Sheila Goes Ghana 2022

A few days ago, several of us were listening to Richmond’s After-School Community Band as they practiced. We do this at least weekly. When we sit there, the younger children often gather around us … staring + smiling, touching our skin and/or braiding our hair. The braver ones sit on our laps and ask lots of questions. One of these little 8yo girls was very excited to hear that I would be here for Christmas. She just lit up telling me how much she loves this time of the year. I asked her what the best part of Christmas was for her. I was curious to hear the answer but honestly had no idea as to what she would say. Her smile got a bit bigger and she said, “We sing nice songs at Church and we get lots and lots of rice”.

I was honestly a bit shocked/saddened as I forced a smile, hugged her and told her I was excited to see that too. (Rice??? Oh my God that was such a sad surprise. Rice???) I kept thinking of my own kids and all the other little ones I know at home, knowing full well once again how incredibly fortunate they/we are!!

Elvis told Me we will be throwing a Christmas party for some very needy families in the community. I’m really looking forward to being a part of whatever that happens to be. Tune in later ok?

But honestly, what I continue to see as a bigger need than food here is adequate health care. As I have said in an earlier blog, even if you have health insurance (only about 30% of people here do), it covers very little of the overall medical cost. Many people, especially out on the farms, cannot cover their medical fees. They often won’t go to the clinic or the hospital if they are sick or wounded because they know they will be turned away since they can’t pay. In fact, I am literally listening to funeral music in the distance as I write this of a 50yo mother who died at home because she was sick and couldn’t afford to go to the hospital💔 (No one here seems to know what people die of because so few people actually go to the hospital and/or can afford to have much testing done)!?!

There is such poor governmental funding of the health care facilities, that these programs simply cannot afford to provide free care to their people.

In the past month, this has hit very close to home. When I was out on the motorcycles doing wound care on 2 recent occasions, these two patients approached me for help with their very infected wounds.

Both of these people were in a great deal of pain with unimaginably infected wounds. I cleaned and bandaged their wounds but they needed far more than I could provide with a portable medical supply bag.

I had two choices: pay out of my own pocket to send them to the hospital for multiple proper wound management visits OR wish them Good Luck and drive away knowing full well they would die a painful death out there from these infections.

It has truly been an honor and a pleasure to help patients like these. My thoughts and prayers are with them for a full recovery and a new lease on life. Only time will tell how they will respond to therapy. But at least for now, so far, so good.

I wish I could tell you that these are the only two patients like this that I have met here. Unfortunately, almost every day either at the clinic or out on the farms during wound care, I meet someone who can’t afford medical care for themselves or a family member. Sometimes it is life or death, sometimes it is not but it always feels TERRIBLY unfair. I help when I can but the need is immense and more than I can manage on my own.

During the Christmas Season, many of us donate to charity. My Christmas wish this year is that if you or someone you know are considering doing that, you might consider helping us as your charity. It would help Me help more patients here purchase health insurance and cover their medical bills so they could get treatments such as malaria medication, wound care, x-rays, sutures etc etc etc etc)….all things I’ve seen not supplied due to lack of funds.

Sending Big Love to all of You!! I will miss being near my family and friends for Christmas that is for certain! But for this one year, Christmas will be very special in a completely different way. I’m looking forward to finding out exactly what that means.

Have a wonderful Christmas Season and enjoy the magic of this beautiful time of the year. 🔔

Here are a few sweet December scenes from Ghana to You …

💗 🤗🎄🤗 💗, Sheila

This past weekend, the African Wedding we were invited to finally took place. And what an extravaganza it proved to be!!

I had several months to prepare and get an appropriate dress so unlike the last minute funeral trip, I could be properly dressed for this occasion. Hmmmm, what to wear….an American dress or an African dress? Stepped out of my comfort zone and went African! After what I had seen at the funeral, these people have beautiful, colorful fabrics and there is a seamstress on every corner so the dresses are amazing! (Sidenote-it is perfectly acceptable to wear white to an African wedding. They think it’s funny that in the US, it would frowned upon to do that as we do not want to upstage the bride).

