first trip

11/13

This morning 6 of the volunteers left for a weekend trip, Iona, Birgit, Janni, Delphine, Jamie, and myself. We got a trotro from Kejetia to Nkaranza. 

Me, Iona, Jamie, Delphine, Birgit, and Janni in the trotro

The trotro just drops people off as it goes, so we were just dropped on the side of the road in Nkaranza. We then asked people for St. Teresa’s Hospital, which is a landmark to where we find the “hotel” for the night. After walking through a field and a dirt road we finally found the Hand in Hand guest houses. 

the dirt path to Hand in Hand 

all of us in front of our guest house

This is a home for mentally challenged people. To make money the people from ages 5, or so, to 70 make jewelry, purses, serve food, and rent rooms in the guest houses. The woman running the place, Charity, showed us to our rooms. We stayed in a house with 2 rooms and 2 bathrooms. One room had a huge 4 person bed and the other had 2 twin beds. Nothing has air-conditioning or any type of so-called luxury. After dropping our things off we went to the Boabeng Monkey Sanctuary. We piled all 6 of us in a tiny Kia taxi for a 1 hour journey on a very bumpy dirt road. A man waiting next to gift shop building takes us on our tour of the monkey sanctuary. In the trees surrounding the building we can see the black and white columbus monkeys. They just sit in the trees and stare. They are not known to interact with the people. We then saw a parasitic ficus tree. The tree surrounds another tree until in strangles it, so the ficus is left as a hollow entanglement of wood. We climbed the tree and played around it for a little while. 

The man then showed us the monkey cemetery. The village has a priest for the people and a priest for the monkeys. Men go out every couple of days and search for dead monkeys. Each monkey is properly buried in the monkey cemetery and a service is held for it. The people firmly believe that the monkeys are a link to our ancestors an are treated and respected as such. We then followed the guide as he made clicking noises to call the Mona monkeys. We packed bread with us so we could feed them. We saw a few in the trees and as soon as we flash the bread they come running down. They stare at you until you produce food then they come up and grab it from our hands. Some were very quick and would then run away; others would gently take it and stand there and clean off the area we touched then eat the bread. These Mona monkeys are known to go into the village every morning and beg for food in the houses. They then return in the afternoon at dinnertime. After the tour we went into the gift shop and bargained for some items made by the man who runs the shop. 

We then headed back to the Hand in Hand guest house where Charity had made dinner for us. There were several other people staying in houses for the night as well. We had spaghetti with a carrot, bean, beef sauce. It was DELICIOUS!!!! Birgit and I got seconds. J We then went to our rooms to shower and got to sleep. After a long day in the heat and dust we were covered in brown dust. Also sleeping in our room were 3 lizards and a ton of bugs!!! After 1 week in Ghana I am finally used to the roosters screaming at all hours of the night and got a good nights rest. The next morning we woke up and Charity fixed us breakfast- bread and hard boiled eggs. We then went to the taxi station and got a trotro to take us into Kintampo. Once there we hired a taxi for the day to take us to the waterfalls. We first went to Fuller falls, which are beautiful and about 10meters high.

all of us at Fuller

Jamie and I on the bridge

me at Fuller

 We then went to Kintampo waterfalls. The falls here are about 25 meters high. We wore our bathing suits and played under the falls. Then slid down the mossy rocks. 

Kintampo water fall

Me and Birgit in the falls

me and some guyt hat HAD to be in all our pictures

We then went back to the taxi station to get a trotro to take us back to Kumasi. We bought food and drinks at the station to eat and get us home. We got pineapple, cashews, jollof rice, and water sachets. It was a very fun trip, but a good shower was needed as soon as we got home.

11/14

Today at the hospital there were several new patients. One woman was a 71 year old diabetic. She had her foot amputated at another hospital. She was admitted here because the amputated area became infected and gangrenous. They let me change the dressing and clean the wound. Because the gangrene was eating away the skin, her bone was poking through the end of the leg. Pus was running out of the bottom as well. The smell, however, was the worst part! The woman also had terrible bed sores on her back. I cleaned and rewrapped her wounds. I then changed her IV and checked her blood sugar every 45 minutes. Unlike our well-supplied hospitals there is 1 glucometer in the hospital. There is also no quick pricking device. I had to take a syringe needle and prick her finger myself. Thy measure blood-glucose in mmol/L. Her blood sugar today ranged from 3.6 to 15.1. I gave her glucose injections earlier when she was low and switched her to normal saline when she was getting high. Today was very exciting! J After leaving her room I went back into the female ward where another new patient was being cared for. This patient was a 17 year old girl who arrived after her family insisted she be transferred to a different hospital. She had an appendectomy at a public hospital, which became infected. The scar was a vertical 6 inch scar on her belly. They stitches were holding a 1 inch gap open. The surgery site was separating from the stitches and was just an open wound into her abdomen. She also had a drainage tube on her lower right abdomen which became infected as well. I watched while another nurse cleaned and drained the wound. Theis ptient was not as docile as the old woman. This patient was in so much pain and was fidgeting and screaming the whole time. Eating lunch after watching today’s activities was not easy! I will try and get pictures of the hospital this week.

I am still just so amazed when I cannot walk 10 feet outside of the house without hearing “obroni, obroni! How aw you” When I respond, “good! How are you?” they just laugh because they think it is just so funny and great that an obroni spoke to them! These people never see white people!! If I did not go into the market every once in a while or to the internet café I would not see any white people either. Walking home from the Hospital the other day I was bombarded by little kids that all ran up to me and gave me a hug and shouted “obroni, yay!!!” the entire time. Some of the people just don’t realize its not normal to see a person of a different race and just shout “white person” at them. It is interesting….