Sheila Goes Ghana 2022

7 days and 1 hr from now, I will be boarding a flight bound for Washington, DC!! I’m looking forward to being back in my world with my people again.  I miss your faces🤗

The excitement of going home is in the background for sure but I haven’t fully embraced it yet because the Goodbye Parade has begun and it is quite sad. It’s hard to process that soon I’ll be back to my cushy little life in the US while many, many good people here will continue to really struggle in all of the ways I’ve described in these blog posts over the last several months. It feels like some version of survivor’s guilt….”why was I so lucky to be born in such an abundant part of the world but through no fault of their own, these people landed here in this impoverished country?”

Also, being here for 6 months doing this kind of work has given Me the gift of many beautiful friends…..friends that I will likely never see again. Of course we will chat periodically when possible but it will be very different when we are half a world away and we all know it!

So many people (some perfect strangers and some close friends) have pressured Me to take them with Me when I leave because they so desperately want to go to either the USA, Canada or the UK in order to better support themselves and their families. I wish I had a 747 and a great deal of money to sponsor them in the US but the reality is that I sold my house and quit my job before coming here so I need to spend a good amount of time and energy getting my own life in order.

My last day at the City Clinic in Atimpoku was last Friday. There were several staff members there that I will really miss so after some sweet goodbyes and some final pics, I headed out the front door 😭😭

This is Joyce the Midwife. She adopted my process of using Lidocaine for nerve blocks during circumcisions to reduce the pain!! I gave her my Nursing clogs when I left and told her that I hope every time she does a circ, I hope she peeks down at her shoes and remembers how proud I am of her!!!

For the last several months, so many of us volunteers have been deeply disturbed watching/listening to the blood-curdling shrieks of baby boys during/after these surgeries which were done without ANY pain control. I have tried educating, coercing and downright stalking the midwives at both clinics to change to this nerve block process in order to spare these babies the physical and psychological trauma we were witnessing.

The local clinic is run by a harsh midwife (she is the one I reported for slapping a woman in labor) who has “done it like this for 30 years” so she wasn’t changing now.💔🤬

But my friend Joyce did try the nerve block and after we did a few follow up teaching tweaks, she said the last baby slept thru the entire surgery!!!! 🥳🎉🎊🥳🎊🎉 This news was seriously one of the highlights of my trip!! I hope and pray that this spreads to other clinics in Ghana to benefit many, many more baby boys.

This week will be spent wrapping up at the local clinic in Frankadua and securing follow up care after I am gone, for my patients out on the farms in order to finish their wound healing.

There will be another 6 month medical volunteer arriving 2 weeks after I leave which is fantastic news!! How great to have someone consistent here to continue carrying the torch for these patients!! I was asked a few days ago if I would extend my stay here another few weeks to train this person. I said, “I’m sorry but No”. Seriously,  it’s like running a marathon and being at the 25 mile marker when asked if you’d like to extend the race by another 5K!! Heck no, not now! My sights are on the finish line and I’m physically/emotionally ready to break that tape. (Not bad for someone who has never run a race in her life?😘)

I’ve done a good deal of documenting on these patients, Richmond will continue to drive the motorcycle/assist with wound care delivery and I’m happy to video chat as often as needed from my cozy place in Maine. All of this should facilitate a smooth, successful transition for everyone.

The next post will likely be at the airport while waiting at the gate next Mon night!! 🥳🤠🥳Richmond told Me to keep Sun night open because his After School Community Band would like to come over here and play a little Goodbye concert that night. How sweet is that?

Time to head to bed, clinic tomorrow. I am really looking forward to seeing you all soon and catching up on all of the details in your lives too.💖

Xoxo Sheila

….in order for you to get all the final edits AND the captions under the pictures (which are rivoting+witty if I do say so myself), you have to click on the title of the blog post in that email which will then take you to the actual prettier version in the actual blog where you can see everything in the final draft. ❤️

Hi all-back in late August I wrote “2 weeks down, 22 weeks to go”. I’m happy to report tonight that as of tomorrow, “22 weeks down, 2 weeks to go!!!” It has been an adventure to remember for sure! But all good things (and struggles) must come to an end … so soon it is time to ✈️.

A few people have asked Me to extend my time here but I am ready to go. As I have said several times, you could spend many years and a few million dollars here but that would barely scratch the surface of Ghana’s complex issues which need addressing in order to pull this country out of the state it is in.

