when in ghana

These past few weeks I have been looking through my Africa photos and reminiscing about where I was last year at this time. At least a couple times a week I will sift through to see where I was on that particular day.  Sometimes I find myself laughing. Sometimes the memories make me angry all over again. Sometimes I feel indifferent. Sometimes I see pictures I don't remember taking, people I don't remember meeting, and events I don't remember experiencing. Erik's always telling me I'm forgetful. I usually just smile.

A year ago, at this very moment, I was stranded on the side of the road in the middle of who-knows-where-Ghana with 17 other girls waiting for a trou-trou to come rescue us. Our trou-trou had stopped working so we sat, shivering our buns off (it was 33 degrees celsius that night), and waited. For about four hours. It was pitch black and I unfortunately had the scoots. Bad.

I had thankfully predicted that we would be waiting for a while so I had started off walking far from the group to move my bowels. It was a good thing too because I think I "went to the bathroom" some 20 times before we were rescued. Each time I would walk less far so as to not come across any of my previous movements.

My dear friend Kelsey was kind enough to accompany me. It's frightening walking in the middle-of-nowhere with who-knows-what lurking around and dropping your pants. Kels kept watch/pointed her headlamp in my direction so I could see around me. Now that is a true friend.

And that, my friends, is where I was a year ago today. I'd go back there in a second -- scoots and all. 

Dr. Abdulai

I just browsed the posts I wrote about Ghana and I cannot believe I never wrote about Dr. Abdulai and the Shekhinah Clinic!! I don't have time to write about him now, but I wanted to share this press release with you.

US Embassy Ghana Awards 5th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Award

U.S. Embassy Ghana will present the 2012 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for Peace and Social Justice to Dr. David Fuseini Abdulai in recognition of his unwavering commitment to the poorest and most vulnerable citizens of Tamale.

Since 2008, the U.S. Embassy has presented the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for Peace and Social Justice to a Ghanaian citizen who best personifies the philosophy and actions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Dr. King, the 1964 Nobel Peace laureate, played a pivotal role in the African-American civil rights movements in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s.  The purpose of the award is to recognize a Ghanaian citizen, who, in the same spirit as Dr. King, is helping to build a culture of peacemaking, dialogue and conflict resolution while promoting respect for human rights and peace in the communities where he/she lives and works.

In 1989, Dr. Abdulai founded the Shekhinah Clinic in Gurugu in northern Tamale. The mission of the Shekhinah Clinic –funded entirely through donations and staffed by 27 volunteers – is to provide free medical treatment and other services to the poorest citizens of Tamale. In 1999, he established a second clinic in Wamale in southern Tamale. Presently, the two clinics serve an average of 120 people daily on a strictly first-come-first-served basis with the exception of emergency conditions.

In addition, Dr. Abdulai started the Meals-on-Wheels program to provide lunch to an average of 150 destitute and mentally ill people daily, covering a 65-kilometer radius. Since its inception on January 6, 1992, the Meals-on-Wheels program has not missed a day providing food to the most needy.  He also provides medical services and consultations to prisoners in the Tamale Central Prison and to those living in the Nkanchina leper colony. A skilled advocate, Dr. Abdulai has succeeded in leveraging partnerships or donations from a number of donors and organizations to provide the maximum benefit possible to those most in need.

source: http://ghana.usembassy.gov/pr-01182012.html 

has it already been a year?

Last year at this time I was in a disgusting city called Kumasi. It smelled atrocious, it was absolutely filthy, and I couldn't sleep because it was so so loud. Nothing, not the smell, the dirt, nor the noise, could take away from the fact that I was in Ghana. In Africa. I have never regretted going on that adventure -- it was worth the time, the money, and being apart from my love. A year ago. I can't believe how quickly that went. 

A year ago I was jumping down a red dirt road after visiting a small village.

I was surrounded by another village of amazing women dancing and singing for us. 

I was weighing babies in a door frame on the outskirts of town.

I was carrying water sachets (that tasted like dirt) on my head.

