The home stretch!

I really enjoyed my time spent in Bolgatanga. It was nice to get away from all the Tamale hustle and bustle for a little while, even though I thought I was going to sweat out every ounce of moisture in my body! Monday we worked in a clinic in a town called Nangodi and assisted with a child health clinic. Tuesday, instead of being at the health clinic, we did an outreach child health clinic where we set up camp underneath a gigantic tree on the outskirts of town and mothers brought their children there to be weighed (using a scale hanging from a tree branch! I have some very cute pics) and immunized. One of the moms let me tie her baby to my back! It's incredible how much lighter and easier it is to have a child on your back instead of in your arms. Makes me want to do that one day when I have little ones of my own! Wednesday and Thursday were exciting days, as we had the opportunity to teach first year nursing students and the Nurses Training College. We were asked to speak on the "nursing process" and "ethics in nursing". The students definitely kept us on our toes with their difficult questions and we had a lot of fun! The principal sat at the back of the room and near the end asked us if we could teach the students some relaxation techniques, so I led them all through guided relaxation (you know, the whole "close your eyes, take a deep breath" sort of thing). So funny.

After 2 weeks in Bolgatanga, we have now returned to Tamale! Friday morning the rest of the group came to pick us up with a bus we we headed out to a village. There is a Ghanaian nurse named Vida who is currently doing her Master's in nursing at UBCO. She has started this amazing organization called Project GROW (Ghana Rural Opportunities for Women). Through this organization, women in the village are taught various skills which allows them to provide for themselves, their family, and their village in many ways. There has been a lot of fundraising going on for Project GROW back and home and we had the privilege of delivering the gifts to the village! We presented the village with a grinding mill (to more easily grind up shea nuts into shea butter, which the women sell), multiple donkeys and donkey carts, plenty of goats, food, and money. It was so amazing to see the village receive these goods and they were so incredibly grateful for everyone's generosity. They threw a big celebration full of dancing, singing, music, and even some screaming (They move their tongue back and forth and scream at the top of their lungs..the women do this when they are really excited, it's pretty funny.) I got to try my hand at playing a traditional two stringed guitar-type instrument. Definitely harder than it looks! After a long but amazing day at the village, we returned back to Tamale.

Today is Independence Day here in Ghana, and this year is the 50th year of independence celebration! It's going to be a crazy party here,that's for sure!

I can't believe I am in my final week here in Ghana! Time has gone by so fast, but at the same time I feel as though I have been here forever. I'm looking forward to having some time to relax on the beach at the coast for a few days. Jackie and I will be camping in a tent at a place called Green Turtle Lodge (http://www.greenturtlelodge.com/) which we are pretty excited about! It will be fun to spend a few days in London as well, although I am sure I will experience quite the culture shock.

I miss everyone and am looking forward to being back home again. Even though that means real life will set in again....exams, papers, practicum, graduation, getting an RN job...
Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all soooo much!

Keepin' it sweaty in Bolgatanga

It is definitely hot here in Bolgatanga, or Bolga as it is usually called. We are sweating up a storm, but unfortunately not sweating off the pounds (all of the white bread and palm oil makes up for that). After jumping through some PR hoops early in the week, we began our work at the Tongo Health Centre, a clinic in a smaller village on the outskirts of Bolga. It's been neat to see how a smaller, more rural clinic works, and to become more aware of signs and clinical presentations of various tropical illnesses in the earlier stages. After two rather uneventful days, Thursday brought about a meaningful experience. We had the opportunity to see two births that morning, almost simultaneously. Although the second birth was smooth and successful, with a healthy baby and mom, the first birth was not so smooth, and the baby did not make it. Definitely one of the hardest, most heartbreaking things I have ever had to witness and be a part of. The infant mortality rate in Ghana is reported to be around 300 out of every 1000 births. Thank goodness Jackie and I have each other here to talk about things and cry together, otherwise I don't know how I would deal with some of the things we have seen here!

