Home sweet home
I just wanted to pop by for a quick update to let you all know that I did indeed make it home in one piece.
Although i do miss Ghana, it does Feel good to be back i almost feel like im a visitor or observer in the culture, like it’s an out-of-body experience. I think one if the strangest things about it is that it actually feels like I never left. I want to write a proper post about the homecoming experience etc but there are a few other field posts I need to get out first and being that my computer decided it didn’t want to come back to America, writing those became difficult. For now I’m writing this on my iPod but I’ll be restoring the computer situation in a few days and will be able to do some proper updates then.
So stay tuned and while you’re waiting keep warm because it’s pretty dang cold in America.
Finding the Fullness
Yesterday was our Open House and Thanksgiving Celebration at Aboom. It was so fun and very successful!
It was during this event that I realized that the fullness I was looking for doesn’t come from the success of work, it comes from the people you work with and the love you find in and for them. When I was sick I wasn’t able to go into see them and I guess I got lost in the work because that’s what I could do from home. Aboom may not need me that much anymore but I still need them.
Coping With Taking Myself Out Of The Equation…
You know, it’s funny; I had always known that in order to create sustainable development you have to consistently plan for the day you’re no longer working. That’s the aim of the work- to make successful projects that thrive on their own. So, essentially this whole time I’ve been preparing to take myself out of the equation and now that time is fast approaching…
Over the past week I was only able to make it into Aboom one day and wasn’t able to go to Nyame Betkyre at all. I made calls to check in as time went and you know what I found out? …Everything that I had set up (and beyond) was running perfectly without me there.
I had always known, or hoped, this would be the case but knowing you’re no longer needed is still a weird feeling. While I did design my time here to have this very end result I had never really thought about how it would feel. Actually, that’s a lie- I thought I’d feel full with immense happiness and satisfaction. And maybe that fullness will come but what I feel now, while I am very happy and satisfied with the work, is emptiness.
I’m not sure I can explain this feeling because I don’t fully understand it for myself. What I do know is that my goals for the rest of my time working here are minimal and I’ve been finding myself with a lot more free time than usual. If I were here longer this would be a prime time to switch gears a little and pick up a new project but being that I have just over 4 weeks left (only 2+ of which are working weeks) that is no longer a possibility. This fact scars me- this whole time I’ve always been able to expand my opportunities because I felt as though time wasn’t a factor. Now that I’m thinking about it, maybe that’s where this emptiness is coming from- my impending departure and the restrictions it’s putting on project expansion.
For now, I’m throwing myself into the little work I have left and trying to take in every last second of this experience.
Kicking Typhoid in the Butt
Sorry if this is long-winded; this is not a prime moment in my life…
I’m currently laying here in my bed desperately trying to stay hydrated and cool, deliriously staring up at the never-ending chain of aunts that are crawling on my wall trying to work out my thoughts on the events of the past few days. I’m still not sure where I stand but what I can say is that I’ve never been so grateful of American health care practices. Let me try recap what’s been going on.
On Wednesday I departed from Cape Coast and embarked on a wonderful trip through the eastern region with some Obrunyi friends I met here. It was great. We hiked to waterfalls (at which my small camera got picked), went to the main bead market in Ghana, hung out in the botanical gardens in Aburi, met some really cool woodcarvers, stayed in some sketchy places, pushed a broken down taxi down one of the main highways, went on a small game drive, went into a bat cave and so much more.
Like I said, it was a wonderful trip however, unfortunately, somewhere along the way I picked up typhoid.
It started on Friday evening when I felt very nauseous and bloated, this is typical of my life in Ghana so I just brushed it off and went along with the plans. The following morning we were scheduled to do a small 3-4 hour hike through the nature reserve however after nearly throwing up at the site of my breakfast and almost fainting on the highway during the 30 minute walk to the park I decided I wasn’t up for the hike. My friends and I decided that since we had traveled so far to see this park we might as well pay a little extra and do the drive since that would be much more comfortable. The park was fun, we saw ostriches, baboons, bushbucks, and bats but by the end of our drive I was totally exhausted and starting feeling pretty sick again.
After getting back we packed bags and headed to the highway to pick a trotro. About 30 minutes into the ride back to Accra it was clear I wasn’t going to make it back to cape that day so we decided to stay in Accra. After checking into a hotel I happily headed to bed while my friends went off to explore the glories of the Accra mall. While there they were able to pick me up some of the all powerful and amazing antibiotic, cipro (without any sort of description of the ailment or prescription from a doctor) for about $2.
