baby delivered during my day in the labor ward
that smile can only mean 1 thing... Jeffery is being discharged!! wahoo!
Sweet little Joseph, my angel boy
25,000 people EVERY DAY
Mampong, our home base town
Love from AMERICA!
Monday, August 1, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Northside is a spa (my week at Ridge Hospital)
Northside is a spa. My mom is an OB nurse there, so over the years I have spent some time there and gotten the lay of the land. This week I have been observing and helping out in the labor ward and NICU at Ridge Hospital in Accra, and it has been a whole different experience.
The labor ward is one big room with 10 cots where moms-to-be lay on plastic tarps (yes, exactly like those blue ones you use for yard work) to labor and then deliver. The room is crowded, stuffy (no AC or fans), dirty, and filled with a smell that... well, you just had to be there. Mothers are not given any type of pain medications unless their blood pressure gets dangerously high, so there is lots of moaning and yelling. The women lay naked on their cots and watch their neighbors deliver until it is their time to push. Most of the stirrups are either broken or too rusted to be used. No one is allowed to be with the mother in the ward, not even husbands or family and the nurses do not do any hand holding or comforting, so the mother is without support or encouragement. The first baby that I saw born was a little girl who could not breathe on her own for the first hour of life and had to be taken to the NICU. The mother was then asked to squat over a trash can to bleed. When moms deliver, blood and fluid go all over the floor (which is only mopped with water) so you can imagine the sanitation issues. The midwife then went to the back and just squirted off her plastic apron with a hose, changed her gloves, and moved on to the next birth. One woman needed an emergency c-section but the OR ran out of anesthesia, so she ended up losing her baby. Can you imagine the outrage if that happened in America? Had enough details? yeah, me too.
Wednesday and today (Thursday) I have been helping out in the NICU. It is a tiny room where babies are crammed in (2-3 per incubator/crib). Sometimes a diaper would not get changed soon enough so one baby with be laying in another's waste. This can cause infection to spread from baby to baby, especially those with weak immune systems. Some are premature; some have medical problems; some need surgery; all are extremely fragile. There are no oxygen saturation monitors or heart rate monitors to help alert the stretched-thin staff to problems. Sometimes I would happen to glance over and notice that a baby's oxygen mask had come off and he/she was not breathing well. The monitors should be a necessity. There are no ventilators available for babies whose lungs are too weak to function. I really enjoyed feeding, changing, and holding babies, but there were some heartbreaking cases. One little boy has osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease. During birth he broke several bones, including both his legs. His whole body is swollen from the breaks and he cries and whimpers all day because the babies are not given pain medications. There was one precious little girl with big eyes who was abandoned by her mother, so she will go to an orphanage (a whole other horrible story for another day) when she is well enough. Yesterday we lost 1 baby and today we lost 2. What happened after death was was just was aweful. The babies were wrapped in a sheet of thin paper and left on the floor ALL DAY. The nurses acted as if it was nothing out of the ordinary, and while we were feeding and rocking babies we had to be careful to step over the dead babies. Finally when the parents came for the bodies, they were put in a cardboard box and carried under the arm like a package. Appalling. There was no respect for the fact that these babies were human beings and were someone's children.
And so I return to my original thesis: Northside is a spa.
In my post about the children's hospital, I talked about what it's like to see kids dying who would have been saved if they were in the States. Same goes for Ridge Hospital. Don't even get me started.
I once heard the saying that "a loss of innocence is accompanied by a gain in humanity." So true. I have seen so much on this trip, learned, and my eyes have been opened. It is one thing to hear about poverty and inadequate health care, but it is an entirely different thing to see it and experience it. How can we as Americans be okay with this going on every single day here while we complain that Chick-Fil-A put pickles on our sandwich, someone cut us off in traffic, or we had to wait a half hour at the doctor's office. We should not be silent about the suffering of others.
Love from Ghana... coming home in 10 days!
