February 13, 2010
Today is Saturday and we asked to take the day off. Philomena was more than happy to give us this day to rest. She did, however, arrange for a game of soccer in the evening and a meeting with the reverend, the head of the district. It was an absolute honor. I cannot believe how welcome everyone is making us feel. He told us we are welcome and that they had to thank God, because they have been waiting for us for some time. He told us that God gave him the job of making us feel welcome, and gave us the job of doing good, and it was his job to make that easier for us. If what he says is true, he was very successful at doing his job. We felt very welcomed. He basically told us that whatever they have is ours. So kind and so generous, everyone has made us feel so very welcome. The other day we met the head of the health department for the district, by request and they mayor. Each wanted to let us know that they had been awaiting our arrival and that we were most welcome. We played a game of soccer with the clinic staff this evening, we had a great time, thankfully it was a short game. Tomorrow we are to attend the reverend’s service, for a short time in the morning and then off to see a cocoa bean plantation.

February 17, 2010
It’s difficult to even begin to describe the last few days…It has taken me several days to want to write about this. I think the reason for the difficulty has to do with not only the sadness of it, but, the previous expectation of this sadness. I knew coming here, sadness would exist, but somehow in my mind I pictured it differently. I did this in a way that people picture people, or places they have not yet seen, or met. Creating realities in my mind based on images I had previously seen, or assumptions I had foolishly made. This sadness has exceeded my expectations in every way. The way of life is difficult for those that live here. In two days we have lost two babies…the first death was preventable even by Ghanian standards, in fact it was horrific. Death here, for me, was expected, and yes, even the death of children and babies. It is the lack of accountability, empathy, effort and humanity that are missing for me.

I can only speak of what I have seen, and what I have been close to while being here. Each event has become part of my own personal narrative, and I speak about it from this point of view. I do not pretend to know a true narrative- if there is such a thing.

In my opinion, aside from death, each event had it’s own tragedies, it’s own failures of humanity. I will not begin to describe the events because, the first I was not part of and the other I feel recounting it, would cheapen it, to change it somehow in my mind, and to tarnish the memory, and disrespect those who were involved. At least I don’t think I am ready to do it, not just yet anyway…

I am able to write about this now because it has been a few days, and because we had very positive day at the clinic. We began our day this morning by giving a lecture to senior secondary students in Enchi. Philomena asked us if we would talk to the kids about “safe sex habits”. We put together a 40minute lecture last night, we visited the family planning clinic at the hospital and bought two hundred condoms, so we could give one to each student. We had thought we would leave the extras at Philomena’s clinic for people to take. We thought that there would be more than 100 to spare. We were surprised to find 450 students carrying their chairs into an outdoor, covered classroom, with nothing but a chalkboard and a table at the front of the room. I found it exhilarating. Just like at the clinic, the students start their day with a beautifully harmonized prayer. The students were absolutely refreshing. After spending time at the clinic and the hospital and seeing nothing but illness and suffering, the classroom was a nice reprieve. The school masters introduced us formally and then had each of us announce our names before I began the lecture. The students cheered and clapped continuously repeating our names after each of us had stated them. The topic, not surprisingly was genuinely interesting to them and they had many questions to ask. Unlike here, none of the students played shy. After putting their hands in the air and being called on, the student would come to the front of the class and speak their question to the entire class. We had come prepared with small pieces of paper for anonymous questions, but they weren’t interested in this method. I felt satisfied, and actually felt like we made some kind of a difference today. It was a nice break from a hospital setting and I’ll be glad to be able to do it again before we leave and possibly in Tamale.

This afternoon we walked into Enchi and did some shopping at the market. We had hoped to buy some fresh vegetables. In the end we did, come home with some, but after a long search. It was like heaven…If I am sick tomorrow, it will all have been worth it. We bought fresh avocados, baby tomatoes, red onion, fresh whole wheat bread (first time I have seen it here), and happy cow cheese (cheese is also very hard to come by). We had open faced vegetable sandwiches in our room, I could have died and been happy. The food here is generally good, in Tamale we had a lot of variety. I could have eaten pretty much anything I chose, there was a lot of flavor, and a lot of eastern influence, lots of curries. But in Enchi we eat pretty much the same thing every day. We eat a lot of plain rice, packaged cookies, crackers and Mr. noodles. I have pretty much been a vegetarian since I arrived here. I eat the occasional piece of meat, but something about watching the chickens, goats, and pigs wallow in raw sewage that has turned me off of meat. Go figure.