The nurses at one of my clinics took Me fabric shopping and then to see their seamstress Monica. She pulled out her catalogs and I chose the top of one dress with the bottom of another and …. Voila….

Oh, as for the fabric, these Ghanian fabrics are guite symbolic. There are palm nut seeds on the fabric I chose. They are very hard and thought to be impossible to crack. I chose the fabric because I liked the colors and pattern. I later learned that the meaning of the fabric I chose is “One who achieves the impossible, like breaking the palm nut seeds with just their teeth”. Interesting, that felt like a good choice for Me and these brave people, attempting to overcome some impossible situations on a regular basis here.

BTW-Total price of dress including a healthy tip was $20!!

So after saying Yes to the Dress, twenty staff members and volunteers jumped into vans, cars and buses, then off we went on the 1hr trek North. Who knew what an extraordinary event this would be!?! The African Wedding lasts about 6 hours. (Did I mention yet that it’s 90+ degrees with high humidity here so a courtyard event with some open air tents was a bit warm?) It was quite hot but it didn’t matter because it was so beautiful!

The first hour is the engagement ceremony where the guests are introduced and thanked for attending. Then the dowry list is read while those items are presented from the groom to the bride’s family. Next, the bride’s family announces that they agree that the groom has indeed met his dowry responsibilities for their family and they declare that he can marry their daughter. These dowry lists are quite extensive and often take the groom years to afford. (Everyone here wants a cut of the money….even your in-laws!!😳)

Part two of the ceremony is the African wedding. There is a lot of dancing in beautiful, colorful outfits as the couple arrives in their tribal costumes.

Then it was time to have lunch, dance and take some pics while the happy couple prepared for the final part of the ceremony….the Western Wedding.

Insert Bridal March here and the Western Wedding began…

And 6 hours later, we piled back into the vehicles with a fuller understanding and appreciation of the African marriage ceremony.

The following morning, the next part of this ceremonial process is a mass at the new couple’s church. Those who attended the wedding wear white. The Bride and Groom came in gold since their wedding colors were cream and gold.

After Church, the Bride and Groom spend the next day or 2 visiting the local guests to give a personal Thank You.

And then the Happy Couple lives happily ever after… (At least I hope they do after all of that!!) 🔔 💑 🔔

It is honestly hard to believe that it is Thanksgiving back home given that I left in August and it still feels like August (IN FLORIDA, AT HIGH NOON, ON A CLOUDLESS DAY) over here.😇

I’m thinking of all of you back in the greater-than-ever USA. Sending big love and wishing you a meaningful Holiday with your loved ones … to my loved ones, you know I am thinking of You and am right there with you in spirit💗💗💗

I hope you know that I am deeply grateful to have all of you in my life and absolutely thrilled to have you sharing this experience with Me. Thank you sincerely again for all of your love and emotion/financial support that is helping make such a difference here for Me and for these amazing people.

Friday night we are all going to a nice hotel to watch the USA play England in the World Cup. The Brits here say it will be “smashing”. (Likely smashing in a variety of ways but hopefully not related to the final score!!). We aren’t projected to win and I’m completely outnumbered but “U-S-A, U-S-A”!!! ⚽️🇺🇲⚽️

This Saturday we volunteers and staff are all going to a Ghanian wedding together, about an hour away, for one of the coordinators. Had a special African dress made for that! There isn’t a lot to do here for entertainment so we are all really looking forward to it. I’ll be sure to post about the Big Day next week.

