Boy, I left Swedru today for Accra. I fly out of Accra tomorrow night and, 34 hours later, arrive in Vancouver. Leaving Swedru - my home for the past quarter of a year - was difficult, not physically (the tro tro left surprisingly early), but emotionally. I finished packing this morning then did a last over of the town and clinic. I tried to continue my ritual of reading to Awompa (my 2.75 year old host sister) but I got pretty choked up and could hardly finish the book. When the taxi was pulling away Awo was crying, and maybe so was I. Kojo, my host father, came to the station with me and then he broke down when I got on the tro tro. Just one emotional send off after another.
Yesterday the clinic threw a party for me! They had all the placenta you could eat, it was amazing. Then they presented me with a beautiful Fugu (smock-like frock) made out of kente (at 150 cedis per 6 yards, it's the most expensive material in Ghana) which they assured me, they don't give to all of the volunteers. Suffice to say I was hugely grateful and extremely chuffed.
The clinic has been blast, same ol', same ol', yuh know, babies born, malaria treated, scalps drained of fluid from cracked sinuses, polio kicked out of Ghana. One ailment that I am quite safe from over here is the "mad swine disease" or whatever you have over from Mexico (the first international news I've heard since hearing that Slumdog won the oscar, and that Terminator comes out later in May).
I was kind of hoping to say something infinitely profound here on my last entry. Something that would perfectly encapsulate my experiences here in Ghana, but unfortunately my muse left me two weeks ago. The fountain of inspiration has dried up (must be the heat)! I think, however, that it is quite apropos that Ghana can't be neatly summed up. Ghana is such a wildly diverse country, it would be heinous to try to capture it.
Although elements of leaving are upsetting, I am looking very forward to returning home and seeing my friends and family. Three months is a good amount of time to spend in a developing country. Life here is richer in many ways than our "more privileged" existence, but it is also more challenging. Don't worry, I'm not going to come home hating Western Culture. I have really had my eyes opened on this trip to the fact that places are just different, it's not really a matter of "better" or "worse."
Anyway, thank you all for tuning in to my monthly musings. I'm really looking forward to sharing all the stories and pictures in person with you all in just a few days!!!
Thanks again for all of your support,
Ryan
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Family Planning
Just a short one today to amend for the rather whiny last post. I'll blame my curtness on the fact that I was going through a little spat with my digestive system a while back (absolutely nothing serious) but now we're BFF's again.
Speaking of digestion, I got my second taste of placenta on Tuesday (well, figuratively speaking). I observed my second delivery. It was just as glorious as the first, and filled with all of the same heaps of emotion. Absolutely wonderful. I even snapped a picture of the baby when it was about 7seconds old, but gosh darn it, I can't post photos here (don't worry I'll make albums galore when I return)
I don't even really want to think about returning right now. I think I'll be able to fit one more post in before I leave, so I'll save all of the sentimentality for that.
This past week we ran a campaign encouraging "Family Planning" (birth control). It was pretty awesome: we kicked things off with a hyper-lively parade/rally through the streets of Nsaba. We all (~30 campaigners, and then the resulting Klingons) jogged in time to several drummers, trumpeters and boners (TROMboners that is). We all had premade placards, mine read "End childbirth NOW!!" Just joking, it, more sagely, read, "Times are changing, we must change too" The parade was a blast! Then I got to give a guy a vasectomy, well in the dramatization I was part of. I got to act as a doctor, and through raw, unadulterated acting ability (and a bit of deceit) we made getting a vasectomy look almost fun! Then we ran proper information sessions on all of the pros and cons (and gruesome bits) of the various Family Planning methods offered. It seemed like quite a success.
I don't know if I mentioned something in my last post, (I can't check from this screen) and it is really not something that I have been dwelling on, but is certainly worthy of note. I had the rather traumatic experience of having an old lady (74) pass away in my arms some weeks ago now. I'll fully admit that I was not thrilled with how the whole situation was handled - the whole western medical philosophy of preserving life at all costs is not really the same here, as the woman's last moments were spent with the doctor filling out paperwork rather than performing CPR. I am not trying to judge the medical system here, with which I have had largely positive experiences. It should also be noted that the clinic has no adrenalin to inject, defribulators, respirators, or even an ambulance to move her to a larger hospital. The resources just aren't there.
Anyway it was sad, but with a minute remaining I've read: "A Million Little Pieces" the pseudo-memoir (that would have been way more awesome if it was a real memoir as Opra though when she put it on her book list. "Ghost Stories of British Columbia" (believe it or not!!), and Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath"
Speaking of digestion, I got my second taste of placenta on Tuesday (well, figuratively speaking). I observed my second delivery. It was just as glorious as the first, and filled with all of the same heaps of emotion. Absolutely wonderful. I even snapped a picture of the baby when it was about 7seconds old, but gosh darn it, I can't post photos here (don't worry I'll make albums galore when I return)
I don't even really want to think about returning right now. I think I'll be able to fit one more post in before I leave, so I'll save all of the sentimentality for that.
