America

I'd like everyone to begin this blog entry with a quick "USA! USA!" chant.

I had always heard that the US is a superpower and has a world of influence, but I never truly understood that until coming here. There is so much American influence. For instance, check out my new swag:

Everyone is really big on Obama here, and are quick to remind me and Nick that he came to Ghana last year. Not only is there Obama clothing, but about 50% of the cab drivers have American flags in their vehicles with Obamas face on them. And the most hilarious thing is there is a company that sells a product called Obama Biscuits! They have a red white and blue packaging with Obamas face on them. They don't taste to bad either.

This week at work one of the funniest things happened. So as we approach the beginning of the world cup, many people have been taking breaks from work to talk about who is gonna win, what Ghana's chances are, or in our case remind us of how Ghana beat the US last World Cup. Well the other day Mr. Fafa and Mr. Henry (you can omit the Mr. but i prefer it) the senior investigators in Phytochemistry and Pharmocology at the center decided to go online and look up the rosters of some teams for the world cup. I took a break and joined them. We were looking at different countries and then we stumbled upon the US. We were looking at the roster and then all of a sudden Fafa began humming the US national anthem. Then Henry joined in creating a perfect two part harmony. It was beautiful. I couldn't stop laughing. When I asked them in awe how they knew the song, they simply replied that they liked it. Right after that they began to sing another two part harmony of "My Country tis of Thee". It was too much. The craziest thing was after that we were looking up the German team when they began to hum the German national anthem, which I had learned when I was in German school as a kid. These were the last songs I expected to hear, let alone in two part harmony, while working in Rural Mampong.

Tomorrow is the first game of the world cup, and I can already tell the Centre is going to be crazy considering the game is during work. It seems almost half of the staff has plans to either go home after lunch or not come into work at all because of it. Everyone is pumped and really excited that it is in Africa!

Probably the most exciting news (besides my recovery from a brief food poisoning) is that we just tested out our herb in rats to see if it causes uterine contractions and it worked! It at the higher of the two dosages we did, it was on par with the pharmaceutical drug used in hospitals in the US. Unbeleivable! We still have a road of research ahead of us, but this was very exciting. I'll be writing more soon. Thanks for all the messages y'all. Ma feoo all.

AO