Today was a quiet day at the hospital....we were done most of our rounds and procedures by 11am and that gave most of us the day off. It was actually quite nice because when you live 5 minutes away from the hospital...it's easy to always keep going there and checking up on your patients and making sure they are ok....doing this everyday for 7 days can get a little tiring...so we enjoy the short days. I got to catch up on some sleep, watch some tv shows and read a bit.
In the afternoon, me and one of the doctors went to go play volleyball with the local kids. This was actually pretty fun. For the first time, I got to walk off the grounds of the hospital and walk through the village to the main road in order to find this volleyball net. This was took us about 20 minutes....the village road is this red dirt road, all my shoes, flip flops and crocs have pretty much been stained red by this by now...my feet too...hard to get this off in the shower. Walking through the village gave me a glimpse of the day to day life of most people living out there. Lots of people walking, kids on bikes, woman carrying things on their heads, people welding on the side of the road, some making couches, others just staring at us. You some times feel intimidated and don't want to look them in the eyes...but when you greet them in their language...they smile at you and either say hello back or say something which they are probably making fun of us lol We met up with one kid on the way there who the doctor already knew...his name is Ibrahim and supposedly his grandfather is the king of the village. He invited us to go visit him one day and say hello...should be interesting! Ibrahim is 21 and when we asked him what he does, he said that he is in the moto business...selling motorcycles, which he then went on saying that he smuggles them from Togo. I was quiet shocked how he was explaining this and expecting us to think this is something normal. He said that we all need to start somewhere and that he was using this as a stepping stone to move up. Don't worry Mom...I made sure to watch out for any funky business ;)
We finally got to the volleyball court which was next to this huge school. The court was still empty as most people were slowly ending school around 4:30pm. We were also in search of the ball...supposedly someone had it somewhere and they were on the search for it! Finally, someone found the ball and then all of a sudden there was like 25 people waiting to play! It was so much fun...most of all the kids spoke english and they were really nice. They were pretty good also...setting, spiking and man did you have to make sure to follow the rules! I also think they didn't think I knew how to play and they kept telling me where to place myself...good times! It eventually started getting dark and we began to head back.
The kids here are so cute and all them yell when they see us...most scream from far and wave saying "hello...how wa yu" So cute...some will even run up to us and shake our hand. I will usually take pictures of them and then show it to them....they are fascinated by this! Some kids are like little gangsters too...they walk up to you and stare you down. The other day 3 kids walked up to me while I was heading back to the hospital...I stopped and shook their hand. Then one kid grabs the strap of my bag and says: "Your bag, I will collect it and go" Here I am getting taxed by three ten year olds...lol I laughed and said sorry boys....not today! Most people here expect you to give them everything you got...someone asked for my iPhone when I leave, others asked for my shirt. Thankfully my mom gave me a dufflebag full of tshirts which I plan on giving to the kids here....however I still havent figured out how I will do this without causing a crowd of kids running up to me and attacking me!
Finally I got back to the house...safely lol I say this laughing but I don't really feel threatened at all...sometimes just feels like we're the odd ones sticking out...actually we are...there are no tourists here. But everyone is really nice!
Ok...time for bed
Gnight everyone!
In the afternoon, me and one of the doctors went to go play volleyball with the local kids. This was actually pretty fun. For the first time, I got to walk off the grounds of the hospital and walk through the village to the main road in order to find this volleyball net. This was took us about 20 minutes....the village road is this red dirt road, all my shoes, flip flops and crocs have pretty much been stained red by this by now...my feet too...hard to get this off in the shower. Walking through the village gave me a glimpse of the day to day life of most people living out there. Lots of people walking, kids on bikes, woman carrying things on their heads, people welding on the side of the road, some making couches, others just staring at us. You some times feel intimidated and don't want to look them in the eyes...but when you greet them in their language...they smile at you and either say hello back or say something which they are probably making fun of us lol We met up with one kid on the way there who the doctor already knew...his name is Ibrahim and supposedly his grandfather is the king of the village. He invited us to go visit him one day and say hello...should be interesting! Ibrahim is 21 and when we asked him what he does, he said that he is in the moto business...selling motorcycles, which he then went on saying that he smuggles them from Togo. I was quiet shocked how he was explaining this and expecting us to think this is something normal. He said that we all need to start somewhere and that he was using this as a stepping stone to move up. Don't worry Mom...I made sure to watch out for any funky business ;)
We finally got to the volleyball court which was next to this huge school. The court was still empty as most people were slowly ending school around 4:30pm. We were also in search of the ball...supposedly someone had it somewhere and they were on the search for it! Finally, someone found the ball and then all of a sudden there was like 25 people waiting to play! It was so much fun...most of all the kids spoke english and they were really nice. They were pretty good also...setting, spiking and man did you have to make sure to follow the rules! I also think they didn't think I knew how to play and they kept telling me where to place myself...good times! It eventually started getting dark and we began to head back.
The kids here are so cute and all them yell when they see us...most scream from far and wave saying "hello...how wa yu" So cute...some will even run up to us and shake our hand. I will usually take pictures of them and then show it to them....they are fascinated by this! Some kids are like little gangsters too...they walk up to you and stare you down. The other day 3 kids walked up to me while I was heading back to the hospital...I stopped and shook their hand. Then one kid grabs the strap of my bag and says: "Your bag, I will collect it and go" Here I am getting taxed by three ten year olds...lol I laughed and said sorry boys....not today! Most people here expect you to give them everything you got...someone asked for my iPhone when I leave, others asked for my shirt. Thankfully my mom gave me a dufflebag full of tshirts which I plan on giving to the kids here....however I still havent figured out how I will do this without causing a crowd of kids running up to me and attacking me!
Finally I got back to the house...safely lol I say this laughing but I don't really feel threatened at all...sometimes just feels like we're the odd ones sticking out...actually we are...there are no tourists here. But everyone is really nice!
Ok...time for bed
Gnight everyone!
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