric i went to the supermarket and bought some instant oats. Makes me so happy.

By this time it was 5.30pm. Which meant peak hour traffic. Which meant that it took me 45 mins to get a tro tro home. After say 30 mins and i was tired and hot and super frustrated. I had a massive swearfest at ghana. I mumbled/shouted to myself "fuck you ghana - you fucking 3rd world country - get your shit together!" i felt a bit better then. But i did look a bit like a schizophrenic. But then a tro tro came. i've now perfected the skill of getting into a moving tro tro just as it's slowing down to pick up passengers. This way you beat the rush and the scrum for getting into one.

i came home, we danced a bit. I got some kinkey for dinner. Showered. Steven came back from accra so we caught up. Then I watched some daria with susan. Then bed.

Today (Tuesday) i got up super early, 6.30am so i could have some quiet time in the house. I was the first one up, got ready quietly, davened with the sun rising and then had some porrige and tea for breakfast. At about 8.30 gyimah and i went to a local school to organise for me to come and teach computer skills there for the next 2 days.

After that gyimah and i took 2 chinese girls and one chinese boy to the hospital to get them some preventative treatment for malaria. They weren't feeling so well and gyimah was pretty worried about them. Also i was kinda excited to go and see a hospital in ghana. It was everything i expected. Crowded. Screaming babies. There were posters on the wall informing us how to avoid and treat all these scary diseases that i'd never even heard of. There were also lot's of posters reminding us only to pay officials that have given us an official invoice and then get an official receipt so that the doctors, nurses and administrators can't take bribes. Classy ghana. But all in all it wasn't so bad. It was relatively clean and well kept and the nurses had adorable retro nurses outfits with those little white peaked caps and white aprons.

In the end the chinese didn't get the malaria treatment because it was too expensive for them. Instead they are just going to buy mosquito nets for sleeping under and some repellent and hope for the best. I wish them luck with that. It's interesting, none of the chinese are on any type of malaria medication and have no ways of preventing mosquito bites. Yet they know that all the previous chinese interns got malaria and had to be hospitalised. Yet they aren't doing anything different. They seem to have just accepted that they will get malaria. Hrm.

After out trip to the hospital i went with gyimah and alberto to campus so alberto could get some malaria drugs from the pharmacy on campus and i could withdraw some money from the bank there. Obviously the closest ATM to my house is a 20 minute tro tro ride away. Standard ghana.

I then came home, did more laundry. Re-arranged my room since there's now another chinese girl sleeping in here. That makes 5 of us on mattresses on the floor.

And that's it for now folks.

Cheers.