12/1
Today the 3 American volunteers showed the others how to celebrate Thanksgiving. For our meeting we prepared and ate a semi-traditional Thanksgiving meal. We spent the afternoon cutting yams, carrots, onions, apples, tomato, and cucumber, snapping peas, and then boiling the yams to simulate mashed potatos, boiling carrots and cooking green beans. We ate chicken, as turkey is rare in Ghana, mashed yams with butter and salt, cooked carrots, green beans, salad, and rolls. For dessert we made crepes and rolled in apples soaked in cinnamon and brown sugar and nutella. It was a pretty good simulation of a great thanksgiving meal. We all went around and said what we were thankful for as well. Some of he Projects Abroad staff was skeptical about the mashed yams and we assured them that nothing could be worse than the stinky dried whole fish they eat! There was a Projects Abroad staff member in from Cape Coast to talk with the people working in the orphanages, Jenna. She was from GEORGIA!!! It was so exciting to talk to another southerner!!! We talked REAL football, food, family, and shopping. It was refreshing.
12/3
This morning the majority of the Projects Abroad members as well as Anthony and Enoch went to Accra for a holiday celebration with the rest of the volunteers from Ghana. Projects Abroad paid for our VIP bus ride there and gave us money to get home.
 |
| on the VIP bus |
We spent the afternoon meeting volunteers working in Accra, the Hills, and Cape Coast. They played music for us and provided great food and drinks.
 |
| Iona, Me and Enoch in Accra |
Afterwards Delphine, Jamie, and I dropped our luggage off at our hotel in Accra and then met up with the rest of our group to explore Accra’s nightlife. Accra is much more developed than Kumasi, but on the street at about midnight were young Indian children begging for money…they would come up to us and hold their hands out. It was a scene straight out of Slumdog Millionaire. It was sad and scary! After that night everyone else got on a late bus back to Kumasi, but Delphine, Jamie and I stayed the night in Accra so we could head to Cape Coast in the morning.
12/4
This morning Jamie, Delphine and I went to Cape Coast. We arrived at the Metro Mass station expecting to take a 7am bus. The line was HUGE! We ended up taking a cramped trotro all the way, which wasn’t too bad…plus it was cheaper. We arrived and took a taxi to our guest house. We stayed at the Sammo Guesthouse. It was really nice! There were 2 queen beds in our room and a bathroom with shower! There was even an option for hot water…but it didn’t work. We rested for about 45 minutes, snacked on some food, then headed to Cape Coast Castle. We were able to walk from our hotel. Because we are volunteers we got in at a discounted price. We were able to first got through the museum. The Castle was basically a slave quarters owned by the Dutch followed by the British in the 1600s-1831. It was one of the stops for the triangular trade route on the Gold Coast, as Ghana was once named. It was interesting to go through the museum and hear about the slave trade through an African eye, instead of the typical Western story we all know. The tour started with the guide explaining what the Castle was used for and about the general story behind the process of the slave trade. He then explained that above the male quarters was a church. Just as we would like to judge these people for doing these terrible things especially in the name of God, he reminded us that we are not to judge and we would be doing just a terrible a thing, judging, as our forefathers did to the African people. It was a very nice introduction. The male holding room was pitch black aside from 2 tiny openings that you could see light and hear the ocean waves. The wall was marked about a foot up where the trenches along the side of the wall had been covered in feces, and shackles. There were something like 2000 men crowded in the 2 room chambers. They relieved themselves in the trenches, which were poorly irrigated. I cant even imagine the smell… We then saw the view from the top fo the Castle and the generals quarters which were beautiful and had such a view.
 |
| the castle |
 |
| view from the castle...me delphine and jamie |
 |
| next to the castle...fishing! |
 |
| view from the captains room |
 |
| next to the cannons |
There were also several chambers used for misbehaving slaves They were locked in a small room without food or water and in pitch black until they died. There was the “Door of No Return.” This was to signify that once you left Africa and were shipped away you would not be returning. A few years ago on the other side a sign for the “Door of Return” was added to welcome those whose ancestors had been taken away to come back. It was a beautiful place full of so much history and meaning.