I was fascinated by Ghanaian history.

I was surrounded by lively and beautiful children.

I had gorgeous little African babies in my arms (this particular little girl had a twin sister... and she peed on me soon after this photo when I had both of them in my arms). 

And I was dancing in the gloriously refreshing rain!

Has it been a year already? My that went quickly. And the itch to whisk off somewhere else it getting more and more difficult to ignore. December 2012 is the plan. Destination still unconfirmed.

Canada Culture Shock

** I just found this post. I wrote it... months ago, but never posted it for some reason. I didn't have any culture shock when I came home, but I did have an awareness of the many differences between Canada and Ghana. **

Being back in Canada is strange. In some ways it feels like I have never left - I have fallen right back into my routine. In other ways I see how vastly different Canada is from Ghana. Things start seeming normal when you are in another country for so long and you forget that things are different at home.

For example:

• I don't need to throw my toilet paper in the garbage - I now get to flush it. 
• People obey traffic lights. 
• Motorcyclists wear helmets. 
• Babies aren't tied to their mama's backs on motorcycles.
• Motorcycles have only 1 or 2 people on them (instead of 1-7... true story).
• People seem unfriendly. No one says hello when you walk down the street. 
• Everyone is in a hurry.
• There are no children running down the street.
• There are no children outside. 
• People go to work without their children. 
• Nobody recognizes me. 
• I haven't been proposed to lately. 
• No one randomly touches my skin. 
• I haven't terrified any children due to the colour of my skin. 
• Everyone tries to look the same -- they wear the same colours, shop at the same stores, and have similar styles.
• You can buy everything at one store. 
• You can't buy things through your car window while you're driving around.
• There's no honking!
• When there happens to be honking it is because someone is angry -- not just friendly communication.
• I sleep with blankets on because it is so cold at night.
• The power is reliable!
• It stays on at night so I go to bed later. 
• Drivers use their turn signals.
• Only two cars drive side by side on two lane roads.
• There is a limit to the number of people you can have in a vehicle.
• I haven't seen any goats tied to the roof of a bus.
• People say please and thank you.
• People don't squeeze (and I do mean squeeze) between each other -- there is such a hing as personal space.
• Babies are strapped in car seats -- waste of space in a taxi!
• No goats or chickes around.
• I can go to dinner with a friend without paying for them.
• There is pavement everywhere!
• I haven't tripped over an open sewer system yet today.
• You can buy everything you need in one store. 
• Taxi prices are based on time spent in the taxi -- not up for negotiation based on the colour of your skin.
• I can't barter for my food.
• I can drink from my tap.
• I can have warm showers -- I want to have warm showers.
• I feel clean.
• Cheese is refrigerated.
• People actually have heaters in their homes.
• I haven't seen any three-year-olds with their younger siblings tied to their backs. 
• I don't have to worry about getting Malaria.
• Everything is open on Sunday.
• Nurses care for their patients. 
• I haven't seen any patients hit or laughed at.
• There is no dancing in the streets.
• There is no dancing, period.
• Men and women hold hands. 
• Everyone has electricity and a TV.
• Hardly anyone lives where they work.
• Children go to daycare and have babysitters.
• Music in stores is played quietly so you can hardly hear it. 
• Nobody follows me down the street (and if they did I'd be worried!)
• No one (aside from Erik) has proclaimed their love for me recently.
• Fruits and vegetables are eaten cold.
• Almost all children attend school.
• there is a lack of colourful clothing.
• There isn't as much smog -- I can actually see the blue sky.
• You can get exact change at stores. 
• I don't have to pay to use public washrooms. 
• I can find public washrooms.
• I don't have to squat and suspend myself above a tiny hole to void. 
• International calls are so expensive.
• There is high speed internet everywhere.
• People hardly walk anywhere.
• Most vehicles have air conditioning.
• I haven't held a stranger's baby yet today.
• I don't have to wash my clothes by hand.
• I am not sticky 24 hours a day.
• People here have more than enough of everything
• People whine and complain more.
• People are less forward.
• All stores are in buildings.
• There is no music in the streets.
• No one has asked me for my water.
• No one has asked me for anything -- money, my purse, my sunglasses, my empty water bottle.
• There is no dirt under my fingernails.
• There's no need to keep the bucket in the bathroom filled with water because water doesn't shut off and I can always flush my toilet. 
• There are glass panes on the windows.
• People are on time for things.
• I pay the same price as everyone else.
• I haven't made a baby cry because of the colour of my skin.
• Nobody wears/carries things on their heads. 
• People in the service industry actually aim to please.
• You have to tip after paying for a meal at a restaurant (and tax isn't included in the menu prices!)
• Meat is refrigerated here.
• I haven't been able to find any dog meat to purchase on the street.
• Cows are fat.
• Nobody does 'real' manual labour -- even the labourers have the help of some pretty incredible tools.
• Hardly any women deliver babies at home. 
• There are cars for sale everywhere!
• I do not have an entourage of children.
• Nobody waves at me.
• Nobody stops and stares at me.
• I don't feel the need to drink 4-6L of water a day, though it's probably still a good idea.
• I have more than enough clothing.
• I don't have to hang my clothes in my bedroom to dry.
• My feet are clan.
• Women cover up when they breastfeed.
• Babies wear diapers.
• There is an actual garbage disposal system.
• There are garbage cans everywhere that are emptied regularly. 
• Coke comes in a can.
• Children don't go anywhere unattended and a 3 year old sister does not count as an attendant.
• Everyone wears shoes or sandals.
• It is so green!
• I don't have to carry my water bottle with me wherever I go.
• Pedestrians use cross walks and have the right of way.
• You can control the temperature of the shower -- you want to control the temperature.
• My toes are not swollen sausages.
• Walls in rooms are actually washed and appear clean. 