Self-medicating is something I’ve become increasingly comfortable with since coming to Ghana so I was confident that Cipro would kick whatever I had in the butt. By Sunday afternoon I was starting to feel better. I still had the chills, aches, sweats, and abdominal pains but they were decreasing in intensity so I decided it was time to head home to Cape Coast. After our trotro broke down on the side of the highway on the way back to Cape we finally made it home safe and sound. Like I mentioned in my last post, time is running short here and I have a ton to do before I leave so come Monday I made myself go along with things as usual by attempting to make a dent in my ever-growing lists. After about an hour of being in town in 95-degree weather I realized I was in no condition to keep going.
From town I headed to a doctor that Pro World recommended and was seen immediately. This doctor appointment was unlike any I have experienced in my life. Dr. Holbrook sat me in the chair and without hearing anything more than ‘my stomach is paining me’ he insisted that I had food poisoning. I was able to briefly explain more of my symptoms and without any further questions, palpating, or any of the normal exam-like practices he wrote me a script to go to the lab to test for malaria, typhoid, parasites, and worms and told me to come back the following day with the results at which point he’ll give me the phone numbers of his two daughters that live in Baltimore. I asked him what I was supposed to do in the meantime and he said ‘oh, I guess we could give you something for the pain.’ He then directed me to the nurse’s room where the nurses proceeded to make fun of my apparently unimpressive fantse capabilities and then finally handed me a really sketchy bottle of Medicine. Before I could read the label the nurse pasted a very vague sticker on the front. When I asked what it was she told me how to take it and said ‘it will help’. Sweet, thanks for the help lady! As I was leaving she shouted after me that tomorrow when I come with the results she’d snap our picture. Yeah, that’s exactly what I want to do, the way I’m feeling. I left Dr. Holdbrook’s office feeling very frustrated and very far from home.
The lab was closed that afternoon so I returned this morning. The waiting room was filled with more pregnant women than I think I’ve ever seen in my life. There were no chairs available. Some people were squatting on the floor or pacing outside waiting for their names to be called. After registering and paying a 26 cedi laboratory fee I stood around waiting for my turn. About an hour later I was finally called into the back room in which a man waited with a huge syringe and some test tubes. After a very uncomfortable blood sampling experience I returned to the waiting room, the pain in my arm much greater than usual. I took my seat outside on a bench in the 90-something degree weather and took a look at my elbow and realized it looked as though there was a golf ball in the crease. I was hot, tired, frustrated, in pain and feeling pretty helpless. After a little bought with my tears I told myself that I’m doing all I can and this is just the way things go. About 25 games of snake and an hour later, the nurse finally gave me my test results. She didn’t know what the results meant when I asked her, but check out that name!
Anyway, back to doctor Holbrook I went. After a good 15-minute walk in the heat I was happy to take my seat in the slightly less crowded waiting room. When Dr. Holbrook finally waved me in he started our second meeting by searching, to no avail, through his address book for his daughters’ contacts. When he finally gave up on finding them he asked for my test results. I handed him the paper and he, surprisingly helpfully, went through each aspect of it with me. He said, very casually, that I do have typhoid but I’m on the path to recovery thanks to the cipro. I’m to continue to do what I’m doing and get tested again in the first week of April. He also said there’s still a possibility that I have some parasites or worms and wants me to come to him when I get those lab results back. Although I’m grateful it’s amazing to me that this man was able to diagnose me without having examined, questioned, or prescribed me anything.
So in the end, I do feel better knowing that I have something diagnosable and treatable however the events of the day and days leading up to it have left my head spinning. My thoughts are running so much that I can’t even bring this entry to a concise end. After being here for so long I’ve gotten used to some things such as the lack/vagueness of directions, the knowledge that you will wait for everything, the difficulty involved in traveling, the immense heat, and the fact that people will consistently make you aware that you are an outsider, always wanting to snap a picture with you or test your fantse knowledge. I guess the point is that, even with this knowledge and so much time under my belt, I’m still very surprised at the presence of all these features and the lack of professionalism in a medical environment. Maybe I’ll have a more thought out conclusion as I start to feel even better but for now I’ll leave you with that and the knowledge that I am in fact well on my way to recovery.
quick update
It’s really been some time since I updated this thing with the progress of my various projects. Things are going wonderfully here. Recently it’s been feeling a bit like a more laid back version of week ten (Union students will understand what I mean). The speed that things are moving at right now is astonishing, amazing, and very sad at the same time. I’m so happy everything’s moving along but it’s crazy to think that soon I’ll be leaving it all behind to (hopefully) succeed on its own.