This past week we ran a campaign encouraging "Family Planning" (birth control). It was pretty awesome: we kicked things off with a hyper-lively parade/rally through the streets of Nsaba. We all (~30 campaigners, and then the resulting Klingons) jogged in time to several drummers, trumpeters and boners (TROMboners that is). We all had premade placards, mine read "End childbirth NOW!!" Just joking, it, more sagely, read, "Times are changing, we must change too" The parade was a blast! Then I got to give a guy a vasectomy, well in the dramatization I was part of. I got to act as a doctor, and through raw, unadulterated acting ability (and a bit of deceit) we made getting a vasectomy look almost fun! Then we ran proper information sessions on all of the pros and cons (and gruesome bits) of the various Family Planning methods offered. It seemed like quite a success.
I don't know if I mentioned something in my last post, (I can't check from this screen) and it is really not something that I have been dwelling on, but is certainly worthy of note. I had the rather traumatic experience of having an old lady (74) pass away in my arms some weeks ago now. I'll fully admit that I was not thrilled with how the whole situation was handled - the whole western medical philosophy of preserving life at all costs is not really the same here, as the woman's last moments were spent with the doctor filling out paperwork rather than performing CPR. I am not trying to judge the medical system here, with which I have had largely positive experiences. It should also be noted that the clinic has no adrenalin to inject, defribulators, respirators, or even an ambulance to move her to a larger hospital. The resources just aren't there.
Anyway it was sad, but with a minute remaining I've read: "A Million Little Pieces" the pseudo-memoir (that would have been way more awesome if it was a real memoir as Opra though when she put it on her book list. "Ghost Stories of British Columbia" (believe it or not!!), and Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath"
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Well it looks like my "every two week" posts have turned into monthly posts, but this time when I came here last week the power was working but the internet was down. Go figure. At least I'm getting lots of exercise walking hither and yon.
Since I last wrote MUCH has happened.
St. Paddy's came and went with perhaps less rocking with Good Craic than I've been used to in previous years, but just as much Guinness. Speaking of which, it's Guinness' 250th birthday this year so they put it in fancy new bottles. I know, the excitement never ends.
In other life-changing news I assisted with my first delivery the other week. It was a medium pepperoni with extra cheese...haha no, a beautiful healthy baby boy. The whole thing was just incredible, and I have to say I was happy to be the one assisting rather than the new mother. I don't know how women do it. Really. When the wee face first appeared it was completely motionless and had a grayish hue, I was really worried that it was a still-birth. Then suddenly when the shoulders emerged the baby sprung to life and began flailing and screaming, it was really wonderful. When the baby was all cleaned off he was placed on a bed opposite his mother and there was a moment when they both looked at each other with fascination and satisfaction. It was a magical moment. When the placenta came out, I must admit that a certain song started running through my head ("Placenta: you're my nutrition sac...") but I managed to restrain myself. The midwife let me bring the new baby (Joseph Kojo) over to his mother for the first time. "Aya ko" (I-yak-oh: Congratulations) I told her, and she replied "ya yay" - thank you.
Last week I was part of a nation-wide campaign to "Kick Polio out of Ghana" - after recent outbreaks of the virus. Over the 6 days (Monday through last Saturday) we inoculated almost 1800 under five-year olds against polio BY FOOT!! The worthiness of the cause was an essential motivator, because it was hard work! We just covered the villages surrounding the clinic, but there were no roads, so we'd be tramping up dry river beds, through plantain patches, over hill and dale and hither and thither until we had vaccinated usually about 280 kids per day. It took EIGHT SOLID HOURS. A typical immunization went something like:
Lug the medicine container (and our hurtin' bodies) up a gravelly hill, ask the inhabitants at the top if there are any children under 5, hear "dabbi - no, but there are up that other hill over there." Then whether we'd immunized or not we'd write U2 on the house in chalk in honour of the band. And to indicate that the house had received full immunization if applicable. When we reached a house with children of the appropriate age (and we reached at least 100 of them (as some had multiple babies) I would, more often than not, be met with the screams of sheer terror from the children I was sent to help. I mean obviously the white monster has come to steal your soul. Sometimes I would call, in a very friendly voice "I'm gonna eat you!" - no one understood me but at least the children's crying was rendered legit. Then I would (sometimes through extreme tribulation) get the two small drops into the baby's mouth - the two simple drops that were the whole point of this venture. After the drops I would take my indelible marker and "paint" the nail of the left index finger to indicate that the struggling child was now fully immunized against polio and would have one fewer thing to struggle against in this tough world. The fingernail was only painted often with comparable (and sometimes greater) effort as administering the drops, which I can appreciate, as a marker does quite resemble a tenticled demonic claw. The downside of terrifying the beejeesus out of beautiful little children is that now my hands are covered in permanent ink and live polio. Once the child was "marked" (like Kane) he was "registered" (like all the people of Nazareth before Jesus was born) on the tally sheet then the house was marked (with chalk, not sheep's blood) so that polio (not the Holy Ghost or the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come or whatever) would pass over the house without killing the first born or any-borns. So, as you see our work was purely Biblical and my birthday being a month before Jesus' is not pure coincidence. Anyway it was honestly a great time! I think I could have survived without doing 6 solid days of it, but maybe some of the kids we vaccinated, couldn't have.
