Maladies, not Calamities

In the evenings, my host-family and I watch the news (and badly-dubbed Spanish soap operas) while we eat dinner.  This is probably hard to believe, but Ebola feels just as far away here as it did back home.

Every night we watch updates on the situations in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea and shake our heads at the disease’s growth.  One host-sister in particular gasps, “Jeeeeeeeesus” every few minutes.

Ebola is scary, but it isn’t in Ghana.  I assure everyone back home that I’m paying attention and following the stories.  If it comes here, we’ll be pulled out.  Amplify has a plan for all their employees, including the Ghanaian ones.

One disease that is spreading here, though, is cholera.  I’ve seen a fair number of cholera public services ads, including a 5-minute cartoon with extremely vivid diarrhea and vomiting animation.  We’ve been warned to only eat hot food from food stands and be careful with our drinking water.

In a similar vein, I take my super expensive anti-malarials every day.  I also use tons of strong mosquito repellent, but I still get about 5 new bites/day.

Everyone back home, please don’t worry.

Unless you want to channel that worry into making meals for me when I return.  Like spanakopitas.