The list could obviously go on and on and on.  Reading over the list now, two months later, was kind of fun for me. It reminded me of things about Ghana that I had completely forgotten about.

Trou Trou

This was our main mode of transportation on medium-long trips in Ghana. Long trips (over 6 hours) required STC buses and taxis or our own two feet were sufficient for the shorter trips. Trou Trous though... we rented Trou Trous for our group outings to villages, national parks, and other cities.

Some of these Trou Trous were nicer than others - for example, their seats were occasionally even fixed to the floor. We were often bouncing around hitting our heads on either the roof or the window beside. That was partly due to the vehicle itself, but was also due to the awful roads in Ghana.

There were always holes in the bottom of the Trou Trou so dust would come up around your feet. Dust and hot air - burning hot air. Also, if you sat at the very front your feet were up against the motor... I thought my sandals were going to melt. It was HOT! And there was a wooden barrier between you and the drivers so your knees were crammed in and risked getting splinters. It was almost unbearable!

I had to sit up straight the entire time and squeeze my legs into the seats. I couldn't really put my knees up against the top of the seat because I would either push my seat or the seat in front of me over. It was quite the predicament. You could sleep, however, by resting just your forehead on the seat in front of you. Then you could pretend you were on a roller coaster ride rather than being jostled around in a hot, stinky, painfully uncomfortable Trou Trou.

These fine modes of transportation were notorious for breaking down (as was everything in Ghana). We regularly had issues with them and developed an incredible amount of patience over the course of our trip. Let's be honest honest though -- it's easy to be patient when you really have nowhere to be. We were running on Africa time so it didn't really matter when we got to our destination... except that time our reserved rooms were given away because we were eight hours late (on two separate occasions). The first time we crammed sixteen of us into two little hotel rooms in Accra and the second time we were going around Tamale at 4:00am trying to find a place to sleep. Again we managed to squeeze ourselves onto floors and into beds. It was always an adventure.

Back to our beloved Trou Trous. This particular time the Trou Trou broke down we sat on the side of the road for four hours (this was when I had the scoots!) waiting for another Trou Trou to come to our rescue. We waited and waited and waited. It was actually pretty cool to be in the middle of Ghana in the pitch black. We had no idea where we were and all we could do was sit and wait. It was cloudy so there were sadly no stars, but it was pleasant none-the-less to just hang out (and find enough places to go to the bathroom without a. venturing too far from the group and b. going where someone else had already gone).

