Positive Mental Attitude

Day 19- 4:15pm  Cape Coast, Ghana -87degrees F, feels like 100 with 73% humidity
 
FIRST THINGS FIRST: GO GIANTS!!!!!!!!

Back to Ghana:  What a difference a week makes!   I think I’m just about acclimated to the Ghanaian way of doing things… definitely a process.  As I mentioned in my last post life is slooooooow here.  But really, there isn’t much reason for hurry.   The first time the taxi driver stopped for gas after he took me to the wrong hospital I almost lost it, but it's how things are done here.  I’ve started walking slower and go out to eat when I think I should be getting hungry so that when I am borderline starving the food will have arrived.  No joke, an hour for a salad… that being said I’d wait 4 hours for a salad because they are rare here.  Lots and Lots of starch in my diet now.  A typical day is white bread with peanut butter for breakie, if I have lunch it’s usually pasta with tomato stew, and dinner is either pasta, potatoes, or rice and tomato stew.  I’m craving nutrients.  I’ve started scoping out the best places in the market to buy decent produce and have picked up some vitamins.  This is definitely manageable.

Started work at Adisadale Urban Health Center on Friday.  Such an improvement over the hospital!!  They are short staffed at the moment so there is only one midwife and a nursing assistant in the department.  After the first day they had me doing all the vitals and the physical exam portion of the antenatal visits (taking fundal height measurements, listening for the fetal HR old school style, and palpating for presentation of the baby).  Since I’m not quite fluent in Fante yet, the midwife performs the verbal portion of the exam -for now anyway. ;) Most important news of the new placement: I SAW MY FIRST DELIVERY TODAY!!!   Not anything like I imagined, and I’m positive they don’t all go this way but since it was her 4th pregnancy the baby all but fell out.  Quite impressive.  Some tough ladies they have here… she would snap her fingers during contractions and moaned a bit… and then it was over.   I’ve met 3 of the 6 midwives working at the clinic so far and I’ve given each of them my number so that if any deliveries come in after hours I’m on call.  AHHHH BABIES!!!!!

While I am enjoying my time at the new placement, I’ve been looking for ways to make more of an impact in my time here.  Sure taking vitals and performing the exam is helping to ease the workload for the midwife on duty, but it’s not exactly life changing for anyone involved.  I’ve talked with projects abroad about possibly doing education in the schools re: sex education, HIV/AIDS, family planning etc.  They seem open to the idea and if I put together a presentation they would assist with coordinating with the schools.  Even better yet, I met with a local HIV/AIDS organization today called Needed Life.  They have clinic hours Mon-Thurs and provide free HIV testing and counseling with a huge focus on pregnant women with the virus.  Every other Friday they visit different schools and do the exact education I was hoping to do and the opposite Friday they visit homes of diagnosed patients and make sure they are taking medications, have no other ailments or questions, etc.  I’m going to start working in the clinic on Tues and Thurs beginning next week and will hopefully be able to do some of the home visits in the evenings.  Needed Life was started in 1999 and is almost entirely donation based.  Once I get to know a bit more about the organization I’m hoping to do my own fundraising so be prepared for my letters!

Went to the Cape Coast Castle on Saturday with a couple other Volunteers.  It was once used as a holding cell for slaves before being transported to the Americas an has since been turned into a museum.  It was sickening.  Sunday was a mellow beach/pool day.  There is a resort about 20 minutes away that a bunch of the volunteers go to on the weekends to unwind and have club sandwiches.  Decided to go to a Halloween party at the last minute and threw together a makeshift American football player costume.  I lucked out that in one of the boy’s laundry a random Notre Dame shirt turned up, borrowed a pair of shorts and used mascara to paint lines under my eyes.  My housemate went as a woman, I was happy to lend him my bra for the photo op.  The costumes were fabulous and so creative!!  There were even jack-o-lanterns carved out of watermelons!  Perfection.  Pictures will follow in about 2 weeks when I get to a faster internet.

We're down to 5 volunteers in the house now.  James the British guy has moved on so we had a bit of a goodbye gathering for him Friday at Molly's house (Molly is the greatest host mom in all of Ghana, more to follow about her in future posts)... he did enough celebrating for all of us and paid quite the consequence all of Saturday.  James was my resident drinking partner after a rough day I could always count on him to accompany me to Oasis for an afternoon brew (or 2).  Now I turn to the Aussie who may not always be up for a beverage but is always good company.  He's become the big brother I never had in so many ways, we bicker like children and at the end of the night even when he's exhausted he's around to make sure I (or any of the other girls in the house) get home safely.  So to my birth momma and all my other mom's out there not to worry... Mark is the house protector and a perfect gentlemen.  I'll be sad to see him move on at the end of the month!

Well my loves... thank you so much for all your love and support...  sending big hugs and kisses to each of you. 


Don't let what you can't do stop you from doing what you CAN do  -John Wooden