Gush-Gush (goosh goosh)!!

On Sunday at around 1:00pm we caught the metro bus to Gushegu (aka the land of very little food, and nothing to do, but I'm still loving it!). We almost missed the bus…it was supposed to leave at 12:30pm but being on Ghanaian time, we weren’t too concerned about showing up a bit late, and this was the one time that the other party was on time. Thankfully, the Matron/Director of Nursing at Gushegu District Hospital, was meeting us at the bus station and was planning to bus with us, and he was on time and held the bus for us! Well, it cost him 2 cedis (about $1.3 Canadian).

When asked about the quality of the bus I can quote a classmate who said “it’s just like a schoolbus but not as comfortable” which is so true! It’s amazing how many people they crammed into that bus in ridiculously hot temperatures, but, we survived as we always do!

When we arrived, we went on a hunt for something for dinner and found there is only one place (street vendor) in this town that sells fried rice. And, we ate it. And, now I’m regretting it. My stomach has been hating me for the past few days, and I have a complete loss of appetite. I’m not sure what caused it, but we are not eating anymore vendor food while we are here. The street vendors in Tamale were pretty safe, but the sanitation level here is lower which puts us at greater risk and the people at the hospital have suggested we do not eat anything from outside the hospital grounds (except a few things like fruit (rare to find) and bread). And, that limits us big time. They only make traditional meals here at the hospital (a choice of 3 meals) which we’ve tried and are not huge fans of. Thankfully, our prof who is in Tamale right now, sent us a food package today so we have more food! But still, we are eating mainly bread with nutella, strawberry jam, oatmeal, water, and coffee. Throw in a few granola bars, rice for every dinner, and some eggs. In Tamale we were very spoiled and had many different restaurants that we could choose from everyday, but not here! It’s all good though! On the plus side, we spend VERY little money here (the hospital food is free, and so are our accommodations!).

We are staying in the hospital residence and have a basic square room with four hospital beds and a communal bathroom. Very simple, but it’s all good. Almost all of the nurses, and a ton of nursing students, are also living in the residence so we’ve made a ton of friends. 99% of the nurses are guys and play football (soccer) everyday so we’ve been joining them (except today cause I was too sick. I totally realize now why I loved soccer so much!!

This town is small, well it’s about 28,000 people which isn’t THAT small, but it’s definitely rural. People walk a long ways to get anywhere, only few roads are paved and the rest of the town is dirt. There are rarely white people here and we are constantly hearing kids yelling "SaMINga, HOW are you, I am fine, THANK you" and they say it over and over and over again (Saminga means white lady).

Monday we bought bikes! The only cars I’ve seen here are the few that are owned by the hospital and I’ve also seen a few delivery trucks. Everyone here bikes and walks. So, we went on a hunt for some bikes and rather than paying 90cedis for a bike, I talked the guy into letting us rent them for 35cedis each in the agreement that we will return them when we leave. Shawna and I biked to the internet place tonight (it's a World Vision office that lets us use their internet - the only internet in town!), and if it weren't for our headlamps (yes we look SO cool), we would've crashed a million times over. The roads are awful, there are no streetlights (very little power in general), and people are biking/walking everywhere.

On Monday we had a tour of the hospital and such, and it’s really nice! It’s a new modern hospital. It’s small and really nice..furnished by Ikea, and some of it is air conditioned (SUCH a blessing!). Each ward is it’s own little single story building (similar to the Tamale hospital).

On Tuesday we went to the maternal clinic here where tons of women come to see the midwife. There are no appointments, so after walking a long way, they get to wait until it’s their turn; it becomes an entire day affair – patience is vital in this country. I took a TON of blood pressures (yay for only manual blood pressure cuffs…definitely getting used to not using anything automatic here, and observed some midwife appointments.

Today we went to the child welfare clinic and weighed babes from the tree! It was also super busy there, these Moms have a lot of babies. One of the nurses told me yesterday that the women don’t usually want so many children but their husbands (who don’t usually love them), want a lot of children so they will be taken care of when they are older. After the child clinic, I went to the outpatient department (emerg) and sat in on consultations. The doctor was from Cuba and didn’t know the language very well, so she needed to use the nursing student/nurses aide to translate for her.

Well that’s all for now! Thursday and Friday I’m going to the medical ward. There isn’t really anything to do in this town so this weekend will probably consist of reading, football games, and just relaxing. Should be wonderful!!

Oh, on another note, sleep here is very difficult task for me. The 3 other girls I’m with have NO problems sleeping, but I get to watch the sunrise every, single, morning. It’s gorgeous, don’t get me wrong (as are the sunsets), but I’d love to sleep a bit more and not wake up every half hour!

Not sure how often I’ll be able to update here - I'm surprised we found internet in the first place! Hope all is well!

Love, Lauren

p.s. if you want the pictures to be bigger, you can click on them (There you go Mom, I've spread the word :))