But for now, from Ghana to the Greatest Nation on Earth….Big Gratitude+Happy Thanksgiving!!! 💗🦃🥂💗

Happy Saturday everyone!! …. sending a great day to you all from East to West. It will be another sunny day in the mid 90s, but at least for now (8:30am) the humidity is low. We are heading into summer here so I’m hoping after being here this long that my core temp is starting to regulate…’starting’ is the key word there because on Mon+Tues I’m pretty sure I was having a continuous hot flash from sun up to sun down🥵….. and the power failure on Wed night aka no fans in our bedrooms, didn’t give us the usual cooler night-time break from the heat. I had to laugh when I saw a vid clip from home where it was very cool + rainy and I actually thought it looked wonderful??….. what a shift in perspective that was as many times as I have moaned at home that I needed more sun! Oh yes, be careful what you wish for🤣

So back to Mon. I awoke to a hot, sunny morning (yes, as expected) and was still processing all of the harsh treatment of the kids from the previous week. I stepped out on the terrace just in time to see the landlord across our yard pick up a rock and throw it at his dog for chasing one of the chickens. Poor Quinn, it hit her, she shrieked as I screamed “NO!!!!”. Honestly, it flew out of my mouth before I even had time to think. The landlord looked at Me in a sheepish way. Our 2 cooks on our porch once again giggled and said, “she was chasing a chicken, that’s what happens”. I looked at all 3 of them and said, “just go tie her up for a bit if she’s misbehaving, you don’t need to throw rocks at her!?!”. I left for the clinic with tears in my eyes. (Ouch! I have a special place in my heart for Quinn-she reminds Me a lot my little Tulie when she first arrived in our home-terribly mistreated-um BEFORE she arrived, NOT AFTER😘). I’ll never understand how people can treat animals that way either.

When I first arrived here, Quinn was tied up 24/7 on a 20 foot leash for almost 2 1/2 months at the landlord’s house across our yard. He doesn’t live there so she and her grown baby (the UK Girls named Rupert) are there to protect his property. Quinn was not allowed to run free because she has a history of chasing/killing chickens. Our staff swears that somebody comes daily to feed and water the dogs.

Every time the gate opens from our porch out into the yard, multiple chickens, goats, stray dogs and Rupert run over for tables scraps…..but Quinn would just whine over at her house on her leash. 😣 I soon started treking over there a few times a day with food just for her. I did keep my distance because dogs are not well cared for here and theefore are usually very very skittish. What I didn’t know was that a furry friendship had begun💗💗….

This week, the landlord started construction over there so Quinn has not been on a leash. I got back from clinic one day and she ran across the yard, right to my side, wagging her tail+ rubbing her head on my leg (the other dogs here don’t get within 10 feet of us!). I was SO shocked and SO excited!! Gently started rubbing her head. When I stopped, she went up on her hind legs, placed them on my belly and wagged for more rubs – which she got!!! 💗🐶💗

I’ll try to post more later this weekend because there is always plenty to share. But for now, we (Chris and I) are wrapping up our 2+hr drive to the Ghanian coast. The rest of the volunteers went to the Cape Coast for the weekend (the Slave Trade castles). Chris and I have already been there within the past few months. We both agreed that it is an incredibly important and deeply moving experience but we chose not to return, at least for now anyways. Chris summed it up perfectly when one of the other volunteers asked why we weren’t going with them. He looked at Me and said, “It would be like visiting Auchwitz twice wouldn’t it?”…yes!!💔 💔

Instead, this adventurous 26yo from the UK and I will be jetskiing for a few hours this afternoon then chilling (literally) at the beach for 2 days. We both have the need for speed and can’t wait to get out on the water. It feels like one of the adventure weekends with my own kids!! (speedboats in Booth Bay, hiking in the Whites etc. etc. 😍)

Have a fantastic weekend Mates (leaning into the UK lingo).🌄

Xoxo Sheila

Happy weekend everyone! And thank you Veterans for all of your sacrifices that provide us our precious freedoms 🇺🇲

I wanted to use this post to relay some experiences that I’m struggling to understand.

