Day 3 - Clinic and Marketplace

Today in Abomosu has been wonderful! First off, our instructor told us she was going to let us sleep in this morning (since we were suffering from SEVERE jet lag). We ended up sleeping in until noon! It was crazy! The only time I woke up was when the roosters started cockle-dooing when the sun came up, but then I went right back to sleep. I was surprised that I slept so well, because it's hot and humid and you have to sleep on top of your sheets. But I guess I was so tired it didn't matter - I was out.

We woke up this morning and met Elder and Sister Terry, a senior couple serving here in Abomosu. They're originally from Las Vegas! They are so nice. This is their THIRD mission as a senior couple, and all three have been to Africa. Their first was in eastern Africa, their second in South Africa, and now their third is in Ghana, is west Africa. I love that! I think it's so neat that they both made that a priority in their lives. I know Kevin and I want to be able to do things like that when we're older, so they were here, living our dream. It was so fun to talk to them about it.

We also met Stephen Abu, a Ghanain who started the LDS church out here in Abomosu. His story is amazing, if I have time I'll write about it. [I'll post his story soon!] He's one of the LDS pioneers of Ghana. Very nice. He's almost 70 years old but he doesn't look it at all. My instructor Karen said that their skin here is so healthy, they don't wrinkle or get old spots here like we do. No fair, huh? ;)

Brother Abu - an amazing example

Our driver, Yao, drove us up to the health clinic so we could see it and get a feel for what we'll be doing for the next week or so. The health clinic was a little bigger than I thought it would be. There's one room called the "Wound Care" room, with a nurse who does basic dressing changes and who gives shots.

The front of the clinic

Then there's a room where the medical assistant, Paul, meets with his patients. He's a Ghanain who acts like a nurse practitioner would in the USA, but he has a lot less education. He diagnoses and prescribes, but he goes off a little handbook that has a list of symptoms with possible diseases and treatment. So if someone comes in with a fever, diarrhea, and vomiting he opens his book and matches it with a diagnosis. He would say, "Oh, you've got malaria", treat them like the book says to treat them, and send them on their way. If they come back still sick he will pick a different diagnosis and see if that's right. Kind of trial and error it sounds like. If he still doesn't know after a bit, then he refers them toa doctor. The problem is there is only one doc for every 100,000 people. YIKES! It's hard for the people out here to get access to health care, especially because the transportation is so expensive. It costs 200 cedis to fill a gas tank (and the exchange is $1.50 of US currenty to 1 cedi, so that is STILL a lot of money, even by American standards.

So we got a tour of the clinic. There is a delivery room, a room for the woman after they deliver (so a mother/baby room), and 2 basic treatment rooms.

Delivery Room

A woman in the postpartum room with her newborn

There is also a "dispensary room" (their pharmacy) and a records room. The records room was organized very well. Our instructor Karen told us a story about this from her visit last year. (You'll like this Kev - you with your little business background).

Last year she was here there was a man doing his community service at the clinic. If people get subsidized by the government to go to college, then the govt wants them to pay it back by doing community service for 2 years. The government just sends them wherever, even if it has nothing to do with what they went to school for.

So this young man was doing his community service at the clinic in Abomosu but he had majored in business. So he was just kind of hanging around, just putting in his time until he could move back to Accra and make the big bucks. I guess when Karen went there last the records were just in huge piles on the floor with little aisles where you could walk inbetween the piles. The staff said they would sort through and put the records back when they had time.

Karen and her students organized and put the records all back in about two days. But the staff at the clinic still had no system in place and they would still just pile them up. Karen decided to talk to the guy who had majored in business. She told him that yes, he did have to be here in 2 years, but that he could use his education to try and make this clinic run like a business. That way he would be practicing for his future. He was stunned - he had never thought about that before!

She then asked him, "Are you planning on having records when you own your own business?" "Oh yes, I will have very good records, I learned all about keeping good records while at school." She then asked him, "Are you planning on having people work for you in your business?" "Oh yes, I will have employees." "Will you teach them how to keep these good records for you when you have a business?" "Oh yes, I will!" She then said, "Maybe you could use your degree and come up with a system to organize these records, and then teach the other staff members here how to do it."

So when we saw the records room today she was SO happy, because it was organized on bookshelves according to the number and everything. So that young man took his knowledge and helped the people of Abomosu in their clinic! I thought that was so cool. (And Kevin, an example of someone who used their business degree to help in the medical field - kinda like you!)

The organized records room, with all of the patients' charts

But the conditions are obviously way different than the US. The floors are dirty cement and the mattresses have no coverings. They just flip the mattress over for the next patient. We saw one woman in a bed who had an IV running, and the IV was hanging on this rusty, nasty-looking IV pole. Scary. The delivery room was also kind of scary. It had a lot more tools and things than I thought it would, but it just smelled dirty... like rotting flesh/wounds or something like that.

