Exchange for Change: Tales of an Obruni: End of the Week and Labadi Beach

I would like to apologize for not fully uploading the pictures and for not posting in a few days. I was not able to get into the Cheerful Hearts office for internet because I worked a long time yesterday. As a result, I have a couple days to update you on. On Friday, I went into work and took patients with Oppong again. I also went on rounds with the other doctor, Dr. Senya. I asked him a lot of questions about the cases and he also quizzed me on my knowledge. There were a few interesting cases. One was about a child with blood in her urine from an infection. The doctor blamed it on the mother stopping breast feeding in the young baby (2 weeks old). Ghana, like most of the world, practices exclusive breast feeding. The doctors do not show or talk about formula because the best nutrition for the baby comes from breast feeding. It is heavily encouraged in this developing country because of the lack of sanitation. Another interesting case was about a young girl with a rash from her diaper. This particular rash occurs because of skin contact with urea for prolonged times. Dr. Senya said that before modern diapers came, parents would use cloth diapers and could afford to clean them when they got wet. When modern diapers came, parents started buying them, but because of the price, they could only afford one per day. As a result, parents keep the dirty diapers on the baby even if they are wet, which has increased the number of rashes. The last interesting case was an elderly woman with an infection of the foot. She was diabetic and did not manage her blood sugar well, so the infection caused a large pustule to form.

After work, we came back and relaxed. I am very excited for my first weekend. I am going into Accra with Jen, a MPH from Yale. One of her friends from Yale is working in Accra with an NGO there. We are going to the beach in Accra. Hoepfully we will be able to go into the city to see the museum and other tourist sites. If not, there is always next weekend. We are going to be taking the tro-tro into the city. Two Obrunis navigating the city-it could get interesting.

We made it on the Tro-Tro. It was a very stressful experience. We ate at Labadi Beach Resort in Accra. It was a nice taste of luxury. It is odd to see such a luxurious resort inside Ghana, particularly after we have been roughing it in Kasoa. We also saw other Obrunis for the first time since we arrived to the country, which was a luxury in itself. Majority of them were British, but any Obruni is welcome. We met Jen’s friend, Adam, and some other Americans in the area. Of the eight of us at lunch, six were University of Michigan students or grads. I made sure it was known that I am an ND student, but I enjoyed the company despite the fact that so many of them were Wolverines. During lunch, there was a bad storm, which caused the power to go out for a bit. I have come to embrace power outages because “such is Ghana.” The storm ruined our plans of going to the beach. We decided to see the National Museum instead. Unfortunately, it was closed by the time we got there. We went into Accra and just wandered for a bit. I do not enjoy walking through the city because the men hiss and make kissing noises, shouting Obruni. It gets annoying quickly. While we were wandering around, we realized how bad the storm was. Trees and signs had fallen. Roads were blocked and street vendors were left to pack or deal with the mud and water. We decided to look for internet because I have not updated my parents since Thursday. Unfortunately, we had difficulty finding an internet café because we were far from Western luxuries. We decided to take a taxi to a hotel near the airport. Eric was driving a former intern, Hannah, to the airport and picked us up. For the second time in one day, we were in an air conditioned building with normal bathrooms and other Obrunis.

I got a phone on Thursday and decided I should call my parents. I have to admit that hearing my parents on the phone brought tears to my eye. As a result, I have decided to try not to call them. (Sorry Mom and Dad!) It is not that I am hating my time here. Calling home reminds me that I am missing out on a lot at home and that I am very far from home in a foreign culture and environment. One week down and three weeks to go. Oh, and I forgot to mention…HAPPY BIRHTDAY PATRICK!!