I'm quickely running out of time, so I throw in my personal bits:
I finished Machievelli's "The Prince" which was certainly worth restarting. I read "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" and found it to be horrendously clichéd but somewhat thought-provoking and highly immersive, and I read "Where there are no doctors - A Village Handbook for Africa" which I loved even more than the BC Health Guide (one of my favorite books).
Since I last wrote MUCH has happened.
St. Paddy's came and went with perhaps less rocking with Good Craic than I've been used to in previous years, but just as much Guinness. Speaking of which, it's Guinness' 250th birthday this year so they put it in fancy new bottles. I know, the excitement never ends.
In other life-changing news I assisted with my first delivery the other week. It was a medium pepperoni with extra cheese...haha no, a beautiful healthy baby boy. The whole thing was just incredible, and I have to say I was happy to be the one assisting rather than the new mother. I don't know how women do it. Really. When the wee face first appeared it was completely motionless and had a grayish hue, I was really worried that it was a still-birth. Then suddenly when the shoulders emerged the baby sprung to life and began flailing and screaming, it was really wonderful. When the baby was all cleaned off he was placed on a bed opposite his mother and there was a moment when they both looked at each other with fascination and satisfaction. It was a magical moment. When the placenta came out, I must admit that a certain song started running through my head ("Placenta: you're my nutrition sac...") but I managed to restrain myself. The midwife let me bring the new baby (Joseph Kojo) over to his mother for the first time. "Aya ko" (I-yak-oh: Congratulations) I told her, and she replied "ya yay" - thank you.
Last week I was part of a nation-wide campaign to "Kick Polio out of Ghana" - after recent outbreaks of the virus. Over the 6 days (Monday through last Saturday) we inoculated almost 1800 under five-year olds against polio BY FOOT!! The worthiness of the cause was an essential motivator, because it was hard work! We just covered the villages surrounding the clinic, but there were no roads, so we'd be tramping up dry river beds, through plantain patches, over hill and dale and hither and thither until we had vaccinated usually about 280 kids per day. It took EIGHT SOLID HOURS. A typical immunization went something like:
Lug the medicine container (and our hurtin' bodies) up a gravelly hill, ask the inhabitants at the top if there are any children under 5, hear "dabbi - no, but there are up that other hill over there." Then whether we'd immunized or not we'd write U2 on the house in chalk in honour of the band. And to indicate that the house had received full immunization if applicable. When we reached a house with children of the appropriate age (and we reached at least 100 of them (as some had multiple babies) I would, more often than not, be met with the screams of sheer terror from the children I was sent to help. I mean obviously the white monster has come to steal your soul. Sometimes I would call, in a very friendly voice "I'm gonna eat you!" - no one understood me but at least the children's crying was rendered legit. Then I would (sometimes through extreme tribulation) get the two small drops into the baby's mouth - the two simple drops that were the whole point of this venture. After the drops I would take my indelible marker and "paint" the nail of the left index finger to indicate that the struggling child was now fully immunized against polio and would have one fewer thing to struggle against in this tough world. The fingernail was only painted often with comparable (and sometimes greater) effort as administering the drops, which I can appreciate, as a marker does quite resemble a tenticled demonic claw. The downside of terrifying the beejeesus out of beautiful little children is that now my hands are covered in permanent ink and live polio. Once the child was "marked" (like Kane) he was "registered" (like all the people of Nazareth before Jesus was born) on the tally sheet then the house was marked (with chalk, not sheep's blood) so that polio (not the Holy Ghost or the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come or whatever) would pass over the house without killing the first born or any-borns. So, as you see our work was purely Biblical and my birthday being a month before Jesus' is not pure coincidence. Anyway it was honestly a great time! I think I could have survived without doing 6 solid days of it, but maybe some of the kids we vaccinated, couldn't have.
I'm quickely running out of time, so I throw in my personal bits:
I finished Machievelli's "The Prince" which was certainly worth restarting. I read "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" and found it to be horrendously clichéd but somewhat thought-provoking and highly immersive, and I read "Where there are no doctors - A Village Handbook for Africa" which I loved even more than the BC Health Guide (one of my favorite books).
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