We left the Castle and met up with a woman working with Global Mamas. This is an organization, I think in many countries, formed as a cultural organization to teach visitors about the local customs and traditions from dance and music to art and food. We took a Batik workshop. Mary is a native Ghanaian. We went to Mary’s workshop/shed to learn her craft. We each got a sheet of cloth. We picked stamps out as she melted the wax. The stamps were soaked in the wax to build up a good waxy layer. Then we designed patterns on our fabric dipping the stamp in the wax between each stamp. Once the wax was dry, which was very fast, we mixed the dye. The powdered dye, made from plant extracts was mixed with caustic and hydrogen sulfide in cold water. The fabric was dipped over and over again to get good coverage. It was then rung out and set outside to dry. We then dipped the fabric in boiling water to get all the wax off. After that where the wax was is still white and we were left with beautiful fabric!!
We then went back to our hotel and showered fro dinner. We walked up to the Oasis Beach resort for dinner. It was right on the beach like a tiki bar. Dinner was wonderful and we had the best fresh Pina Coladas!
 |
| jamie and i at dinner |
12/5
This morning we woke up early again to head to the Kakum National park. We took a trotro and were dropped off just outside the park entrance. We did a morning hike into the Rainforest and walked across the Canopy walkway. We saw some amazing trees and lots of bugs…no cool animals…
 |
| on the canopy walk |
We came back from the walk and ate breakfast at the “Rianforest Café.” We had great porridge, which is oatmeal, and French toast!! We then went down the road to the Hans Botel Crocodile Sanctuary. We saw a baby croc and 2 adults. I was walking towards where the baby was…or where I thought it was and turned around to talk with Delphine and heard a noise. I looked and didn’t see the baby croc so I assumed the noise was it jumping in the water. Then I turned back around and saw it was RIGHT in front of me! The noise was it hissing at me! Very Scary! …don’t worry, I still have both legs and feet! J We ate a terrible lunch here. The food should have been good, but were so full from breakfast and the food was too salty. We saw some beautiful weaver birds in the trees next to the table we ate at. We then headed back up to Kakum, for our night walk and camping trip. We ordered dinner to take up with us, and waited til 4 for our guide to arrive and take us up.
 |
| weaver bird |
A man came over and told us there was an issue with us going up to the tents. He said the place where they get the weapons was closed and they could not get the gun to take up with us. A few minutes later he said that they had figured things out and we were good to go! We set off at 4 to go up into the rainforest. Right as we started our hike, we noticed dark clouds and thunder. Our guide suggested we wait about an hour to let the storm clear. The very second we stepped back under the covered area, the sky fell! It was pouring rain with thunder and lightening. Right at 5 it let up enough to walk the 1-2 mile hike to the tents. We were each given a flashlight, small mattress and pillow. Our guide stayed in the tent behind our and the three of us stayed in one tent. We played cards for about an hour then went to sleep. We heard several animals walking around our tent, which was a little creepy. We heard Mona Monkeys in the distance and some very near us, including many bids, and the tree haylx. The tree haylx makes a screaming baby noise and stays in the trees until it is ready to come down to get food. There was one right above us. The noises were incredible. We then heard our guide on the phone as we were falling asleep. We then woke up to him telling us to come out, and that the park manager wanted to talk to us. We had been asleep for maybe 30 minutes. We walked outside and there was 5 park people standing around. They said it was not safe to be up in the rainforest right now. Then it started pouring and thundering. We waited out the storm a little bit in the tent, then they said we needed to head down now. So in the pouring rain we hiked back down the rainforest.
 |
| not happy after walking in the rain |
We stayed inside the park in the lodge…which was just a tent with cement walls. We are thinking maybe our guide heard some animal noises that were getting too close, or maybe something else, but they didn’t really explain why we couldn’t stay up there. Either way we still woke up at 4am to do our night walk. It was pitch black! We started the walk slowly listening for noises and shining the light into the trees to see animals. We heard a squealing noise I thought was a bird, but turns out to be Bush Babies!!! We tried to catch their eyes with the light, and finally saw the little guys jumping through the trees. We also saw the biggest tree I have ever seen! It was the tallest in the forest, over 75 meters tall, and several meters wide. It was a silk cotton tree. We ate breakfast after our early hike and headed back to Kumasi.
