Community Health Evangelism Internship

Greetings from Ghana! It’s been a busy month around here, as my departure date in March is fast approaching. In February, I have been attending an internship in Dahwenya, Ghana for Community Health Evangelism. (CHE) People from all over the world were in attendance; from Africa, the US, Canada, and Cape Verde. It was such a treat to be surrounded by so many different cultures, and to discuss the challenges that each of their communities are facing.

As I have said before, CHE is an amazing educational program used to develop a community, instead of always providing relief efforts. Nonprofit organizations may come into an impoverished area, but may end up doing more harm than good if they are not careful. Teaching a community to be dependent on foreigners and constantly providing relief is not necessarily the best answer to a problem. There are times when a region may need relief. Hopefully, it can be a temporary situation. The idea is to move away from relief as soon as possible and begin to empower a community with education. There are thousands of topics from Microenterprise, Women’s Cycle of Life, Health, and Children’s CHE. It teaches sustainability so that programs can continue to run long after the foreigners leave. As someone who has traveled a fair amount around Africa, I can tell you that this is the best model I have seen to empower communities and to provide holistic treatment, spiritually and physically. This model also provides prevention education to combat illnesses and diseases in we see commonly in third world countries.  

I have been wanting to take the CHE classes for quite some time now. Needless to say, I was thrilled that the internship was provided in Ghana while I was here. It’s only offered in two places around the world, once a year. It’s offered once in the Phillipines, and once in Ghana. It was such a blessing that God placed me in Ghana during the internship and I was only 35 minutes away! I feel like I am now able to focus on preventative and curative medical treatment in the places I work abroad. As you know, I had a bit of a crash course in CHE before I did the training. I have been facilitating education to women from different villages surrounding Aveyime, Ghana. We have taught various lessons from the Women’s Cycle of Life module, and it has been an amazing experience. It’s wonderful to finally receive the full training behind the education I’ve been providing.

We were also able to travel to Northern Ghana for our training. Ghana is about the size of Colorado, but it took us about 14 hours by bus to get to the north due to traffic and road conditions. We traveled to Tamale to look at several successful CHE programs that were running in rural villages. We visited a school, a shea butter production company, a dental clinic, and local mechanics. Northern Ghana is quite a bit different from Southern Ghana. The north is a lot drier and dustier than the south, and it also gets a lot hotter. Southern Ghana is already very hot for me, so I was especially hot in the north! I had to wake up several times throughout the night to dump water on my head so I could cool off enough to sleep. Northern Ghana also has a very large Muslim population. There are mosques in Southern Ghana, but the majority of religious buildings I see in my area are predominantly Christian churches. It’s the opposite in the North. Ghana is very blessed to have these two religious groups coexist in peace. I wish I could say the same for other places in Africa.

We were even able to make the three hour drive over to Mole National Park! Most of the wildlife in Ghana has been killed off, but Mole still has some. Elephants are the main attraction, but they claim to have lions, leopards, and hyenas that are rare to see. It is also advertised as one of Africa’s cheapest safaris. We spent about a total of 2.5 hours in the park and went on one game drive, which totaled a little less than $20! It was a huge blessing to be able to travel north and experience more of beautiful Ghana.

As my time is wrapping up here, I have been reflecting a lot on the challenges I have faced along the way. It’s been a particularly challenging trip, but God has pulled me through. Trips never look how you expect them to look. It’s best to role with the punches, be flexible, and adapt to any role that you may need to step into. I’ve been trying to absorb as much time with the kids as I can, and soak up all of ,their laughs and hugs. On my previous trips, I have been in several locations; whereas this trip I have only been working in Ghana. It makes leaving a little more painful when you get to know everyone better. I am so excited to see my fiance and my family, but I will greatly miss Africa. Please keep the clinic lifted up in your prayers, as we have encountered some challenges that have prevented us from continuing to build. Love you all and thank you for your encouragement and prayers.

Cross Cultural Healthcare

Greetings from Ghana! What a busy couple of weeks it has been! We are heading into the Harmattan season here and it is heating up! The winds blow across the Sahara desert and into Ghana, making it very dusty. People say the climate becomes drier during this season but it still feels so humid compared to Colorado!

