Week 3: Kumasi / Tamale
Sunday, May 19th:
Woke up at about 2:00 am to a quiet house. I quickly
realized that both the fans and the AC were off and I was drenched in sweat. I
stumbled into the living room and tried to turn on the AC to no avail. Power
outage. I went back to my room, starfished faceup on my bed, and waited for
morning. At about 4:00, the Sabbath day worship started. As is the case every
Sunday, loudspeakers started blasting music and both the barking dogs and
crowing roosters joined them. Somehow I fell asleep from 5-6:30 which was a
huge blessing. I feel like this all happened just as I was starting to take our
AC for granted, so I have been thoroughly humbled.
The pump for our shower also runs on electricity, so I gave
myself a wet wipe shower before heading downstairs for breakfast. Gladys has
the day off, so Dr. Wanye pulled out some rolls and milo for us. I happily took
a bite of my roll right as Gabby slapped my arm. She showed me the inside of
her roll, and I saw movement. Ants. Dr. Wanye got out a pan and turned the
stove on. “The heat scares them and they will run away.” How comforting. But he was right. The ants started evacuating.
We waited a few minutes, brushed off the remaining few, and ate our breakfast. I
can assure you I wouldn’t have handled this the same way a couple weeks ago.
Church was just down the road a ways and Dr. Wanye offered
to drop us off. We got there a little bit early and found an empty bench. To my
surprise, a woman got up and started leading the congregation in several hymns
as we waited for church to start. There was no keyboard, so all the hymns were
acapella. While this might have been disastrous at home, but the people were
completely unphased by the lack of a piano and sang their little hearts out. I
loved the Spirit I felt, and it really put me in the right mindset for church.
Three of the four talks were in Twi, so it left me with a
lot of time to sit and reflect on the Spirit I was feeling. And to try to catch
the attention of the plethora of little babies in front of me. After sacrament
meeting was over, a few people came over to welcome us. I’ve really come to
appreciate the people who do that because it’s hard to just walk up to people
and introduce yourself. It’s made me want to be more welcoming to any visitors
at home in the future.
We followed the missionaries to the YSA Sunday School where
there were about 10 of us altogether! The
lesson today was on marriage, how to prepare for it, what we’re looking for,
etc. I was cracking up because it felt exactly like a YSA lesson on marriage at
home. When the teacher asked what qualities we want in a spouse, someone from
the back said, “Physical qualities?” and we all busted up laughing. There were
little arguments here and there and people trying to be diplomatic in their
answers and it was hilarious.
We came home and had the rest of the day to just relax. We put
on facemasks and drank Milo and read our books.
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| I tried to smile more but the mask dried and I couldn't move my face |
Monday, May 20th:
We had the day off today! Francis came to pick us up at 9:00
and we headed to Lake Bosumtwe. It was less than a two-hour drive and the
scenery was gorgeous. So much greenery.
When we got to the office, we sat down, and the man gave us
a little history about the lake. Lake Bosumtwe is Ghana’s largest (and only)
natural lake. The guy said it takes about 8 hours to walk around the whole
perimeter. Apparently for a long time, people thought the lake was formed by a volcano.
However in recent years, researchers have discovered it was formed by a
meteorite 1.07 million years ago. He also told us about how the lake got his
name. As best as I could understand through Ghanaian English, there was a prince in a nearby region that came to the area to hunt. He
saw an antelope, shot it, but it ran away. He followed the blood trail to the
edge of the lake where he found the antelope again. He shot it again and it ran
into the lake. Even though the lake was clear and he could see the bottom, the
antelope was nowhere to be found. He figured that antelope must have been the
god of the lake, so he named the lake Bosumtwe, which means antelope.
Of course, now is about the time we find out it’s going to
be 30 cedis just to walk around the lake and take pictures and such. We’d
already driven all the way out there and wanted to avoid an awkward situation,
so we all paid it and went on our way. One guy offered to walk with us and show
us where to go. We first went down to the shore and looked at the fishing boats
and nets that were down there. I was surprised at how warm the water was.
Definitely warmer than our shower.
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| The boats they still use. You lay down on your stomach and paddle with your arms |
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| Fishing nets |
Next, the guy led us around the surrounding land a bit.
There are 22 villages dotted around the lake and much of the land is used for
their plantations. We saw plantains, mangoes, cassava, maize, papaya, bananas,
and cocoa trees. The guy even gave each of us a cocoa fruit! Not sure what in
the world I’m gonna do with it, but it was a nice gesture.