Another reason it’s time to go is that it can be quite dangerous here in that there are really no building codes, car inspections, enforced driving rules etc. I have had a few close calls as a pedestrian, as a tro tro passenger, been threatened by a psych patient in the clinic (there’s no security there), shuffled over numerous trip hazards and got caught in a strong rip tide at the beach (no lifeguards) … but I have been very fortunate not to have been seriously ill or hurt during this trip.

My luck, however, nearly ran out last week when the cab we were in was climbing a very steep hill. We stalled, started sliding backwards on the sandy steep road (no guardrails and this road should have had switchbacks instead of climbing straight up), then completely lost the brakes and began accelerating backwards/ downhill towards a busy intersection filled with speeding vans and sidewalk vendors. The driver finally cut the wheel and we crashed trunk-first into a drainage ditch. It is beyond Me, how we didn’t then start rolling down the steep hill after the crash (no seatbelts in these cars). And Thank God the driver was able to stop the car before we careened thru the busy market below because lives would have been lost….maybe ours, maybe those below but I am very grateful that besides some mild headaches from the impact, everyone was OK.

Honestly, when I arrived in Ghana and saw just how few standards, safety nets, laws are in place to protect people, I thought I was going to witness far more car crashes, electrical fires, building collapses and things of that nature. But miraculously, for the most part, people here somehow survive. That said, there are many reasons that the average life expectancy is only in the late 50s / early 60s-and accidents are certainly one of those reasons.

Now, why were we climbing that hill in the first place you ask? It was Millie’s 30th Birthday and after all the good care she has given to Me here at the house, she deserved a proper celebration!!🥳 So right after the accident, we tightened our heels, WALKED up that hill, ordered an immediate round of Pina Coladas to calm some frazzled nerves then spent the afternoon/evening celebrating our friend. ❤️

We had 6 new volunteers arrive today (Sun) from around the globe. Therefore, I didn’t leave for the weekend like usual so we could be here to greet them. But I wasn’t hanging out here in this hot, boring house all day Saturday either!

As you may remember, I’ve been up to the big waterfall in Wli twice early on in this trip but it downpoured both times. I vowed I was going back there in the Dry Season before I left. And I had promised Richmond I would take him with Me since he is such a nice guy who does so much for others and because he has never been there since spending money is scarce for most people here.

Well Saturday was the day for The Falls. Jorja, Richmond and I headed North to Wli (in a different taxi)😇 . It was a beautiful, sunny day. The 3rd time was the charm-finally had the chance to really enjoy the area sans rain. The waterfall was freezing which was FANTASTIC on that 100 degree day. Then laying on the warm rocks later on the river bank almost felt like I was back in New England.

On the way home we detoured to the Monkey Sanctuary. Yes, 3rd time there too but who can ever get enough monkeys right?

Heading out on the motorcycles in the morning to the farms so better get some sleep. Sending love and big hugs to you all until I can deliver them in person soon.

Xoxo Sheila

To any of you who may have been reading the blog via an email alert you receive when I post, there has been an issue that I wasn’t aware of until tonight.

For those who have been reading right from the blog, disregard this message because you should have been seeing exactly what I intended all along. So you are all set.

I just had Cheryl send me her email alert of a blog post so I could see why she wasn’t seeing some parts of my post. The most recent email post looks like the one below. But in order for you to get all the final edits AND the captions on the pictures (which are rivoting+witty if I do say so myself), you have to click on the title of the blog post in that email which will then take you to the actual prettier version in the actual blog where you can see the final edits and captions under the pictures.
God I wish I knew that a long time ago but we didn’t know what we didn’t know😇

And lastly, no matter how you are reading my blog, I hope you know that I try to respond to your much appreciated comments within a day or 2, so hopefully you can see those too❤️

And that is a REALLY GREAT and QUITE SAD experience all at the same time!! I arrived feeling competing emotions and it appears that I’ll be leaving the same way… 🥳/😭

But all that said, it’s time for Me to go soon. I am wrapping up some medical projects here and need to leave Ghana before I go broke. I struggle to stand in front of very sick or seriously wounded patients who are quite poor and just look the other way. So Richmond my right hand man and I repeatedly coordinate transportation to a clinic or hospital and then he transfers my payments to the facilities. It has been so sad and extremely meaningful (yes competing emotions once again) to care for these people yet one could give a few million dollars here and it still wouldn’t rectify the damaged/absent infrastructure needed to provide proper medical care to the Ghanaian people.💔