Now as wonderful as the people here have been to the volunteers, as I’ve said before, they are very hard on one another…. and I’m noticing more and more, this includes the children.

There have been countless times in the clinic where a young, sick child comes into the clinic with a parent. Some of these kids are obviously quite nervous or shy, not to mention quite sick and YOUNG. When we start asking questions about symptoms, if a child doesn’t answer immediately/loudly, then the parent (or sometimes the healthcare worker) shakes them by the arm in a really aggressive way and shouts at them to answer. It makes me sad every time, wishing the parent was instead holding the child and emotionally supporting them through this visit.

When we need to draw blood or give the child a shot, the kids are often very stoic. IF they begin to cry (big IF) or try to pull away, they are often aggressively slapped and chastised by those same adults.

I used to wonder why the children in our waiting room waited so patiently, so quietly, for so long without any snacks, books or toys to distract them. I think I understand now. I’m quite sure their submissive behaviour is driven by fear of the above.

One day, when I was out doing wound care on the farms, I was seeing a group of kids to dress their wounds. When I asked one obviously anxious little boy how many wounds he had (so I could take out the right amount of supplies) he shyly said “5” as he pulled up his tattered pants legs. I was so sad for him because his wounds were deep+dirty, clearly painful. There were 2 adults watching this who started laughing and making fun of him for having so many wounds. This made the rest of the kids laugh and tease him too. He looked so embarrassed, so alone. It was heartbreaking to witness… so he got a lot of extra TLC from Me…someone needed to show him and the rest of these kids/adults the option of compassion.

But the most blatant example of children being treated harshly is the practice of caning. It is perfectly acceptable for adults to grab a stick and lash a child. Teachers carry canes in the classroom and strike individual children or sometimes the whole class as they see fit. A cane is part of the supply list for teachers! I don’t work in the schools but many of the volunteers that I live with do. They repeatedly tell me about anxious children, some as young as 3 year olds, who are visibly terrified of the teachers as they walk around the classroom threatening to cane them for various minor infractions. This happens in all grades even though caning was banned 5 years ago!! Why is this still happening? The answer is that there’s also legislation in place that makes it legal for certain adults to physically restrain/reprimand children for “deserved behaviors”. This competing legislation makes it difficult to enforce the caning ban so therefore it is virtually ignored….ignored by this community but I have yet to meet a foreigner here who is comfortable witnessing this practice.

One night recently, there was a caning event in our yard. I was having dinner with 4 other male volunteers from the UK ages 25-62. We knew that there was a meeting out in our yard because one of the local teenage boys had been caught seriously misusing his smartphone that was given to him by a prior volunteer. The boy was there meeting with his Aunt (who is raising him) and 3 other male authority figures from our neighborhood.

Suddenly there was a blood- curdling scream outside. We all ran out on the terrace asking what was going on!?! Our 2 cooks just laughed and said, “Oh Derrick is being punished for what he did with that phone.” We looked up to see Derrick being chased then dragged by one of the men who was clearly in a rage. Then the cane was raised and came down squarely across Derrick’s back producing another blood-curdling scream. All of the other adults adults out there were casually watching this all play out.

One of my dinner mates, 25yo Chris, ran out there to demand that this action stop. He was told by all of the adults out there that this is what they do and what was deserved because this boy was still lying about what he had done.

I went to Chris’ side to also plead for this to stop. We kept telling the adults that although what Derrick did was very very wrong, there were better ways to handle this than a public beating which was clearly out of control.

Thankfully, everyone begrudgingly dispersed. Then later that evening, when cooler heads prevailed, since I know these adults quite well, I sat down to chat with them. I said that although I knew their intention was to correct Derrick’s behavior and make him a better person, options like calmly discussing what he had done wrong/ withholding the phone for a while / having Derrick earn it back, were far more effective than a beating combined with public humiliation. I also reminded one of them that recently we had a conversation where he told me that he was very disappointed that Ghanian adults are too passive and don’t stand up for themselves. I said that sadly it didn’t surprise Me because I had witnessed so many ways here in which that mentality is ingrained into these people, beginning very early in childhood.

