"we like to maintain a good relationship with NYU"

So for part of my major I’m required to do an internship and being an African Studies major I figured it was smart to get that requirement done in Africa. First off, how NYU in Ghana sets us up with placements is ridiculous. We’re given a list of organizations (mostly NGOs) that WE choose from – first choice, second choice, third choice. That’s all we do. No submission of anything more than resume, not even to the organization itself, but to Victor, the internship guy at our academic center (who then is the middle man between us and these places), no interviews, no competition from other people. We get to handpick where we go. INSANE.

My first choice, which I got (because I go to NYU and am entitled to it), was WAAF, the West Africa Aids Foundation. I will begin the telling of this day by saying that I was in a foul mood. I had an 8 am class, it was ridiculously hot (but not sunny) and while my friends were going to stuff their faces with delicious desserts in Osu (yes you, Holley and Maggie), I had to wait around the dorm until it was time to go to the academic center to then go to WAAF for my interview. This is another example of Ghanaians sense of time – the interview was at 1:15, so we were supposed to leave at one. I arrived at 12:45 and then, at one, found out I had to wait another hour because the interview had gotten pushed back. I waited an hour, then I waited some more, and then I found out that we would have to take a cab (which I and the other person going for an interview had to pay for) because the vans were busy. We also had the most ridiculously irate cab driver that desperately needs some anger management classes. I have never heard someone honk their horn so much during a single ride, and this man was also slamming his hands on the car, making hand gestures which I’m sure in Ghana are considered obscene, and sticking his head out the window screaming at people who cut him off or who were going too slow. I was ready to go home before we got there.

After paying for the cab and running from the car so that this cab driver would not run over me for walking too slow, we were introduced to the people of WAAF. The woman who we talked to couldn’t have been nicer. She told us how much she had enjoyed working with NYU students, how they'd had great experiences working on projects with them in the past, how they had had to turn many people away because…and I had been waiting for this… ‘we like to give priority to NYU students’. Uh huh…I’m sure you do. BECAUSE NYU OWNS THE WORLD. I have no shame in saying that I am completely unqualified to even be walking around this facility, let alone interning and being allowed to put this on my resume. I have absolutely no experience in public health. I work at daycare centers and at reading camps and as a nanny. I’m not going to flatter myself into thinking that I am a really valuable candidate – in the real world this would never happen, but luckily I do not have to live in the real world for another two years. Anyway.

We got a tour of the hospital that WAAF shares space with and pretty much as soon as I walked in my mood turned around. The clinic is very basic but it is doing and has done some amazing things - the space is very small so reception is outside on the front deck and there’s just one room for initial reception – testing for AIDS, recording vital signs, and for the treatment of small injuries (with supplies donated by students and volunteers). There’s also a (very small) pharmacy with basic medicines and the anti-retroviral drugs used to treat HIV. These drugs are available for five cedis (about 4 dollars), but we were told that a lot of people cannot even afford this price. They have a laboratory on site where they test the blood that they’ve taken to see if it is positive or negative -we got to go in there even though there were several signs saying it was off limits – but we are Americans and nothing is off limits. The men’s ward had only three beds and the women’s wards had about six – there was no one in either ward and when I asked why we were told that the people who do need overnight care don’t come for it because they can not afford to pay for it – the clinic will treat them until their closing time and then send them home unless a patient is in critical condition. At one point the clinic was treating around 200 people – there was so many patients that they overflowed the space and many had to lie on the floor or on mats, but lack of money seems to be limiting what they can do now. Which I can change because years of daycare experience have taught me what to do – NOT. But seriously…I will remember this as a time I am very grateful to go to such a faceless school as NYU. Sorry to all the people who actually deserve to work there…

Quite a serious post so here's a song we have been hearing EVERYWHERE (don't worry Holley, it's not Ashawo)... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqNUH7uw418