The labor ward is one big room with 10 cots where moms-to-be lay on plastic tarps (yes, exactly like those blue ones you use for yard work) to labor and then deliver. The room is crowded, stuffy (no AC or fans), dirty, and filled with a smell that... well, you just had to be there. Mothers are not given any type of pain medications unless their blood pressure gets dangerously high, so there is lots of moaning and yelling. The women lay naked on their cots and watch their neighbors deliver until it is their time to push. Most of the stirrups are either broken or too rusted to be used. No one is allowed to be with the mother in the ward, not even husbands or family and the nurses do not do any hand holding or comforting, so the mother is without support or encouragement. The first baby that I saw born was a little girl who could not breathe on her own for the first hour of life and had to be taken to the NICU. The mother was then asked to squat over a trash can to bleed. When moms deliver, blood and fluid go all over the floor (which is only mopped with water) so you can imagine the sanitation issues. The midwife then went to the back and just squirted off her plastic apron with a hose, changed her gloves, and moved on to the next birth. One woman needed an emergency c-section but the OR ran out of anesthesia, so she ended up losing her baby. Can you imagine the outrage if that happened in America? Had enough details? yeah, me too.
Wednesday and today (Thursday) I have been helping out in the NICU. It is a tiny room where babies are crammed in (2-3 per incubator/crib). Sometimes a diaper would not get changed soon enough so one baby with be laying in another's waste. This can cause infection to spread from baby to baby, especially those with weak immune systems. Some are premature; some have medical problems; some need surgery; all are extremely fragile. There are no oxygen saturation monitors or heart rate monitors to help alert the stretched-thin staff to problems. Sometimes I would happen to glance over and notice that a baby's oxygen mask had come off and he/she was not breathing well. The monitors should be a necessity. There are no ventilators available for babies whose lungs are too weak to function. I really enjoyed feeding, changing, and holding babies, but there were some heartbreaking cases. One little boy has osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease. During birth he broke several bones, including both his legs. His whole body is swollen from the breaks and he cries and whimpers all day because the babies are not given pain medications. There was one precious little girl with big eyes who was abandoned by her mother, so she will go to an orphanage (a whole other horrible story for another day) when she is well enough. Yesterday we lost 1 baby and today we lost 2. What happened after death was was just was aweful. The babies were wrapped in a sheet of thin paper and left on the floor ALL DAY. The nurses acted as if it was nothing out of the ordinary, and while we were feeding and rocking babies we had to be careful to step over the dead babies. Finally when the parents came for the bodies, they were put in a cardboard box and carried under the arm like a package. Appalling. There was no respect for the fact that these babies were human beings and were someone's children.
And so I return to my original thesis: Northside is a spa.
In my post about the children's hospital, I talked about what it's like to see kids dying who would have been saved if they were in the States. Same goes for Ridge Hospital. Don't even get me started.
I once heard the saying that "a loss of innocence is accompanied by a gain in humanity." So true. I have seen so much on this trip, learned, and my eyes have been opened. It is one thing to hear about poverty and inadequate health care, but it is an entirely different thing to see it and experience it. How can we as Americans be okay with this going on every single day here while we complain that Chick-Fil-A put pickles on our sandwich, someone cut us off in traffic, or we had to wait a half hour at the doctor's office. We should not be silent about the suffering of others.
Love from Ghana... coming home in 10 days!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Stress in the City
This week we have been in Takoradi doing more community screening clinics. We have seen around 1,000 people in 4 days, so it has been busy. There are a surprising number of people with high blood pressure here and at first I wondered why since people often think of it as being linked to the American lifestyle. One reason that hypertension is so common is because exercise is not a part of the culture. This week I witnessed another cause: stress. Of course, I knew that all the noise, traffic, and poverty cause stress, but this week we experienced that some people here just need to calm down! On Tuesday people were yelling, arguing, and pushing each other off the waiting bench in an attempt to get to be first in line. Today people were yelling, crowding around us, cutting in line (causing even more yelling), and nearly rioting about having to wait. When we had to announce that we could not see any more people, hell (nearly) broke loose. In my own selfish mind, I have thought "we are trying to help these people by giving them free healthcare. Can't they just be grateful?!" However, I just remind myself that the reason they are so pushy is because their need for healthcare is so great and they don't want to miss their chance. Other causes of stress this week have been a team member who has been ill and another girl's book bag (full of valuables) being stolen during our clinic work.
Despite the aforementioned bumps in the road, there have been some reasons to smile this week. One patient in the clinic asked me about her "blood pleasure." Her attempt at English made me chuckle. Today when I went to the hospital to accompany someone, I saw a man who had visited our screening clinic earlier in the week and was in the outpatient department to follow up as was advised. It's nice to see that our work is having an effect. I also had a little chuckle at the hospital's version of wheelchairs: white plastic lawn chairs mounted on wheels (and yes, I am quite serious.)
Gotta run! More updates later! Love from Ghana!