Since I received my Ghanaian nursing license, Jammie Tompkins and I have started volunteering at a hospital close to where we live. It takes about 45 minutes to get to Dodowa Hospital, and it’s a very rough road. When we started orientation, they made us get the old school white dress uniforms. It felt like I was taking a step back in history 50 years, but at least they didn’t make us wear the hats!

We have been working the day shift in the Emergency Department, and it has been a very interesting experience! Let me tell you about some of the differences in healthcare between Ghana and the United States. Patient care is very family oriented here. While family members are involved in care in the States, it’s not nearly to the degree that they are involved here. Family members usually stay with the patient, bring them linens and clothes, help feed them, and help ambulate them to the bathroom. It’s a big help to the nurses, especially when CNA’s aren’t employed on the unit.  

At Dodowa, when a patient needs a medication or treatment, they must pay for it in advance or  they don’t receive it. The patient’s family brings money to the pharmacy in exchange for the medication, and then they bring the medication to the nurse. If the pharmacy doesn’t have the necessary medication, the family member must travel to another pharmacy to look for it. Patient’s family members also take lab specimens to the lab, but first must pay before it can be run. Dodowa doesn’t have certain imaging services available.( For example CAT scan, MRI) Patient’s family members must take them to other facilities that can provide those services. Then, they must bring the patient and the results back to Dodowa. They have to pay before the imaging will be performed.

It’s always very hard to see when patients have to pay for services before they can receive them. A lot of people around here are impoverished and can’t afford medical procedures. We see people die because they can’t afford medications or treatments that would save their lives. Since poverty is more common here, people wait until it’s absolutely necessary to go to the hospital for help. A lot of the time they wait until it’s too late. A lot of people end up dying from preventable causes because they can’t afford treatment or wait too long to get help. It’s hard to deal with, but just like healthcare in any other area, you have to find a way to deal with the tragedy you see.

I know the United States has a lot of issues with their healthcare, and it is by no means perfect. But we all need to be so thankful that we receive the quality of care that we do. I invite anyone who disagrees with me to come over and see what type of healthcare other people around the world receive. The US is by no means perfect, and yes, they make mistakes. But trust me when I say it can always be much, much worse.  

There are also a lot of cultural differences in medical care between Ghana and the United States. There is a section of the hospital called Traditional Medicine. This is for patients who don’t believe in Western medicine. They focus a lot on using natural herbs and things that grow locally to treat illnesses. Also, I learned that if you transfuse blood here, it is common to cover the blood with a sheet. That way people don’t have to look at it. According to a nurse I worked with, people have different beliefs about a person’s blood. Some people believe that if you receive another person’s blood, some of that person can be transferred to you; including their curses. Parts of Africa are very animistic in their belief system, meaning that everything has different spirits. If someone dies, it could be because a curse was placed on them or their family. Those curses can then be transferred through the blood.

Here’s another case the shows the cultural differences you deal with while performing medical care abroad. During my time at Dodowa, a patient passed away before receiving treatment. The patient was then transferred to the morgue. The next day, family members of the patient tried to break into the morgue to retrieve the body. The family’s pastor had told them that the patient needed to be resurrected. He stayed on the phone with them to give instructions of how to perform the resurrection. The family even assaulted some of the hospital staff in order to steal the body out of the morgue. That’s something you definitely don’t deal with in the States.

Another big difference in medical care from Ghana to the United States is the role of a nurse. According to a member of the hospital staff, nurses are expected to follow orders, and to give medications. It’s not emphasized to use critical thinking to evaluate your patient or question orders that are inappropriate. According to this nurse, the only one that typically uses a stethoscope to evaluate the patient is a doctor or physician’s assistant. I feel very blessed to have received the education that I did. It has been amazing be able to use that education help others in the States and abroad.

We have now finished our Emergency Room rotation. Shortly, we will be moving on to Pediatrics and Labor and Delivery. It has been so interesting to learn more about tropical medicine, and also about the cultural practices here. I am anxious to continue my work and see what else I can do to help! Thank you for all of your continued prayers and the love you send my way. I very much appreciate it!  

