Yesterday was a really long hectic day but very productive i think! I went to the hospital at 8am and had the best day since i started by far. There werent very many children/babies in the ward and a lot of the ones there, the doctor discharged..so it was a pretty slow day.  When I got done going around to the patients with the doctor, i hung out with about 5 little girls in the play room.  A couple of them i knew from the day before since i had met them.  My favorite little girl was named Edina who was about 5 or 6 id say, and she hung out with me the whole time.  She'd run in and out of the room and run up to me with her arms out so id scoop her up. She loved this. Then she came in really quick and ran up to me saying "Take me to America!". I cracked up laughing and went in to the ward and said to her mum and auntie "You told her to say that didnt you!" They all laughed and said yes.  I told them if i could, i would in a heartbeat! She was like a little sister to me and i was sad to say goodbye because she had been discharged by the Dr. so i knew i wouldnt see her again, but happy that she got to go home!  Another little girl was only about 1 1/2 years old and at first she was a bit hesitant of me, but after her mum left her in there and she got comfortable with me, she too had her arms out wanting me to hold her.  We walked around the room looking at all the pictures of disney characters on the wall and she loved this.  I definitely think all the mothers were really happy that they had some free time away from their kids.  I got so caught up with all the little kids that i didnt even notice that the doctors had left to go do the clinic.  When i walked over there, they said they didnt want to take me away from the kids so they left me to stay with them.

I left the hospital and went to Ridge Hospital in Accra where I am going to try to intern in pediatrics one day a week.  The process of getting there took a bit of time. I had to catch a tro tro by myself, but with the help of this nice man at the bus stop, I ended up getting  the last seat on one! I had directions of how to get to this hospital by my advisor. When i got off at the Ridge bus stop, her directions had said to walk straight for 5 minutes and then turn right and walk until you see the hospital. Well, i walked for about 1 minute and there was the option to turn right or cross the street and keep going straight.  I decided to take a chance and go right. With the help of a man walking this way i found the hospital. This just goes to show you how bad people are here with giving you directions!! Good thing i didnt keep walking straight for 5 minutes or i would have been completely lost in Accra! I got to the hospital and of course the director wasn't there so i dropped my papers off and will go back on Thursday.  When i got back out on to the street, i had no clue where i was so i just started walking, all i knew was i needed to get to circle where the post office was so i could get my moms package.  I asked another man and he pointed to a taxi saying it was going to circle. I ran up to it and got in. It was a shared taxi, which they told us not to do, but at this point i didn't know what else to do...plus its way cheaper!

I got dropped off at circle in the middle of this HUGE market.  Ive never been here and was once again completely lost. So, i just started walking hoping i would eventually get to where i needed to be. I walked through this crazy market with people yelling to me and grabbing me. Lets just say this wasn't fun at all. I had one young guy ride up next to me on his bike and ask me where i was going. He said he could show me to the post office if i just went with him to his house to drop his bike off. I said NO WAY! and kept walking.  Eventually with the help of several people on the way, i got to the post office.  Luckily my experience getting my package wasn't as bad as i thought after hearing stories about it. I did have to pay about 17USD to get it, but it could have been a lot worse considering i got a lot of stuff!   I went back in to the huge market place to catch a tro tro and there were so many i had no idea which ones were heading to Medina.  I asked some people and got in cue for one.  This entire trip showed me that there are really a lot of nice and helpful ghanaians who genuinely want to help you find your way.  This tro tro ride back to school was the craziest, scariest ride ive had since ive been here.  This young man driving it was swerving in and out of traffic, cutting people off, nearly hitting other cars.  My explanation doesnt even begin to describe it.  The traffic was horrible and in one intersection there were litteraly cars going every which way blocking traffic so no one could move, and everyone was honking and yelling at each other.  There needs to be some road rules here, thats the problem.  Thank goodness i made it back to school safely after an hour+ of this madness.

Today is another national holiday, Kwame Nkrumah's birthday (the first president of Ghana), meaning no classes! I could reaaaaally get used to all these holidays!!  I finally got to sleep in. When i went downstairs to make breakfast, there was this little Ghanaian boy who immediately started following me...he was like my little shadow. He followed me everywhere, to the water tank, to the kitchen, up to my room, the bathroom.  His name is Kofi and he's one of the cleaning ladies son.  One of the girls in our dorm told me that he does that...he will pick one person for the day to follow around. It was really cute. I think today is going to be a relaxing day, we were going to go to the beach but it rained last night so don't want to risk getting rained on!