Africa: Part 1 REVISED (Picture Overload Warning!)

Okay, let's start this post off with a trivia question... What is the capital of Africa? Think hard and give me the answer in the comment you leave because I know that you will ALL leave a comment when you see what hard work I've gone through to share pretty much a million pictures from my Africa trip with you. Don't look online or cheat in any other way (like asking another person) but just write what you think in a comment and I'll give you the answer in my Africa: Part 2 post that is coming soon to a blog near you (that's my blog). This summer I spent five weeks in Africa. Three of those five weeks were spent in Ghana. So, Africa: Part 1 will cover most of my Ghana pics and Africa: Part 2 will cover the rest of the trip. And I still don't have a lot of the pictures that I wanted to use because they were pictures taken on my friends' cameras and since I haven't been to Utah since the end of April I haven't gotten their pictures yet. So, I just had to use my pictures and a few of my friend Ryan's pictures that I stole off his Facebook page. If I get any super duper good pics later I'll share those too. For now though, here you go... I went to Ghana with a group from the University of Utah mostly made up of Public Health students like me. Here's a picture of our group with some of the locals that helped us with our projects.

This is Carl. He is like the coolest guy ever. He was our local planner, organizer, tour guide, barterer, cultural resource, etc. Turns out he's Mormon. I knew he was too amazing not to be.

I really loved Ghana...in spite of the fact that they are a bunch of Obama LOVERS. Obama made a visit to Ghana just a week or two after I was there so everybody was talking about it, selling Obama t-shirts, Obama paintings, and the van owner in this picture even wrote "Obama Welcome" on the back of his van. 'Great,' I thought to myself, 'I'm probably going to hate these people.' But I didn't. Especially when you realize that none of them realize or know anything about his politics or how he is ruining America. Also, since they can't vote in US elections I guess it doesn't matter that they love him.

We stayed in a pretty big city called Kumasi, Ghana. I don't know how many millions live there. I'm pretty sure not even the people there know how big the city is. The following picture shows our bus stuck in traffic. I even had time to hop out and buy some mangoes and a SIM card thanks to the traffic.

Here are just some city scenes. You'll notice a lot of people carrying stuff on their heads. Ghanaians use their heads to carry stuff (water, food, TP, clothing, etc.) I think more than any other place I've been...including the other parts of Africa I've traveled to. Ghanaians must have some majorly strong necks and excellent balance. The following is the section of pictures I'd like to label "GOATS." Goats are EVERYWHERE in Ghana. Some of them look like sheep but don't be fooled, they are goats. At least that's what the people there told us. Maybe they just don't distinguish between goats and sheep. Here are some goats just chillin in the middle of the city. Okay, I can't take credit for this cool picture. It is actually Ryan's goat picture, not mine, but I think it is super cool so I thought I'd share. Here's a little goat crossing a wooden plank bridge. And a goat just hanging out by the front door. By the way, scratched into the paint to the right of the door you can see the words "I AM BLESSED." I liked that. Goat on your front porch, fabric for a door and they consider themselves blessed. Not a bad outlook. Some kids just relaxing in front of their house. This is in a little village outside of Kumasi. Most of the villagers actually live in houses (even though they aren't that great) as compared to the villagers where I went in Ethiopia who pretty much all lived in huts. Ghana is actually pretty well off compared to the rest of Africa.

Getting decent pictures of or with the kids is pretty tricky. The minute they see the camera they go crazy and all try to shove into the picture, make funny faces, give the peace sign, etc. And they LOVE getting their pictures taken...especially now that with digital cameras they can see their pictures. Some of the younger kids don't recognize themselves when you show them the picture. They don't have a lot of mirrors in the village. Wouldn't that be nice? Well, actually not I guess. How would you know your hair was messed up if you didn't have a mirror?

Anyway, I was able to get a few decent pictures of individual kids or at least small groups. Since the kids are so picture crazy most of the pictures I took out in the village were of the kids so I have plenty to share.

A bunch of kids in their school uniforms. Apparently in order to go to public school the only requirement or cost is that the kids have a uniform and still many kids cannot go to school because their parents cannot afford a uniform for them. Sad.

These kids aren't just giving their little siblings piggy back rides for fun. They carry around their younger siblings that can't yet walk and take care of them while their moms cook dinner, do laundry, etc. I've seen some pretty little kids caring for even younger kids.