Despite the aforementioned bumps in the road, there have been some reasons to smile this week. One patient in the clinic asked me about her "blood pleasure." Her attempt at English made me chuckle. Today when I went to the hospital to accompany someone, I saw a man who had visited our screening clinic earlier in the week and was in the outpatient department to follow up as was advised. It's nice to see that our work is having an effect. I also had a little chuckle at the hospital's version of wheelchairs: white plastic lawn chairs mounted on wheels (and yes, I am quite serious.)
Gotta run! More updates later! Love from Ghana!
Friday, July 8, 2011
Addendum to previous post...
Just thought I'd add something else... Yes, this week at the children's hospital has been challenging and even heartbreaking at times. I would like to say, however, that it has only amplified my passion for kids with life-threatening diseases and confirmed that this is indeed where my heart is. After this week I know that if I can walk into a room as a doctor/PA/(insert other medical professional here) and make a child's life better for even just a few minutes or give some hope to frightened parents, I will be one happy camper. Those times when I was able to get some giggles, smiles, and hugs from kids who were suffering were the times that I felt I thrived this week. Just didn't want the past 2 posts to make it sound like this week was all sad or that it changed my mind about working with chronically ill kids.
An angel named Joseph
A little boy named Joseph captured my heart today. He has been at the Children's Hospital for 3 weeks for malnutrition so severe that his skin is peeling and he is incredibly weak. I picked him up and he snuggled into my shoulder and buried his head in my neck. When I tried to put him down, he began crying so I held him again while he was fed some "plumpy-nut" (500 calorie peanut butter-like paste that's fortified with extra protein, vitamins, etc.) The dietitian looked in the drawers beside his crib and found that his mother had stashed away 17 bags of plumpy-nut instead of feeding them to him. Her child is slowly dying of starvation and she is not giving him the free food given to her in order to save his life. When she came back to the ward and they confronted her, she just laughed. It was disgusting. It is so difficult to avoid judging her, but at the same time it's so difficult to understand how a mother could do that to her little child. To top it all off, she is pregnant. I wanted to take Joseph home with me to love him and protect him. I heard one time that 30,000 children die every day of preventable causes. That's 30,000 beautiful kids who are as precious as the little boy that now has my heart. Putting him down and leaving the hospital was so difficult today. Please pray that he will survive (and thrive) and that his mother will change. Life is so unfair and I wish I could fix it for that sweet little angel boy.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Week at the Children's Hospital and other ramblings
This week we have been working in the Princess Marie Louise Children's Hospital in Accra, the capital city. It has been a challenging week to say the least. The hospital is dirty and sanitation is very bad. It is filled with the sounds of kids crying, coughing, and moaning in pain. What you do not hear are the sounds of heart monitors, oxygen saturation monitors, fans, or other modern conveniences that we often think of as necessities for quality care. There is an outpatient department on the first floor where the waiting room is filled with more patients than can be seen by the few doctors in one day. I spent a few hours in the emergency room on Monday and saw a child unconscious from meningitis and malaria, a child in so much pain from sickle cell disease that he was wheezing, and a mother crying and praying over her toddler who was unconscious from severe dehydration. In the less than 2 hours I was there I saw 2 cause of death certificates filled out. There is a 9 month old girl in one of the wards that I have spent a good bit of time with and she has captured my heart. She was brought in so dehydrated that they could only get the IV started in her head and she is still not really coming around. Today she seemed to be resting a little more peacefully though. There is a whole ward of severely malnourished kids and an outpatient malnutrition clinic that is free to the public. I have gotten to learn a lot and am thankful for the experience. Today I had a lull in work so I just went and played with some of the kids in the general ward. I had the best time! Some of the kids were crying in pain and then immediately stopped as soon as I held them. I got to play peek-a-boo with a toddler for a while and his little giggle was infectious. It was very rewarding to feel like I was enriching their quality of life, even if only for a few minutes.
The majority of the kids in the hospital are so sick because the parents wait so long to bring them. There are many reasons: culture, lack of money, transportation issues, and lack of health education to name a few. I keep thinking about how children with life threatening illnesses back home can be brought to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the parents can at least know that they are getting the best care possible. The parents here do not have that comfort and it's heartbreaking. There is a lack of resources, supplies, money, medicines, and doctors. Pain meds are rarely given to the kids. I haven't yet found a bathroom with both soap and running water, so I can only imagine that diseases get passed along. Kids all around us are literally dying of preventable or easily treatable causes like malaria, severe dehydration, HIV, and malnutrition. This would never be allowed in America. It's aweful to watch a parent carry their young child's cause of death slip out the door towards the morgue and knowing that the child would probably have lived if they'd be blessed enough to be born in America.