My Ghanaian Christmas

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and New Years! It has been busy around City of Refuge. Let me tell you what the holidays looked like for me and the kids. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, we celebrated twice! First, all the ex pats would get together and cook food that we traditionally have for the holidays. This can be quite the struggle! As you can imagine, ingredients can be difficult to get here. One thing I didn’t realize is that grocery stores will hike up prices for certain items because they know ex pats will buy them. The prices of turkeys in grocery stores were increased to $200! City of Refuge refused to pay those prices, so one of the directors decided to bring back a turkey and a ham in her suitcase. It was delicious! Not to mention a lot less costly. We ate lots of American food and it was amazing! I don’t think you realize how much you miss certain foods until you can’t have them. The staff at CORM have some great cooks!

A few days after, we celebrated again with a Ghanaian Thanksgiving and Christmas that served local food. The whole CORM community ate dinner together and then had a big dance party afterwards. The kids loved it! For Christmas, everyone at CORM gets a new outfit made out of matching material. The children loved how fancy they looked in their new clothes. Also, they received new tennis shoes and dress shoes! I wish you could have been there to see the giant smiles on their faces. It was priceless. It was hard to be away from home during the holidays. My parents, my fiance, and his family all celebrated Thanksgiving together. This made me very happy but also made me miss home. It helped to be surrounded by so much love here.  

There were also several big outings that the CORM children had over the holiday break from school. All of the children had a day at the swimming pool! Let me tell you, these kids love the water! Some of the littles were scared at first because this is not a regular activity for them, but after some time, they loved it! We had splashing fights, danced to Christmas music, and ate pizza. It was such a fun day. The only thing they didn’t enjoy was waiting twenty minutes after they ate to get back in the water.

Their next outing was to the capital city of Accra. There, we went to the mall for pizza and a movie. For some of the children, it was their first time in a movie theater. They saw The Greatest Showman, and had so much fun watching the musical. Most of the children liked the pizza, but some are still adjusting to eating different food besides Ghanaian dishes. One little boy hid underneath the table from the pizza until we brought him a plate of rice. It’s definitely different than what you see from the children back home!

We also had a girl’s slumber party. All of the teenage girls gathered in the prayer house with their blankets and pillows for a night of fun! The girls requested popcorn, hot chocolate, fingernail painting, games, and movies. They set up the projector on the wall and they watched movies all night. In fact, there was little time for sleep with all of the movies there were to see! It was a great bonding experience.

New Years Eve was another fun event. We had a relaxing day, and then went to church about 10pm at night. We brought in the New Year praying and worshiping, and then at 12:30am we set off fireworks. The children love fireworks! They were going crazy for the display. The children were allowed to stay up as late as they wanted, so many of them didn’t sleep! They stayed awake all night, and the next day. I am used to working the night shift in the states but I couldn’t even hang with these kids. They have so much energy!

This week, the children returned to school, and I started teaching Biology again. It feels good to get back into the routine of things. Also, this week they broke ground on building the clinic! I could not be more excited to see this finally happen. It’s very difficult to navigate the waters of opening up a clinic in another country. Pray that we have God’s guidance through these steps, and that it would happen smoothly.

Also, pray that God would direct me in my remaining months here. Pray that He would open up ways for me to help and to be a blessing to the CORM staff and children. My health has been an issue the last few months, if you could keep that in your prayers as well I would greatly appreciate it. I love you all, and thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement. I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and have a blessed 2018.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Finally! I have time to update everyone on what I have been up to! What a busy couple of weeks. My October was definitely a whirlwind! Troy and Jammie left for a trip back to the US. This left me to run the clinic by myself for three weeks. In addition to running the clinic, I also taught two health classes on top of my regular botany class. Needless to say, I was very busy! On slow days, life at the clinic can be heavenly. I can prepare my lesson plans for the classes I teach, or study for my Twi class.

I’m trying my best to learn some of the local languages, my main focus is Twi. I sit in on one of the children’s classes for Twi at the school. It is incredibly challenging, but I am managing to get by with it while traveling. I’m doing my best to learn some Dangme also, which is the language spoken in the nearby village, Doryumu. A lot of the new children that recently arrived speak another language called Ewe, so I’m trying to learn some of that as well. So many languages, so little time! It’s quite the struggle to keep them all straight.

