Ashley Shira’s Blog

Day Twenty-one

Thursdays are usually our day off since we are working on Dr. Akosua’s schedule, but we decided to go in since we won’t be working on Saturday because we are headed to Cape Coast this weekend. Kim, Andrew, and I claimed a consultation room and Dr. Asamoah agreed to answer any questions we had during the day. Izzy went to work with the midwives becasue she is interested in OB/GYN. We had the nurses send us some patients and got started. In the middle of the first patient, another doctor showed up and we were in his consultation room so we moved to another one. As Kim was finishing up the first patient, one of the midwives came in and said they needed that room for prenatal clinic so once again we were booted out. There were no more rooms available so we went to the wards and checked on our patients. Selassi said there was nothing for us to do and that we should just take the day off…she knew we had been trying to get to the post office and do a few other things and she suggested we do that. Andrew decided to sit in with Dr. Asamoah and Kim and I changed clothes and headed to the post office….we finally got our postcards in the mail…we may get home before they do! We walked around in Teshie for a little while. There is a casket shop on the main road that we have been trying to get a good picture of so we decided to walk down there. They make caskets in any shape you can imagine….dogs, cats, pineapples, boats…you name it, they’ll make it! From there we took a taxi to the Artist Alliance Gallery so I could pick up a few baby gifts…they have really neat hand-made things there. Then we walked from the gallery to Labadie Hotel….it’s amazing how close something can look by taxi, but then can be so far away when you are walking in the African sun in the middle of the afternoon. When we finally got to Labadie we paid and jumped in the pool! Then we had lunch and relaxed. We walked down to the beach and ordered a fresh fruit plate from one of the beach restaurants….it was great. We met a man on the beach from Texas and we talked to him for about an hour and a half. During that time several of the vendors we had purchased things from before came over to say hello. I was quite surprised that they called us by name…I guess there aren’t too many “white girls” running around the beach down there. Kim bought a paisley beaded necklace and bracelet….we all know how she loves paisley things!! We said goodbye to the man and our vendor friends and took a taxi back to the mission house. When we got back we cooked quite a feast….chicken in peri peri sauce (a local spicy sauce we have come to love), rice, mixed veggies….and David showed us how to boil yam and he brought over some spicy stew. We had a wonderful dinner and some great conversation. After cleaning up we were all exhausted and decided to call it a night! The other 4 students will be here late tomorrow night so we aren’t sure who all will be going to Cape Coast this weekend…..at least Kim and I for sure!