Ho Municipal Hospital

Well, i can't say today we went to the hospital, because Monday was 3 days ago!

Ah 3 days without internet access is grueling in many ways.

Anyway, Monday was my actual Hospital work day!
I got to work in the OPD (The Outpatients' Department), measuring blood pressure.

The first few tries were not very excellent; I couldn't tell apart a heartbeat from a noise i made by accidentally hitting the stethoscope.

But as time went on, I got the hang of it and swiftly went through several patients. Interestingly, I learned that Malaria can cause higher blood pressure, so many patients with high blood pressure, could have had Malaria. Actually, very likely that is the case.

Jess and Fembe went with me to the OPD at Ho Hospita. The three of us worked mostly in the vital signs department and we had loads of fun there. The patients influx was enormous and the hospital was filled already by 10 AM.

Because of the trip I had over the weekend, Monday, i fell asleep really quickly. Probably around 8 o'clock.

Well, thats basically what I did for that day. Sounds very lame. But very interesting indeed!

The Beach!

After a week of volunteering and getting to meet new people, some of the volunteers went on a very relaxing trip.

We traveled south for nearly 4 hours and we finally met water. Actually, two bodies of water to be exact. One current was the freshwater current and the other was the salty sea current. when those two water met, it made a gorgeous view of surfs clashing into each other.

I will really try to work on uploading the pictures today. The internet connection being slow will probably not help, but I will try to do something different this time. Ah the internet, that's another thing i can talk about. I've almost pulled my hair out because of the connection here. Of course, i didn't expect a 5 star hotel quality wi-fi connection, but its slowness and instability sometimes got on my nerves. Oh well, that's just a luxury that I got to give up a little.

After the power went out and came back again, which happened about 4 times while a week passed for me, the internet stopped working. Well, being overly enthusiastic to fix things, I tried restoring the internet connection by resetting the wi-fi router. Alas, the problem was not fixed but only more problems were created. One extra problem was the change of the password to the default password. Richard glared at me for several hours for that. Another problem was that when the technician came in and fixed the router, the password was set in case sensitive format. I, along with everyone who was unaware of this fact, moaned for many hours until someone figured out that its all in CAPS.

Richard knew, but he didn't tell us. What a meany.

Anyway, that was a interesting diversion from the beach story.

So when we got to the beach, we had to take a boat to cross the island. A nice boat-ride commenced. The beach and the sea was absolutely beautiful and refreshing. During the day we bought some freshly picked coconuts from the children for 50 pesewa, and enjoyed them while we were rocking gently on the hammocks. At night, we went to the campfire where the natives were dancing to the rhythm of the drums. It was a wonderful day. We went back to our huts, where we spent the night.

My friends and I decided to wake up at 5 in the morning to see the sunrise. I was excited and went to bed, having set alarm at 5. But since last week, i started coughing without an apparent reason, and since thursday, it has been difficult to sleep during the nights as I kept coughing. No other symptoms whatsoever. I'm beginning to think I may have Asthma or some kind of allergy, though I had neither of them before.

So throughout the night, I kept looking at my phone, only to find out it was not 5 already. But when that time came, I actually fell asleep and woke up again at 5:40, by which time, the sun had already came out. But unfortunately, the girls were unable to witness the sunrise because the sky was cloudy. We had a nice chat in the morning and some of us read books throughout the day. I am not not much of a reader, so I stuck with swimming and sleeping and playing cards. 

I first tried the local Ghanaian food called the Baku, which is a type of sticky bread that you dip in a sauce (all of this had to be done by hand). Very tasty it was indeed. When the 2 days of relaxation were over, we got back on our Tro and commenced the 3 hour ride again.

I really feel sorry for those who decided to not go to the beach with us. Maybe we can come back again some time later, you never know.

Leprosy Village!

Sorry for not writing the post yesterday. Yesterday was quite random and unpredictable. It's very complicated.

Picture uploading is very slow and unbearable, as the internet here is not the most advanced. Facebook but does a pretty good job of uploading photos, so If you really do wish to see them, go on my FB pictures and take a look at it! (I assume mostly my friends will look at these posts)

But today was a very interesting day! Very memorable indeed.