February 18, 2010
Today I spent the day on the antenatal/maternity ward. It was pretty uneventful on the patient end of things. I do feel; however, that I spent time with some pretty interesting and important people, people that have helped me to understand the language and the culture of the Akram people, and the Twi language. I am just starting to feel accepted, I am excited about moving on to Tamale on Saturday, but I am also sad. Two weeks is not enough time to gain the trust and respect of the people you work with. We are finally being accepted not just as the “token” white people that hardly any of the locals have seen before, but as professionals, and as colleges.

February 21, 2010
Our last day in Enchi was a memorable one. When we had first arrived we were excited to hear that we were only about 20km from the border of Cote D’ivoire, we had expressed interest in visiting the country but abandoned the idea when we were reminded that we only have a single entry visa for Ghana. When we arrived at the clinic on Friday we were happy to find that Philomena had been to the immigration office, had written us a formal letter, and had received one back from the office stating that we were able to cross into the nearest village and we would be granted safe return. She hired an immigration officer to accompany us as well as one of the male nurses from the clinic and our driver. This act was so completely in character to the way she treated us the whole time we were there.

We began our drive into the rainforest, it was supposed to be 20kms away but I’m sure it was much further. The road was very poor, very narrow. We crossed makeshift bridges that I was certain we would fall through. We came upon a tree that had fallen across the road. Luckily we had picked up some men on the side of the road headed to the boarder to do some construction. They had some tools with them, and, thankfully again, we were saved by African muscle. Within minutes they had the obstruction cleared and we were on the road again. It took two hours to arrive in the village. After passing the boarder into Cote D’ivoire we came upon an overturned vehicle. The van had more than fifteen passengers among them were women and children. Luckily there was only one seriously injured, and luckily for her five of them were nurses. All five of us jumped from the vehicle and ran to her under a tree. Unfortunately none of those present spoke the language she spoke so we were unable to question her. Without ambulances coming there was no option to keep her spine completely stable. We had no choice but to move her. So the group of us lifted her, keeping her as straight as we could into the back of the truck, and started toward Dubi, the village in Cote D’ivoire. I sat in the back of the truck with her trying to keep her head as stable as possible, while Justin and Cherie held her back and hips in place. When we got to the village it was an absolute schmoz. We took her to the clinic and we all assessed her with the doctor-who spoke French, which made it a little bit easier. It looked as though she may have a pelvic fracture, the doctor didn’t think it was her spleen. He gave her an injection and asked us to take her somewhere else. Our letter from immigration only allowed us to visit Dubi so the immigration officer we were with suggested we find her people in town and a car to take her to a hospital further into the country. So in this small village surrounded by a crowd of people, we moved her again, into a taxi, to be accompanied by her husband to another local hospital.

When we arrived back in Enchi Philomena had a farewell soccer game planned for us, Canada vs Ghana. We all had a very nice time and ended with dinner at Bacchus lodge where we were staying. There was eight of us; Philomena, Patrick (the medical assistant), Solomon (the pharmacy assistant), Aguuri (general nurse). I am going to miss them all.

That night we didn’t go to bed. We packed up all our things, and took a van out of town at 2am. There aren’t any buses that go to Enchi so we had to hire a van and we wanted to make it to the bus station in Kumasi before the buses left. The van was packed full of people so I didn’t sleep, I was thankful for the sleepless night, after seeing the most beautiful African sunrise from my seat in the van. We arrived in Kumasi a little after 9am. We took a different kind of bus this time, it’s called the metro bus. We weren’t allowed to purchase tickets till 1130. We took shifts in doubles watching the bags, while the other two went in search of food and toilets. It was crazy trying to buy tickets at 1130. It was literally a fight. People just push their way to the front of the line. The office was at the top of about three stairs and people were pushing people of the stairs. I’m lucky am tall. I ordered four tickets above a mess of pushy people. In amongst all the different African languages I could hear the odd “white lady”, or “white woman”. The people always know exactly what we are doing. We stick out like a sore thumb. Before we even knew the bus had arrived we had several people come over and tell us our bus was there. Pretty funny, they are all so helpful, you are definitely not a faceless person in a crowd here.

We arrived in Enchi at 8pm last night. It was a long day, again, without sleeping. The metro bus had no air conditioning and seats in rows of three. The under carriage never has enough room for everyone’s luggage, so the rows are also lined with luggage. It was impossible to sleep. It was 46 degrees in Tamale today, the locals would say it is dry, and it definitely isn’t even as close to as humid as it was in Enchi, but it is still humid.

I didn’t even notice the heat last night, I slept better than I have slept here. It was beautiful…

February 21, 2010
Today, another beautiful thing happened. We found a hotel in town, not far from where we are staying, and it has a POOL!!! We had the day off because it was Sunday, so I spent the day working on a complete body burn. Ah, the African sun…