It's been another great week in Wiamoase. I bought a djembe this week in a little village just outside of Kumasi. The village specializes in wood working and they can make some seriously amazing things! I really liked looking around at all the different animals and statues and stuff that they've carved... but the salesmen were super pushy. Anyway, I found the drum of my dreams and got it for a really fair price. It sounds great and so far everyone has liked to listen to it. Jima, one of Esther's sons (Esther is the lady we're staying with) said he has a good friend that will teach me some traditional African beats. I'm in heaven! haha. I also stopped by the Salvation Army church on the way home from buying some bread the other day to say hi to some friends there. We met these kids the first week we were here and they've wanted me to come play music with them since. So we stopped by and I got to sit in and play the drumset during one of their rehearsals... so fun. All of the songs were Gospel and Reggae mixed, something I'm not too experienced with, but great nonetheless. Other than that, my research is still going well. I got a really good book this week from Dr. Samuel on the new standards for malaria treatments, so that answered a lot of my questions, but also made me think of more. Things are great and none of us have gotten sick yet!

Well I tried to write a post on Saturday that I posted... but it didn't post. oh well! We arrived in Wiamoase last Monday. It's a really small village about 2 hours outside of Kumasi. Goats and wild dogs roam the streets, roosters wake us up in the morning at like 2:30 then 3 then 3:30.. etc. It's an amazing place. We're staying with an older lady that is very respected in the community. Her husband is the main doctor at the clinic that I'm working at. Her children are mostly grown up but have been home for school holidays these last couple weeks. It's just a great situation. On Saturday we went to a soccer game where the team from Kumasi played a team from Algeria. I guess the Kumasi team is pretty good becaues they've won like every game for the last 3 seasons, so it was really fun to watch. People here go NUTS about football. I started work at the clinic on Monday and have already seen some pretty interesting things. About 70% of the patients who come to the clinic are diagnosed with malaria, so I guess I have my work cut out for me. The physicians and nurses and lab techs are so nice and basically letting me do whatever I want. This week the lab tech is going to teach me how to draw blood and prepare it for analysis. I spent a few hours on Monday looking at malaria infected blood on a microscope... it's all just so great right now. Next week one of the doctors told me he wants me to come with him to give immunizations in a nearby village. I guess it's just on-the-job training, but I'm kind of nervous about all that. So far so good as far as my own health though! I'm also spending some time trying to learn Twi, the local dialect. Although everyone here must learn English in school, they always speak Twi to each other, so we've been trying to learn in order to communicate more effectively. Plus, all of the consultations are done in Twi, so I need to understand what's going on. Luckily it's not as complicated as French, so hopefully I will continue to learn more and more.
I have learned that it will probably be impossible to upload pictures while I'm here because the computers are too slow! I'm sorry, but when I get home on December 8th I will post all of my pictures. I love it here

So I'm here in Kumasi, Ghana. It's about six hours north of Accra, the capital. It has been a serious adventure so far. It seems like nothing here is familiar! I'm not able to upload any pictures right now because these computers are really really slow, but I will try again soon. We spent one full day in Germany, visiting the city of Heidelberg and the castle there... it was amazing. Words don't do it justice. We stayed with the greatest family there who took us in and really showed us a good time. We ate schnitzel and sour krout and loved it all. Tobias, a friend of Kristi's showed us around and was so great to us. It was too bad we could only stay for one day!
We flew from Frankfurt to Lagos and then to Accra. Getting off the plane in Accra was like stepping into a new world. Again, words just don't do it justice, and I need to spend some time just writing it all down in my journal, but everything here is a new experience. We only spent the night in Accra, and took a bus up to Kumasi, where we are now. We got in yesterday evening and spent the evening walking around and finding a place to eat, etc. Today we spent the whole day walking around Kumasi, just experiencing things here. We went to the zoo and saw lions, crocadiles, etc. and went and visited the culture center where we sat and watched a Rastafarian religious service... quite interesting. We then spent some time walking around the largest outdoor marketplace in western Africa. That was one of the most unique and crazy experiences I've ever had. There were thousands and thousands of people and merchants selling everything you can possible imagine. I took a few pictures which I will post later. Everyone we meet here is very friendly (although a lot of them want to just sell us stuff). But mostly everyone we meet is very fair and doesn't try to rip us off. So far it has been quite an incredible and eye-opening experience, and I'm really enjoying it all. Once I post some pictures you will have a better sense of what I'm talking about.