Sunday, July 24, 2011

Oh, the Good Times!

Since I last wrote, I've managed to accomplish the two things that I was avoiding most in Ghana-- a visit to the hospital and being robbed. Both occurances happened last time, under different circumstances, and obviously I did not return to the States disillusioned. I returned to Ghana wiser than before definitely, but apparently not wise enough! (Maybe by NEXT time I'll have learned all my lessons haha).

So we'll start with the hospital experience because that happened 2 weeks ago. On Sunday July 10, I woke with my stomach hurting and I couldn't eat. I felt if I eat I would throw up, so I decided to let the pain go away and eat later. Fortunately, Saturday night I slept at my (American) friend Therese's place. She is staying with her boyfriend's sister, Jade, and the sister is a nurse. So finally late Sunday, Jade forced me to take food because I hadn't eaten that day. I was hesitant at first, but it's hard to decline a Ghanaian's offer to feed you. That's just rude! So yes I ate some stew, and yes, 5 minutes later you found my face in the toilet. That lasted a while until Jade said she was taking me to her hospital. I was very weak. I could barely walk from the car to the door.

The way that Ghanaian hospitals work will forever baffle me. I had to bring my own sheets for the bed. I had to bring my own soap for the bathroom. My own towel. I even brought my own toilet paper, but it turns out that's the ONE thing they provide beside the medicine! haha So I get hooked up to the IV, get a couple shots, one in the butt. You know the drill. It was very reminiscent of last year, except this was better-- they found the right vein for the IV on the first try, versus the 4 times it took last year. So it was a great improvement!

I was in hospital for 24 hours. So compared to the 3 days I spent last year, this was much better. I was diagnosed with Gastritus. They believe the school lunches might have basically poisoned me over time. Or maybe it was the street food I've been eating since I arrived? Honestly, it could be any number of causes, but they are sure it was not food poisoning from ONE dish, but developed over a week or so. Well that's reassuring! But not really...

Although I left the hospital Monday evening, I was not able to be a full functioning person until the next Sunday. So 7 days I was bedridden. Compared to the 2 weeks last year spent recovering, 6 days is great! But I don't have that time to spare! Being here only 5 weeks, that cuts a whole week out of my trip! Since then I've been teaching at the school and eating lots of food. I wasn't able to hold food down until Thursday. So I'm trying to make up for it.

Now for my pickpocket story-- On my way to school on Wednesday, I was waiting at the tro tro stop. It was 9am and a shared taxi pulled up and asked where I was going. (Shared taxis in Ghana are very common. It's an alternative form of transportation to tro tros. It's just a little more money because they are faster and take fewer people). So I said my stop and they told me to get in. The car had two passengers-- a woman in the back seat with me and a man in the passenger seat. So we're driving and the driver asks again where I'm going. I repeat my destination, and he says "Oh sorry, we are not going there. I misheard you. I will drop you at this tro tro stop." He pulled over at the stop and I'm pissed cuz he wasted my time. I pull out my wallet to give him a quarter, but the passengers said in Twi something like "You're not taking her to her stop, she shouldn't pay." So after they grumbled that, the driver said quickly, "Oh, no no. You do not need to pay. My mistake." I'm surprised at this because usually taxi drivers will take any money you are willing to offer. But I accepted this, and put my wallet back in my bag. At this point the tro tros are honking at the taxi to get out of their way. So he moves forward a few hundred yards. I try to open the door but it is stuck. The driver is leaning over to "help" me open the door. He's giving me directions like "pull from the outside, push here, no not there" etc. My purse is in my lap, unzipped. I should have taken this stuck door as a RED FLAG, but I didn't. I was just pissed at their incompetence. So finally the man in the passenger seat gets out to open my door and it opens. I get out and as the car drives off, I hear giggling from the car. "Hmm, that's strange" I think to myself. First thing I do is check for my wallet. It is gone. A slur of curse words go through my head. I check again. Yep, they took my wallet. I was SO played!
It was all a setup. The driver, passenger, and woman in the backseat, they were all in on it together. As the driver "helped" me with the door, the woman leaned over to take my wallet. I was so preoccupied with trying to open the door I failed to notice. And the driver, once the woman had taken my wallet, finally asks the "passenger" to get out and open the door from the outside. All a scam. I see all the signs clearly now. But now I know, and I have learned. It was a lessen that cost $30, but it could have been more. A lot more. And for this, I am lucky.

Lucky for the scammers, I brought extra money this day because I knew I was going to be paying my dress maker later. Win for them. But I also had my camera in my bag, and thankfully they did not take that. I think I would have noticed the loss in weight in my purse if they did! Inconveniently my ID and ATM cards were in there as well, but that is all.

The ultimate relief is that yesterday I took out $275 from the ATM as part of a donation to the school that I am teaching. I had the money in my wallet this morning, but for some reason I felt uncomfortable transporting it to school. So I took it out and left it in my room. THANK GOD! The students would have been left without the funds that could go SUCH a long way for them!
I left the taxi feeling so PLAYED. I was a little shaken up to say the least. I called Therese on the verge of tears just because I couldn't believe what had happened, how played I was, and ultimately naive! I was left with no money to get home, let alone to the school, so I walked home about 30 minutes. I didn't want to trust anyone, talk to anyone, nothing. I just wanted to blow off some steam by walking home. I was SO played! I kept on going over it in my head. Yes, there were warning signs. Yes I thought some things were odd, but I assumed the driver's stupidity, rather than my own naivete! Ah! So the joke is on me.

Oh well. The recurring motto from all this is you live and you learn. Last year when I got my wallet stolen, I had about $50 and all my cards in it, ID, everything. But this time round I only had my ID and ATM. And even these, I just put back in my wallet after I left the hospital. (I wasn't carrying my ID or ATM when I went to the hospital which was an issue, so I decided to put them back). I learned from my last experience, and I will learn from this experience. When a door is stuck in the taxi, this will be an immediate warning sign. You live and you learn.

On another note. I love the school and the children that I work with each day. I will update you all with my daily routine once I get over the shock of being robbed. So you'll be hearing from me within a week, which is when I return!

Talk to you soon!
Annabelle

1 comment:

  1. thank god the donation money wasnt taken. be safe girl and eat well ahahah

    ReplyDelete