After a difficult day, otherwise, things here have been really good. Today we went to Paga to the crocodile pond. We had to buy a chicken and then the guides there use the chicken to tease the croc while we sat on it and snapped pictures. Then they fed it. I have it on video. Pretty crazy! The croc we sat on was huge and apparently 99 years old! It wasn't too scary until smaller crocs started lurking up behind us when they caught wind of the chicken! The guide scared them off quickly though, and all was good. Later on we went to the market and I bought some beautiful fabrics and bowls made out of callabash.

I love being here in Ghana, but part of me is beginning to miss home. Traveling has really made me appreciate certain things about home that I previously took for granted. This trip has definitely led me to catch the travel bug, and Jackie and I are already talking about doing South and Central America sometime next year once we (hopefully) have jobs and (hopefully) money!

Next week we will be going to a different rural clinic and then spending two days teaching first year nursing students at the nursing school here. Looking forward to that! I cannot believe how time has flown by and that we only have about a week and a half left here. Geez!

I am very impressed with how well my body has handled traveling! I was expecting to feel awful/sick often and spend a lot more time in the loo! But that hasn't been the case. I am feeling good, I am safe, and I have managed to turn down all of the marriage proposals that I have received thus far.

Hope all is well at home! Cheer extra loud for Canada tomorrow for me!!

Love you all,
Kels

Wrapping up in Tamale

So I am realizing that I am not very good at keeping up with this whole blogging thing. Maybe I'm just not used to it, as I rarely journal at home. It's nice though to be able to reflect, as well as keep people back home updated on the happenings here in Ghana.

This week Jackie and I started out on the Labour and Delivery Ward at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. I was pretty nervous going in, as the incidence of major complications and even death (of both mother and child) is pretty high here. In the two days we were there we only got to witness one birth, but it was still an amazingly beautiful thing! The mother was a very small young woman, no older than 18 I'm sure. It is incredible how quiet the women are here during labor and birth. In the birth I assisted with at home the woman was swearing and screaming bloody murder! Such a drastic contrast. The people here are taught to be so strong and withstand immense pain and suffering. We worked with a Dutch midwife, Laura while in L&D and that birth was her first Ghanaian delivery. It was a pretty cool experience for all of us involved!

Wednesday we went to visit an orphage called the Children's Home. Jackie and I spent the morning playing with the babies and the toddlers while Jill and Kim had a crazy time chasing after and attempting to teach the school age children. The toddlers were all so affectionate and would often cry if you put them down. It was hard to leave them but it was nice to know that we were able to give them some much needed love and attention.

Thursday we spent our day on the pediatric ward which is completely packed. Family members stay with patients, when possible, and do all of the personal care. There were over 50 people (patients and family) in one large room, with some patients in cribs and some, usually the older children, on mattresses on the floor. Sooo different than back home! We spent most of our day looking after a young boy with enteric fever, malaria, and sickle cell anemia, with a fever of 40.2 degrees. We got to put our patient advocacy knowledge into practice when we fought to get him in for an apparently "totally booked up" ultrasound. He reminded me a lot of our patient we had on our very first day in hospital, who ended up dying overnight, so I think that's why Jackie and I took to him so strongly. We went to visit him the next day and thankfully he made it through the night and appeared a bit more stable.

We decided to end our time in the Tamale Teaching Hospital on a good note and spent Friday in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where we got to hang out with premature babies. They were such amazing tiny little miracles. Can't believe that they even survived being out of the womb, let alone are still going strong. We got to bathe the babies and learned how to swaddle them up really nice and tight so they look like little packaged sausages! Too cute!

Today is our last day in Tamale, as tomorrow we head even further north to Bolgatanga (or Bolga, as it is usually referred to). The heat here in Tamale has started to wear on us as the temperature is starting to rise, and our power is cutting out more often, leaving us without our beloved ceiling fan. Bolga is supposed to be even hotter, so although I am very much looking forward a change, I am slightly dreading the looming heat that awaits us there!