   Busy days at the clinic are another story. You can be taking care of one patient, and have several others waiting to be seen. Being the only person to run the clinic for three weeks can be pretty exhausting! At times, It can be a little overwhelming to try and take care of multiple sick children at the same time, especially with illnesses like malaria. We do not have a functioning lab, and are only able to do minimal lab tests at the clinic. This can make diagnosis challenging, and I think it’s something that I definitely take for granted in the US. In the states, I would just order lab work or imaging to help make a conclusion on the diagnosis of a patient. Here, we don’t have a lab. We don’t have imaging. We would have to take a patient to the nearest hospital for both. The road is only paved part of the way and the other part can take some time. This hospital has xray and a lab, but no EKG, no MRI, or CT. Making that trip only happens if it’s absolutely necessary. I am able to use the medical library at the Tompkins house to assist me, and then if I’m really stumped on a patient I can send them a message on Whatsapp. Somehow, I made it through. I was definitely ready for a break by the end of it!

I did have help the last few days of the Tompkins trip, my fiance came to visit me!! He is also a nurse, and works in the ER at a hospital in Colorado. I put him right to work! I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to see him. Being apart during our engagement has been more challenging than I could have imagined. The length of this trip, the lack of phone service to be able to have a conversation, it really begins to wear on you. Having him visit for three weeks was absolutely heavenly! It was just what my heart needed. Not only that, but it was amazing to have help, and to show him a bit of my life here in Ghana. It was his first trip to Africa, but it did not show. He did so well the culture, the food, the travel, and meeting a ton of new people. I took him on a camping safari, where we camp in the bush in a regular tent. Camping safaris really save on price, but also allow you to more out in nature, and truly surrounded by all the elements. We spent some time in Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and also visited Victoria Falls. The great thing about this area is that three countries meet in one small area, and you can even just walk across the border. Each country has such a beautiful culture and landscape, and are so different from each other.  

During our time in Botswana, an anthrax outbreak occurred in the game park where we camped. It apparently occurs naturally in the animals, but can kill the animals off quite fast. We decided to continue with our safari, and were informed we would be fine as long as we didn’t play with the dead hippos. It was a struggle, but we managed! We saw so many beautiful animals and were lucky to have not seen any poisonous snakes near our campsite! However, we did see many sets of eyes at night around our tents. We were told that if you shine a light in a lion or leopard’s eyes, their reflection will be red. I didn’t see any red eyes, but that still leaves hyenas and wild dogs for predators, so you still want to be careful. For a bathroom, they dig a pit latrine behind the tents. It’s not that bad until you wake up in the middle of the night and have to go! Our guides told us predators are most active after 9:30pm, so it’s best to not leave your tent after that time. They also said to wear close toed shoes around camp because of the snakes and scorpions, and not to leave your shoes outside or the animals will run off with them! It was amazing to be in your tent and hear elephants walking around. There is just something completely different about seeing these amazing animals in their natural habitat. It’s so different than in the zoo. You are in their element. You get a better sense of their power and strength, and gain a lot of respect for how dangerous they can be. It is such a beautiful thing, and I can’t tell you how sad it makes me that the rate of poaching is so high in some of these countries.   

I don’t know if you have been following the news, but it’s lucky that we left Zimbabwe when we did! The state of Zimbabwe was already a difficult one with it’s economy. They currently don’t really have any currency to circulate. The Zimbabwean dollar went under a few years ago as inflation had made it basically worthless. Since then, they have been using foreign currency, including the US Dollar, which has made it very expensive for the people. Lately, they don’t even have that in circulation. We saw people standing in line for hours at the bank, but not able to receive any money because there simply wasn’t any. Mugabe, age 93, is the current president of Zimbabwe and has been since 1980. He has used ruthless tactics to stay in power, even when he lost previous elections. With an election coming up next year, Mugabe intended to run again, and fired his Vice President to set his wife up to be his successor. Last week, the military intervened and forced him into house arrest. He was expected to make a speech to resign yesterday, but refused and said he will remain in power. Needless to say, it’s a good thing we left when we did. The landscape is beautiful, the people are amazing, but it just wasn’t the right time for us to be there.  