Let me quickly try to recap the projects’ progress of the last month or so:
Aboom:
- The Bracelets Project has successfully been transitioned into the hands of a very competent teacher named Luisa. While she works I observe and make sure everything’s running as efficiently as possible. I’m also creating a ‘beads manual’, which I know seems like a silly concept but by the time I leave we’ll have 4 locations open so it’s important that we can keep everything running smoothly no matter who’s in charge.
- Inclusion Project has started and is running better than I could have ever imagined it to! We run it with two classes, P4 and P5, in the mainstream school. We meet with one group from the two classes every Friday for about 2 hours. We do a lot of dancing (freeze dance and hot potato are hits in Ghana!) and other activities, it’s a blast for everyone involved. Everyone’s very excited and enthusiastic about the whole thing- kids from the classes involved will come over to our building during the week to make sure that they can come play on Friday. The teacher who has agreed to run it (Beatrice) is great! She’s very committed and enthusiastic about the whole program and she understands and stands by the importance of running a program like this. I have full confidence in her ability to run this in the future and I’m so grateful to her for her commitment.
- What’s to come:
- We’ve been planning an Open House and Thanksgiving Celebration for March in which we’ll invite the project partners to an exciting event organized in order to show our appreciation for their cooperation with our various projects. In addition to inviting those people that sell our goods we’re also advertising all around town and at the few beach resorts. Anyone’s welcome at the event and we’re hoping it will bring us additional support as well as business as we’ll be holding an exhibition and demonstration of our goods.
- Two new beads locations are planned and display boards are being prepared. This will mark the end of our project expansion in terms of sites because we want to make sure the work load is manageable and the distribution is easy.
Women’s Group
- Everything is progressing as per usual in the group. The health discussions are going well and more and more women have been showing up. They’ve even started to open up more and we can get into real discussions about various societal and community issues that these women deal with. It’s been wonderful and I always look forward to meeting with them on Tuesdays
- The garden is coming along great. As time goes I’ve been taking a less active role in everything in attempts to further their ownership over the project. I asked them to come up with their own name for it, they came back to me with Nyame Bekreye Vegetable Growers. And about a month or so ago I showed up for my usual Friday visit to the garden and I saw a man working in the field. I was taken aback because at first I thought he a man from the village who was helping with the garden (which kind of goes against the project itself) but it turns out the women had taken the initiative to call the local agricultural director to their garden to help them with proper harvesting. I was so incredibly happy when I found that out because it proved to me what I was already thinking- they’ve really taken ownership of this project. I have no doubt that this project will successfully continue after my fast approaching departure.
- What’s to Come:
- Other than continuing with the requested health discussions the women’s group is pretty much at a plateau for the time being. I will be hosting one more health discussion regarding nutrition specific to the crops that we’ve been growing.
Educational Psychology Course
- The Educational Psychology Course was going well at FEDEP however due to a series of events I won’t discus right now we’ve (ProWorld, FEDEP, and myself) have decided to remove the course from FEDEP and relocate it in a bigger institution. The decision to relocate it was only made this past Friday and because I don’t have plenty time left here I’ll be the pilot participant for this project and hopefully proworld will send other participants there in the future to continue the work. It seems like a great idea. The man who runs the organization is very passionate and eager to start and seems well connected. In fact, the one day series of lectures that I’ll be hosting on March 25th will host anywhere from 50-150 local primary school teachers who have the same credentials as those at FEDEP.
Other than these wonderful projects I’m just living up my last months in Ghana. I can’t believe how fast everything is going! Right now I’m primarily looking forward to two things: (1) I’m taking a few days off this week to travel to the eastern region and do some hikes with a couple friends who are also volunteers I’ve met here and (2) my big brother will be coming to Ghana to visit me on March 29 and then he’ll do some volunteering of his own and finally we’ll travel together for my last 10 days in Ghana. As much as I’m looking forward to that trip I like to pretend it’s really far away because if I admit to myself how close it’s approaching I’ll have to then admit to myself how soon I’ll be leaving my Ghanaian life behind and that’s a very hard thought to process.