I am asked for money several times daily-sometimes by people who really need it and sometimes by people who just see foreigners as a financial opportunity. This town has had volunteers for almost 20 years now and for some adults+children, manipulating the volunteers is literally a career. That can get overwhelming at times and I’ve had to set some serious boundaries with several people including one of our assistant managers who is not poor but has twice asked Me for money for his family. After my meeting with that man and Elvis this week, he definitely won’t be doing that again. 😇 Since arriving, I’ve been asked to give my shoes, clothes, water bottle, shoulder bag, watch, sunglasses….. and last week my hair!!! A few of the staff at our house that I really love are aware that my Visa is good until April and have asked me to extend my time here. But I need to get out of this country before I become bankrupt, naked … and bald!!🤣

Also, it’s time to get my own health back on track. Stinging heat rashes along clothing lines/wheepy eczema on my scalp, both from chronic sweating isn’t resolving in spite of my best efforts. And we’ve moved into the dry season so we all wake up coughing from the dust/air pollution surrounding us now that there is no rain to keep a lot of that at bay. This creates the appearance of a grey/pink fog in the sky all day long. It almost reminds me of the sun trying to burn through the fog on a warm Maine summer morning….but that ain’t no fog here and it’s tough on the lungs.

I’ll be landing in Portland, Maine in the afternoon of Feb 1st!!! 🛩 🇺🇲 🎆 This has been a life-changing, incredible journey that I am so deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to experience. But I gave it my all and soon it’s time to go back to my family, friends and own life again. I have responsibilities and big things coming up that I need to be home for….

…. and so much more too!!

I wish you all a Very Happy New Year filled with Good Health, Happiness, Prosperity and Joy.

Oh BTW, New Year’s Day was so much better here than Christmas. My friend Giftie (the Midwife) + her husband invited Me and a few friends from the clinic to visit an island where she used to work to see the babies she delivered and do some sightseeing. It was so much fun. We had a lot of laughs and the villagers loved the visit especially from the “Madame” who took such good care of them out there for several years!!

Sending love and light from Africa to all of You❤️

Xoxo Sheila

Greetings from Ghana. Hope you are having a nice Christmas week and maybe even enjoying a little time off. Many people are off this week here too but that isn’t necessarily a great thing when you’re a volunteer in a small town with so few extra curriculars. Aka our work IS the excitement here so it can get a bit dull when that’s not even an option😇

For the past few weeks I’ve been here with only 1 other volunteer, Jorja. She is an 18yo lassie from Australia doing teaching in the school right behind our house.

She and I were very curious as to what Christmas Day would look like here. Turns out, pretty quiet. We were invited to go to our cook Mary’s church service that morning which was beautiful, festive…. and LONG… 4 hours to be exact!😳🤣. I had to laugh thinking that at home if mass goes over an hour, many people get irritated!! Wowsers

Christmas afternoon however was quite disappointing. As friendly and generous as Jorja and I have both been to so so many people here, we received many many well-wishing texts but no one invited either of us to spend Christmas with them?? I know many of them don’t have much but I gladly would have paid to cover our expenses just for the socialization. Also, I know several people who aren’t poor but no invites there either.

I talked to my friend Richmond about this the next day because I was just trying to understand this experience since where I’m from, many people invite people over who are missing the holidays with their own families. Richmond said people here don’t do that because “they are stingy” (his words not mine).

So after a lite lunch here at the house on Christmas, Jorja and I went to a community volleyball tourney where we saw several friends. (Apparently spending the day with family on Christmas is not as common here as it is at home).

The tourney was entertaining…and heck ya, at least we had something to do on the big day.

As dark fell, we headed back to our house to make video calls home to family and read/return some beautiful messages from loved ones. That was the highlight of my day. Thank you all!! ❤️🌲❤️

So that was Christmas. Then it was back to the farms on Mon on the motorcycle for wound care out there… Thank You Jesus (and Happy Birthday too Sir)…this volunteer was back in the saddle again, Alleluiah, something to do!!

One last thing to share that I found amusing today-just before dinner, we had just come back from our 6hr wound care ride to the farms and I was doing some paperwork at the table out in the yard. I heard someone walking towards Me so looked up to see this…

Turns out, these two guys were out with their dog hunting rats “in the bush”. They caught 5 today. Their family will eat one for dinner and they will sell the other 4 for about $3.00 each. After I bandaged his blister (and nearly stepped on one of the rat’s heads in the process) off they went for their feast. And so did I, but thankfully we had salad with yam fries. Phew😘

I wish you all Good Health, Happiness and Prosperity now and in the New Year. Oh and warmth too, the word on the street is that it’s a bit chilly up North.