When another Trou Trou eventually came to our rescue we had to unload all of our bags and pile them onto the new one. We then tied the broken Trou Trou to the new one with a little tiny rope and pulled it to the nearest village. I don't know how the rope managed to hold up, but it did.

The Trou Trou's really weren't that bad -- especially when it was just our group riding in them. They got a little bit dicey when you were squished in with a bunch of people you didn't know and it was above 45 degrees out. That made for a squishy, sweaty, stinky ride. Especially when there were pukers and/or dry-heavers. Yech! The drivers don't stop for anything!!! Unless something strikes their fancy on the side of the road and they want to bring something home for dinner. When that happened everyone would pile out of the bus and pee/eat/breathe.

And that, my friends, is first class transportation in Ghana.

Hello My Friend.

In Enchi we were greeted the same by every kid we met.  And it wasn't a simple 'hello' either. No, all the kids would see us and hollar out, "Hello my friend. Hello my friend go to school!" Only it sounded more like, "heh--low--my---friend. Heh--low--my--friend--go--to---school!" Or, for the kids who weren't yet in school  "heh-woah--ma--fweh--heh--woah--ma--fweh--go---toooo----skoo." The kids would say it in unison too, which was adorable.

That wasn't the only thing they would chant out to us either. Kelsey, Amber and I went running in the mornings in Enchi (in the cool 33 degree mornings) and the kids we passed would all chant, "Run Canada Run!" over and over which made me laugh every single time. Once I stopped to tie my shoe and I heard "KEEP RUNNING!!!"

This little guy was one of my favourites. Who could resist that adorable smile? I would go for walks alone on the mornings we didn't run and these kids would always rush out to say hello. They loved having their photos taken and telling me about school, their family, and their lives. Oh I miss it.

Dust Storm!

The road in Enchi before a vehicle drove by.

The road in Enchi after a vehicle drove by... and after we felt it was safe enough to bring out our cameras again. This was the day after it rained too!

Pay to Pee

In Africa we often had to pay to pee. It wasn't expensive -- usually only 10 peswas. And if you needed newspaper you had to pay more for that too. I carried baby wipes and kleenex everywhere with me so I thankfully never had to resort to using newspaper. 

You could usually just pop a squat wherever you were, but the large crowds weren't always conducive to this. Ghanains had the freedom to do such things... but we stood out and attracted too much attention. 

Voiding where these signs were posted resulted in a fine. And it was an especially hefty fine if you were white. This wasn't an issue as I usually require a little more privacy. 

We usually only had to pay to pee when we were traveling... which ended up being a lot of the time. I tried to avoid using any kind of facility as much as possible. This sometimes meant starving and dehydrating myself, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get by. Oftentimes the bus wouldn't even stop anyway so you'd be sitting there doing kegels for hours on end. This didn't work so well the time I ha the runs on our way home from Bolgatanga... but that's a story for another time. And we thankfully had our own trou trou.

These are some of the establishments I had the honour of relieving myself in. These were the nice ones even. There were some nasty nasty ones. Nasty ones. Oftentimes it was just a hole in the ground. This was my least favourite because then you had to aim and that is a skill that was highly underdeveloped at the beginning of the trip. It also didn't work so well with explosive diarrhea. The other problem with the little holes was that they were usually in the homes of people we were visiting... which meant you couldn't pass it off as someone else. It was obviously the inexperienced white people. Woopsy.

This one was especially nice. The red wall was a nice touch.