Lance left last week, and it’s an adjustment to get used to him being gone again. I’m so thankful for the amazing time we had together though. I have been a little under the weather since he left but am on the mend. I jumped right back into the busy schedule, and am now teaching Biology at the school. This past weekend Jammie and I went back up to Aveyime to facilitate another women’s conference. That was amazing, as always. I think there is a special place in my heart for the people in rural villages. I enjoy my time with them so much. We taught Community Health Evangelism, and focused on laying the groundwork for the women to feel empowered enough to provide change in their communities on the first day of the conference. On the second day, we focused on health topics. I really enjoy teaching about a woman’s worth at these conferences. These women are taught so many things by society and their culture. They are taught it’s more important for boys to go to school, that they must stay home, take care of the children, make money for the family, and do a lot of the work around the house. Men often take multiple wives. It’s amazing to be able to tell these women how precious they are to God. To not listen to what society tells them, they are smart enough and strong enough to do whatever they want, be whatever they want. They are precious and valuable in the eyes of God and do not need a man to have a relationship with Him. When we say those things their eyes light up, and it’s amazing to witness.

The second day of our conference was a little rough. Our translator didn’t show up. I was teaching on reproductive systems and reproductive health, which as you can imagine, can be tricky without accurate translation! Luckily, another woman stepped up and did the best she could. One of the lessons taught on the ovulation cycle, and how this can be used as a form of family planning. In a society where women have a lot of children and often don’t have access to birth control, they found this really interesting! They took out pens and paper and copied down the diagram I drew. They also found the talk on menopause very interesting that Jammie gave. Apparently, in some places in Ghana, they don’t know what menopause is. When women start acting different or “crazy” when they begin to go through menopause, they think she is a witch. Then, they send her to an actual witch camp to live. It’s unbelievable what women have to go through around the world.

I am now back at City of Refuge, and preparing for our Thanksgiving celebration this week! This Thanksgiving, I am very aware of how much I have to be thankful for. First of all, I’m thankful for all of the time I am able to spend with these children! It has been such a huge blessing to be able to be here and help in any way that I can. I definitely am very thankful for the basics, like running water, and electricity, as those things go out frequently here, and I am so thankful for when we have them. I am also really thankful for my family, and the time apart really does make you appreciate the time you have together. I am counting down the days until I can see them again. I am so thankful for a wonderful fiance, who supports me in my work, and would fly half way around the world to spend time with me. I’m also thankful for all of you. I received so many nice messages and prayers when I was sick, it means a lot to me. Thank you all so much, and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Eat some turkey for me!

Adventures in Ghana

Hello everyone! So many things have happened since the last time I wrote, it’s a struggle to know where to begin! School started for Faith Roots Academy. All of the children living at City of Refuge attend that school, in addition to roughly 190 children from the local community.  Surprisingly, I am teaching Botany! I will also be teaching health classes, alternating with Troy and Jammie. It’s been an adjustment to start teaching. Although, when in Africa, you must be flexible and ready to help wherever you are needed. Most of the time, it’s doing things you wouldn’t have pictured yourself doing.  

This week we will be doing health screening for the new students, and also deworming the entire school. (Now there’s a phrase you don’t hear in the US!) It’s recommended that you take a dewormer about every six months. You can get worms from a lot of things here, and I can tell you from experience, they are no fun! I’ve had them on my previous trips, but I’m hoping this trip will be worm free!

I finally had a night off, so I decided to make the most of it! Another volunteer and I took tro tro’s to a nearby city called Akosombo. It sits along the Volta River, and is absolutely beautiful. Between the stillness of the water and not having anything scheduled for 24 hours, it felt wonderful! We took a kayak out on the river. We passed many huts where children ran out to greet us, yelling, “ Obruni, I love you!” It was quite adorable. (Obruni in the local language means white person) Many children were playing in the river, or bathing, and some were going to the bathroom. The river serves many purposes for the communities it surrounds. Many villages don’t have a water supply, so that also comes from the river. We were very careful to not tip the kayak over, because it’s definitely not water that you want to fall into. There are certain parasites that are very common in the Volta River because of it’s multipurpose use.

