update on my non-Malaria sickness

I haven’t posted about how my heartburn is doing because it’s hard to tell. It’s been getting much much better, then the next day it will feel almost as bad as it did in the beginning. Usually, it’s there, but I can get along not thinking about it. I’m still on a restricted diet. A “salad” has turned into a peeled cucumber, “fruit” is now bananas, things like that. The doctor said it was going to take 2-4 weeks for the heartburn to completely go away, so I’m not so nervous yet. David, my stepdad, sent me more medication two weeks ago. A week and a half ago, the online confirmation said it was in customs. Every other day since then, I asked the CIEE office if it arrived. Eventually, on Thursday, the woman who works in the CIEE office called the post office. It took 20 minutes to communicate to them what I wanted, but in the end they said that the package was there. So there are two ways to get a package. The first one is if it’s small. It comes straight to campus, and a CIEE person picks it up and brings it to the CIEE office. We’ve gotten two packages so far, and they’ve both come directly to campus. However, if the package is a little bigger, it stays in the post office, and you have to pick it up yourself. They will only give it to the person who it’s addressed to. You need to bring ID. Going to the post office is supposedly a painful experience. You need to bring a ton of cash because they will charge you to pick it up. The officer brings you into a room in the back and makes you open it in front of him. He then tells you the price. If you’re white, he sometimes starts with a crazy amount like 400 cedis (about $300). It seems relatively easy to bring the price down, but you can’t lose your cool. You need to be really respectful or he will take the package back. I’ve heard real horror stories about people going to pick up packages from the post office in Accra. I need to go tomorrow because I’m on my last Malaria pill. Rivky can’t come with me because she has a class that she’s already missed too many times. I feel bad asking anyone else to come with me, but I am so scared.