Ghana! A Travel Journal of Ghana and West Africa

I awoke this morning to the sound of a young girl scraming bloody murder. I peaked out
through the bars and mosquito net in my window and saw a half naked young girl getting
beating \with a stick on the front porch of our neighbours. Our water guy (the person who
gets the water from out well for our bucket showers), who was between me and our
neighbours and thought i was looking at him, cheerfull waved and greeted me good morning,
completly oblivious to the action going on behind him. Later, as when i left to go to
work, i noticed that she was tied up in front of their house.

Today we were set to do sewage cleanup again, yum! After doing this job i don't think
there is anything that can gross me out again! The camp is drained by a system of open
sewers and we pick a certain area in camp and set about clearing all of the trash out of
the sewer and then digging any sedements that are blocking water flow. Our goal is to
keep water flowing so that Malaria carrying mosquitoes don't have any place to lay their
eggs (they need stagnant water). The water flowing through these drains is raw, raw
sewage, straight from the toilet. Sometimes, people who can't afford toilets simply drop
their pants right over the drain and do their business in front of everyone, including us
who then have ot shovel it out and put it to the side (where people walk, but its the
better of the two options). I can't even begin to desribe the smell that comes from raw
sewage- human feceas, mixing with rotting garbage (and usually a few small dead animals and condoms, which isa good sign cause it means people are using them!),
all festering under the baking tropical sun and humidity (sorry if your eating!). We also do spraying for mosquitos, mice, roaches and such in peoples rooms, toilets and showers. Most peoples toilets are out-house style, with just a hole in the bottom where the waste goes. We went into one toilet today to spray and noticed that the hole had been entirly filled up to the brim with crap (and the hole is prolly 10feet deep- thats alot of crap!), then as we went in to spray i noticed that something was not right- it was moving! It was almost a solid mass of maggots and worms mixed in with the sewage, it was probabl the closet i have come to vomiting yet! But luckly i had my dig camera on me and i just had to take a video, so if anyone is interested when i get back....

Sorry, i promise my posts wont be so disgusting in the future, but i really had to share that with you all!

Oh, World Refugee Awarness day is coming up on June 20th, i had never heard of it before and im not exactly sure what its all about- but, be aware!