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| Gabby is very excited about the gift |
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| A little baby cocoa |
We hiked until we reached a little village. We went down to
the shore, put our feet in the water, and cooled off a bit. It was a hot day
and we were all sweating profusely. Once all the sweat had dried, we began the
walk back. Our guide asked me about Trump (definitely not the first time that’s
happened) and what my opinions are on him, so we talked politics for a while
and he also explained a bit about Ghana’s president and parliamentary system. As
we neared the end, our guide suggested we make a contribution to him for
guiding us and I realized we’d been bamboozled. We gave him some cedis and then
piled into the van and went on our way. We’d been walking around for an hour
and a half and the air-conditioned car was such a blessing.
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| The view as we hiked |
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| One of the villages we walked through |
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| Christian leading the way |
Our next stop was the Kumasi Central Market, the largest
market in West Africa. Even though I knew this place was going to be huge, I
was still blown away. It seemed like all of Africa was packed in, around, and
between every vendor. Streets on streets were lined with people selling
anything you could ever want, but we were there on a mission: fabric. We all
hope to get some clothing made for us before we go back home, and fabric is the
first very important step in that process.
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| The whole road is a crosswalk in Ghana |
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| Christian browsing |
There was no shortage of options. Rows and rows of people
selling fabric made for a very indecisive Natalie. Add the need to barter and
super crowded walkways into the mix, and I was definitely a little stressed out
at times. Central Market is famous for getting people lost so we made sure to
keep track of where we were in relation to the main road. There were also a lot
of smells happening, from crowds of sweaty people to piles of raw fish roasting
in the hot sun, it was quite the mix. We looked at several stalls before I
found a fabric that really spoke to me. Sadly, the lady wouldn’t cut it for me
and would only sell the whole six yards. Maybe it was because that print was
for “old people” and she kept trying to show me different options that were
more suitable for a young woman. Finally, after much indecision, I found some
fabric that I really liked. The mommy at the stand was a gem and super nice to
us so that made me want to buy it even more. She cut off a few yards for me and
as we were about to leave, it started POURING. She asked us if we wanted to
stay and we gratefully excepted.
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| The small river forming down the walkway |
Christian got out his deck of cards and we taught the
woman’s daughter how to play Scum. I’m still not sure she completely understood
the rules, but it was a tender moment. The rain was coming down in sheets and
hitting the metal roofing and I experienced some of the loudest thunder I’ve
ever heard and there we sat, in this cool, dark shop, playing cards and waiting
for the rain to stop.
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| Shelter from the storm |
Since we didn’t have a phone that could call our driver, we
had agreed to meet him at a certain spot on the road at 4:00. It was 3:55 and
the rain was still coming down, but we were nervous about not being able to
find him, so we decided to head out. The people were shocked we were going out
into the rain (I was too if I’m being honest) as we said our goodbyes. The main
walkway had turned into a mini river and it was moving pretty swiftly.
The walk back to the main street was comical. We were
sloshing through the water as people from both sides yelled at us. They even
kept trying to pull us into their shops to shelter us from the rain. There was
a ton of trash floating down the mini river and I’m sure I stepped on a couple
gross things. At one point, the water was up to my mid-shin. It was a miracle
that as we came out onto the main street, the van was directly in front of us.
We piled in and laughed about everything that had just transpired. We couldn’t
have been more wet if we’d jumped into a pool.
The drive back to the apartment was thankfully short, albeit
freezing. It felt so good to change into dry clothes and I drank a hot cup of
Milo to warm up. We’d had plans to hit one more stop on the way home, but I
didn’t mind the time to rest after walking around all day.
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| Christian didn't have clothes to change into because they were all in the wash. Here he's modeling the traditional Ghanaian garb that all the old men wear. |
Tuesday, May 21th:
Back to the grind today! We were in the car by 6:45 and went
to go pick up the others. We usually pick them up one at a time from different
parts of the city, but today we got held up picking up Boniface. He was taking
a good long while, though to be honest that’s nothing new. After about 30
minutes of waiting, our driver finally called him. We could hear our driver
speaking quickly in Twi before hanging up. He turned around and told us that apparently
there wasn’t an outreach today. Classic.
We bought 50 cedis worth of internet on the way home because
we decided to make it a homework day. I actually did a fair amount of homework
and made some major headway onto one of my big papers. In addition to being
productive, we were also… not very productive. We watched five (yes… five)
episodes of Taken, a TV show we have downloaded on a flash drive. After so much
TV, we needed a break, so we went outside and watched today’s storm from the
balcony. As per usual, we swapped funny dating stories and laughed over each
other’s awkward moments.
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| The impending storm |
We came back inside for dinner and decided to switch things
up and watch a movie instead of more episodes of Taken. I know, super
adventurous. I also started packing a bit because tomorrow we leave for Tamale!
