Back in Canada

Hey everyone!

I've been back in Canada for a while now and have had time to reflect on my experience in Ghana. Overall, my time in Ghana was great. Period. Most of my health problems were likely my own fault (not sleeping enough, trying to push myself too hard, not exercising enough...).

I sure do miss my friends and host family in Ghana a lot and I'm hoping to go back in a year or so. The kindness and warmth that they shared with me is truly incredible and not something you find as quickly in Canada. The people of Ghana sure are incredible.

Disclaimer in the interest of not building unrealistic expectations for future travelers: Ghana is not a nation made up entirely of glowing uber friendly and welcoming people; I met my fair share of jerks, snobs, and scammers there. But on average, there are many many many pockets of incredible people in Ghana that will blow your expectations out of the water and make you feel like a part of the family.

Make sure to check out the incredible 1.5 minute video at the end of this post to see what I was working on in Ghana! Try and see if you can spot my best friend Takora and his daughter!

You can help support Engineers Without Borders' most excellent work in Africa by contributing to my fundraising campaign. I'm just a few dollars short of reaching my goal and all donations are doubled until the end of the week! Click here to donate - I have put my money where my mouth is and donate $300+ a year to EWB.

All the best!

Adam :)
p.s. you can find most of my videos from Ghana on this blog or at my youtube channel www.youtube.com/ehdam

Hey Everyone!

Well since the malaria video was delayed in posting, I actually had a relapse in malaria. It was markedly worse than the first time. My coach / boss had just come to visit me (July 18th) and we went out to visit some MoFA staff. At around 5pm I was struggling to stay awake during the conversation and I suspected something wasn't good. We got trapped by the rain on the way home so we took shelter underneath an overhang for about an hour and talked about my concerns with my placement and our impact. I was increasingly becoming cold and by the time we sat down to eat in my room I was wearing a sweater and feeling crappy. Wayne (my coach) was feeling warm in a tshirt so I figured I best be taking my temperature. To my great surprise it was a whopping 39 degrees Celsius! My 1st encounter with malaria had my fever reach 38, so I had let this go undetermined for far too long... and the consequences followed accordingly.

I took the Lonart pills again, but this time I awoke sweating with the chills at midnight and had to urinate pretty bad. It was a struggle to lurch the twenty paces to the "urinal" and I was feeling very weak. I feared I might faint so I zipped up and moved straight back to the room. As I entered the room I knew I was going to vomit so I kneeled down and searched for a bucket in the darkness. My head lamp found a bucket and I could feel in my chest that it was just in time. One heave, one litre later, I crawled into bed next to Wayne and slept intermittently thru the night struggling with the chills. That night sucked.

The next day I was feeling a bit better but still feeling weak and having plenty diarrhea. Nothing too bad though. One day later I was feeling more like my 1st mild experience with malaria. I am now doing well, but I noticed that since I arrived I have lost around 10 pounds. I'm now below 140lbs but not feeling much more scrawny!

All in all, doing well and my energy is returning. I think my malaria was a relapse from the 1st time. Malaria often chills in your liver for a while and I had drank three beers on three separate days for different occasions. Alcohol weakens your liver and provided the opening that those dastardly parasites needed to bust my defenses and rebel. You can bet your arse I'll be sticking away from beer for my last few weeks here!

I'll be heading to stay in a village for about a week starting July 29. After that I'll be left with 2 weeks, so if you have a question or request for Ghana, get on it!

And now for my most recent video:



All music made by my voice & tapping on tables.

Lyrics:
one time chilling in Takora's farm, when the rains came
all these little critters came from the ground, when the rains came
the circle of life was all around, and the lizard was eating them
keeping their populations bound, when the rains came
tons of little ants on the ground, there's so many
tiny ones, ugly ones, big ones brown, when the rains came
this one bigger than a Canadian nickel, let's keep it out of my shorts
these ones stuck in a pickle, cause the rain filled in their house

All the best!

Adam :)

Malaria

Hey everyone!

Ever wonder what it was like to get malaria? Hopefully this video will give you a glance into what the experience is like.



Adam

PS Since this video I have gotten malaria and recovered again

Here come the elephants!

Hey Everyone!

Here's a video from my trip to Mole National Park where we got to see baboons, lots of other monkeys, wart hogs and that's right...elephants!!




Hope you enjoyed it!

Adam :)

Pest Control

Hey everyone!

Here's a video on how to deal with rabbits and mice taking over your fields. Hope you enjoy. Elephants coming soon!



Adam :)

Wedding - Ghanaian Style

Hey everyone!

Check out some footage from my first Ghanaian wedding



Adam :)

Learning to cook - Ghanaian style!

Making yam and green leaf stew:





Adam :)