Muriel, our professor, took over the kitchen at the guesthouse today and baked some of her magically delicious bread. She managed to find real butter (not the usual insanely hydrogenated stuff they have here that somehow manages to stay solid in 40 degree heat) and cheddar cheese at a store somewhere in town. I need to run as she has invited us all for a feast!

Hope everyone is doing well back home. How are the Olympics? I here there is a lack of snow. Hope it's not too much of a gong show!

Love from Ghana,
Kels

A lifted spirit, just when I needed it.

After what started out as a heartbreaking and difficult week, there has finally been a light amidst all of the darkness. Thursday and Friday we had the privilege of visiting an amazing Ghanaian doctor, Dr. Abdulai, at one of his two clinics on the outskirts of Tamale. He has a lot of supporters and receives donations from a lot of various sources. This allows his to be able to perform operations for patients, free of charge. Because of this, the line-ups at his clinic are huge! Needs are assessed and after surgery the patients stay in one of many huts on the compound. Each surrounding village has their own hut, and they are allowed to stay there while the patient recovers as long as they maintain the hut and supply the food for the patient. It is an amazing set up. Jackie and I spent the morning in the operating room with Dr. Abdulai on Thursday and had a really good time. He is such a kind man and very welcoming to having us Canadian nursing students at his clinic and watching us work. His entire approach to care is love, which is a breath of fresh air after what we had been witnessing the days prior. He is very loving to his patients and prays over and blesses their body before and after he performs the surgery. He mainly performs hernia repairs, as they are so common here, but will do other things as well. Despite his amazing skill and expertise, no general anesthetic is used during surgery. Only local anesthetic. This means people are fully awake while their abdomens are being cut open and only have numbing substances injected into the skin (must like when your mouth is frozen). Hey Dad and Uncle Korky - imagine being awake during your hernia repairs....yikes! Oh yeah, and the patients are expected to sit up and move themselves over from the operating table onto the stretcher immediately following the procedure. The people here are so tough! We are huuuge wimps in comparison!

Tonight the 8 of us here is Tamale will be taking a tro-tro (basically a really sketchy van-type thing) out to Mole National Park where we will be staying for the weekend. Tomorrow we will get to go out on a safari and I cannot waaait to hopefully see elephants and maybe even some lions! Apparently at the hotel baboons are plentiful and we have to keep a close eye on our purses as they are notorious for sniping tourists' bags. I'm really looking forward to this fun weekend adventure out of town! I'll tell you all about it when I am back in Tamale!

Hope you all are well.

Love and hugs
-Kels

Learning about suffering, the hard way

Although I have been having an amazing time here in Ghana, this week, finally starting nursing work in the teaching hospital in Tamale, has undoubtedly been one of the hardest and most heartbreaking experiences I have ever had. The patients are the sickest people I have ever seen, especially on the surgical ward that Jackie and I were on for 2 days this week. Most of them were completely emaciated, just skin and bones, and had a listless, hopeless expression. Most often by the time people get to the hospital here it is much too late, and most very sick people will not make it. Pain control is not something that is often practiced here, as people are taught to be strong and not show pain/weakness. Narcotics are frowned upon, therefore never used, and other pain killers, such as ibuprofen are used but very infrequently. The resources and supplies at the hospital are severely limited, and there is not even any running, drinkable water for thirsty patients to drink. Jackie and I have ended up emptying our own water bottles so that some of our patients can have some water. It is heartbreaking. Witnessing anyone suffering and knowing you cannot do much to help is one of the worst feelings, and this is even further magnified when it is a child in pain. For most of the afternoon of our first shift Jackie and I cared for a young man, 18 years old, who had typhoid fever and developed a perforated bowel as a result, leading to a terrible infection and a huge swollen belly. He was definitely going downhill but I think we were able to provide him with some comfort and show him love as best as we could. Sadly, he did not make it through the night and when Jack and I returned to the ward this morning, he was not there. Heartbreaking. So glad Jackie and I had each other there otherwise I don't know how I could have made it through the day! We had to take a few cry breaks to debrief multiple times over the past two days. The style of nursing here is so different than what we are used to and what we are taught in school. People are yelled at for moaning/crying while in pain. Today we were watching a nurse roughly change a dressing on a child who had extensive burns on his face, chest and arms. As no pain killer was used and the nurse was being rough rubbing his wounds, he was screaming out in excruciating pain. The nurse got upset and slapped the boy. Jackie and I had to leave the room and we burst out crying. It is so hard to watch something like that happen and know that we can't do anything about it.

