Sheila Goes Ghana 2022

Greeting from my bunk in Ghana. This is mostly where the blog magic happens in the evening after a cool bucket shower, ceiling fan on (unless there is a power outage like last night) with my portable light overhead, surrounded by a mosquito net. It’s pretty cozy actually.

But truth be told, it is a hot+sunny Sun afternoon. So I’m killing time on my top bunk (aka my “couch” until the local football (aka soccer) game starts this afternoon.

Many of you know that planning and getting to Ghana went so smoothly. It felt like this trip was meant to be because things just kept beautifully falling into place. That is until I got here and needed to access my funds from home.

Firstly, my credit card was hacked back in the US soon after I arrived here so it was canceled! Thank God I had brought a 2nd credit card but I couldn’t use it at the ATM to get cash since I didn’t know the PIN# (we really don’t use PIN#s with our credit cards right? Lesson learned!) Oh and being a 3rd world country, and being we live in a small remote town, it is very rare to find a place who even takes credit cards.

My Keenan saved my skin (🤗) by going into my storage locker in Kbunk and mailing my debit card to Me. But that took a month to get into my hands so I limped along for my first 8 weeks here asking my US volunteers to pull small amounts of cash out for Me at the ATMs on our excursion weekends-then I would pay them back via Venmo (Thank You Eddie and Claire who also saved my skin!!)

So at long last, as of this week I have my debit card and started accessing my cash at the ATMs!!!! (The closest ATM is about an hour from here and often out of order but still I’m better off than ever in the cash access arena). On a side note, when my debit card arrived, I had to call my bank at home to get it activated. As I was on the phone with them I noticed that the expiration date is November of 22′ !!!!! I begged for an extension but no-can-do. Good God, I have to do this all over again in a month. Ahhhhhhhhhh %$#@&!!!!😵‍💫 Whatever….I’ll figure it out!!

Hence, I can finally now access my donation cash and Santa Claus is in Ghana🎊🎉🎊🎉🎊

So far, thanks to my wonderful family and friends, many patients received medical care they couldn’t afford so would have gone without. Here are a few of their stories:

-a young man with a broken leg got his treatment paid for and no longer needs to share crutches with a man across town.

– several patients received life-saving malaria treatment

– a woman in a coma, post snake bite, received her anti-venom and went home last night

– a teenage girl named Bless has severed legs from a motorcycle accident a year ago. She is now receiving care so she can walk again (we’ve been doing woundcare on her since before I arrived and last Friday was the first time I’ve ever seen her standing up because she is finally getting the surgical/cast care she needs.😍

There are several more patient stories like this and just as importantly, several children have been sponsored so they can go to school. (They receive 1 meal a day at school which is also very much needed for these kids).

Then of course, I’ve been promising my friend Richmond to help support his after school band program. If you remember, several kids share each instrument because there aren’t enough instruments and many of the instruments they do have are in tough shape. This has kept a cap on the number of children that can join the band. Richmond also told Me that if kids can play an instrument, they have a chance to join the bands of either the Fire Department or the Military which is extremely helpful to these kids since unemployment is so high in this country.

By joining forces with the “UK Girls” and their donations, this week we traveled back to Accra and were able to buy the band a new mini base tuba, a trombone and a snare drum!!

Currently I am also working on purchasing some well-needed medical supplies at the 2 clinics where I work (water tanks, vacuum extractors for childbirth, blood pressure cuffs etc etc) I’ll also be joining forces with my friend Jeff (an interior decorative painter here) to sponsor his program of buying backpacks for several really needy school children and helping him paint some happiness into these barely functional and drabby classrooms.

Everywhere I look I see great need. And what is so incredible to Me is that SO MANY times I’ve seen people here who have so little, giving everything they can to one another here. Jeff is a VERY talented muralist but people here can’t afford decorative painting so he doesn’t have much work yet there he is donating his time+money coordinating backpacks for needy kids and enriching the schools/churches with his painting skills. Richmond runs the band and drives a motorcycle taxi. He is not a wealthy man but when he drives me on his rented motorcycle to wound care, I see him slipping money to a child. I asked him why and he tells Me that the 8yo boy is orphaned so he is giving the boy money every week to eat. I witness very poor women sharing their cooking with us and neighbors in need. I could go on because I see this beautiful behavior so often but you get the idea.

It has been so incredibly moving to see people with so little being so incredibly helpful and generous to one another.

I am deeply honored and privileged to have your emotional and financial support to help these wonderful people help one another to better their lives.

With great gratitude+hugs, Sheila

Hello everyone back home! Rumor has it that Fall has arrived, weather is cool, leaves have changed and apples have been picked.

