I've arrived!!

 Hi! I am Brittany Hubert, and for anyone who does not know, I am the Sister Cities of Louisville/Sister Cities of Tamale Intern for the summer of 2012. My task this summer is to interview scholars from the Zo-Simli-Naa Scholarship and aid fund in order to document their stories and their feeling of how the fund has impacted their lives and the lives of others. While in Ghana, I also plan to meet with doctors and health professionals in the area. Since I plan to pursue a career in international public health after earning a degree in biology from the University of Louisville, meeting with these professionals will help me gain better insight into what my future may hold :)

So, I arrived in Ghana one week ago today. I flew into Accra, Ghana where I was met by Dr. Herlin's "son", Solomon. I stayed at a hotel in Accra on Thursday and Friday night. Solomon and his friend, Bismark, showed me a bit of Accra which is a very busy, bustling city with a lot of people and a ton of stuff going on! I experienced the true Accra rush hour traffic while leaving the airport with Solomon. Solomon took me to KFC for dinner. It was three stories!! I had a chicken leg and fries. It tasted quite different than KFC here. On Saturday, I met my first two scholars at the Accra Shopping Centre, Saaji and Kiram. Both have graduated from University. Kiram is doing his national service and I just found out a few days ago that Saaji was accepted to a Master's program where she will continue her education!!!

Saturday, I woke extremely early and went to the airport to Solomon to buy a ticket to Tamale. Fortunately I was able to get one for that day (you have to buy tickets from Accra to Tamale at the airport). It was a short and pleasant flight and I was met at the airport by Jehanfo, Madame Fati, and Mariama! They took me to Mariama's restaurant, the Crest Restaurant, for lunch since I had forgotten to eat breakfast and it was going on noon. I randomly picked something off the menu: Boiled Yams with egg. Apparently they were all pretty hesitant to give this to me because they asked me multiple times if I had tried Yam before. I replied no but I would like to try it so they agreed that I should try it. They gave me boiled yam with a plate of boiled vegetables in a red sauce for me to put on the yams. I'm no sure what they were so hesitant about, I LOVED it :)

Since then, a whole lot of stuff has happened. The rest of Saturday and Sunday they gave me to rest and get acquainted with the place and I started up with my internship on Monday. It hasn't even been a full week, but I've gotten so much accomplished. I made a visit to Tamale Teaching Hospital with Jehanfo where there was a very small opening ceremony for the building that Sister Cities helped fund. This building is a resting place/wash room for mothers who have sick children at the hospital. Before the place was built, the mothers would sleep and pass time under a big tree in the parking lot. This new building will prove to be such a great addition to the hospital. I also met with the Director of Administration at the hospital who was kind enough to set aside some time to speak with me about the hospital. I found out they have only about 50 beds in both the Maternity ward and Children's ward, but upwards of 100 patients in each at one time. They also only have one functioning Ambulance. Some of the stuff is just so hard to fathom. I also got a tour of the lab section of the hospital where they do all of the blood/urine/skin testing and all. I was able to see the bacteriology room and the parasitology room ;) For me, it was SUPER interesting. I am supposed to visit again tomorrow and hopefully more before I leave :)

In addition to the interviews and hospital visits, I have also agreed to teach general science for three hours each week!!! I am teaching Form 2 which is the second year of junior high school students. There are two classes of Form 2, so I will teach one of the classes for an hour on Tuesday and 35 minutes on Wednesday and I will teach the other class for 35 minutes on Wednesday and an hour on Friday. The topics I chose from the syllabus to teach are 1. Heredity 2. Food and Nutrition 3. Physical and Chemical Change and 4. Infections and Diseases!!! I observed my first class today and I must say that I will have my work cut out for me :) There were about 50 girls in the classroom I am in today and while they all pay very good attention, the number of students in one room is quite intimidating! Since it will be my first time teaching a real class, I'm extremely nervous, but I'm also very, very excited!

Besides that, I keep myself busy by editing interview videos (which I've grown quite fond of doing since all of the scholars have such interesting stories), reading, playing with the little kids that live at the palace (yesterday I gave them bubbles...they LOVED it!), and eating some delicious food. At the moment my favorite dish is a toss up between boiled yams served with just about any sauce and fried plantains. Although, I had fresh mango slices with my lunch today and I must admit that it was absolutely delicious as well.

The people at the palace are all wonderful. I have so many different people looking after me that it is hard to keep them straight at times. I'll give a brief overview now because I'm sure I'll be mentioning all of them very often. Jehanfo is the past president of SCT and he is helping to arrange my meetings with the scholars as well as transporting me to meetings at the hospital and other places. Madame Fati is the treasurer of SCT and quite possibly the cutest and sweetest little elderly lady I have ever met (and when I say litte, I mean little!). Mariama own a restaurant in town where I eat quite often. The food is delicious and one of the waiters there is helping me to learn Dagboni (the local language that is spoken along with English.) Dagboni is not a written language, it is strictly verbal from what I gather and they use English as their written language. Razak is my "caretaker"; he is a younger boy..around my age I would say and he helps me with just about anything and everything I could possibly need. We have become really great friends already and he is trying really hard to teach me Dagboni...thank goodness he is a very patient guy. Brother Zee also helps with organizing my meeting and showing me around the place. He lives at the palace with his wife and kids. Gomda is the handyman at the palace and he sometimes takes me into town for lunch. Today he gave me some tips for when I start teaching next week. (I think he kind of looks like Ghandi..haha.) For the life of me, I cannot remember the cook's name at the moment, but I'm sure it will come to me eventually. He is a very sweet elderly man that makes me all the meals I eat here, which is always breakfast, sometimes lunch, and usually dinner. He already has my habits all figured out, too, Coffee and juice at breakfast, water at lunch, and a Fanta and bottle of water at dinner :)! There are even more people than that, but at the moment, I think that is quite a bit of information.

So, hopefully I will be able to access the internet a little more often so that I can keep an updated record of all the wonderful, exciting, new things that I am experiencing every hour :)