Halfway Home

As you all may know, Ghana defeated the US in the soccer match last Saturday. About 14 of us headed to Citizen Kofi (a very classy sports bar/club/restaurant) in Osu to watch the game. We got some interesting reactions to our presence at such a heated match. Some of the locals joked with us about who was going to win the game. They laughed when we stood up to sing our National Anthem, but they also invited us to stand when they sang their own. Overall, it was a good time where I was sitting. However, some of my friends had some other less than pleasant experiences at the bar. Some of them said that they received some hostile looks from the men and women nearby and overall just didn’t feel welcome at the bar. I’m beginning to think that it’s a good thing that Ghana won because I can’t imagine what would have happened if the few Americans in the bar were cheering in the face of the over 100 Ghanaians in the bar who just lost to the U.S. and was now eliminated from the World Cup. It would not have been good. After the game, we walked on the streets of Osu and watched hundreds of locals celebrating, hanging out of cars, blowing whistles and vuvuzelas constantly, and just having a good time. We stopped to grab some food and then headed to another bar to see if we could join in on the party. Some people got some drinks, but almost immediately after we were served, two of the guys in our group had their wallets stolen! Some locals apparently just grabbed their wallets out of their pockets without them even noticing. We were all pretty disturbed at that point, so we decided to head back to the Telecentre. I think this was the only time I’ve ever felt somewhat unsafe since I’ve been here. Even though it is certainly safer to travel in groups than alone, I think the large size of our group made us an easy target for locals without the best intentions for us. We were easily distracted by the music, the vuvuzelas, and other locals randomly talking to us, so they were able to take advantage of this. Nothing else happened to me or to anyone else, and we all got home safely. Now we will all just be a little more careful anytime we go out in big groups like that.

In other news, I started work this week at Northwest Eye Centre. This is another UFS-sponsored clinic in Accra that volunteers go to. The staff there is a group of young professionals who are great at what they do but also like to have a good time while they’re at work. We traveled about two hours today to a community near the beach. We saw about 60 or 70 patients, and I really got to talk to Charlotte, one of the nurses, since there were only a few of us at this outreach. Overall, it was a pretty good day.

Many of the volunteers who arrived with me on June 1 are leaving within the next day or so. It is an interesting time for me because as so many are ending their journeys in Ghana, mine is only halfway done. I’m careful to listen to all of the things they wish that they had time to do so that I can be sure to have as few regrets as possible when I am preparing to leave. I’m very glad that I decided to stay for two months instead of only one because I am just not getting the feeling that I actually know this place fairly well. While I don’t feel completely at home yet (I doubt I ever will no matter how long I stay!), I’m glad that I have another month to live here and explore more things, see new places, and meet new people that have yet to come my way. It’s been a great ride so far, but I believe that there’s much more to look forward to. :)