This is all, obviously, emotionally draining sometimes. I've been listening to the song "If I Die Young" on my Ipod on the 2 hr ride home from the hospital this week. These lyrics make me think of the kids:
"If I die young, barry me in satin. Lay me down on a bed of roses... Lord, make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother. She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors. Life ain't always what you think it ought to be. Ain't even gray but she burries her baby. The sharp knife of a short life... And I'll be wearing white when I come into Your kingdom... Who would have thought forever could be severed by the sharp knife of a short life..." Here's the link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NJqUN9TClM
Count your blessings today. Love from Ghana.
The majority of the kids in the hospital are so sick because the parents wait so long to bring them. There are many reasons: culture, lack of money, transportation issues, and lack of health education to name a few. I keep thinking about how children with life threatening illnesses back home can be brought to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the parents can at least know that they are getting the best care possible. The parents here do not have that comfort and it's heartbreaking. There is a lack of resources, supplies, money, medicines, and doctors. Pain meds are rarely given to the kids. I haven't yet found a bathroom with both soap and running water, so I can only imagine that diseases get passed along. Kids all around us are literally dying of preventable or easily treatable causes like malaria, severe dehydration, HIV, and malnutrition. This would never be allowed in America. It's aweful to watch a parent carry their young child's cause of death slip out the door towards the morgue and knowing that the child would probably have lived if they'd be blessed enough to be born in America.
This is all, obviously, emotionally draining sometimes. I've been listening to the song "If I Die Young" on my Ipod on the 2 hr ride home from the hospital this week. These lyrics make me think of the kids:
"If I die young, barry me in satin. Lay me down on a bed of roses... Lord, make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother. She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors. Life ain't always what you think it ought to be. Ain't even gray but she burries her baby. The sharp knife of a short life... And I'll be wearing white when I come into Your kingdom... Who would have thought forever could be severed by the sharp knife of a short life..." Here's the link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NJqUN9TClM
Count your blessings today. Love from Ghana.
Some things you may (or may not) find interesting...
1. When people want to get your attention here, they hiss like a snake.
2. Driving down the road you see obituary posters everywhere. They announce the death and say when the funeral will be held. Funerals can be held weeks or even months after the death, depending on the family. The funeral is held and then there is a big party with food, dancing, drinking, and rejoicing.
3. Ghanaina women do not have many rights in divorce, not even rights to property or children in many cases. In general, the culture is very male dominated. Domestic violence is very common and although it is technically a crime, no one does anything about it.
4. Kids roam the streets freely here. The community as a whole is expected to look out for them and help make sure they are safe.
5. Polygamy is still practiced in Ghana, especially by chiefs.
6. Having children in marriage is not only expected, it is considered an obligation to the community. Childless couples are seriously looked down upon. However, adoption is not common at all.
7. Abortion is illegal here and many women die trying to self abort.
8. Homosexuality if also illegal. However, you will see men walking down the street holding hands and it is a sign of close friendship, but nothing more.
9. Out of 51 countries in Africa, Ghana was rated 48th for sanitation. In the words of our professor (who is a Ghanaian): "I'm surprised it wasn't number 51." People urinate in the street all the time. "Flying toilets" are common (yes, it's exactly what you think.) The streets smell terrible. There are open sewage drains, which provide a great breeding ground for mosquitos, worsening the malaria problem.
10. Any religious phrase, verse, or theme is an appropriate name for a business in southern Ghana. Examples: Kings of Kings Beauty Shop, Still In God's Time Produce, and Sow in Tears Reap in Joy Welding... Gotta love culture.
2. Driving down the road you see obituary posters everywhere. They announce the death and say when the funeral will be held. Funerals can be held weeks or even months after the death, depending on the family. The funeral is held and then there is a big party with food, dancing, drinking, and rejoicing.
3. Ghanaina women do not have many rights in divorce, not even rights to property or children in many cases. In general, the culture is very male dominated. Domestic violence is very common and although it is technically a crime, no one does anything about it.
4. Kids roam the streets freely here. The community as a whole is expected to look out for them and help make sure they are safe.