12/7
I went back to work at Atasemanso Hospital today. Every morning I leave the house at 645, get to the trotro station at 7 or 705, wait til about 730 when a nurse at the hospital named Pricilla joins me in line, get a tro around 740, get off at Dakajom junction at about 755, and finally take a taxi and get to the hospital about 8 or 805. Once I get settled in the nurses station, I make my own rounds through the wards to see which patients are new and talk to the ones that can speak English. Today one woman in the female ward was being sponged down because her temperature was about 105oF. She was asleep and had a feeding tube through her nose. They were also feeding her oatmeal through the tube. She was weezing when she breathed, probably because of the tube. She was only 26 years old as well. She had children, which were not in the hospital and her husband was with her. I left the female ward after I had seen the other patients. At about 1230 I went back in to see a new patient they were bringing in. She was passed out and half her face was swollen. She had had a toothache and had seen an herbal doctor to get herbal treatment. It turns out she was allergic to or the combination of drugs was toxic and caused the swelling. As I was watching her the doctor came into the ward, I assumed to start ward rounds, so I went and stood next to him like I usually do. He went directly to the 26 year old woman with the fever. He said they were not sure what was wrong with her. She cam from another hospital and her husband was not very helpful in explaining what was going on. He claimed she started biting her tongue as if she was seizing so he took her to the hospital and when she wasn’t getting any better he brought her to Atasemanso. Dr. Boateng looked at her chart, then at her. She was still wheezing and you could see her chest moving quite a bit as she took breaths. Then she opened her eyes. She stopped wheezing. And then I noticed her eyes rolled back and her chest stopped moving up and down as well. Dr Boateng, now on the phone, set the chart down, did three chest compressions, listened to her heart with the stethascope, and left the room. The 26 year old woman died. About 5 minutes after she died,her muscles all started vibrating, as she was going through rigor. I was in complete shock! I have not only never seen someone go through the process of dying, but have never heard of people being so nonchalant about the whole thing. Because the wards are open wards, other patients were walking over and looking at her. Her husband held her hand and put a hand on her head and began praying for her. He then made a phone call and put it on speaker phone and laid it next to her head. On the phone was a woman screaming a crying. Another patient walked over and spoke with him coaxing him out of the room so the nurses could take care of the body. One nurse handed me 2 sets of gloves and told me to “double up.” She then told me to roll the body so they could change the sheets and put a new one on. They tied her arms to her side and her legs together, then wrapped the sheet over her body. They told me to tie the end around her head. We then moved her onto a stretcher, whose wheels did not roll. Once on the stretcher, another nurse came over to put a sticker on her body, so they would be able to identify her. By this time when they undid the sheet, her stomach had swollen pushing against the tie containing her arms. We then wheeled/carried the stretcher around the hospital to a shed in the back where she was kept until her husband arranged for a morgue to take care of her body. It was a very sad day in the hospital.
12/8
Today in the hospital, I helped change the dressing for the man who had the sarcoma tumor removed from his ankle. The wound was from the front of his foot around to the Achilles and from the mid foot up the akle…all an open wound. I could see tendons and muscle fiber around the ankle. I assume at home there would have been a skin graft on something that large.
