Emily and Joey: Accra Trip

This was written July 21st but we have not had internet until now.

Last weekend Joey began to be very sick. He had body aches, a really bad fever, and headaches. He went to the clinic to get tested for Malaria but they were out of the tests but he receive the anti-malarial medication anyways. He began to get better but then on Sunday his throat began really hurting him, he was thinking that it was strep throat. On Monday as soon as the clinic opened we went over there to see if they did strep throat tests but due to how small the clinic is they don't do those sort of tests (They only have those tests when some doctors from a larger facility travel to the clinic once a month but they had already been here earlier this month). Grandma and Grandpa (Margaret and Stephen) were very persistent that Joey should go to Accra to visit Alex, their son-in-law, whom is a doctor. When we returned from the clinic, Joey called Alex and asked his opinion. Alex convinced us that we should probably go to Accra to get everything checked out.

Tuesday morning we woke up around 1:30 so that we could catch the 2 A.M. bus to Accra. While we were waiting for the bus, Joey and I heard some rustling in a shelf in front of Margaret's shop. We look over and there were two people sleeping in this bookcase like thing. It is quite a site to see at any time but especially at two in the morning when you are not awake yet. Then a man that was waiting for the bus turns and tells us that he was just told that the bus had already left, luckily we knew that there are two buses that leave in the morning for Accra, and just then we heard the bus honking (talk about great timing).

We slept most the way to Accra except the time we had to introduce ourselves to the guy we were sitting next to, Eric. When he left the bus he said that he liked us and wanted to get Joey's phone number so that he could call just to say hello. We arrived in Accra at 6 AM which we decided was still too early to call Alex. Joey had found the hospital that Alex works at using his GPS on his phone so we knew where it was and after talking about it for a little bit we decided that if we caught a taxi we would be there in around ten minutes and then just be sitting around there for quite some time. So we decided to start walking from the Accra Central to the Hospital. It was such a great walk, we walked past Ghana's equivalent of the White House, the Accra Ghana Temple, and many other things that you don't get quite the same effect when you drive past them in a car and only get a quick glance. My favorite was this children's park that we walked past, it had a small train track with some boxcars on it, lots of grassy area, and a pretty big playground (although it seemed like it had been there for quite some time because it was pretty worn down). It reminded me of a park in Oregon that my parents and I walked past a couple of years ago.

When it was finally a decent hour of the morning, Joey called Alex letting him know that we were in Accra and would be to the hospital soon. I still thought we had just under halfway to walk still but about 15 minutes later we were at the hospital. It was such an amazing walk and we got to see a beautiful sunrise.

Alex came and picked us up and took us back to his house so that he could check out Joey's throat there before he took us into the hospital. Alex looked at it and decided that we didn't need to go to the hospital but gave him some prescriptions. Then began the waiting, every time we have gone to Accra we have a list of things we need to accomplish while we are there but we end up sitting for a few hours and then in our last hour we are rushed around town trying to accomplish everything on our list so that we can catch the bus back to Abomosu. Luckily we were able to do everything on our list and still were one of the first people on the bus.

Waiting to leave the Bus Station in Accra

Looking at the fabric that I just bought.

On the bus ride home we saw the most amazing sunset. It was amazing to start the day with a beautiful sunrise and conclude it with a breath-taking sunset.