But despite all this I am trying to find the beauty and positive in everything I experience while here. Even though the conditions in the hospital are awful and the treatment is not always great, at least the hospital is there and some people are being treated and getting better. Jackie and I ended the day by handing out canada stickers to teh kids and they seemed to really like that. Nice positive note to end on!

Tomorrow we go to a surgeons clinic on the outskirts of town who performs free surgeries with all the donations he receives from various sources. I have a feeling this will be a bit of a more uplifting experience and I am really looking forward to it!

Love you all!

In love with Africa!

Sorry I have been so bad with keeping up with the whole blog thing! We have been so busy this passed little while that internet has not been a top priority! But I will catch you guys up on what's been going on here.

When I wrote last we were in Accra, the countries capital. We spent two nights there and then travelled a few hours west to Cape Coast. There we visited an old slave castle that the English had built to house their slaves before they were shipped out. We did a tour of the castle and it was crazy how such horrific and disgusting things took place in what is now such an aesthetically beautiful place. I took lots of pictures which I will post when I get the chance.

After one night in Cape Coast we travelled north to Kumasi where we spent two nights. We took an air conditioned bus, and at 23 degrees celsius some people were putting on jackets! There we visited the market which is apparently one of the biggest in the world. It was a crazy experience! Basically little alleyways/streets completely packed with people walking in both directions, often with bowls of something balancing on their heads. On either side of the jam-packed path are vendors selling everything from lentils to gorgeous African fabrics to raw mystery meat. There was so much going on, all the sights and smells, and I definitely felt overwhelmed! Even though it was a neat experience, after an hour of pushing my way through the market, I was ready to have some personal space again!

After 2 nights in Kumasi, we travelled 8 hrs north to Tamale where we have been for 4 nights so far. We are staying at a guesthouse which is a 35 pesewas (probably around 20-25 cents Canadian) taxi ride to downtown. We have done so many amazing things here already! On Thursday we had the privilege of going to visit three different rural villages. A guide named Walisu (like Wally-Sue) first took us to visit a village called Kulaa. As soon as we stepped out of the van we were swarmed by children who wanted to touch us and hold our hands. One little girl, Nasiba, grabbed my hand and refused to leave my side the entire time we were at the village. If we managed to get separated, she would somehow find me! The children were all sooo beautiful and I just wanted to take them home. Even though we definitely saw plenty of sick, thirsty, and malnourished children there, they all had so much love and joy. It's not all as sad as those World Vision commercials, and there's no Sarah Mclachlan playing in the background. The women in the village showed us how they take ground up shea nuts and beat them with one hand in water for hours until it evenutally separates to make shea butter which they sell to provide income for them and their village. We got to try as well! Way harder than it looks. After that the men in the village performed som traditional drumming and dancing for us and even brought some of us up to dance with them! I guess my 13 years of dance training really paid off, as I was able to pick up the steps fairly quickly, but my hips sure don't move like theirs do! One of the elders told me he liked my dancing and that he wanted to "friend me". A few days later he gave Walisu 6 guinea fowl eggs to bring to me as a gift. This is a big deal, as that is a decent amount of food for someone to just give away here. I felt so honoured that this community would welcome us into their culture and their homes so openly and lovingly. My face hurt from smiling so much all day and I definitely teared up a bit more than once!