I spent four hours on a bouncy trou trou trying to hold my bladder and when we stopped to buy some snails I jumped out... there was sadly no where to go to the bathroom so I somehow managed to communicate with a ghanaian around me. We communicated that I needed to pee (which is very important because pooping would require a different facility) and the kind gentleman led me to a little cement slab with three walls. Try peeing on a cement slab without having any back splash... it's not possible if you are a woman. And the worst part is that it isn't just your own urine splashing back at you! I vacated the facility to find a crowd of women and children waiting for me. They all came up wanting to shake my hand and talk to me.... all I wanted to do was wash my feet with my wet wipes, but I had no such luck. I did manage to do it before I returned to the trou trou, but it wasn't soon enough for my liking. Those cement slabs soon became common for us... and they never became more pleasant.

We usually peed in the urinals because the above "toilets" were too expensive. In the urinals there was a trough with a raised cement slab that you were to stand on. You could see outside the urinal if you were standing so we would all squat down and do our business. A Ghanaian woman walked in once when I was squatting as she laughed at me. She boldly pulled up her skirt and went about her business standing and facing the trough... rather than being reverse as I was. So that was how it was done! That changed the way I peed for the remainder of my time in Ghana. If I could recommend anything it would be to wear a skirt if you are required to use any of the aforementioned facilities. The reason for this is that you can pee standing up and you don't have to worry about getting your shorts wet. Really, a couple dribbles in your underpants is the least of your worries (for the record, I never dribbled in my underpants). 

a little bit of enchi

I first set foot in Enchi over a month and a half ago! That's unreal! All of Africa is beautiful, but I was struck by how lovely Enchi was the moment I stepped out of the trou trou. That may have been due to travelling in front of a little boy who vomited and heaved the entire five hour drive to Enchi. Or it may have been due to the fact that I was finally able to stretch my legs (they had been squished into the seat in front of me). Or it may have been because I could finally empty my painfully full bladder. Or it may have been because my head finally stopped smashing into the window as we bounced along the road. I like to think it was solely due to the breathtaking beauty of the place.

It was so refreshing to see the green of the rainforest after being up in the dry north for weeks and weeks.   The air was delightfully humid and the dirt was such a rich colour.

This was the clinic where we had practicum. It was a lovely five minute walk from out hotel and there was always someone out and about to talk to. The patients here were treated much much much better than the ones in Tamale (you may remember this post and I have many more stories just like it). The nurses asked us questions about how we do things in Canada and they were open to our suggestions. The morale in the clinic was incredible and we were told by the staff that they are so busy because patients refuse to go to the hospital -- they would all rather sit in line all day to be seen at the clinic. The clinic really was wonderful.

These little girls lived along out walk to the clinic. The little one, Benedicta, LOVED us from a distance, but as soon as she was within 10 feet of us she would freak out. She would see us walking down the road and she would run towards us with her wild hair. As soon as she got too close though she would turn in the other direction screaming. I was so sad when her mother shaved her head three days before we left Enchi. In Ghana though you'd be hard pressed to find little girls with hair -- all the girls had shaved heads.

This is downtown Enchi. It was a happening place! This road was even paved... a luxury. We were the only four white people in the town so people would stand outside their shops, school, and houses to watch us walk by. Everyone said hello and we usually had a group of followers.

On our way home from town on our first day in Enchi we saw these two little girls walking with their umbrella. We laughed and thought they were adorable because we didn't think it was going to rain... until the floodgates opened and it poured on us.

This was taken the day of the rainstorm. By the next afternoon all the water was gone and the dust became outrageous! Absolutely outrageous! It would poof up as we walked and there was a dust storm each time a vehicle drove by.

And that's a little bit more Enchi...

s.w.e.a.t.

In Africa I sweat like never before. I sweat in areas I never imagined possible... and not in areas I expected to. It was bizarre.

Take my arms, for example. My arms sweat more than any other part of my body. It wasn't even my armpits that would sweat, but my actual arms -- especially my forearms. (By the way, and completely besides the point, there was always dirt in my opposite-of-the-elbow crevasse). I'm not sure I have ever noticed my arms sweating, but they certainly did in Africa.