5. Polygamy is still practiced in Ghana, especially by chiefs.
6. Having children in marriage is not only expected, it is considered an obligation to the community. Childless couples are seriously looked down upon. However, adoption is not common at all.
7. Abortion is illegal here and many women die trying to self abort.
8. Homosexuality if also illegal. However, you will see men walking down the street holding hands and it is a sign of close friendship, but nothing more.
9. Out of 51 countries in Africa, Ghana was rated 48th for sanitation. In the words of our professor (who is a Ghanaian): "I'm surprised it wasn't number 51." People urinate in the street all the time. "Flying toilets" are common (yes, it's exactly what you think.) The streets smell terrible. There are open sewage drains, which provide a great breeding ground for mosquitos, worsening the malaria problem.
10. Any religious phrase, verse, or theme is an appropriate name for a business in southern Ghana. Examples: Kings of Kings Beauty Shop, Still In God's Time Produce, and Sow in Tears Reap in Joy Welding... Gotta love culture.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
A quick update
Sorry it's been so long, but I am very happy to finally be at an internet cafe. Gotta make this quick though...
This week we did screening clinics in the town surrounding our "home base." We saw around 400 patients and we students got to take height and weight, calculate BMI, take blood pressure, and prick fingers for iron and blood glucose tests. We did the clinics in a church, markets, and in a random patch of open concrete.
It was a bit of an emotionally draining week, but Friday was Republic Day in Ghana so we did not work and we had a free weekend. The whole group travelled to the beach together. We stayed at a cute little lodge in the middle of nowhere near a couple small fishing villages. We were in dorm style rooms with bunk beds, but let me tell you, we were living the life of luxury: palm trees, hamocks, beach, sunshine, other Obronis, American food, getting to eat lunch (yippee!!), and... (drumroll please...) a real genuine shower! Paradise found! It was very relaxing and good to recharge our batteries.
Tomorrow we start our rotations through the children's hospital in Accra. I am not sure which departments I'll be in yet, but I am looking forward to it.
I'll update soon when I have more time! Love from Ghana!
This week we did screening clinics in the town surrounding our "home base." We saw around 400 patients and we students got to take height and weight, calculate BMI, take blood pressure, and prick fingers for iron and blood glucose tests. We did the clinics in a church, markets, and in a random patch of open concrete.
It was a bit of an emotionally draining week, but Friday was Republic Day in Ghana so we did not work and we had a free weekend. The whole group travelled to the beach together. We stayed at a cute little lodge in the middle of nowhere near a couple small fishing villages. We were in dorm style rooms with bunk beds, but let me tell you, we were living the life of luxury: palm trees, hamocks, beach, sunshine, other Obronis, American food, getting to eat lunch (yippee!!), and... (drumroll please...) a real genuine shower! Paradise found! It was very relaxing and good to recharge our batteries.
Tomorrow we start our rotations through the children's hospital in Accra. I am not sure which departments I'll be in yet, but I am looking forward to it.
I'll update soon when I have more time! Love from Ghana!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Adventure or Bust!
Tuesday morning we left Mampong at 6am to head north. After a 13 hour drive and a brief stop in Kumasi for a bathroom break, we finally arrived at Mole National Park. In Kumasi we finally saw some other obronis, so of course we rolled down the van windows and yelled, "OBRONI!!" They laughed when they realized that it was not an "obibini" (black person) calling to them. The car ride was a bit of an adventure in itself. In addition to the fact that, as I mentioned earlier, driving in Ghana is like Burger King (you have it your way!), the roads are pretty bad in some parts of the country, so it was quite bumpy at times, almost like bouncing on a moonwalk. This was also my first long car ride without the luxuries of gas station candy, easy-to-find functioning public bathrooms, and the oh-so-crucial Chick-Fil-A breaks, but overall it was fun, relaxing, and a good bonding time for our team. I enjoyed just looking out the windows and see the country. The northern part of Ghana is much more rural and impoverished than the southern region, so all we saw for hours were villages of mud huts. We arrived at Mole at nighttime and ate dinner, then settled in for bed. We stayed at the motel in the park and although the tap water stays turned off except in the early mornings and there were fleas in the beds, it wasn't bad. There were fans in the rooms, which helped a lot and we were so tired we could have slept anywhere.