Chris and I didn’t get much sleep that night because we were so disturbed on several levels by what had happened. As I was trying to process all of this, I sent an article to all of the adults involved about the physical and emotional damage of caning along with alternative behavioral adjustment techniques. I didn’t hear a single word from any of them about receiving that email nor it’s content. Disappointing for sure but I had to try.

The next day, the man who had been doing most of the caning, thanked me for stopping that and talking with him because he admitted he was out of control. I told him I was not trying to shame him because I too at times had lost control with my own children. But I suggested that we must learn from our mistakess and strive to do better rather than condone behavior like this. He nodded quietly.

Oh, hold on please, there is another issue regarding outdated practices that cause physical and psychological trauma to children…As much as I’ve been chirping about this since Day 1 in the 2 clinics, circumcisions are still done without any local anesthesia!! For God’s Sake, 2 quick shots of  lidocaine create a nice pain block yet it’s not being done even though they do stock that medicine in these clinics. Without lidocaine, these baby boys absolutely screech during+after this surgery as their foreskins are stretched with clamps, then cut off with scissors/surgical blades without ANY pain management!! The midwives here keep casually telling me things like, “babies don’t feel pain, they are too young to remember this, lidocaine increases bleeding and/or it takes too long to do this surgery with lidocaine.” None of this is accurate!! I’ve been sending articles to the 3 midwives which include current Best Practice Guidelines that completely contradict their theories above. I won’t give up on this topic because virtually all baby boys in Ghana are circumcised so I will continue to try to have these delicate discussions in order to try to change this archaic process here. More to come on this. 😓

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about why children are being treated harshly here. I have processed this with a few of you on the phone (🤗) and I do agree that in order for people to emotionally survive in these harsh conditions, they don’t allow themselves nor their children to feel certain emotions -vulnerability being one of them. I also think after what I’ve witnessed, that the adults here feel that one of their jobs as a parent is to “toughen up” their kids to help them survive this difficult life.

Whew, it’s hard to witness and just as hard to understand because our cultures, our realities are so vastly different.

I’ll end  with a beautiful baby pic to lighten the mood. Check out this little sweetie…

And what you can’t see in this photo is a thin black thread around his neck. I asked what that was for. The midwife rolled her eyes and said “some parents believe that will protect the baby from any Black Magic that could cause disease”.

This little guy came into clinic to have his circumcision stitches removed (this is the BEFORE pic of course) and look at his bling. Many of the babies here wear these beads around their wrists and waist to accomplish several things:

1. It’s a way to loosely monitor their weight gain/weight loss based upon how tight or loose the beads are (actually kind of genius eh?)

2. The parents think these beads give shape+definition to the parts of the body where they are placed (🤔??).

3. They are part of the adorning of the babes-most all baby girls have their ears pierced at a few days old too.

That’s a wrap for tonight. It is Saturday after all so I must get back to my weekend duties to maintain some sanity…

Big Love from Me to You. Xoxo Sheila

P.s. And to my loyal bloggers in Maine, way to go Gov. Janet!!! 🥳💗🥳

Thank God that’s over!! Not to mention that I did not bring any dressy clothes appropriate for a funeral so wasn’t looking to call more attention to that either! They wear black and red to funerals here as you may have noticed. Oh and that was Giftie who got the High 5s and the ‘Get Me Out of Here’ hug at the end of the “dance”.

Joe and Savior who run the Provisions Store across the “street” (aka dirt path) are getting married Nov 26th. We were all invited. Started dress shopping today because didn’t bring any wedding attire either. Guests often wear white here to weddings. I explained to the clinic staff today that in our country that is a faux pas, as not to upstage the bride. They laughed and said that was silly. The differences in our customs are so interesting to Me.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!💗

No I am not practicing for the Super Bowl, today is the halfway point of my trip!?! 🥳 In some ways I feel like I have been here forever yet in other ways it seems like just a week.