This little guy was just chillin in front of the Catholic church/community center in the village. Somebody wrote in marker "PLEASE SWITCH OFF YOUR PHONE" to the side of the church door. I love that even in a little village in Africa they have problems with people's cell phones going off in church. You wouldn't think that any of them would even have cell phones but some do. It is just weird that this little village skipped the whole land line era and went right to cell phones.

If you can't already tell just by looking at my hair, it was pretty freaking hot and humid in Ghana. So while we were waiting for our bus to come pick us up and take us back into the city I was just fanning myself with this little battery powered fan. Then I stared showing it to the kids and the next thing I knew I had a crowd. Too bad the SECOND the kids saw that someone was taking a picture of us they all started to make the peace sign and shove into the picture or it would have been a cuter picture. Oh well. We mostly worked either at the teaching hospital in Kumasi or out in a group of villages just outside of Kumasi. Village life was pretty interesting. The following are pictures of the villages and villagers.

The is the bathroom in Barakuma (one of the villages). Thanks to my bladder and gut o' steel and the fact that I sweat out everything I drank I never had to use any gross bathrooms. This is an open pit latrine which is basically a big hole with some wooden slats over the top. SICK.

I liked this mud house with a bright blue door and I love how they painted the door and then some. I guess they wanted to use the whole bucket of paint.

Some of the villagers wanted us to take a picture with them. One of them told me that they liked my outfit and that the next time I come I should bring another set of clothes so I could leave it for them. I'm glad they liked my outfit because I sure didn't. I bought the most random ugly clothes at Target like the night before I left for Africa. Apparently my lack of style didn't matter to anyone else but me.

A cute older couple in the village. They wanted their picture taken so I took it. A lot of the older people don't like their pictures taken so I was glad these two did.

A beauty salon in one of the villages. Too bad it was closed because I for sure would have gotten my hair cut there. Oh well, maybe next time.

And too bad I'm not a guy because I could have gotten one of these snazzy haircuts. I love the guy with the flat top and sunglasses. Awesome. The village. I think with open sewage running through. God bless America.

While I was in Ghana I worked mostly on a parasite study at the hospital. Some of the days though I worked with groups doing census and GPS mapping work as well as a group doing a nutritional study. We walked around the villages and got to know some of the locals. The following picture is a few of us with some of the villagers we met. I liked their yard because they actually had a sort of landscaped yard, which is pretty rare there. And painted on their house in the background is the saying, "Laziness is a crime, punishable by poverty." They said it, not me.

In Barakuma (the main village we worked in) they have a Catholic church that also serves as a community center and pretty much everything else. This is a picture of the inside of the church. Probably one of the funniest moments of the trip for me was being in a nutritional focus group meeting and seeing Apia, the Muslim community leader we worked with a lot, walk to the back of the church while we were having a meeting and hauk a loogie outside through the hole in the cross. Classy.

There are ALL sorts of Christian denominations in Ghana. I don't even know where they fit in Christianity...Lutheran, Presbitarian, Baptist, Anglican?...I really don't know if they fit into any of those catagories. The names of the churches would just be names like, "Christ Savior Shepherd Church," or "Lord Jesus Save Us All Church." Random.

But basically there are Christians and Muslims there and from what I could see they all seem to get along pretty well. Everyone is SUPER religious but they all seem to be pretty much generically religious so as long as you believe in God or Allah or Jesus Christ you are allright. It is kind of weird. They just don't really care about the divisions in religion like they do in some places. We asked on of the Muslims if he was Shiite or Sunni and he said that he was neither...he was just Muslim. Interesting.

So everybody is religious in some way and they carry that religion into their everyday lives. Probably about 80 percent of their business/store names have something to do with religion. I thought they were funny so I wrote some down. These are real names of stores in Ghana. Shepherd Jesus Fast Food

Christ the Lord Barber

In God We Trust Fashion

God is Mighty Plumbing and Tile

Precious Jesus Enterprize

God First Fried Rice

Jesus Opens Doors Barber and Salon

The Blood of Jesus Fast Food

Alpha and Omega Fast Food

Prince of Peace International Store

Lord Jesus Christ is My Shepherd Mart

Showers of Blessings Financial Services

Glory Be to God Fast Food

By His Grace Rasta Hair

The Lord's Hand is Stretched Out Salon

The Lord Our Banner Fashion

Lion of Judah Construction

Great Provider Salon

Anointing Phone Repairs

Give Thanks Saloon (as in a place you get alcohol)

God is my Provider Fast Food

To God Be the Glory Internet Cafe

Jesus Never Fails Fashion Center

Except (not accept) the Lord Ventures

God Gives Spaying (yes, and God takes away)

Amen Scientific Herbal Hospital

God Bless You Enterprize

Christian and Muslim Tailors

And here are a few non-religious that I thought were funny.

