Back to Civilization

So we arrived in Tamale this morning at around 9am. We woke up at 330am, packed up the last of our things, and got to the station around 430am. The bus was supposed to leave at 5am but of course that didn’t happen, haha. We were finally on our way and there was about 85+ people crammed into a 60 passenger bus. Needless to say it was a squishy ride, and the sleep I was hoping to get, didn’t happen. Once we got back to the Catholic Guest House (the same place we were staying in Tamale before we went to Gushegu), we went to the restaurant there and ordered REAL food for breakfast. So wonderful. So, so, wonderful. You really don’t know what you have until you don’t have it anymore. So thankful and so blessed to be able to eat healthy again. The next plan was to SLEEP but unfortunately mine and Erin’s room wasn’t ready yet so we had to wait, and wait, and wait. Finally around 12:40pm we got our room, and then the power decided to go out so the fans stopped working, meaning sleep was impossible. So…I’m tired. Haha.

The last few days in Gushegu were alright. It totally helped me that we had made friends with the nurses who were working there so that we could at least be occupied for a little while each day playing football and card games with them. Last night brought up a bit of a scary situation! I was walking back from the shower (you have to go outside to access it) and came across a snake along the path. I sort of freaked out, called Erin to come see it, and then calmly walked around it. It was green and looked like a Canadian type Gardner snake. Later on we told our friends who said “you didn’t kill it?! If you see it again call us we’ll come kill it”. We thought it was long gone, but a little while later Erin nearly stepped on it and so we called the guys over. They informed us that these snakes kill/bite toads and frogs and take the venom out of them and then bite humans, aka, if we got bitten we would’ve been admitted to the lovely Gushegu hospital. I’ve had many patients who were admitted due to snake bites, so it’s definitely not unusual here in Ghana.

I/we have been talking a lot about what we encounter in our clinical experience and why we tend to get so frustrated about what goes on. Personally, I don’t think it is entirely about a lack of resources and knowledge. It wouldn’t be farfetched for me to say that the nurses do not do very much, and even the knowledge that they do have, they don’t usually put to good use. Watching TV from 8am-9am until the doctors decide to start their rounds isn’t exactly right. That’s when vital signs and morning assessments should be done, but at the very least, you must look at all your patients to make sure they are okay. The mindset is so different here. Urgent situations are not seen as urgent, people nearly dying isn’t seen as a huge issue, and I guess they don’t have the legal issues to worry about if/when something is done incorrectly, like we do in Canada. Obviously we can’t waltz into these hospitals and expect anything to change. We can only do our best to advocate for our patients in the best and most polite/respectful way we can, and try to teach the nurses some things as our education level is much higher than theirs. Really, it’s ultimately about the patients and it’s tough for us to see them in such sick situations even when things CAN be done about it yet no one is taking initiative.



Tomorrow we are going to Bolga to see a village that our school has been supporting. They have focused on supporting the women because the husbands tend to take all the money and not leave enough to support the women and children. So our school has helped them to get their own income that they can claim as their own, in order to help support the children. We are also going to give them goats. Apparently it will be a long, long, long day with singing, dancing, drumming, goat giving, speeches, etc. We’ll see how it goes! It’s about a 2 hour drive north, and we are coming back in the evening.

Saturday is Independence Day here so we’ll likely spend time at festivals/parties around town. On Monday we are having a going away party where we invite anyone who we have met/made friends while we’ve been here. Then Tuesday morning our VACATION starts and we’ll be making the long bus trip down to the coast where we will get to sit on the beach, and relax. So excited!

That’s all for now!

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I can't seem to type on the picture post below so here's a quick description
1) Kintampo Waterfalls a couple weekends ago
2) Gushegu: The child health outreach clinic where we hung the scale from the trees and weighed the babes
3) Gushegu: me and a sweet patient I worked with on pediatrics
4) Gushegu District Hospital
5) Jaimee, Shawna, and Erin on our bikes in Gushegu
6) Us all ready to watch the mens gold medal hockey game which we didn't end up watching because we couldn't get the channel!! :(
7) Gushegu: two of our patients at the hospital. Twins who were very malnourished, they are 3 years old! The bigger one was still malnourished (huge belly showing protein insufficiency) and the smaller one was much more malnourished. So heartbreaking. So sad. So, so, sad. Their poor mother was basically raising the children alone and could not provide for them. Broke my heart.