The next morning, we woke up early to go see Boti Falls. We took a tro tro to Kpong, and then another to Koforidua, and then another to Agogo. We hopped out early at the falls entrance. You walk down roughly 300 steps to this beautiful pair of waterfalls surrounded by lush, green vegetation. They said the water was safe to swim in, but we decided not to risk it. I’m glad we didn’t because a snake passed pretty close to us and went swimming in the pool beneath the falls! The locals told us that snakes in the water wouldn’t bite you, unless you were cursed. I didn’t feel like taking my chances! It felt so amazing to go exploring for a day. I came back feeling refreshed, and ready to work hard.

This past weekend, Jammie and I went up to Aveyime. We were asked to teach CHE ( Community Health Evangelism) to a group of women. It was such a wonderful experience. It was a two day seminar, and an estimated 22 women came from six different villages. On the first day, we taught more about mental and emotional health, and the second day we taught on physical health. On the first day I taught about a woman’s worth, through God’s eyes. It broke my heart to hear these women’s stories about how their culture views women. They said that in their villages, it’s not important for women to go to school. It’s thought that women should be at home, taking care of children. They said that men frequently practice polygamy, and take many wives. It was such a blessing to be able to share with these women how much God loves them, and how valuable they are in His eyes. We talked about how even if their culture doesn’t value them, God does, and that’s who’s opinion matters.

The second day of the seminar focused on physical health. The first lesson I taught was on hand hygiene and sanitation, and the second was on HIV. It was so interesting to learn the different beliefs about how HIV is spread. People told me it was spread by sharing eating utensils, sleeping next to someone in a bed, shaking hands, mosquito bites, talking to them, and sharing clothing. They said that people with HIV are sometimes rejected in their communities. This was heartbreaking. I told them now that they have had this education, they can return to their communities and spread awareness about how HIV is actually spread. They can help dissolve some of the fear surrounding the diagnosis, and work to love and care for these people.

Probably the most entertaining moments of the seminar were when the women tried to teach us how to dance and sing songs in their local language of Ewe. Let’s just say I need practice before I’m willing to try it in public. During the night, I heard loud drumming nearby. It continued passed 1am, and had me curious as to what it was. The next morning I asked someone who lives in the area. They told me that on Fridays they have funerals, and will drum late into the night. They also told me that sometimes they will make sacrifices to gods during this time. They said that human sacrifices used to be performed when a chief of a village died, but that’s now out of practice. They said that people in a nearby village tried to do a human sacrifice recently and they were arrested. Needless to say, it’s a very different culture than the one I grew up in.  

During the mornings, I go on runs to the local village named Doryumu. I meet so many people who are curious as to why there is this random white woman running around. On one of these runs, I came across a little girl that I had met during a training we had done at her church. She wants to be a nurse when she grows up, and we became instant friends. She lives several kilometers away from me, but she brought her siblings to visit me. I have also been going to her house to visit her and her family. It’s the most amazing experience. I walk on paths through tall grass to get to where she lives. They pull out a nice chair from their house, dust it off, and offer me a place to sit. They cook me fufu ( pounded yam or cassava) over a fire, with okra stew, and some kind of meat that I’m afraid to ask questions about. The idea of hospitality is something that is lost in our culture compared to here. I know that this family doesn’t have that much extra money, but they don’t hesitate to feed me, and offer me what they do have.

This family also helps me learn the local language of Dangme. It’s difficult because depending on where you go in the country, you will run into various local languages. Right now, I am trying to learn Ewe, Twi, and Dangme. Keeping them all straight is quite the challenge! All the help I can get is very much appreciated. They actually wanted to learn Spanish, so I get to teach them something too! People here are so amazing with the amount of languages they speak. There are children at CORM who can speak six languages. It makes me feel lazy for only speaking English.

Thank you all for your continued love and support that you are sending my way. Please keep praying that God would grant us favor with obtaining our medical licenses here, as it is proving to be a lengthy process. Also, that God would continue to refresh us every morning, and to pull closer to Him instead of being consumed by the amount of work to do. Thank you and I love you all!

