Anne's Pictures!

Me, with my friend in Laribanga,
a poor village in northern Ghana.



Anne and I, wearing our African dresses, with the doctors, nurses, and administrators of the hospital.
Anne, presenting the donated medicines to Dr. Opare, the district director, and Margaret, the head community nurse.
Our little friend, Kwaku,
flashing his bright smile.




Anne and I, walking the canopy bridge in the rainforest.

good things in life

Spending time at home just being lazy... pancakes for breakfast, wearing pajamas all day, and watching hours of MTV.

Football... all day Sunday and Monday night. Big Ben, Peyton, and Eli - three exciting games followed by endless ESPN analysis. And Drew Bledsoe is really handsome. But my heart belongs to Peyton. I really missed football. A lot.

A washing machine. I washed five loads of laundry without having to scrub anything with my hands, without breaking a sweat. Oh, the luxury.

Family. Friends. It's nice to be home. I've missed you!

Fall. Crisp air that smells like leaves. Cold days when I still need my sunglasses. It's the best.

Grey's Anatomy. Dr Burke... hot. Dr. McDreamy... hot. Dr. Alex, he's hot too. And the return of Dr. McSteamy... wow, he's hot hot hot. I wish my hospital was like this!

That CD that you can listen to over and over and love it more every time. Ray LaMontagne. I think everyone should buy his music.

Medicine. My uncle's cancer is gone. Thank God!

Our Work on the Maternity Ward

Our Precious Babies...

Pictures!

These are just a few pictures of the children of Ghana. Aren't they beautiful? I took 409 pictures, so next up will be some shots of my favorite babies...

Homeward Bound

Today is the day - we are leaving Ghana this evening and we'll be home with our families this weekend! Although I have been very excited to come home, I am also sad to leave. We've lived here for three months, become close to people, and I'm finding it to be harder to leave than I'd expected. We've become accustomed to the way of life here, and I know it will be a big adjustment to return to our "normal" lives, knowing what we are leaving behind here. No matter how happy I will be at home, my perceptions about a lot of things have changed, and I'm going to miss Ghana.
We had a wonderful send-off... The doctors and administrators took us out to a nice dinner to thank us for giving our time and efforts. They think that we have started something good here, and they have invited us to come back again. Of course, we were already planning to come back, so we're glad they like us! They also had traditional African dresses sewn for us, so we put them on and took lots of pictures. We made them promise that they would put our pictures in next year's hospital calendar - Anne wants June, I said I'll take whatever you've got! The dresses are gorgeous, made from African batik cloth, and I must say that we look pretty good. With the headwraps and jewelry, we almost look Ghanaian! Except for our white skin.
We didn't know this, but we are the first foreign nurses to volunteer at this hospital, so we have been climbing an uphill battle. In all of our discouragement, we never realized that we were actually the first outsiders to try to change nursing practice. They feel that we have laid a foundation, and we have started some talk within the hospital. I leave with the hope that the talk will progress to change, noticeable upon our return visit.
I am thankful to all of the people here in Ghana who have taken care of us, welcomed us into their homes, and tried to make this a positive experience for us. Thank you, Fred, I will miss you so much! SVG is an awesome organization with which we will continue to be involved with from home. There are still many things that we can help to change at the hospital, and we aren't giving up!

My Final Ghanaian Words...