Ninja Fast Food

Salon de-Love

Magnetic Hotel (not sure if I want to know what that means)

Black Taliban Moblie

Three Pee's Fast Food

It Taste Good Fast Food

I think my favorite has to be God First Fried Rice. Which one is your favorite?

When we weren't working out in the villages we were usually at the hospital working on the parasite prevalence study. This is a picture of the front reception area at the hospital. Yes, all those papers you see there are people's medical records just stacked all over the place. Somehow they are organized but I don't know how. The sign at the front says, "Reception and Complaints," and let me just tell you if I had to go to that hospital I'd definitely have some complaints to make.

Behind the front reception area is a HUGE waiting room. Not a nice, comfortable waiting room with cushy chairs, water fountains, vending machines and bathrooms. Just a bunch of wooden benches with HUNDREDS of patients waiting to be seen. I wanted so bad to get a picture of it but I just felt bad taking a picture of people in a situation like that, so I didn't.

It is probably a good thing that their records aren't computerized yet. While we were in Kumasi the power went out several times. They seemed to get it back on pretty quickly but for some reason after that all the Internet service (in a city of millions of people) was down for days. Also, after the power outages for some reason the plumbing in the hospitals got all messed up and there was no running water for a couple of days meaning no working bathrooms. I'm glad I had my bladder and gut o' steel but I still felt bad for all the those sick people without toilets that would flush. And that is what a public hospital in Ghana is like. And it is one of the nicest public hospitals in the country I hear.

Well, at least they don't try to hide that health care isn't so great there. As you can see from the picture there are ambulances lined up going into the hospital and hearses going out. Yay for universal health care!

And for your convienience, if things don't work out so well for your family member in the hospital, you can just run across the street and purchase a casket. There are several styles and colors to choose from. Or better yet, if you are the sick person, you can pick out your own casket while you are stuck in traffic on the way into the hospital. That way you'll get what you really want.

A use for a lawn chair that I never would have imagined. But hey, 10 points for creativity.

And although they may be behind the times in some ways, when it comes to transfusions they are way ahead of the rest of the world. According to this sign they even do head transfusions. Can you imagine when some good looking person died everyone would be fighting over their head? Boy would that be a mess. Okay, just kidding that would be a head transplant, not a head transfusion, but it is what came to my mind for some reason when I saw the sign. Maybe I'm weird.

Here is a little parasite (I think ringworm) under the microscope that we found when we were doing our parasite prevalence study. We actually found a lot of parasites. We even found a tapeworm in ova form...there it was, my dream come true, sitting on a slide in front of my face...easy weightloss via parasitic tapeworm infection. All I would have had to do was lick that slide and I would have been Keira Knightly within months. But, I couldn't do it. I guess it never occured to me that if I wanted to eat a tapeworm that I'd probably have to eat feces. Oh, if I could just get one in a purified form. Someday...

Just a random picture of a kid selling bags of water. Cheaper than bottled water but not too sanitary.

One weekend we took a never ending bus ride on the worst roads in the world for about 8 hours up to a game reserve called Mole National Park. That is pronounced Mol-A and isn't pronounced like the little rodent or round brown thing on your face. We went on a walking safari to see some elephants and other African animals. It had rained a lot the night before which explains our big rain boots. (Christa and Kate, does that bring back memories of Costa Rica? It sure did for me.)

These elephants posed perfectly for me. Thank you elephants.

Me and elephants. I'm the one wearing the raincoat.

Baboons scare me. They are mean and will steal any food you may have right out of your hands.

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I loved that they had a speed bump sign on this horrible dirt road with potholes big enough to lose a child in. As if they need speed bumps or even one little bumpy road warning sign. The whole road was terrible. I was sitting in the back of the bus on the way to Mole and caught air on one of the bumps and cracked a filling in my tooth. I would suggest flying to Mole if you ever want to go.

There were lots of creepy bugs in Ghana. Check out this huge beetle Ryan is holding! Some of the people in my group saw a scorpion the size of a small cat. I was glad that I wasn't there to see that. One of the locals stabbed the scorpion with a butcher knife and it didn't die until they stabbed it a bunch of times. That's how big it was. Yikes!