🥳Happy New Year🥳 Sheila ❤️🤗❤️

Today, thanks to a lot of generous people in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and mostly Elvis+friends here in Ghana, we were able to donate meal packages for 30 needy local families along with treat bags for 200 children. It was such a privilege to be a part of this! Oh, by the way, I had misunderstood Elvis a few weeks back about this event-it was a food giveaway for Christmas not a Christmas party.😇 Finally figured that out earlier this week, so shifted gears and helped pull that off this morning.

One of our little visitors today has a very special story. (You may have read some of this in my reply to one of Rachel’s comments last week. If so, excusez-Moi but for the rest of you, it’s worth the read!)

Daniel is our 3yo neighbor with Downs Syndrome. When I met him a few weeks into my trip, I realized that I had seen very few people here with special needs. Why? Oh, its a 2-part answer and both parts are tough to take in. Firstly, children like Daniel are thought to be cursed. The belief in Black Magic as the source of evil is as strong here as the belief that God is the source of Goodness. Therefore, it is believed that Daniel’s family must have been cursed or done something to deserve to be cursed in order to have produced a Downs baby. Secondly, these kids are a huge financial burden to families already living in poverty.

For these reasons, these children are often left to die soon after birth. Somehow Daniel survived infancy but his Mother passed away in childbirth about a year ago so his father is now raising a 1yo and 3yo with special needs.

Long story getting longer….2 weeks ago, I was getting ready to leave for the weekend on Saturday morning when Daniel’s father arrived carrying him to my house for free medical care. This poor little boy had a temp of 104. His malaria test showed severe malaria. I only have adult malaria tablets in the house. So Mary tried to cool him off with a luke-warm sponge shower as I wrote a quick medical summary. Gave Daniel some liquid Tylenol then paid a motorcycle driver to take him and Dad to the clinic for some injectable + liquid anti-malaria meds.

It wasn’t until Mon when I arrived at work that I learned from Giftie the Midwife that even though she offered to pay for the malaria injection, they left the clinic without getting care because Dad said they had no money. They never returned over the weekend.

My heart absolutely broke imagining Daniel suffering and/or perhaps dying in their mud hut. We all suspected that Dad was intentionally letting Daniel die. It’s absolutely tragic yet also at some level it is understandable when putting this situation in the context of poverty. Perhaps Dad thought he was in some way helping his family by letting Daniel go. I know this is hard to wrap your head around when considering this situation from a 1st world country perspective but everything is so completely different/harder here.

At lunch that dreadful day, I walked to Daniel’s house with a bottle of liquid malaria medication that the clinic had given to Me. I literally begged Dad to give Daniel this medicine to prevent him from dying. My staff here at the house also visited with Dad that day, also pleading for him to start the treatment.

Today while passing out the treat bags to the kids, I looked into the crowd to see little Daniel with a huge smile and a big wave. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest! He looked SO good, SO healthy!!💕💖💕

After the food/treat giveaways at the house, Richmond and I went out on the motorcycle to do about 6 hours of wound care out on the farms. We brought 6 of the meal packages for Christmas to six families out there. I’m not sure how Richmond safely carried Me, my medical bag and all of these meal packages on his bike down miles of obstacle-filled gravel paths. But I do know I couldn’t do all of this without him AND I know there were several VERY grateful families out there today too!

As we rode home down a red gravel road at sunset, we passed 4 kids carrying water in big metal pans on their heads, walking back to their village. I waved and smiled like I always do when we pass people out there. To my shock, one of the kids blew me a kiss!! It was one of my former wound care kids that I had taught to blow kisses!! (As a rule, when I finish dressing wounds for kids, the boo boos are sealed with a kiss from my palm. Then as we drive away, I blow the kids kisses.)

Tonight I got the special gift of a surprise kiss being blown back my way!! What a wonderful end to a very rewarding day!!🌲💖🌲

Sending Peace, Love + Joy to You all this Christmas and all year long!! 🌲💖🤗💖🌲

Xoxo Sheila

🌲The internet here was wonky last night so reloading these videos from yesterday’s post…

I am SO HAPPY to report that as I was walking home from clinic on Tuesday, as I passed the Catholic Church, a group of Jr High School girls ran out to invite me to their Christmas Chorus Concert the following day. (“Wait, what? There is some Christmas here? YES!!!! I’m in!!)