With 6 of my favorite British "Uni" students, we took a taxi to the leprosy village to take care of about 10 patients ranging from having mild to severe cases of leprosy.

Their feet were all deformed, many times round and almost without toes (at least not noticeable). Many had a large wound on their feet and we used hydrogen peroxide, iodine to treat the patients. Stench was obviously very distinguishable, but when one needs to do his job, everything else becomes less important, so the smell wasn't a big problem.

When we treated all the patients and wrapped the wounds with clean coverings, the patients all said "Arc-Pay," thank you in Ewe, the local language in Ho, Ghana. Of course, we wouldn't just send them back cold, so we gave each of them a set of vitamins and painkillers.

After the job was done, we came back to our headquarters for an interesting lunch. Mysterious spicy spinach-egg cuisine. The first sight turned off many people's appetites, but after they tried a bite, the large bowl in a matter of minutes emptied.

Our afternoon was quite hectic to be honest. If you had read the last post, I mentioned that Chris (the bad kebab eater) was in the local hospital. Well, he wasn't getting any better so he decided to take the plane to London tonight. We all knew that he was very sick and had to make that choice. Our planned orphanage visit was postponed to next week and we said our final goodbyes to Chris.

I don't know if I said this in the other post or not, but my cough is getting worse over time. I don't feel sick at all. No fever or flu symptoms. I took a variety of medicines, Ghanaian, American, British, and even Romanian! All for the purpose of softening coughs. Nothing worked for me. Im starting to think the suspect is allergy, but I am not really sure of it. We'll see how I feel tomorrow, and decide what to do from there.

First Outreach!

A real day for me I guess. Today is my first "workday." I slept without much trouble last night and woke up quite normally. We had a nice oatmeal breakfast and we were ready to hop on the van and head for our first destination: the schools. The ride was about an hour, and when we got to the school, kids greeted us madly, calling us Yevu! (Meaning foreigners).

We dealt primarily with three things. One was dressing infections and wounds. The wounds were often left untreated and on the stage of festering. We cleansed the wounds and covered them with clean gauze or a band-aid. The second was dealing with ring-worms. We applied the special cream and took care of the infections. The third was advising the children about personal hygiene, including brushing teeth and washing their hands and taking baths regularly.

After the upper school treatments were done, we went on to the primary school and repeated the procedure.

With the outreach finished, we went to the local village and watched the workers weave fabrics. They were so adept at it that some of the worker's hands were so quick that they were almost invisible as they moved. I bought a hand-woven bag from the workers for 18 cedi (Thanks Steph!). 

After we have all bought our souvenirs, we moved onto the Ho Hospital, where we went to see Chris, who unfortunately, when he first came to Ghana, ate a funny kebab and went straight to the hospital.


Chris has an interesting background. Although he is 38, he goes to the Swansea University in U.K. along with the 19 other volunteers who are here in this group. He is an art teacher who decided to go to the university a few years ago.


We came back to our headquarters just a few hours ago on a TroTro (Taxi) for 60 pesewas, which is equivalent to 40 U.S. cents. I say it's pretty cheep for a nice taxi ride.
 

I couldn't wait to get a shower after a day full of excitement. After a cold shower, We had a wonderful noodle with spicy sauce dinner served with vegetables as we watched a movie called "Juno," a rather interesting teenage story. Fun.


Crossword puzzles and cards were soon on the tables, and we had loads of fun, sharing different card games with each other.


I forgot to upload pictures yesterday so I shall do that right now.

DAY 1

After 17 total hours long flight, I finally arrived at Accra, Ghana. Richard (the leader of Blue Med) greeted me at the arrivals section. The first thing i noticed was the weather. It was hot and humid. Something that I expected. I realized that Accra is a really bustling city. The taxis roam around the streets like bugs in the forests and the people moves adeptly around the cars.

Richard and I took a taxi to shop for some vegetables, and we grabbed a lunch. It's unfortunate that i forgot to take a picture of my first meal in Ghana. But the meal was Chicken Kebab with fried rice, with a mysterious sauce that went along with it. The meal was excellent and I couldn't thank Richard more for making my first dining experience so pleasant.