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| A picture for reference of where we are in Ghana |
Wednesday, May 22nd:
We spent the morning finishing our packing and cleaning up
the place. We also divided up all the eyeglasses we’d brought, leaving 600 for
the clinic at Kumasi and packing up 600 to take up with us to Tamale. Also fun
fact, Tamale is sadly not pronounced like the delicious Mexican dish, but like TAH-muh-lee.
Gladys made us one last meal and truly, she outdid herself. She made this
potato / beef hash that was absolutely divine. Of course, we had to get a
picture with her. We also got pictures with Elvis, Dr. Wanye’s handyman /
errand runner. He’s the one who hooked us up with a flash drive and downloaded
movies. What a homie.
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| The last meal |
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| Gladys, food magician |
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| Elvis and Christian and I |
We began the drive at 1:15 and prepared ourselves for the bad traffic that’s always present in the afternoon. To our surprise, there was almost none! Such a blessing. To make things even better, we were riding in Seth’s SUV which handled the speed bumps considerably better than the clinic van. We spent the time talking about Dr. Wanye’s wife and how they met, his experiences in Russia as an African man (my respect for him grew even more), and about Ghanaian politics.
A couple hours in, we pulled over because Gabby was feeling
really sick. Our next
stop was an hour later when we stopped for dinner. I think it was some sort of
hotel because the place was pretty nice. The menu even had lots of “American-style”
options. Christian got chicken and French fries, Gabby got the fried rice, Dr. Wanye
got jollof rice and chicken, and I got the spaghetti bolognaise. About five
bites into her meal, Gabby went to the washroom and threw up. Poor thing ☹
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| ...I somehow ate the whole thing |
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| I think you'd be able to tell who's sick just by looking at this picture |
The drive was gorgeous. Green foliage lined both sides of
the road and when you got up onto a hill, you could see the greenery stretch
for miles. When we were about three hours out of Tamale, Dr. Wanye pointed out
how the trees were growing shorter. “It’s savannah”, he explained. “There are
three types of nature in Ghana: forest, savannah, and desert.”
We also had fun pointing out different phrases and signs we saw
along the way. For some reason that has not yet been explained to me, many of
the taxis have various short phrases pasted on their back windshield, all in
the same yellow lettering. Most of them are religious and say things like “Grace
of God” or “Our Savior”, but there are many random ones that make little to no
sense, like “One boy” or “Audacious” or “Silence your Accuser”. Lots of store
shops also have religious names that have little to do with what they’re
selling. My favorite one I’ve seen thus far is “Fire of Jesus Appliances”.
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| Hard to tell, but there were about four bunches of bananas being shoved through t he window as I just sat there awkwardly |
Something I still don’t quite understand is the police
barriers that were placed every five miles or so. They only seem to set up once
it gets dark and the later it gets, the more that appear. I’m not sure what
they check for, because every time we approached one, they waved us on to pass.
One of the other volunteers told me that they were checking for drunk drivers,
but surely that can’t be the only reason.
We pulled into the clinic a little before 10. Gabby and Christian
had been sleeping in the back for a while, so we woke them up and unpacked our
stuff. We’re staying in a house / apartment that’s right next door to the clinic.
It’s not as nice as the one in Kumasi, but there’s AC so that’s all that matters.
There’s just a thin sheet on each mattress, so I laid down my towel to sleep on
(the sheets looked a little… suspicious) and used a sarong I brought as a
blanket. I had to dispose of a very dead cockroach before settling in but other
than that it’s not too bad.
Thursday, May 23th:
I woke up at 4:30 suddenly. There was a strange noise coming
from outside and it took my tired brain a solid two minutes to realize it was
the call to prayer. If I was Muslim, that call would be very persuasive because
it’s quite loud. And borderline incessant. I was able to fall back asleep and
woke up later at 9:00. There’s no outreach today, so I read my book for a while
in bed until someone knocked at the door. We met Foster, our new driver up here
in Tamale. He’s super smiley and his English is pretty good. With some of the
people we meet, Christian likes to joke around and give them a comprehension
score. Francis, our last driver, was a solid 20% and Elvis was probably somewhere
around 65%. So far though, I think Foster might be at about 85%! It’s such a good
feeling to not just be able to understand someone, but to have them understand
you as well.