That is just surreal to Me because it is still 85 – 90+ degrees with high humidity. And I forgot all about Labor Day so as far as I was concerned, it was still summer in Maine. Whoops

There is always so much to tell you that I hardly know where to start in these posts.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my last two weeks with my 3 new friends from the United Kingdom…Lucy, Emmie and Becca. They are all ICU nurses so we hit it off swimmingly as they say in the UK!

The USA and UK joined forces and were able to sponsor a new family in town, with 5 kids, for a year of private school. (Again, public school here is terrible). The 2 eldest boys, per birth age, should be starting Middle School. But they cannot read since they have been home working the farms. Hence, they will be started in the lower grades and slowly advanced as they are ready.

Now remember a few weeks back I skipped the waterfall hike because it was pouring rain? Well the forecast last Saturday was clear so off we went for the weekend to do that hike along with 3 other wonderful volunteers from a similar program. It was clear for about an hour into the hike and then the skies opened up and poured buckets on us for the next 2 hours. We only made it halfway up the waterfall instead of to the top for two good reasons: 1. it was damn hard!! 2. it was raining so hard that the water was coming down the rocks we were climbing like a heavy stream – making the footing even more difficult than it already was. Yikes

Lucy said she doesn’t think she’s ever been that wet even in her own shower. I couldn’t agree more. I don’t think I’ve ever been that wet in my whole life! In fact, when we got back down to the base of the waterfall, we literally just walked into the water with our sneakers on, fully dressed because we couldn’t possibly get any wetter!! And I thought Maine’s meteorologists struggled to forecast the weather🤣

Thankfully the hotel had nice hot showers and cocktails 🍻🍹The next day, on the way home, we swung through the monkey sanctuary again because monkeys just never get old do they?

Now on to some general tidbits in our day to day here…

Oh and today during our wound care program on the motorcycles out in the remote farms, I had my first experience feeling unsafe here. Richmond my driver and I, along with Lucy and her driver were stopped on a dirt road by a group of about 10 men with shovels who pulled a rope across the road, surrounded us and wouldn’t let us pass. I knew the four of us were no match for this group. (Hard swallow) Richmond was arguing with them. I couldn’t understand what they were saying but I could tell things were escalating. I quietly thought, “well today is the day we finally get robbed”. It turns out that the local villagers were repairing this road by hand (because we know the government here doesn’t do anything to repair these roads, nor much of anything else for their people for that matter) so these guys were demanding money to let us pass. Richmond told me later that he kept telling them we were medical people trying to go see a patient and that we had no money. They didn’t seem to buy that argument given there were 2 “Obronies” on the motorcycles. And one of the guys seemed to be getting increasingly very angry at us. Finally, oh-so-thankfully, the rope dropped and off we went. Later, as we drove home, I showed Richmond the karate moves that those guys were lucky I didn’t have to use. We laughed and sped on down the road far away from there.

Now I’ve said before that most everyone I’ve met here is extremely religious-mostly Christian but strong Muslim presence as well. Everywhere you look there is a religious reference of some kind.

A dee A dee A dee …. That’sAll Folks. (Porky Pig I hope you saw that)! And to my UK friends that will soon be journeying back to the Motherland….”Sweat Draaahms” (just when I start to understand Emmie’s Northern English accent, they must go).

You will be missed Mates. Safe travels and keep in touch! 💗💗💗

xOxOxO Sheila

What kind of “reporter” would I be without touching upon COVID at least once as the pandemic winds down?

This morning I had to take the 3hr trek back to the Immigration Office in the Capitol City of Accra to extend my 60 day Visa for 4 more months so I can finish this trip. So even though I didn’t have to take a COVID test when I entered this country 9 weeks ago, I had to pay to take one today in order to get my Visa extension approved?? Seriously?? Elvis our coordinator came with me. He said today’s COVID testing was just another government scam to collect more money from the foreigners … 30 min later I was told I had a positive test! They repeated the test and said I was still positive. I was shocked because I am vaccinated, double boosted and I never had COVID in the USA-yet I came to a country that had virtually no COVID and THAT’S where I got it?

Elvis was really upset. He was convinced that this was just more government scamming so they could reject my Visa extension and collect more money out of me to do this whole process over again in a week. Thankfully Elvis was able to pull some strings and get my Visa approved in spite of this circus before we left Accra. Elvis is the Man!!

But sadly, we couldn’t prove they were lying about those positive results so now we all had to go into full COVID precautions here at the volunteer house. Elvis and I were supposed to run a bunch of errands in the city but had to turn around and head home instead. Everyone back here at the house had to be COVID tested, several people were really worried that they might end up in quarantine and not be able to return to their home countries at the end of this week. I was concerned that I was going to have to be removed from the volunteer house and put in a hotel back in Accra to quarantine.

In the end, everyone here tested negative!….

So yes, the “positive” COVID test at the Immigration Office earlier today was bogus and thankfully we are all together and healthy tonight here at “home”.