The next morning we left for our safari at 7am. We walked around the park on foot with a guard. We were a bit surprised that we were not going in a jeep or something because of the wildlife, but our professor informed us that "that's what the guard's gun is for!" We saw baboons, antelope, an okope (Poisonwood Bible, anyone??), crocodiles, warthogs, and 4 elephants! We were able to get about 50 yards from the elephants as they were taking their morning bath in the river. It was amazing! Later that day, we went on a canoe safari near one of the villages. We piled in the canoes and were a bit concerned that we'd sink since we were close enough to the water that a fish jumped in the boat. We asked the guides if there were crocodiles in this river and he said "Oh yes, but don't worry, they won't harm..." Even the crocodiles love the obronis here, how nice of them! It was very beautiful to paddle through the wilderness and soak it all in! What a great (crocodile-free) adventure! I am so thankful for these opportunities!
Afterward, the guides gave us a tour of their village and told us about some of their customs. We saw a woman making butter, climbed to the chief's lookout/announcement place, listened to their drums, saw their pigeon house, and, of course, were swarmed with little kids who didn't speak English but just wanted to touch us and hold our hands. They told us how when twins are born, a pigeon is sacrificed and the meat is fed to the mother. If a young child has a persistent cough, they drop a coin in the pigeons' water bucket and give some of the water to the child to cure the cough. We also got to see their burial cloths and learned about how they respect women enough that it is traditional to give them a bigger portion of everything, even in burial. We returned back to the motel and I was so tired from the fantastic day that I slept like a rock.
We left this morning and drove back south to Kumasi, where we will stay for a couple days. Along the way we stopped in a village to see a mud mosque from the 1400s. Tomorrow we are going to a school and an orphanage. Then our week of fun and tourism is over and we begin our medical work. I'm very excited to get started! The need is so great and I want to do whatever little I can.
Hope all of you are doing well. Thanks for sticking with it if you are still reading! Love from Ghana!
The next morning we left for our safari at 7am. We walked around the park on foot with a guard. We were a bit surprised that we were not going in a jeep or something because of the wildlife, but our professor informed us that "that's what the guard's gun is for!" We saw baboons, antelope, an okope (Poisonwood Bible, anyone??), crocodiles, warthogs, and 4 elephants! We were able to get about 50 yards from the elephants as they were taking their morning bath in the river. It was amazing! Later that day, we went on a canoe safari near one of the villages. We piled in the canoes and were a bit concerned that we'd sink since we were close enough to the water that a fish jumped in the boat. We asked the guides if there were crocodiles in this river and he said "Oh yes, but don't worry, they won't harm..." Even the crocodiles love the obronis here, how nice of them! It was very beautiful to paddle through the wilderness and soak it all in! What a great (crocodile-free) adventure! I am so thankful for these opportunities!
Afterward, the guides gave us a tour of their village and told us about some of their customs. We saw a woman making butter, climbed to the chief's lookout/announcement place, listened to their drums, saw their pigeon house, and, of course, were swarmed with little kids who didn't speak English but just wanted to touch us and hold our hands. They told us how when twins are born, a pigeon is sacrificed and the meat is fed to the mother. If a young child has a persistent cough, they drop a coin in the pigeons' water bucket and give some of the water to the child to cure the cough. We also got to see their burial cloths and learned about how they respect women enough that it is traditional to give them a bigger portion of everything, even in burial. We returned back to the motel and I was so tired from the fantastic day that I slept like a rock.
We left this morning and drove back south to Kumasi, where we will stay for a couple days. Along the way we stopped in a village to see a mud mosque from the 1400s. Tomorrow we are going to a school and an orphanage. Then our week of fun and tourism is over and we begin our medical work. I'm very excited to get started! The need is so great and I want to do whatever little I can.
Hope all of you are doing well. Thanks for sticking with it if you are still reading! Love from Ghana!
Monday, June 20, 2011
12 things I learned my 1st 12 hours in Ghana
1. When they say it's hot in Africa, they aren't kidding!
2. All traffic laws are merely a suggestion that is rarely followed. Someone makes you mad? Honk excessively and swerve around them. Traffic moving too slowly? Just got off the road to bypass it, then speedily re-enter the road.
3. In addition to #2, when you glance over at the speedometer and it reads 110, don't panic. Note: it's in km/hr NOT mph.
4. Ghanaian have the strongest necks. Those pictures of people carrying things on their heads are not just for tv. Women here carry everything on their heads, including suitcases.
5. Bucket bathing is not that bad! The cold water is quite refreshing!
6. Everyone will tell "Obroni!!!!" when they see you on the street. It means white person or foreigner. The kids will want to touch you. The adults will wave and laugh and all around you will feel like a celebrity. Don't let the fame go to your head.
