First, let me start by saying, thank you all for tagging along with me on my journey. From here on out, my blog should be more regularly updated and full of interesting adventures. I’m eagerly looking forward to the next two years in this beautiful community and all the memories I’ll make with strangers that are already becoming family.
Tuesday afternoon and evening at my house were a blast.
It was sister Mary’s 39th birthday (Mary is one of the women that lives in my home with me). Before Mary arrived home from work, I was straggling to finish my daily chores. I took my bucket of trash out to the burn pit after cleaning my home. So, I was washing out the trash bucket outside when I saw a sweet little face peaking around the rain barrel at me. It was one of my neighbor boys, Kofi. He’s a sweet little guy. Him and his brothers are all very well behaved, but none of them speak or understand English well. Anyways, Kofi watched me finish cleaning out my bucket. After I was finished I played with him for a while. Before long, his two brothers were also hanging out with us outside my room. I decided to go get a few balloons from my room. Needless to say, it was a great decision. We played with the balloons for over an hour. We tried our hardest not to let the balloons touch the ground and eventually we ended up playing something similar to volleyball. Haha. The boys loved the balloons! They were a hit! 😉 I loved seeing the smiles on their little faces.
After Mary was home, her son Abraham and I sang her Happy Birthday. Abraham is around 4 years old and we had been practicing for a couple days. He did so well. It was unbelievably cute.
Then, I came into my room to prepare to make dinner when I heard a knock on my door. Francis, the neighbor I mentioned in my last blog post, had come to visit me. He wanted me to come to his home to meet his wife, Gifty. So, of course, I said yes. I locked up my house and followed him next door. His home is amazingly nice. I learned that he is a leader at the Pentecostal church near St. George’s, where I teach. His wife, as he had mentioned previously, is a public health nurse at the hospital across the street from our homes. Francis is 39 and his wife recently turned 31. They have a beautiful 5 year old son. While I was at their home, I was talking to his wife about her career. Then, to my surprise, she invited me to go sit in on a meeting she was leading regarding disease surveillance in our district on Wednesday morning at 9am. I was so excited! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Gifty knows biochemistry. So, naturally, we spent about 20 minutes just completely “nerding out” while her husband sat across from us on the couch laughing.
On Wednesday morning, I woke up early and got ready for the day. Around 8am, Gifty called to let me know that she had made it to the hospital and that I could come any time. Of course, with all the excitement, I was already ready! I threw my water bottle and a notebook in my backpack, locked up my house, and started my two minute walk to the hospital. When I entered the hospital grounds, Gifty was standing towards the back of the complex waving and smiling. It was the most welcoming sight. I was so glad, grinning from ear to ear as I waved back.
My meeting was supposed to start at 9am, so Gifty took the time to introduce me to many, many people that were community health workers at the hospital as well as other district community health leaders that had come from other clinics for her meeting. I met some very interesting and intelligent people. One of the most influential people I have met so far is the lead community health nurse at the hospital. His name is Leonard. He is so helpful and kind. He lives just near the hospital, on the opposite side that I do. Sadly, the power was out so we could not start the meeting. Some of the district health leaders decided to go have their meeting while they waited for the power to come back on.
Gifty gave me a book on TB to read through while she went to a meeting. It was so interesting. I told her that in the US we don’t have a problem with TB so it is often neglected in our studies. She told me quite a bit and while she was in the meeting I took many notes from the Ghana Health Service 2012 book on TB program development and treatment options. Of course, while I was reading I had many questions. Thankfully, Leonard was there to answer them all.
Around noon, Leonard invited me to come with him to observe new born vaccinations and check on the new mothers. Of course, I couldn’t turn down that opportunity! I love new babies. However, in Ghana, no one but the mother should hold the baby until its 8th day. The mother will usually spend a few days in the hospital, if that is where she chooses to give birth. After leaving the hospital, she will return to her home and stay inside with the baby until it is 8 days old. On the baby’s 8th day, the mother will come out of the home, introduce the baby to the community, and the baby will receive a name during what is called a naming ceremony. Up until day 8, the baby is known solely by his/her day name. For example, all males born on Tuesdays are called Kwabena and all females born on Tuesdays are called Abena. Each day of the week has its own male/female names. I met one young lady that had just had her baby four hours prior to meeting her. Her baby girl was beautiful, big, and healthy. I also met one other lady that had delivered twins the day before. They were pretty big twins. I would guess that they each weighed at least 6 pounds. They were also happy, healthy babies. All three of the babies received a dose of vitamin A, a TB vaccination, and a polio vaccination.