As it turns out, this was actually the St Joseph’s School Christmas Pagent. It was a 3hr event with Bible readings, African drumming and a DJ blaring Christmas music between dancing+ singing performances.

All of the school children were so excited. It really was adorable and yes, quite welcomingly festive (if welcomingly is a word). Now I understood why that little girl last week was so excited about “singing Christmas songs at church”- it was quite an extravaganza!! 🎄

This proved to be quite nostalgic as well. It occurred to Me as I sat there that I had capped my Catholic School career (K- 8th Grade) at St Joseph’s Jr High School too! (a few miles away and a few years back that is)….AND, back then, I was in the Folk Group jamming on my acoustic guitar and singing those “Amens+Alleluiahs” with the ‘Sistahs’….formerly known as Nuns in full habits, at our School Masses. (If YouTube was around back in the 70s, I could have been New Hampshire’s version of Debbie Boone and the Penguins!?!🤩)

One of my favorite parts of our Christmas Eve Mass at home is the singing of Silent Night. Wouldn’t you know it, I got my wish here!?! How very sweet❤️ But you’ll have to take my word for it because this blog doesn’t seem to support more than 1 vid per post so can’t share that vid. Also, the internet is pathetic here so that’s also a possible reason for the downloading issues … because it certainly couldn’t possibly be my middle-aged techno skills right?(please don’t answer that)😘

As little Christmas as I’ve witnessed in these poor villages, it really struck Me that these deeply religious people fully embrace the adage, ” Jesus is the Reason for the Season” 🔔 🙏🔔

When riding around the farms yesterday for wound care, I was thinking about all of this and remembered another very important Christmas lesson we learned from the Good Doctor (Seuss) which also felt so fitting this year…

On that note…Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men (+ Women) and Merry Christmas from Africa to You All. 💕 🏝☃️💕

Xoxo Sheila

Rumor has it that the temperature is falling at home, Christmas Prelude is in full swing in the Kennebunks and there is snow in parts of New England. Hope you are all enjoying (and surviving) this beautiful yet busy time of the year. 🎄 🎅 🔔 🎄

Thanks for all of the festive pics and updates. So fun to see. And honestly, it’s also a bit surreal because unemployment is so high and the economy is so broken that it’s easy to forget it’s Christmas here. People in this village are barely getting by so they certainly don’t decorate for Christmas nor talk about Christmas gifts.

My role in wound care is getting busier every day as word is spreading around the local villages about the “White Lady in Frankadua” doing free wound care. It’s truly an honor to be sought out like this by these patients …. and at the same time, it’s becoming a huge physical/emotional responsibility to manage.

So to keep my battery charged, off we go on the weekends! Last weekend I escaped with my friends at the city clinic where I work every other week. Prosper is the Physicians Assistant that runs the clinic. Precious and Candy are RNs that act as Asst Clinic managers. We went to the Coastal town of Keta. It is important to remember that this is a 3rd World Country so except for a rare 3 star hotel on a beach, these towns are often merely poor, struggling fishing villages. I haven’t seen any built-up coastal areas with big hotels and wealthy mansions like we see in industrialized countries.

Then after a cocktail in a thatched-roof beach hut, we toured a Danish Slave Trade Castle, Fort Prinzenstein.

On our way back home on Sunday, we drove several hours thru many tiny villages in the Plains. Then almost out of nowhere stands 1900′ Mount Adaklu. (It was like our cross country drives back in the day from NH to CO, driving thru what felt like days of cornfields in the Midwest. Then suddenly, Chicago appears on the horizon like the Grand City of Oz!!)

Mount Adaklu was a beautiful, steep and tough climb. But 2 hrs and a few liters of sweat later…. what a view!! Honestly though, for the first time in my life, I actually uttered the words, “I think I’m starting to get too old for this 💩”!! And truth be told, the 33yo and 1 of the 25yo’s muttered the same thing!!🤣 (Have I mentioned the heat and humidity here yet? 😉 … cuz that certainly added to the challenge)

Elvis returns here to the volunteer house on Dec 18th with 4 new people. We’ll talk about the Kid’s Christmas Party then. Stay tuned.

Until then … sending Peace, Love and Christmas Joy across the miles to my family and friends. I’m holding you all closely in my heart.

Xoxo Sheila