I met
my two other roommates several days ago from Johannesburg, South Africa!!! They
are Rosa and Mitchell and both are incredibly nice and really interesting to
talk to (because of their accent as well as what they have to say). I am learning
a lot just from meeting these people from other parts of the world. They
graduated high school and are taking a gap year to travel around the world and
volunteer; Rosa was helping refugees in Israel before coming here and
Mitchell has been in Ghana for two months already. They have such a different
worldview that anything we talk about ends up being interesting. Both are
working on the civil rights in Ghana, so their work is completely different
than mine. They are here for about the same amount of time as I am so I will have more to say about them I am sure.
Also I
had my first day of work in the hospital Tuesday. When I arrived I was introduced
to the whole staff and was told I would begin working in the Pharmacy. I will
admit I had a hard time at first. For starters I felt out of place and as
though there was no meaningful work to begin with. But that changed about an
hour in and I feel like I did a lot for my first day. Also I was struggling
mightily with everyone’s accents. Normally I can understand the Ghanaian accent
just fine but when a lot is going on around you and it gets noisy, it becomes
much more difficult (anyone can have a conversation in a quiet room but the
real trick is doing it in public). Also everyone in Ghana speaks English, but
when they are talking with other Ghanaians they often switch to Twi, the main
language of the Ashanti in Accra. It is very difficult to pick up on their
English when they switch between Twi and English (nobody tells you this when
you go to Ghana). But after a while it becomes easier and so the day got much
better as it went on.
The
first day I sorted some patient files for the main pharmacist. This was a
difficult task because they do not have a filing system and the documents are
just kept in big stacks with a rubber band around them. It seems to work for
them though. I also counted out iron pills (ferrous sulfate), and placed them in
prescription bags given to patients with anemia. Although this wasn’t the most
interesting work I found it quite important since much of Ghana has some sort
of nutritional deficiency. I don’t have statistics but since meat is not as
common here I would assume iron deficiency is relatively common. I look forward
to seeing other parts of the hospital soon but I was told I would get more work
learning the actual prescriptions the next couple days.
I guess
I should also comment on the state of the hospital. It is located 15 minutes
from our house, in Nungua and is a Christian run hospital. There is one main
waiting room with a table in front where patients get there blood pressure and
history taken by nurses (in most places this would happen after you were put in
an exam room but space is tight so they do it out in the open). At the back of
this room is a small room (about 8x10 ft) where the pharmacy is located and
also where people pay. The back wall has the medicine on it and I say medicine
rather than pharmaceuticals because I think most of what they have could be
bought over the counter in America (things like cough medicine or vitamins). There are some
antibiotics such a Ciprofloxacin, which is what is given to travelers for water-borne viruses. There
are several offices and a couple exam rooms as well. In order to get to the
second level you must walk outside and up some stairs, and there are several
exam rooms up there as well. They have a lab for running tests but not much
high tech equipment, and even their computers look like the old dell my parents
had when I was in elementary school. I also noticed a sign on the wall that
listed several surgeries and there prices; there were only about 10 of them,
from C section to appendectomy (not a wide variety). Another sign listed the
days that certain specialties were available; Surgeon on Monday, eye doctor on
Wednesday, Gynecologist on Saturdays. I believe that there is much more medical
attention that most of these people need, but the hospital does all it can to
help as much as possible.The people working at the hospital are quite knowledgable and I am sure that with the technology available to every doctor in the states, they could be equally as successful.
On a
lighter note I took my first trotro ride home from the hospital. A trotro is a
public transportation van that runs in the cities in Ghana and is very cheap (although a bit dicey).
It was really interesting and now I feel quite comfortable taking them
anywhere. However, the trotro ride was followed by a 30 minute walk up our
street in 90 degree weather to actually get to the house. I survived but about
5 pounds lighter from the sweat loss. Also saw a lost goat running in the
street on my way home. It must be normal because cars barely slow down, they
just assume the goat will know to get out of the way.
I will post again at the end of the week when I have had a full week of work and had a chance to explore Accra. I am also going to start including a Twi phrase of the day for both your benefit, as it is interesting, and my benefit, learning the language to communicate with Ghanaian's in their native tongue. It is an interesting language but just a heads up, the pronunciation is not at all how it looks.
Twi phrase: Wo ho te sεn? How are you?
eye good.