Next we traveled to the bus station to catch a bus to Ho, near the Volta Region. The traffic was pretty bad and I don't think we were going even at a quarters speed of the speed limit. But after a while, half an hour or so, things started to clear up and the bus soon started to gather speed. Before we left, however, Richard bought ourselves each  plastic bag of yogurt and a bag of water. I wondered how to drink them then i realized that we had to cut a piece of plastic out with our teeth to open it. People learn new things everyday.

The bus ride was long. Longer than I expected. I already have sat on a chair for 17 hours in an airplane, and it was tiring to sit another 3 and a half or so. But It was worth it. On the bus, we had a woman who preached the gospel to us and had a man who sold queer medicine. I opted not to buy it but it was an interesting sight. Speaking of sight. The view was absolutely enchanting. No, it's not Disney World enchantment, but more of harmony between nature and humanity.

A Picture is worth more than a thousand words so I'll let some pictures take over.

When I finally arrived at Ho, and to the Blue Med Headquarters after that, I was amazed by the number of people already here! Around 20 were from the U.K. and just one was from the States, all college students. Well, I just made that number 2 didn't I.

As I sit among these awesome people, I just can't wait what the next 4 weeks would look like.

Farewell to Grandpa

Rest in peace Grandpa, I've always loved you so much. Now it's been almost 2 weeks since you left this world. I am so sorry that I haven't been able to hold on to your hand during your last hour. While driving to see you that afternoon, when I received the call from my aunt, my heart tore to pieces. You wanted to see me so much, yet I couldn't make in time to see you. But I know that you are with God and Jesus, so I am relieved.

Today I just got vaccinated for Hepatitis, Typhoid, and got medications for Malaria. Visa for Ghana should be approved and coming out soon, and I will make sure i have everything before my departure on the 17th of June.

Although my hopes are high for this journey, I still have some qualms about it. Persuading my parents, especially mom, was not an easy job. I totally understand how sending a 17 year old baby away from her to a land far away in Africa is a difficult decision to make, because she cares about me more than anything. So sometimes I feel like a bad son, making parents worry about me all the time because of my desires and wishes. But despite our arguments, my parents ultimately supported me in my decision, and I thank them so much for it. I do believe that this journey is going to be a life changing one, and I dearly hope that it can show me a path that I can take later in my life as well.

A Begun Journey

In exactly a week, I will be on the plane heading for Seoul, Korea. My grandfather has been battling for almost over a year, with a deadly disease called lung cancer. He has been my mentor all my childhood years, taking me out to the sea to teach me how to fish, telling me his most memorable life stories, but most importantly, loving me with a heart of a father.

Last summer, I actually had stayed at the hospital for a month, taking care of him day and night. I was devastated when the doctor told me the cancer has spread to other parts in the body, and that there aren't much that they could do. Although the experience gave me the opportunity to spend time with grandpa once more before I went back to the states, the more I saw his hand become weaker and thinner, the more my heart ached with pain because I knew that there was nothing much I could do. I just held his hands tightly and with tears, I prayed for him.

Then I realized, that my grandpa is just one of the millions of people struck with a disease, and I am not the only one who cried for someone I love. However, out of those millions, the majority are struck by treatable diseases of which their vaccines have been invented more than half a century ago. But the striking fact is that it is those people in third world countries, who suffer the most and often succumb to death at early ages.

It is not fair that one's quality of life is heavily determined by one's origin of birth. Those who are reading this post right now probably have the opportunity to receive medical attentions and inoculations. But not everyone is born with such perquisites. I believe that our utmost attention should be given to those who are bereft of even basic rights: the right to consume safe food and clean water, and the right to receive healthcare. I had never realized that such basic rights were actually privileges in many parts of the world. I was sheltered from such inequity and was blind to the injustices that were being overlooked in the society.

I believe healthcare as a human right, not as a privilege. It is not fair that people like me get to receive all the vaccinations and medical care I need but those living in the third world becoming victims of curable diseases. I want to dive into places where medical care is most needed, and that is why I made the decision to serve in Ghana this summer after my visit in Korea. I want to see and experience myself the reality that I have been vicariously doing through books and documentaries. In the future, I believe that I will have always remembered to look back at Summer of 2012 and said, "that changed my life more than anything."