Foster took Christian and I to go find some breakfast while
Gabby stayed home because she’s still feeling cruddy. One hiccup I did not foresee
about the more prevalent Muslim population in the north is that most everyone
is participating in Ramadan, the month long fast. As such, there aren’t many foods
stands on the side of the road. We found a “grocery store” that had a few of
the necessities: milo, evaporated milk, bread, sprite, and some shortbread
cookies that I like. We wanted some sort of spread for the bread, so we drove
to a different store to buy peanut butter (they call it groundnut paste here)
and Choco spread. We brought it all back and feasted. One little thing we’d
forgotten about though was that Gabby is allergic to groundnuts, so all she had
was milo and some cookies. Oops. Not ideal for a person who hasn’t had a real
meal in 24 hours.
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| Christian is super happy about this grocery store |
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| Hehe even the groundnut paste is made by "God is Able" products |
We spent a couple hours doing homework and such, then found
Dr. Wanye because he hadn’t eaten yet either. I hadn’t realized how late it was,
so it was more like dinner than lunch. He took us to this amazing place called
Oasis. We walked in and I was a bit in awe of how swanky the place was. There
were couches and lights and cool music playing. They had a lot of Western food on
the menu, along with local dishes. Gabby was still feeling sick, but there’s nothing
like food you’re comfortable / familiar with when you’re sick, so she got a
pepperoni pizza. It was a little different from how it is at home, but it was actually
so good. Dr. Wanye and I got Red-Red (fried plantains with bean stew) and
Christian ordered a cheeseburger and fries. He said the burger was one of the best
he’s ever had and I was speechless when I tried the fries. They were unlike any
fries I’ve had before, in the best way. I think they were fried in palm oil. We
also all got mango and vanilla smoothies which were divine.
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| Smoothies with complimentary crazy straws |
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| The random fires on the side of the road that concern me and no one else |
We ended the night by watching an episode of Taken, with
small breaks here and there for Gabby to go to the bathroom and throw up. My
heart hurts for her because there’s nothing worse than being sick away from
home. Here’s to hoping she feels better soon.
Friday, May 24th:
I read my book in bed for a while after waking up before
going to the kitchen and making myself a cup of milo. Right as I sat down, I
heard a knock at the door. It was the seamstress here to take our measurements!
Her and her husband had the cutest baby with them. I asked the dad what his
name was, and he said some long name I couldn’t really understand, which
happens a lot. “Aww how cute” is always my reply, but this time I was very called
out when he just looked at me and said, “Say it back.” Caught. I confessed I
hadn’t really heard it so he said it slowly again so I could repeat it: Ahmed
Tjanga.
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| Gabby contemplating her dress design |
The woman took my measurements and I explained to her my vision
with the fabric I’d bought. I’m excited to see how it turns out! She said it
should be ready by the time we get back from the outreach. Foster came to pick us
up to take Gabby to the local clinic for a malaria test. The clinic is honestly
exactly what I’d imagined it would be. The waiting area was an open-air courtyard
and there were a couple chickens running around. Christian and I sat in a
little office while Gabby got a blood test. We waited for an hour or so before
she came back and told us the test was positive for malaria.
We went home and tried to figure out what to do next, if
Gabby should stay back alone while we went on outreach, or if one of us should
stay with her, or if none of us should go, or if we should all go back to Kumasi,
etc. But Gabby made it easy by quickly deciding she wanted to fly back to Accra
for a more modern healthcare set up. So we found a flight and within an hour,
she was gone. It’s going to be weird not being with her for a week! Luckily Dr.
Wanye was a very calming presence and explained how malaria really isn’t that
big a deal here. He compared it to how the flu is for us in America.
We packed up the jeep to max capacity and headed to the
outreach. Of course there was a stop made for food first though. I love that
Ghanaians (or maybe just all the ones I’ve met) really seem to prioritize food.
I ordered jollof rice with guinea fowl. Maybe we have guinea fowl in the U.S.,
but I’d never seen one before coming here. When I saw them scurrying outside
the eye clinic in Tamale, I couldn’t get over how cute they were. They’re
bigger than chickens, but they’re movements are weirdly adorable and remind me
of quail. Foster said he likes the taste of guinea fowl more than chicken, so
of course I had to try it. I don’t know if it’s actually better than chicken,
but it was pretty dang good.
The first bit of the drive was fairly smooth and (for the
most part) on paved roads, but a couple hours in, we could see a dust storm up
ahead of us. Soon we were driving through the middle of it and it was unlike anything
I’ve ever seen. All the trash that people throw on the ground was now whipping
through the air. At one point, the dust was so thick we couldn’t see in front of
us. Then the rain started which cleared the air. We were still on the main
paved road when, inexplicably, we turned off and drove on the dirt road that
ran parallel with the paved road. The rain kept coming and soon the “road” was
a red-orange river and we were driving upstream. I saw on the main road a huge,
dirt blockade, which I suppose explains why weren’t driving there. These huge
blockades were placed every couple miles and I’m still confused as to why they
were there.