We had a great trip to the coast, starting at Takoradi where we spent the day on the beach. We relaxed in the sun, and I finally look as if I have spent time in Africa! The beach was gorgeous, with just a few small resorts. The next day, we traveled to Elmina and Cape Coast, where we toured the slave castles that were used during the 1500-1800's. We stood in the dark, hot, chambers, where thousands of African people were held and many died while awaiting to board the slave ships. They were kept for two months without bathing or toilet facilities, piled into the chambers like they were animals. Anyone who resisted, known as the Freedom Fighters, were taken to a small, isolated, dark room with no windows where they would die or would be killed. If a person could survive the horrible conditions for two months, they were considered "fit" enough to survive the trip across the sea to the New World. Millions of African people were taken from their native lands to be enslaved in Europe and the Americas, which hugely contributed to the wealth of these countries today. Meanwhile, Africa is still a struggling, developing continent. It is impossible for me to understand how people could treat their fellow human beings like this, and it wasn't all that long ago, as the slave trade was finally abolished in the mid-1800's.
We were a bit adventurous, too. We visited Kakum National Park, near Cape Coast, a preserved rainforest. I swallowed my fear of heights and walked the 350-meter suspended canopy walk. It is a walking bridge, suspended 50 meters by cables and rope between 7 tall trees. As we walked, we looked down onto the canopy of the forest, where we saw many birds and butterflies. There are chimpanzees and forest elephants, too, none of which we caught a glimpse. The bridge would wobble with every step we took, and more than once I wanted to vomit. But our guide, Emmanuel, assured me that there have been no casualites since the bridge was built, as he proceeded to RUN down the bridge. I had to be strong and finish so he wouldn't laugh at me!
In our last week here, we have spent time finishing things up at the hospital. We replaced the hard, rusty, broken labor beds with newer, clean, mechanical beds with thick soft mattresses. As soon as we rolled them into the room, a laboring woman came right in to use one. It makes a huge difference in the room's appearance, and I know the women will appreciate the comfort of the new beds. We also finished sorting the donated supplies, distributing hundreds of needles and syringes to all the wards. Because they were donations, the patients should receive them for free, which will make a big difference, believe it or not.
And our final project, which we will finish today, is an educational effort for the nurses. We are creating a teaching sheet to encourage the nurses to keep their patients informed of their diagnosis, medicines, treatment plan, and discharge instructions. These things are just the basic things that a patient should always be taught, but often patients here don't even know why they are even in the hospital. We hope to teach the nurses and leave them with this information, hoping to make a lasting impression.
As we look back on our few months here in Ghana, we have many mixed emotions. It seems so long ago that we started our work here, as we have seen and experienced so many things since. It has been more difficult than we expected, but we have learned so many things. We know that we have accomplished many things, but we can't help but feel disappointed that we were unable to do more. We have grown to appreciate a simpler way of living, and we know that we will be forever changed after living here. We look forward to returning to our comfortable lives, at the same time feeling guilty for wanting to go home. Anne and I are already talking about our next trip to Ghana, to work again with SVG, so we definitely haven't finished our work here for good. It will be a tough transition when we get home, probably involving a lot of tears, but we hope that our stories can influence others to become involved.
A lot of people have emailed and asked how they can help. So I'm going to put an idea out there for those of you who are excited about doing something. There is a very reputable organization called "Compassion International", which Anne and I have been involved with for a few years. Through Compassion, you can sponsor a child in a developing country for $32 per month, which pays for education, healthcare, and bible school . Anne and I have sponsored Geovany, a boy in Ecuador for three years, and we've watched him grow and learn more every year. I also sponsor a 5-year-old boy in Honduras, named Mainor, who will be starting school soon. The children will send letters and drawings, and you can write letters as often as you'd like. It makes the children and their families feel so special to know that someone cares about them, and they love learning about the United States too. I know that $32 is not a small amount of money for any of us, but I also know that our money goes a lot further in developing countries, and that these children need our help. Please, if you have time, check out the Compassion website, which is on my list of links here on this blog page. And if this isn't something that you can do, then please become involved at church, school, or in the community. There are so many things that you can do to support our work, whether it is in Africa, America, or next door.
Anne and I thank you all for sticking with us, for emailing us with encouraging words, for sending packages, for donating medicines, for reading this blog. It was invaluable knowing that we had people who cared and supported us from home, and we needed every bit of it. Only three more days until we arrive in Chicago!