I’ve definitely started settling into a routine here and that feels great. The last few days however have been a bit crazier than usual. I was teasing the 2 new volunteers from Scotland asking if they posted on Instagram that I had opened a private clinic at our volunteer house because I had 2 serious patients to care for who were at our door last night. AND the day before I came home from the clinic at lunchtime to find a man waiting for Me all morning who had taken one of those trotro vans from Accra (over 3 hours away) to see the “White Lady Doctor who could fix his wound”….ummm, I’m not a Doctor and even though I ride several hours a week on Richmond’s motorcycle to do wound care, I have never had any official training in that arena so I am doing my best but it is definitely not my specialty. Well at least he did get the white lady part right which actually is quite easy because there are only a handful of us in this country at best.

After bandaging that man’s wound I had a quick lunch and walked back into town to do a malaria test on one of the local woman I have become friendly with (her son is Grant, the kindergartener that I’m sponsoring for school). Her Malaria test was negative (yeah!), headed back home.

I couldn’t wait to get back here to change out of my scrubs and into some shorts/tank top because it felt like 90+ degrees again with the hot sun and high humidity. As I made my last few steps towards our front door, I heard, “Please Sheila, can you help me? I was at the clinic but they told me you had gone.” I turned to find Godwin, a 17 year old boy I know from town, with a blood-stained rag wrapped around his hand. I thought, “Oh poor kid banged his hand. I’ll just patch him up and head inside.” We unwrapped his hand, there was a 1″ wide laceration from the middle of his ring finger all the way down past his wrist!!! I usually try to keep a poker face on in situations like this to try to avoid scaring patients. But this time, I reflexively gasped and said, “Oh my God, we have to get you back to the clinic for stitches”. I asked Godwin why he didn’t stay at the clinic when he was there earlier. He said it’s because he didn’t have any money to pay for his care💔. I told him not to worry that my donors would pay so he and I set out for the 1 mile walk back to the clinic. Yes, even with this horrible injury and in this terrible heat, this poor kid had now done this walk 3 times!!! These people are SO tough. I’m stunned and amazed by their tenacity each and every day!!

Oh, and how did this injury happen you ask? He said he was cutting down trees with a machete to earn money for his school uniform😔

At the clinic, I assisted my nurse friend Alice who did a great job stitching this boy’s hand, then I started an IV to give him some fluids+antibiotics while Alice gave him a tetanus shot.

I saw Godwin that night downtown when we volunteers went out for a beer. He ran over to say Hi… he looked great😍

Glad it’s Friday because the “white lady in Frankadua” had plenty of big boo boos to contend with this week. I’m very grateful for my medical friends over at the local clinic who helped me manage these patients this week! Even though the clinics here have nothing close to the resources that we have in the States, they have a heck of a lot more resources than I have here in this house. It takes a village, even in Africa!

Now I can’t forget the most exciting patient of the week. The 30 week premie baby girl went home this week! And as luck would have it, she lives in a town very close to where we go on our motorcycles for wound care on the remote farms….So we made a housecall.

Weekends are made for some R+R. And if you are hyperactive, they are for adventures! Whoot Whoot!

Last weekend, I joined my friend Giftie (the midwife that saved that baby a few weeks back) to visit her hometown of Suhum about 3 hours West of here. She wanted me to experience Ghanian homelife including attending the funeral of her uncle. As I’ve mentioned before, funerals are way too prevalent here and they are also a giant celebration of a person being “Called to Glory”. I was told to prepare for drumming, dancing and of course some wailing too.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I like attention. That is how I connect to and interact with those around Me. 😇 That does NOT however include tribal dancing with only 6 people in the courtyard in front of hundreds of relatives as the ONLY Obroney (white person) at the party (or for hundreds of miles for that matter.) All eyes are on Me everywhere I go which can be quite uncomfortable at times even for this attention-relisher. So honestly, (really I am being serious), I had NO desire to bust a move at this funeral. But Giftie was not taking no for an answer. Also she and her family had been very gracious all weekend and took very good care of Me so I felt I should answer their pleas.