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| The eerie approaching dust storm |
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| If you look closely you can see trash flying through the air |
Soon there wasn’t even a paved road to drive parallel to,
and the rest of the ride was incredibly bumpy. I was super grateful for the land
cruiser we were in because I was smooshed between two large men in the back and
I can only imagine how much worse it would have been with a car any less
outdoorsy than that. There were also a plethora of goats and chickens that
often got in the way and at one point, we had to wait for a group of cows to
move out of the road. It made sleeping impossible, which was only torture when
we got to the final hour or so. I’d spent most of the time reading my book, but
I didn’t have anything to keep me busy once it got dark. Christian made a
comment that the bumpy drive was like a massage chair you couldn’t escape and I
couldn’t have summed it up any better than that.
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| The beast that got us to Nkwanta |
We were all really grateful when we got to the hotel. The
gratitude continued to flow when I saw how nice the room was. No suspicious
sheets and a real blanket and working AC. I even have my own room and they
brought us dinner after we’d settled in. I’m pumped to start working tomorrow.
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| The lovely hotel room!! |
Saturday, May 25th:
Our first surgery day today! We’re in a town called Nkwanta
(which means “junction”) and it’s absolutely gorgeous here. We’re surrounded by
mountains and there is a lot of greenery. We’re also not in the northern region
anymore! We’re at the very tip of the Volta region and surprisingly close to
Togo.
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| For reference |
Breakfast at the hotel did not disappoint. You could choose
between two options for breakfast: “rice” or “milo”. Naturally, I went with
milo. I was surprised when they also gave me a whole plate of food as well.
Apparently the milo option included a “lighter” meal and the rice option was a
full (or rather, even fuller) plate of food. I chose well.
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| My light breakfast |
I left with some of the crew to start setting up at the clinic.
None of the others spoke English super well, so I felt a little useless in the beginning
as I watched them all set up the operating room. Heavy accents + those face
mask things we wear, and I was understanding about 30% of what was said to me. Soon
though, I was given a job: opening a crap ton of stuff. I opened gloves,
syringes, needles, gauze, blades, cannulas, the list goes on. And I was dang
good at it. Then they had me rip off strips of tape and stick them to the wall
for when a patient was done with surgery. Also dang good at that. I probably
did that for a solid 45 minutes before Dr. Wanye arrived and we were ready to
start.
It was almost 11:00 by the time we had set up and sterilized
everything. It definitely wasn’t your typical American operating room, but it
also wasn’t too bad either. I watched the first couple cataract surgeries in
awe of what was happening. Dr. Wanye’s movements were steady and methodical, and
it was mesmerizing to watch. Each surgery took an average of 15 minutes, with
some taking as little as 7 minutes. Lucianos worked in the corner, scrubbing
the instruments with a toothbrush so that they could be reused in the next
surgery.
Though fascinating to watch, it is the same surgery over and over again, with the occasional
pterygium (growth on the eye) thrown in there to spice things up, and about six
surgeries in I could feel myself getting a little antsy. I decided to make myself
useful and was trained on how to handle the patient’s papers, record their
post-op notes, and get their fingerprint afterward. Christian and I also took
turns signing off on surgeries, verifying that we were there and watching Unite
for Sight’s money being used how it’s supposed to be. Every surgery today was funded by donations
from Unite for Sight. It wasn’t hard to see that the people who were there likely
wouldn’t have been able to afford to be there otherwise. Many of the patients
were emaciated and fragile, picking their way across the room because they
couldn’t even see a foot in front of them. Most had traveled long distances to
be there. It was incredibly humbling.
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| Two patients |
A couple hours in, the power went out. They must be used to
it because Lucianos simply grabbed the flashlight and gave it to Christian to
hold as Dr. Wanye finished up the surgery. Luckily, it wasn’t off for long and
Dr. Wanye could work under more ideal conditions. Food arrived for us at 4:00,
making it more like an early dinner than lunch. I had waakye (beans and rice)
with fish. Like, a whole fish. Bones and tail and all.
We finished up surgeries a little after 9:00 and my feet
were absolutely dead by the end. They’d given us flip-flops and these croc-esque
sandals to wear in the operating room. Call me an old lady, but all I wanted
was some arch support, especially after standing for 10 hours.
To be super cheesy though, it was all worth it when we tallied up the numbers and realized we’d operated on 39 patients that day. I was amazed, especially when you compare that to how many surgeries your average American surgeon likely performs in a day. We came back to the hotel, had a cup of milo, retired to our rooms, and prepared to do it all again tomorrow.
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| Our very stylish footwear |
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| Christian holding the light for Dr. Wanye |
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