We then went to a second village called Gbalahi where we got to watch an older woman spinning loose cotton into tight balls of thread that they use to make their garments. We wanted to support her so some of us bought some spools.

After that we went to a final village, Kbawmo, where we got to meet the chief of the village. When you meet a chief you squat, slowly/quietly clap your hands and hum "naaaahhh, naaaah". It's a really good leg workout! Then we got to see the master pottery maker making clay pots and even got to try our hand at it too. After we visited the villages Walisu invited us back to his home where he prepared a traditional dish "pete pete" for us (like pet-a-pet-a). It was kind of like a mashed up yam base with a delicious tomato/fish/spicy sauce on top. I am loving the traditional food here but my stomach is definitely paying the price for it!

Tomorrow is our first day in the hospital here in Tamale and I am really looking forward to getting into some nursey things here. It's been really great to spend time getting introduced to and familiar with the culture first before we dive into the medical realm. Not too sure which area of the hospital I will be working in but I will fill you guys in once I have started!

I am really loving in here in Ghana and feel that I have settled in nicely. It is just so amazing to me how the people here all have so little, materially speaking, but are so joyful and loving and want to give you so much. It is truly incredible. And I want to snatch up all the children and bring them all home with me!

I love you all and miss you very much! Hope you all are well.

-Kels

PS - I am hoping to post pictures soon! HEre is a link to the group blog which has some pics up...

In Africa - Day 2!

So today was our second day in Ghana and its been amazing! I am loving it here so much. I'm even getting used to the heat! (well, I pretty much sweat 24/7 at home anyways, so that's nothing new..haha).

I'll continue where I left off on yesterday's post. After visiting the mall we took a taxi to downtown Accra to hang out and walk around. It was neat to see all of the vendors and people there. Jackie with her unreal photography skills managed to get some great shots! She got swatted at by one man though who wasn't too pleased that she'd taken his picture...even though she asked first and he didn't object! Yikes, a little scary.. It was so hot out so we ended up finding a little bar and enjoyed our very first (but definitely not last) Ghanaian Star Beer in the shade. Later on we met up with the rest of the group, Muriel, her "African son" Sinbad, and Vida's sister Philomena at a restaurant in the Paloma Hotel. Deeee-lish! We were all so tuckered out by the time we got back to Crystal Hostel that we crashed pretty hard!

This morning we were up bright and early to get to the bus station before 8am to catch our bus to Cape Coast. After a slight delay due to the fact that all our massive suitcases and medical supply bags wouldn't all fit on our bus, we were on our way! Only a two hour trip, I managed to snooze and head bob for most of it, even though I really wanted to stare out the window and soak everything in. For the afternoon we visited the Cape Coast slave castle where the British once held thousands of African people during the slave trade. It was such a beautiful place, but chilling to think about the horrifying and disgusting things that occured in that very spot. I took lots of pictures there.

Today there was the finals for the big African cup soccer league going on in Egypt, Egypt vs. Ghana. Sadly Ghana lost 1-0. Can't even imagine the party that would have gone on had they won!

It's incredible how as a white person here you cannot go anywhere without being asked by numerous men, women, children, and vendors for money. It's so difficult because I know that compared to most here I am so rich, but I also know I cannot give to everyone and still have money to pay for my room! The children are the hardest to turn down. Soooo beautiful and they definitely know how to get what they want!

Tonight we are staying at the Hans Cottage Botel. It's a pretty beautiful place with internet (woo), a pool, and is located in the middle of a swamp/mangrove area. I stood only a few feet away from a crocodile by our hotel today! Pretty crazy!!

Anywho, I should get off here and join the rest of the crew in the pool! Tomorrow we head north to Kumasi where we will be staying a night before going to Tamale.

I love you all! I'm safe, feeling good, and having an amazing time!

Over and out
-K