A Trip of Firsts

It has been a busy few weeks here at the Children’s Village! My time this week has been mainly focused on the twelve boys that were recently rescued from human trafficking on the Volta River. The government requires them to get medical screening after they have been rescued. Many children endure physical, psychological, and sexual abuse while they are working on the Volta. Sometimes, they only receive one meal a day. No medical care is given, and they are exposed to parasites that live in the water. These children have been through so much, and it has been awful to learn some of their stories. They are so young have endured some of the worst of humanity. My heart hurts for the pain that they have been through.

Taking the children for the medical screening means driving to the capital city of Accra. Our days start out very early to get a head start on the horrible traffic that surrounds the city. Once we finally arrive, we take the children for check ups at the government hospital. I wish I could show you the look of amazement on their faces as they saw a big city for the first time. Most of these children have only been in rural villages their entire lives. They have never been to a city. Their eyes were wide as they leaned forward in their seats toward the window, absorbing all the sights and sounds.

Traffic takes about two hours to go a very short distance. Vendors walk up and down in between vehicles, selling various objects from soap, to fruit, to sachets of water. Cars use their horn very frequently, sometimes as a warning for their crazy driving. I’ve seen many cars drive down the center of a two lane highway, honking their horn and flashing their lights, so they don’t have to wait in the line of traffic. Buses speed on side streets down rocky, dirt roads to try and avoid sections of cars parked bumper to bumper. It seems like they will take any crazy route to keep moving and avoid standing still. It was during this time we discovered that one of the boys gets car sick, which made for a long rest of the journey.

We arrived to the hospital and were placed in a room to wait for lab work to be performed. Business today was much like any other day, running on Africa time. This means several hours late. I heard this saying the other day here. They said, “ Americans have all the clocks, but us Africans have all the time.” It’s an adjustment to go from American expectations of time, to the expectations in a different culture.

As we waited in the room, about 20 other children arrived that were rescued from the same location as our boys. Smiles grew on their faces as they recognized the familiar children, and chatter grew loud in their local languages. As we waited, an intense game of Uno began. This proved to be very difficult because very few of the children speak English, and very few knew how to actually play Uno. They began to throw down any card they wanted at random times and draw as many cards as they wanted from the stack. It took a long time, but we finally were able to play a few successful rounds.

Finally, it was the children’s turn to get lab work drawn and see a doctor. When we were finished, we decided to take the boys for a treat. We planned on taking them to the mall for their first experience of eating pizza! The Accra mall is very much like a mall you would see in America. Fancy stores, expensive price tags, air conditioning, and a wide selection of restaurants. These boys walked around the mall, overwhelmed by the wealth. These boys came from very impoverished situations, but there is large discrepancy between the classes in Ghana. There are people that are extremely wealthy, but more frequently are the cases of poverty.

 We ordered a few different selections of pizza for the kids to try to make sure they all found something to enjoy. However, they did not enjoy the pizza at all! They stared at it, not really knowing what to think. Meanwhile, it was the first time I had eaten pizza in a while, so I was scarfing it down. They picked at it, trying random toppings off of the top, but none of them even finished one piece! They said they would rather have rice! I never thought I would meet a child that didn’t like pizza, but these children had probably never eaten anything besides traditional Ghanaian food. We tried to convince them it was good by naming off other children from CORM who love pizza, but there was no convincing. We ended up taking the pizza home and buying them joloff(a traditional rice dish) instead.

We returned home after the long grueling days thinking that the children probably didn’t have that great of a time. Blood draws, the pizza fiasco, long car rides, and car sickness made us think that the days didn’t go that well. We had split the new boys into two groups to take to Accra. The first group came home and shared stories of their experiences to the other group, and they were actually jealous! They couldn’t wait for their turn to go to the city.

It has been such a blessing to get to know these boys and spend time with them. They each have such unique personalities, and even though they may fight and bicker like brothers, they also take care of each other and watch out for each other. These boys are so strong to have experienced what they have been through.

This coming week, a group of counselors from the states will be arriving to give training with the City of Refuge staff. We will be splitting up all of the children up into small groups for bible studies.  These counselors will be training us in basic techniques to care for children who have been through such horrible trauma. They will also be training the staff in self care. Hearing the traumatic stories of these children can take a toll on us too, so it’s important that we also take care of ourselves.