On the way back from Mole we stopped at this Muslim mosque which is the oldest mosque in Sub-Saharan Africa. I think it was built in the 1300's or so. It is the pokey building behind me.

Lots of the kids in the town were sitting or hanging from the beams that stuck out of the mosque. I mean it is only like 700 years old. Whey wouldn't you let the local kids use it for a jungle gym? It was kind of cute though to see the kids all playing on the mosque.

This is a view of the Volta River, one of the main rivers in Ghana. It is quite pretty. Just don't swim in the water unless you want schistosomiasis and that is one parasite that I don't want. Tapeworm, yes, schistosomiasis, no thank you.

Soccer is HUGE in Ghana as it is pretty much everywhere but the US. These guys were all loaded up on this van either going to a soccer game or just cheering for their soccer team. I'm not sure what they were really doing but I thought I'd take a picture anyway.

We stopped in a little town on the way back from Mole that had a monkey sanctuary nearby. These kids were apparently the cool kids in town.

A picture of a little goat herder in that same town.

The monkey sancutary was pretty much a dissapointment, especially since we drove like an hour out of the way to get there. I guess I just don't like monkeys. They are kind of annoying and scary. I did, however, think that this tree in the monkey sanctuary was cool.

Kids at school in one of the villages we worked in.

Just a lady with a bowl on her head and a baby on her back.

I know this is probably too small to read but it says, "DO NOT URINATE HERE AGAIN. BY ORDER." It is kind of funny. They have "Do not urninate here" signs painted all over the place. Some of the paintings even include illustrations in case you don't know what urinate means. I think it is quite progressive really. Yay for Ghana.

Here is another one. Seriously, are guys that lazy? The bathroom is like two steps away from this sign. Funny. This is a lady in one of the villages getting potable water for her family from a standpipe. Can you imagine how heavy that water would be on your head and how it would ruin your hairdo? Talk about a hurt neck and a bad hair day!

I liked this kid's shirt. It says "Adorable Ewe" and has a little sheep on it. It reminds me of a shirt I had as a kid that I think my dad bought me at the Reno Ram Sale. It said, "Ewes not fat, ewes just fluffy," with some sheep on the shirt. I wonder if this t-shirt was once at a ram sale in Nevada.

If you don't have a fancy play pen, stick your kid in a basket. Not a bad idea, not bad at all.

We were at a clothing store in Kumasi and I just thought it was funny that their mannequin was this little sweet bro white dude mannequin. So, I posed for a picture. The arm in the background was that of my friend Robert. Robert is from Uganda, so obviously, he's black. And right before the picture was taken he was like, "hey I'll stick my arm in the picture so people will know you are in Africa." Right Robert, because there are no black people in the US so if you're black arm is in my picture everybody will know that the picture was taken in Africa for sure. Haaaaaaaaa!

At church in Kumasi. I love going to church all around the world. The members are always a cut above the rest. They had such an amazing spirit in their ward. A country road in Ghana. I just liked this picture.

This lady is smashing up palm nuts to make a palm nut soup. The food wasn't too great there. They eat a lot of starchy casava and sick fish stuff. Everything is pretty fattening so even though I didn't eat a lot I didn't lose any weight. Dang it!

After we were done with our work in Kumasi, we headed to the Ghanaian coast, to a place called Basua. It was pretty gorgeous there and the water was a great temperature for swimming. This was the view from our hotel rooms.

I took the following picture at Coconut Grove, which was somewhat near Basua. We ate lunch at a nice restaurant there. Obama was scheduled to eat at that same restaurant a couple of weeks later. After we were done eating we were just sitting talking and I saw a RAT scurry up a rafter in the restaurant. All I could think was haaaaaaa haaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaa, Obama is going to eat here and there are rats! I didn't even care that I had just eaten there. These next two pictures are of the Elmina slave castle. This was one of the places that slaves were held until they could be loaded onto ships heading to the Americas. It is actually quite a picturesque place although pretty sad. We went back to Accra where everyone headed their own separate ways. Those of us traveling on to southern Africa had an extra couple of days in Accra. We spent most of our time at the temple or in the big new modern mall in Accra. After three weeks out in the villages both the temple and the mall were WONDERFUL to us in their own ways. And may I just say that whoever decorated the inside of the Accra temple did a fantastic job. I think it is one of the best decorated temples I've ever been in.

I'm sick to death of this post and I bet you are too. The end.