….Oh you’ll have to check out my next post for that vid. I’m keeping you in suspense….OR I’m a bit techno-challenged and it’s the only way I could do this? I’ll let you decide😁

Hope you all had a nice Halloween weekend. Enjoy those little trick-or-treaters tonight🤡👹👻🕸🎃🍭 Oh what I would do for a peanut butter Reeces cup right now!! I guess I’ll just settle for some rice.🤢 When I get home, it will be a VERY long time before I make ANY rice dishes.

This post will be short and sweet because we had a good amount of rain this afternoon which usually means, for whatever reason, that the internet is spotty at best. It usually means power outages too but thankfully we’ve dodged that bullet….at least for now.

So for Halloween, I dressed up like a Ghanian Nurse. Actually, I had a uniform shirt made by the clinic seamstress. “Ghana Health Services” is stamped on the fabric. One of the staff members was wearing a similar shirt a few weeks back. I was so excited because finally there was something I could wear here without absolutely melting-sleeveless with an open flare…I’m in!! The fabrics here are so colorful and beautiful but they are so incredibly thick.

Wish I could write more but I’m running out of patience with the internet goblins. Or as my UK mates might say, “Bloody Hell, to be fair, this is taking a wee bit too long isn’t it?”

Have fun tonight, be safe and Happy Halloween. 💖

Happy Tuesday everyone and greetings from the bunk. (No not Kennebunk, my bunk!!) Life here is good. I hope all is well at home and in the countries of my new volunteer friends too. 💗💗

Each and every day here brings about new experiences, observations, joy and heaviness. Let’s catch you up on the latest….

My favorite thing that happened recently was the birth of a very healthy 30 week premature baby girl at our clinic. I was not present for that delivery because I was away for the weekend but two days after she was born, I was able to travel 45min North, with the midwife, up to the hospital where she had been transferred. Her name is Awusi, that means baby girl born on a Sunday. Africans have many first names one of which being the day of the week you were born. There are different names for males and females on those respective days. I am Ama (Saturday girl), Keenan is Kwaku (Wed boy) and my 2 Monday scheduled C-section girls are Adjoa(s).

As usual I have gone off on a tangent, a very culturally-educational tangent if I do say so myself, but back to Awusi!!

So as my Neonatal Intensive Care friends in this blog will attest, being born 10 weeks early can be a big problem even in the well-resourced United States (poor lung function, GI tract shutting down, brain bleeds etc etc etc). Now imagine you are in Ghana, so the mother had no medication prior to delivery to help the baby’s lungs develop, there was no baby warmer in the delivery room to keep this 1.5kg/3.3lb child warm, no one gave the baby any special medication (Surfactant) into her lungs to help her lungs function properly and yet…..

She will be in the hospital for a few more weeks because as expected, she struggles to nurse for more than a few minutes before tiring out. Her Mom pumps and then she is fed via syringe for the remainder of her feeding. Her parents will be taught to do that at home. (Yikes, I worry she could aspirate but that’s how they do it here since they don’t have tubes like we do that go thru the nose and into the stomach for tube feedings). I hope and pray she will continue to thrive. So far so good, Awusi is off to an amazing start!!!

Here are a few more interesting things I’d like to share in our day to day experiences….