Around 1pm, I finally made it back to the public health building. The power was finally back on! Yay! Gifty started the meeting on disease surveillance as soon as I was back. We learned about how to identify different diseases and when to refer people to the hospital. We also learned about what types of samples should be obtained for which diseases and the processes that need to be followed when requesting a laboratory diagnosis. The samples for most diseases are sent to Accra, to a nationally trusted laboratory. However, the samples for TB and cholera can be done at our facility laboratory unit. After the meeting, I headed home and made some mac and cheese to celebrate the day!
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Fast forward five weeks and here we are. To say the last five weeks have been a rollercoaster would be an understatement.
As many of you know, I had a brief scare with breast cancer. I spent 21 days in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, searching for answers with various PCMOs. With my strong family history and suspicious lumps, I was sent to Morocco, our regional medical hub for Peace Corps, for a breast MRI and core needle biopsies. Thankfully, the result from the biopsy was negative for breast cancer and was a fibroadenoma. Even though the results were good on the biopsy, the doctors want me to be closely monitored for the next few years with semi-annual ultrasounds and possible yearly breast MRIs. I couldn’t have made it through this grueling trial without my family and friends. I should probably take time to give a special thanks to Mitch who was with me through it all. He truly was my strength. By the grace of God, he was able to be with me through it all. I’m one lucky lady. What a way to turn 22, huh?!
Currently, I’m back at my site. I’ve spent the last week here at the school meeting the new first year students. I found out that I will be teaching integrated science (physics, chemistry, biology, and agriculture) to students in the technical and visual arts programs and elective biology to the students in the home economics program. To be honest, the integrated science classes wouldn’t have been at the top of my list to teach, but as I get to know the students I know more and more that it was all in God’s plan. I came here expecting to be getting heavily involved with the girls, scared of trying to make relationships with teenage boys. However, as time goes on, I realize that all of my students are very sweet and their personalities are easing the gender divide to a close. I’m enjoying my time with the male students and their teaching me a lot about what it means to be a teacher in Ghana. I’m hoping to offer study sessions on Sunday evenings 2 weekends a month to the boarding students and maybe two Wednesday evenings a month to the day students.
Because Ghana started free senior high school this term, we have an overwhelming number of students and a completely inadequate facility and number of staff. As time goes on, I’m building stronger relationships because of it. I am finding myself problem solving with fellow teachers and administration alike to make our school the best it can possibly be. Our previous headmaster has been reassigned, so we were without a top seat in school administration for about a month. On Friday, our new headmistress was announced to the staff and student body. I can’t wait to see what she will bring to our school.
On Saturday, I went to Kumasi. A student had fallen in the shower and hurt her arm a few days prior. She was hoping the pain would go away, but sadly it did not. Because she does not have health insurance, she was unable to go to the local hospital with the money she had in her possession. So, on Saturday morning I took her to Kumasi with me and helped her to find a tro tro to her grandmother’s home in the Eastern Region. After I dropped her off at the station and ensured she was okay to go on her own, I went to meet up with some Peace Corps friends. We had lunch at Abude’s Fast Food in Kumasi- I highly recommend it. It was the best pizza I’ve had since coming to Ghana! YUM! After that, we ran some quick errands and picked up a few things in town before heading back to our various sites.
So far, I’ve spent all of my Sunday cleaning my place. After being gone for 32 days, I had a major black mold problem going on throughout my home. After only a week of being back it was so bad my eyes were swelling, my nose was congested, I was coughing terribly, and I was getting severe headaches every time I entered my house. After deep cleaning all day, I can say that I don’t have a headache anymore and my house is finally smelling a bit more “lived in”.
Monday, I officially start teaching for real. Wish me luck!
XoXo
** For pictures, please see Facebook. It is using too much of my data to upload the pictures on so many different platforms. Thanks! ***
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