I feel so blessed to be part of such an amazing organization, and work with such wonderful staff who give their all in caring for these children. This place really does go by the philosophy that it takes a village to raise a child, and we all use our individual strengths to help the children in any way we can. It’s an amazing feeling to be a part of something making such a positive impact. Thank you all for your well wishes! Please pray for the success of our small groups, as we keep America, and the areas affected by Hurricane Harvey lifted up in prayer.

Aveyime

Greetings from Ghana! I have been so busy here, time is really flying by! Last week, I was able to catch a tro tro into Accra to use the internet and the power turned off! Every day is an interesting one here in Africa. A couple things have happened since my last blog. Three of the boys that were rescued from the Volta River ran away. It breaks my heart that they are no longer here for CORM to help. An investigation is being done to see where they went. Hopefully they will be found safely. It’s terrifying to think about such young children being out there on their own. Please keep them in your prayers.

We found the culprit of my hives! What happened was, I actually moved in to a room with bed bugs. I can’t say it’s been the funnest experience, but people go through far worse around here. I am blessed that it was a simple solution. It has been quite the process to try to get back to bug free. I have been sleeping in another location while they fumigate the place. I placed all of my stuff in bags to kill the bugs living in them. I’m hoping they won’t find a way back in!

This week, I was able to go north to complete a medical screening in a village near Aveyime. Dr. Troy and I went along with a team in Ghana volunteering from Las Vegas and Idaho. Some of the team put on a vacation bible school for the children in the community. A few of the volunteers joined the team that put on a medical screening. We drove to this village right along the Volta River. We thought that we would be having the screening in a school, but this community doesn’t have one, so we had the screening under a tree. It was a lot of improvising, but we made it work. The village is composed of mud huts, dirt roads, and the most amazing people. It was such a joy to be able to spend time with them.

The village does not have any running water. They get their water from the river, which has parasites in it, and is not safe to drink. They also bathe in the river, and go to the bathroom in the river. It really makes me think about how blessed I am to be able to turn on a faucet at home and have clean drinking water any time I want. I am constantly reminded of the things I take for granted back home. We have so much in the US, so many material possessions, but it’s not often I see joy like I see here. I think a lot of times, the more we have the more we are consumed by it. I am as guilty as the next person of this, but it has been such a good reminder that my happiness should never lie in what I have but who’s I am.

We set up chairs in the dirt for the screening. We worked with local nurses to see patients and be able to communicate with them in their local language, mostly Ewe. We sat a scale in the dirt to weigh patients, set up a tape measure along a wood pole to measure height. We had a station to check blood pressure, and three of us to see patients. We performed a medical screening for the community, which means we did an evaluation to see what the community’s biggest needs were. From that information, follow up would be provided by a few of our team that live in the community. They would be able to return and provide education through the CHE(Community Health Evangelism) program. CHE is a program that provides health education to communities, spreads the gospel, and  empowers members of the community to instill change.

As we did the medical screening and collected this information, many of these people were suffering from various diagnoses. So in addition to the medical screen, the team worked together to provide medical advice to the members of the community. We also did vision screens, provided deworming medication, and provided glasses. It was an amazing couple of days in the town of Aveyime, and I hope to do more work there before I return home.

The volunteer team we joined was able to visit a village while we were up north. I thought I would share with you what they told me because I found it very interesting. In this village, they worship the god of the river. According to this village, their god manifests itself in a clay pot. They have this pot on a pedestal and they worship it. About 40% of the men in the village worship this pot, but the percentage is lower for the women. They make animal sacrifices to the pot. They bring conflicts to the pot for it to figure out. It’s not uncommon for people to worship various idols in the more rural villages.

As much as I enjoyed the village, it felt good to come home to CORM! I missed seeing the smiling faces of the children. They always provide a warm welcome home with lots of hugs. Next week will be a busy one! Troy and Jamie will be away, leaving me to man the clinic. By clinic, I mean a room that they have opened up in their house for treatment until an actual clinic can be built.
Thank you all for your continued support! I am so blessed by your words of encouragement. I will continue to pour your love onto these children. Love you all!