I had a sweat-stache like you wouldn't believe. I lied before because my upper lip definitely sweat more than anything else. I carried a sweat rag with me constantly to wipe my face and my arms. The girls all made fun of me at first, but they soon followed suit when they realized how awesome it was! The few times I forgot my sweat rag I had sweat dripping into my eyes and pouring down my face. My neck and scalp, oddly enough, hardly sweat at all.

My belly also sweat. Yes, I do mean my belly... not my chest. I didn't believe it myself. The photo above was taken at 10am when after I had been in an "air-conditioned" room all morning. So much belly sweat.

I guess it goes without say that my backside sweat constantly. I don't think I ever stood up without my entire rear end being drenched. It was often so drenched that you didn't even notice because my shorts were soaked the whole way through... from top to bottom. And you can forget about crossing your legs/arms or resting your arms on your lap. That just resulted in even more sweat!

I can't believe I just wrote an entire blog post on sweat.

Wish I Was Here

Sleeping on the beach in Ghana. Wish I was here... though it was quite chilly when it dropped to 30 degrees at night. Life was rough.

Mole National Park

I don't know if I actually ever wrote about our trip to Mole National Park. One weekend in February, we decided to go on a safari because you need to go on a safari if you're in Africa. We were all eagerly anticipating seeing elephants as we climbed on the little trou trou we rented to make our way to Mole.

The road was bumpy and dusty so we needed to cover our noses and mouths... not that it helped much. We must have looked hilarious to all the Ghanaians we were waving at out the window. Strange Obruni's (white people).

Mole was beautiful! It was so nice to get out of the city too... and to have a weekend of nothing but sitting outside, eating, swimming and reading. It was a much needed get-away for us.

These cute little guys were all over the place! They were so playful with each other -- at least the little ones were. The mama's usually just tolerated their young'ns, but they would sometimes play and push the babe's around. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them... which is good because our actual safari was a little disappointing.

Our instructor had been telling us that every year they came they saw elephants within minutes of arriving. We thought it was a sure thing, but we were sorely mistaken. We ended up seeing wart hogs, kob (antelope type creatures), and some baboons far off in the distance. And that was all. No elephants. No animals really as the kobs were so far away we needed binoculars to see them... and there were only a couple of 'em.

It was lovely to walk anyway and to see the beautiful landscape. Africa is breath-taking. Learning about the trees and the animals that are usually present was very interesting. I can't remember most of it, but you can determine how far away from water you are based on the animals you encounter -- that's how hunters and travellers would find water sources... they would follow the animals. Kobs, for example, stay within 5 miles of water.

Mole also had some exquisite flowers. They were on bushes and I don't know what they are called, but one of you might. I especially loved the little pink one below. I saw it everywhere and it always made me smile.

And, of course, the African sky never ceased to amaze me.

So, instead of seeing animals, we really just went on a nice long walk in Africa. The trip was worth it though even if only to swim in the pool. It was the dirtiest pool I have ever seen, but it was still amazing. I don't know if I have ever enjoyed swimming more.

Rains Down in Africa

I love thunderstorms. I love love love them!!! Especially when it is warm enough for you to play in them. In Africa it is always warm enough.

On our first real day in Enchi there was a huge rainstorm. We were walking around town when we saw some foreboding clouds rolling on in so we decided to turn around and head home. It was a good thing we did too because it started pouring!!! It was awesome! Each person we passed tried to convince us to come under their shelter, but we graciously declined. We must of looked nuts because we were giddy with delight over the rain. We were dancing and laughing.

The dirt roads soon turned into a muddy mess so we slipped our way down the hill on our way home.  I have never seen a rain storm like that... it was wild!!

The rain drops were enormous! And it was so wonderful to finally be cool-ish after four weeks of constant sweating. We laughed the whole way home!

We decided to go puddle jumping and we even managed to convince some kids to come along with us.  All the Ghanaians were huddled beneath their shelters laughing hysterically at us. We must have looked absolutely ridiculous to them, but the kids seemed to love it.

Rivers of orange/red ran through town. It was beautiful! Did I mention that it was warm and that we had so much fun??