As for shopping, there’s really no such thing as a grocery or department store in this area. Instead, each town has market day once weekly. Juapong is the closest town with the biggest market which happens every Wednesday. It’s about a 15-20 min Tro Tro ride away. Millie our house assistant took a few of us there last week. This is the back of the market where it was a bit quieter so I could actually take some pics. Up front, there were probably 1000 people maneuvering around the crowded shops in the 90+ degree heat. Us newbies were fascinated to be in what felt like a busy beehive. Millie wanted to get in for some veges and get out quickly. We finally gave in to her and picked up our browsers pace because yes (not shockingly) it was darn hot there too!!😇

We medical volunteers work between 2 clinics – the really rural one is about a 1 mile walk from here and the other one is in the small city of Atimpoku, about a 30-minute Tro Tro ride away. One day on my walk back from clinic I spotted this tree….

This weekend, I was asked by Giftie the Midwife at our local clinic, to join her and her husband at their place a few towns away. Yes Gifty was the Midwife that saved that newborn baby boy in one of my earlier posts. I have deep respect and admiration for Giftie. We have a nice bond. She said she wants me to experience more of their culture by staying in their home, attending her Uncle’s funeral on Saturday (I was told to be ready to drum+dance there) and then attend their regular church services on Sunday. I really am looking forward to getting to know more about Giftie, her family and the cultural practices of her community.

Now it’s time to call it a day. Tomorrow the Atimpoku clinic is doing a Breast Cancer screening event. Prosper, the PA who runs that clinic, asked if I would do / teach manual breast exams. So I’d better give my fingers (and tiny thumbs) a rest so we can do the job well.

Sweet Dreams everyone and kisses to the moon from Me to You.

Xoxo Sheila

I forgot to mention these people’s circumstances but they certainly are prime examples of what I was talking about in my last blog-people who have so little but who do so much for one another.

Now I know these 2 things are both a big ask so I am just putting this out there to the Heavens / to the Universe, in case anyone knows of someone who is interested. Here goes….

Shark is the local Soccer Coach. He runs 2 fantastic programs for both school age soccer players and for young men 18-28 years old. They practice hard all week and play on the weekends. Great game today, the 18-28year olds won 1-0. (Standing on those sidelines it honestly felt for a few minutes like I was back at home watching one of my kids’ games back in the day). 😍

So although Shark’s teams are very talented, his biggest accomplishments happens off the field. 7 of his players are either orphaned or have difficult home situations so they live with him. I’ve been to Shark’s house a few times to give free medical care to “his boys” because struggle financially to stay above water. I can assure you that Shark’s home is a very small, modest place where all the boys sleep on mats on the floor in 1 of the 2 small rooms there. The boys have shelter, food and school provided to them by Shark but he has repeatedly told Me what a struggle it is to cover the bills for these boys. Shark is a self-employed electrician but currently he is not working in that field because he cannot afford the stock supplies for his business because he and the boys are busy working the casava farms in their spare time for money to buy food.

Shark’s dream is to run an orphanage and take in more kids but he doesn’t have the funds. He has asked Me to reach out on my blog to see if anyone knows of anyone who might be interested in adopting or sponsoring one/some of these boys to bring them to the US and give them a better life. I’m not even sure if this is possible. But if I heard that anyone was interested, I would certainly start doing my homework on this end to get more details.

The other “big ask” is related to Richmond the band leader. His dream is to get a music degree in the United States. He is very talented-plays multiple brass wind instruments, keyboards and drums. He also speaks 6 languages, which includes being fluent in english. What holds Richmond back financially is that he is always so busy taking care of others (transporting patients to the clinic free of charge on his motorcycle, giving money to orphans for food, taking in a child from his band that had been orphaned) that he isn’t able to save up enough money to accomplish his own dreams. If anyone knows of anyone who would sponsor this 34yo absolutely amazing guy, I would be completely thrilled to help make this a reality for him.

OK, there it is…I’ve put it out there. I am really not expecting anything here because this is so huge… but you will never know if you don’t ask right?

And if by some miracle there is some interest somewhere out there in the sheer masses of my bloggers (or their friends/families), you know where to find Me.🤗

Thanks all, Sweet Dreams and kisses to the moon for You. 💗Sheila