Delivery Room Equipment

More Equipment

The courtyard in the middle of everything is the "waiting area" (not room). Today it was PACKED with people (like 50-75 people there). That's because Tuesdays and Fridays are market days. All of the other days are when the farmers go out to work, but twice a week they come together to sell their wares. Market days are where the women and children are free to go to the clinic and they're not out in the fields, so they do a lot of children check-ups and women's health on Tuesdays and Fridays.

All of the staff at the clinic were very friendly. They would wave and say, "Welcome, WELCOME!" I love their huge smiles. They seem like they are very happy people.

After our tour of the clinic we chose to walk back to the house so we could see more of the village and the market. This was my FAVORITE part of the whole day! As we walked around people would just stare at us. Most of the people would VERY friendly. They would call out to us and yell, "hello! how are you?" It was a busy day with people everywhere.

Market Day in Abomosu

A common view from the streets of Abomosu

I bought a soccer ball there for only $6 cedis. I bought it so we can hopefully play soccer with some school kids after they're done with school. Then I'm planning on leaving the soccer ball here with them so they can keep it. It's a red soccerball with black circles and it says "Jesus is Good" on it. HAHA!!! That's my favorite part.

Haha, I LOVE this soccerball!

We also looked at fabric while we were there - we're hoping to get some Ghanain dresses made for us. Oh fun. :)

So anyway, as we were walking back past houses, people (especially kids) would yell out, "Abruni, Abruni! (white person) Etese! (Hello/how are you?)" When we would yell back, "Fine! How are you?", the kids would yell back, "Fine!" and then giggle and scurry back to ehir friends, who all probably thought they were SO cool. Haha, it was adorable!

Our driver Yao taught us that "Obibini" means "black person" in Twi. So when some of the kids said, "Abruni!" we would yell back, "Obibini!" They would look at us surprised (probably surprised that we actually knew the word) and then they would giggle even more. It was so funny!

When we were close to our house we walked past the Zion school. The kids were all wearing green and yellow dresses or shirts - their uniforms. We wlaked by and they were all waving and running toward us. I asked them if I could take their picture and they got SUPER excited. When I said, "Smile!" some of them did, but most of them posed almost GQ style. It was so funny.

After I took a picture I showed it to them on my display screen and they LOVED it! They all crowded around to see it and were pointing and laughing. Seriously, the cutest thing ever.

The kids once they've spotted us for the first time, coming to check us out.

Haha, see the girl on the left posing? They're adorable.

After that incident we said bye and kept walking. And they followed us! They would keep asking for more pictures. "Abruni! Picture?" Haha! We let them follow us for a while before we asked them if they had school. "Yes!" "Are you going to go back?" "Yes!" and then they jsut sat there. After I said, "We'll be back tomorrow. We want to play soccer!", they finally turned around and walked back to school. It was so funny.

Before they left we asked them their names. Some were easy, like Maria, but some were VERY hard. They asked us our names. They had an easy time with Jessica but they all laughed and struggled with Chantal. I'm excited to see more of them and play soccer with them.

When we got back Elder and Sister Terry asked us how many kids we had following us. When we told them about 6 or 7 they said it would be more tomorrow. Word will spread that we're here and there will be tons of kids following us. Oh boy. ;)

The rest of the night has been making dinner and writing in our journals, reading, etc. We aren't allowed out after dusk because of the mosquitoes - we don't want malaria, so we try to be inside after dark. We also talked with our instructor for a while about health-care related topics. It was super interesting.

Tomorrow morning we start working in the clinic. We're just going to be thrown into it I think - scary but cool at the same time! Wish me luck!

So far I am loving this. It's so interesting and the girls in my group are very nice. I love talking to the people and learning more about them. I don't know a whole lot yet, but I'm hoping to learn more and more everyday.

One thing I do know already is the people seem SO happy. They are always smiling and they're so happy to talk to you. For example, while looking at fabric I had an old woman come up to me, saying "Hello! Welcome!" And she was touching my arm and rubbing my arm. I said hello back and said "Thank you, I'm glad I'm here!" She smiled up at me with this HUGE smile and said, "Yes, I love you!" The Terry's said that they touch us because they wonder if the white skin will rub off. They also touch our arms because we have hair on our arms and they have hardly any hair on their arms.

But it's little things like this that make me think these people are a very happy people. Yes they work VERY hard, everyday, just to survive, but they are happy doing it. How many times do I complain, just because things aren't perfect in my life? I have so many reasons to be happy and joyful like these people are, but I'm not sometimes like that. I'm starting to realize that I have a lot to learn from these Ghanains. I'm excited to learn all that I can.

Look at how happy she is! I love that smile.

Thanks for your emails and your continued prayers! I miss you, but I'm so grateful that I can be here. Sorry the email is super long. ;)

Love you!

Jess