Small Treasures

Ghana is beautiful. Yesterday, we traveled to Koforidua, the capital of the Eastern Region, to renew our visas. While we were there, we traveled to see Boti Falls, a beautiful waterfall just outside of town. The water falls over a tall cliff into a shallow pool at the bottom, then flows into a river. A local boy acted as our guide for a modest fee of $1.50, but other than the cement stairs leading to the falls, this was an undisturbed place of nature. And last weekend, we visited Lake Volta, a huge lake in the Eastern Region. We took a ferry, which they had loaded full of cargo trucks and passenger vans, to cross the lake. We hopped into a wooden boat with a motor, which took us back across the lake in about 15 minutes. It was fun to be on the water, to see the fishermen at work.
This week at work, we had another premature baby boy, probably about 30 weeks gestation. He was so beautiful, so small, so fragile. He lived for more than 24 hours, which really surprised us because there was nothing that we could have done for him at this hospital. Premature babies, if transferred quickly to a teaching hospital in the city, can often survive, but their mothers are often unable or unwilling to pay for the care. His mother came to see him a couple of times while he was in the incubator, but she refused to touch or hold him. This baby boy was a fighter, and it's hard for me to accept that we were unable to help him, and I can't help but wonder why the doctors don't try harder to get these babies the care they deserve. And unfortunately, Ghana's healthcare is on a cash and carry system, so people must be able to pay up front for their care. Most often, this is out of the question for the people on the mountain, because they can not afford intensive care. The case may be similar for another newborn we saw this week - this baby had a serious cleft lip and palate, which needs to be surgically repaired at a teaching hospital. It hurts to know that these babies would have so much more had they been born in the United States. It hurts to know that we will be going back there and leaving all of these people behind. I still can't understand how things can be so unfair.
We spent a day in a small clinic in the remote village of Entomem this week. We assisted the community health nurse with Norplant implants for seven women. Norplant consists of six small tubes inserted under the skin of the upper arm to prevent pregnancy. For the equivalent of $2, these women will have worry-free birth control for five years. A couple of these women are 20 years old and already have two children, so Norplant is a good option for them. In a culture in which birth control is not necessarily accepted, I am proud of these women for trying to be responsible. I think they enjoyed having the white girls there - it makes them feel special and supported. They laughed in excitement when Anne took a picture of them and their children. It was a good experience for us. We also distributed some of the donated vitamins and medicines to the clinic, and the nurses were so grateful. Thank you to everyone who donated - we brought a total of 95 pounds of medicine with us to Ghana, and we will finish distributing it these next couple of weeks.
After weekly practice, Anne and I have become professional laundry washers. Give us three buckets of water and some laundry soap and we can go to town, with nothing but our bare hands. And our clothes actually get relatively clean! And, even better, I can now boast that I am capable of taking a full bath, including hair washing, with less than one bucket of rainwater. I wonder how much water we use in our showers at home? I am picking up some new skills here, of which I am very proud!
The weather has gotten much warmer over the past few weeks, and we see the sun more often, but it is still raining for short periods almost every day. I think this hot weather is more what I expected of Africa... sometimes Anne and I just lay around praying for a breeze to cool us off. Not that I'm concerned with beauty, and I don't have a mirror anyway, but I look like crap here every day - sweat is not the new look for fall is it?
I think the sky here is huge. Sometimes at night, if we are lucky, the sky opens up and we see a million stars. The best nights are Thursdays, when the electricity is shut off, so the moon and stars shine bright to compensate. I think we're seeing different constellations than we see at home too. BEAUTIFUL!
Okay, for my NC friends... The official count so far is one Duke t-shirt and three UNC t-shirts. Since much of the clothing here is second-hand, I am actually seeing these on the streets. Of course, these people don't know Duke or UNC, but that doesn't stop me from yelling, "Hey, I live there!" To even things out a bit, I have given away three Duke t-shirts, just a small effort to promote my hospital.
This weekend we will be traveling to Cape Coast and Elmina, where we will see the slave castles and spend some time on the coast. We're looking forward to it... more details after!