We had our first day at the clinic the next day and everybody had heard about us puddle jumping with the kids even though no one had met us yet. News travels fast in a small town like Enchi... and we were the only four white people in town so it was pretty obvious it was us.

More of Africa will slowly come. Final school exam on Tuesday!! Then all I have is marking for the statistics course I'm a T.A. for and finishing off practicum. I'm so close!! Oh. And my Canadian RN Exam in June... but that isn't till June.

I hope you're not squeamish...

I have decided to share my skin infection with all of you. Don't worry it's not contagious (woah, took me a minute to decide whether to use "it's not" or "it isn't" there). I am aware that many of you will find this disgusting as even the girls with me in Africa were grossed out, but I wanted to share it anyway because I think it is interesting. And I love strange stuff like this. 

Day 1

I came home from clinical in Enchi and asked Kelsey what was on my neck. It was a little bit itchy and a little bit painful. I thought it was scratched, but I couldn't see. K said it was red and there were some small white dots. I went to bed hoping it would just go away...

Day 2

 Well it didn't go away. It got worse. Day 2 brought more raised, white, painful, pustules. And it felt a little bit more raw. I tried not to worry about it, but i must admit I was the slightest bit concerned. After all, I was in Africa and you never really know what you're going to get.

Day 3

On day three it felt like a raw, painful, sunburnish, sore. I felt the urge to scratch, but scratching it was painful. Touching it was painful. I decided to go see the medical assistant (smartest man in the clinic). He looked at it and said it was an infection of some sort (thanks!) and gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal cream. Three times a day. The girls didn't like looking at my infection (let alone touching it) so I had to apply the cream myself. It's pretty difficult when you can't see what you're doing and you really don't want to miss anything.

Day 4

Raw and painful. It stung a lot actually. It felt soothing to have my "cool" hands on it. I wet my sweat rag and tied it around my neck for a while. I really wanted to pop those pustules this day, but I resisted the urge. Everybody knows it is better not to pop things. I wore my hair in a low bun because I was embarrassed of my gross neck.

Day 5

I think it may have started improving on day 5 (day three of my topical combo). It was no longer as painful and didn't appear to be getting worse anymore.

shoulder sore before it opened.

Oh! I haven't talked about this yet. I also had infection rearing it's ugly face on my shoulder and on a small spot on my back. The infection looked completely different at each of the three locations. My shoulder had what appeared to be an open sore (no pustules or raised bumps of any kind). And the spot on my back appeared to have deflated blisters. I thought this was strange, but the medical assistant didn't seem to be bothered.

Day 6

This picture looks disgusting because the cream was still partially on my neck... and in my hair. My infection appeared to have begun climbing up into my scalp. I pretty much washed my hair with the anti-everything cream and hoped it didn't all fall out. You can see that more pustule-y things have developed at the bottom of my neck. They ended up conglomerating into one large raised crusty bit.

Day 7

Got my hair braided today! And the poor ladies go to look at this. It's starting to look better though and it is now crusting over, big time!

Day 8

 And it began peeling off on day 8. Bye bye infection!!

Day 12

Day 12. Gone??? Lizard skin. My skin was dry and reptile-esque, but not flaky. It felt like it needed to peel, but it wouldn't.

Day 18

Definitely moving up into my hair. I forgot about it for a couple days and it got a little out of hand. I was so thankful for my braids because they allowed me to put my cream all throughout my scalp. Itchy, itchy, itchy! Not lice though (praise the Lord!). The thought did cross my mind. I remember praying that the infection didn't migrate to my face. Could you imagine??? Those ugly, painful, zitty, pustules all over my face??? No thanks.

Day 19

This is my hair with cream throughout it. You can see my skin finally did peel, but it left the same kind of leathery, reptile skin underneath. I hope it isn't a large ugly scar. My shoulder and the spot on my back look the same.

So now on day 30 something I still have leathery, reptile skin that makes it look like I have a huge scar across my neck and I sometimes think I feel infection bumps in my hair, but I am hoping it's just psychological. Praying my infection is gone for good and that I will soon turn back into a human.