Malaria and other Adventures

Now before you start getting worried... I did not have the malaria, my roommate did, So witnessed first hand the joys of being awake all night to the sounds of wretching :D As a whole it didn't seem too bad- she got over it in 3 days and is pretty much back to normal now, except for the funny twitch and noise it makes every time she breathes, hehehe J/K no long term effects. Apparently it takes two weeks for it to actually take effect over your body,and she got it two weeks to the day we entered Ghana- those nasty mosquitoes were waiting for her as she got off the plane.
As for me, I haven't had any problems other than the normal foreign travel stuff.

Since I am still waiting for permission to begin my research i ahve had a lot of free time and have gone exploring and am trying to become as Ghanaian as possible. This week, I plaited my hair, which means I braided it. Yeah, It looks amazing- one other girl was brave with me and did it, but hers only lasted 3 days before it drove her crazy and she took it out. The worst part is that they pull your hair super tight. That is a smal price to pay for not havign to worry about hair in your face or bugs in your hair or even washing it :D it is super easy to take care of and I think it looks nice. Next time I might not choose black, maybe red or purple or white... we'll see.

Coming to Kumasi today was also an adventure. WE were walking towards the tro-tro station and this huge van came barrelling by us and the guy pointed towards town adn said to kumasi. I brought my hair up and called it by bringing the fingers to the palm. the tro tro stopped and we ran over and climbed in hoping we would come out alive. There were only a few passengers inside so we realized it was a dropping tro-tro. perfect. So we sat down and didn't negotiate a price and we took off. I am pretty sure we were going nearly 60 mph, which on roads here is like going 90 at home. there are enormous pot holes that cover the road so they swerve everywhere. Sometimes there is on coming traffic too. I am pretty sure they rewire the horns to the lights and windsheild wiper bars to provide easy access. So they honk at everything, around curves and at cars and bikes and pedestrians. i think one driver honked at a goat too, but it didn't help much. The worst thing that sometimes happens is when your side of the road is broken so you are on the other side and another car is coming and there is a person on the side of the road too. our driver will gun it and swerve and you think you are going to die right there. Today our chair was loose so we could teeter back and forth with the motion of the tro tro. this scenario i mentioned above happened and there was a bike. we were going so fast and it was too late, so we hit the hole, which turned out to be half a foot deep. I went flying in the air and I was so scared I was laughing. the door holder turned and looked at me and pointed and laughed too and the driver tured around to apologize. The other two girls with me were just clinging to things, I don't think they thought it was as fun as I did though. I looked down at the floor and I could see out the bottom to the road. the metal was ripping, but that was the least of our worries.

So when we got on the tro tro it was relatively empty, but we stopped for other people along the way and managed to stuff fifteen people in a van the size of a suburban (well it was a little taller than that).
The best part of the ride is that it costs less than a dollar for an hour and a half of driving- super cheap and so worth it.