7. There is this thing that they call "5:30 am." While we only have one 5:30 per day, they have 2 here and you are expected to get up and be ready for breakfast.
8. Apparently it is perfectly acceptable for the police to stop a van full of obronis just to ask for the girl in the front's phone number. Hey, what are police checkpoints for, right?
9. There is a reason the Ghanaians beat us in the World Cup.
10. Goats and chickens roam the street freely here. And roosters crow at all hours of the day. They are confused and delirious from getting up so early every day (see #7)
11. When they told us that everyone speaks English in Ghana, what they really meant was everyone who has who has gone to school speaks some English. But really it's hard to tell because of the accent barrier.
12. Ghana is beautiful! Our house is on top of a mountain and it's just gorgeous!
Things have been going well so far. Jet lag wasn't too bag and I think I am getting adjusted. People are very friendly towards Americans here and they all want to talk to us and touch us because it's quite obvious that we are not from Ghana. Yesterday we went on a hike to try to see a waterfall, but our guide got "confused" so we only saw part, but a beautiful part it was! He continued trying to find the way for a few hours and we followed behind the *whack whack* of his machete. It was definitely off the beat path, or any path for that matter, and not a tourist area. The forest was gorgeous! Today we came into the city (Accra) for orientation to the medical side of the trip (and to the internet cafe! wahoo!) Tomorrow we will drive all day to the northern part of the country to go to a couple towns and to a national park. We'll stay there a couple days, then head back south. The food here is very different, but not bad. I'm not used to eating spicy foods so it will take a little adjusting. Gotta run! Will update again soon!
2. All traffic laws are merely a suggestion that is rarely followed. Someone makes you mad? Honk excessively and swerve around them. Traffic moving too slowly? Just got off the road to bypass it, then speedily re-enter the road.
3. In addition to #2, when you glance over at the speedometer and it reads 110, don't panic. Note: it's in km/hr NOT mph.
4. Ghanaian have the strongest necks. Those pictures of people carrying things on their heads are not just for tv. Women here carry everything on their heads, including suitcases.
5. Bucket bathing is not that bad! The cold water is quite refreshing!
6. Everyone will tell "Obroni!!!!" when they see you on the street. It means white person or foreigner. The kids will want to touch you. The adults will wave and laugh and all around you will feel like a celebrity. Don't let the fame go to your head.
7. There is this thing that they call "5:30 am." While we only have one 5:30 per day, they have 2 here and you are expected to get up and be ready for breakfast.
8. Apparently it is perfectly acceptable for the police to stop a van full of obronis just to ask for the girl in the front's phone number. Hey, what are police checkpoints for, right?
9. There is a reason the Ghanaians beat us in the World Cup.
10. Goats and chickens roam the street freely here. And roosters crow at all hours of the day. They are confused and delirious from getting up so early every day (see #7)
11. When they told us that everyone speaks English in Ghana, what they really meant was everyone who has who has gone to school speaks some English. But really it's hard to tell because of the accent barrier.
12. Ghana is beautiful! Our house is on top of a mountain and it's just gorgeous!
Things have been going well so far. Jet lag wasn't too bag and I think I am getting adjusted. People are very friendly towards Americans here and they all want to talk to us and touch us because it's quite obvious that we are not from Ghana. Yesterday we went on a hike to try to see a waterfall, but our guide got "confused" so we only saw part, but a beautiful part it was! He continued trying to find the way for a few hours and we followed behind the *whack whack* of his machete. It was definitely off the beat path, or any path for that matter, and not a tourist area. The forest was gorgeous! Today we came into the city (Accra) for orientation to the medical side of the trip (and to the internet cafe! wahoo!) Tomorrow we will drive all day to the northern part of the country to go to a couple towns and to a national park. We'll stay there a couple days, then head back south. The food here is very different, but not bad. I'm not used to eating spicy foods so it will take a little adjusting. Gotta run! Will update again soon!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Ready... Set... GO!
Tomorrow is the big day! The preparations are made, my bags are (over)packed, and the sunscreen and mosquito spray are ready (in mass quantity) to spring into action! We'll be heading out tomorrow and flying for almost 12 hours. I'm very excited and nervous, and I'm ready for our adventure (and those delicious airplane cookies!) I'll try to update from Ghana whenever we are able to go to the internet cafe. Goodbye America, Hello Ghana!
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