Tonight at the weekly meeting, we said goodbye to 8 volunteers. They had all been with Projects Abroad since I arrived. I had traveled with all of them and became really close to them. Some were going home, and others were continuing travels in other countries. It was hard to hear them all talking about the first things they would do when they got home, or bout how they couldn’t wait to see their friends and family. I was not even half way through my trip…There is also something special between people you spend time away from familiarity. I know that I can keep in touch with them, and hopefully will with most of them.
 |
| All of the volunteers and staff |
12/9
Today for outreach we went to the children’s home. We went to the school part first to treat teachers and students. They are the most difficult to organize and control. We then decided we should go into the boys and girls houses to check on the children that are either too young for school or who are mentally or physically handicapped. In the girls home there were 2 girls, about 3 or 4 years old lying on a mat outside. They had some form of mental handicap, but had not been taught to sit up and just laid there. They only squirmed and cried. The woman working there did not take the initiative to teach them how to sit up or even hold them. One of the girl’s diaper was off and both had terrible rashes that needed treatment. We then went into the room where the babies were. There were 6 babies from 2 weeks to 3 months, all orphaned. The youngest 2 were found on the street and brought to the orphanage. The youngest started crying, so I held her. Normally all the girls get fed at the same time only 3 times a day. The bottles have LARGE holes, so most of the babies choke as they are being fed. I think because we were there they decided to feed the babies a little early. I held and fed the littlest one. She was named Doris. I held her until she went to sleep then laid her back in her crib, which she shared with another newborn. The babies where all wearing long sleeved fleece outfits. They all had colds and most had some form of neck rash, head fungus, or bed sores. They rarely get held, and are not fed or changed as often as needed. The only positive thing I had to keep telling myself was that at least they have a place to go.
12/10
This morning Delphine, Christine, Jamie, Iona, Birgit, Katja, Anne, Louise and myself headed to Lake Volta and Wli waterfall. We took a 7 hour metro mass to Ho then a trotro to Hohoe, where our hotel was. The Metro Mass stopped one time for lunch and a bathroom break. The “urinal” was 3 and a half walls with trenches along the side…yes we peed all together into trenches! A woman was selling pineapple there as well. For one giant pineapple, cut into bite sized pieces it was only 70 Gp, which is about 45 cents! It was so delicious! Once at our hotel I took a real bathroom break, but unfortunately the lock got stuck on the bathroom door. I tried turning the knob only to break it off. We had to get a worker to bring a knife and chisel away the door knob to pry open the door…it was a scary 30 minute ordeal. During dinner there was a drumming and dancing performace by some local children. It was more of a noise making festival…the dancing was great but the drumming was loud and had no rhythm.
 |
| dancers |
 |
| playing with a cat at the hotel! |
 |
| dinner |
12/11
12/12
This morning we had an English breakfast, according to the hotel menu. This was a tomato and onion omlette, toast with butter and jam, coffee, sausage—which was a hot dog, AND baked beans…haha oh and there was pineapple after the meal. After breakfast Iona, Birgit, Delphine, Christine, Katja, and myself went for a morning canoe trip on the lake. We spent about an hour and a half paddling up the lake. We saw a little green snake in the water and lots of birds diving for fish. Along the shore there were also kids bathing and people doing laundry in the water.
 |
| canoe trip |
 |
| Christine, Iona and myself |
 |
| pretty flowers!! |
After the canoe trip we packed up our things and headed back towards Kumasi. We took another bathroom break on the trotro ride home and yet again I got locked in the bathroom. I had to slide the key out and they had to maneuver it through the lock from the other side…I will never lock the door again!
 |
| This man wanted all of us as his wife :) |
12/13
Today was a slow day at the hospital. The woman who was admitted after taking herbal therapy for a sore tooth died in the hospital over the weekend. The man with the sarcoma tumor removed from his ankle was discharged and the new patients were all sleeping. I did help change the dressing on a man with terrible bed sores. He has been in the hospital for over a year. The sores were on both sides of his hip, but one side has healed. In an attempt to close the open sore, a plastic surgeon tried to remove part of his lower thigh and graft it to the sore. All that seemed to do was create several new sores and serious scars. The wound on the thigh was open all the way to the muscle and left a 4 inch circular hold directly into his leg. He had another sore on his back about 2 inches diameter. Both looked very painful and would take much more time to heal. It was depressing seeing this 24 year old otherwise very healthy man just lying on a hospital bed, where he has been laying for over a year…