As I process all if this, it wasn’t an awful day but quite upsetting none the less for several reasons:

1. I have had a cold for 2 weeks, that stomach bug hit Me really hard in the middle of this cold and I have mostly lost my sense of smell with this cold…so it was possible that the positive test was accurate and I did have COVID. That made for a long ride home with a mask on wondering how quarantine would play out!?!

2. If I had COVID, I would have exposed many people here over the last 2 weeks, including Elvis and our driver today. I heard there was a lot of understandable worry here at the house this afternoon around several people possibly not being able to leave Ghana to go home.

3. I paid ~10K out of my own pocket to come here on this trip to help the people of Ghana. And I spent about $500 to extend my Visa today so I can continue to help yet I got milked for more money by some of Ghana’s Government officials!?! Come on People!!

I have a message for you morally-inept characters ….”Stop squeezing people who are here to help your country….and Kiss my American A** you Crooks!!! Now get your hands out of your slimy pockets and go take care of your beautiful, desperate people. They need us”.

OK, vent session over. 😇 Time to unwind and put this saga to rest. I really am grateful for all of Elvis’ help today and equally as glad to rejoin the 3 new ICU nurses from the UK (aka the British Invasion😘) tomorrow morning as we head back into the clinic to help the people of Ghana (in spite of their not-so-stellar governmental treatment)….oops. apparently not done venting so I’d best go.

Night night.

So many things happen here every day that it’s hard to keep up. I just wanted to share a few things I’ve found eye-opening- sometimes uplifting, sometimes heartbreaking and everything in between. But always completely different than what I’ve known in my daily life at home.

Speaking of wrap ups, my 2 African Daughters Kirsten (Vancouver-ish Canada) and Claire (Philly) flew out last night to head home. 🤗/😪

How lucky we were to find one another in the jungle!! I thoroughly enjoyed this month with you both. What a treat you were for Me in this unbelievable adventure. I will think of you often and send love and happiness for your sure to be fun-filled, heart-felt adventurous lives💗💗

Also ladies, thank you for your absolutely beautiful WhatsApp Goodbye messages, I couldn’t agree more!! Bon chance mes enfants!! (Translation- Good Luck my children)🤗🤗 ….I’ll be shopping for an African Mother of the Bride Dress for your weddings!!

I’ve been so careful about what I consume since I arrived in Africa. Drinking a freshly cut coconut right from a friend’s tree sounded like a great idea… but never again! Not positive it was the coconut but soon after, I spent the rest of the night running to the pit toilet 40 yards from my room so I could dry heave in a bucket because “the coconut” was coming out of every orifice! This happened every hour ot two until just before dawn- and I know it was dawn because there was a rooster right outside the “bathroom” crowing quite loudly. He is very lucky that I love animals because I was in no mood for his chipper morning sonata. He got a hairy sideways snarl as I shuffled across the dirt yard back to my bunk.

(There are usually pictures to accompany my posts but not for this saga) 😘

Slept for the better part of the last 24hrs. Probably had a fever but who knows because breaking out in a sweat is part of the hour to hour routine in Ghana. The staff here at the house was very supportive and GREATLY appreciated. They wanted to take me to the clinic but unless I was dying, that was NOT going to happen for 2 very good reasons: 1. I’ve seen the level of care there / lack of sterile technique so No Thank You. 2. I’ve nursed myself and 3 kids thru many a GI bug over the years so I knew that time, rest and slowly reintroducing fluids (minus coconut water) would do the trick.

Still pretty weak today so missed work again but steadily improving. In fact, I’m starting to get quite bored so that’s a really good sign.

Peace, love and no coconuts to all.💗

Let’s start with Hakuna Matata (translation- “there are no troubles”) which I must open with since the staff was so nice and we saw lots of African animals!! It’s a good thing because getting to Mole National Park was 7 hrs of driving + 4hr delayed flight gate wait+1hr flight =12+ hrs of traveling but well worth the journey.

Once there, we did (3) 2hr safaris this weekend to maximize chances of animal sightings – one Sat afternoon then another one Sat night followed by an early morning safari on Sun. They were all very different and well worth it.

My personal favorites, well perhaps tied with the elephants, were the baboons!! These creatures are SO FEISTY!! They are so beautiful out in the jungle and such little rascals on the hotel grounds. When I checked in, the desk clerk told me to be sure to lock my door. I asked why (as if I haven’t done that my whole life). He said because the baboons turn the door knobs and go into the hotel rooms looking for a food 😳… thank you Sir, consider my doors locked!! Unfortunately for one couple we met here from France, her bag was ransacked in her room during one of these Baboon Munchie Raids but thankfully they weren’t in there at the time.

On a side note, (think of this like a commercial interruption) … that couple from France was also volunteering here in Ghana and had also gone to Cape Coast for the Slave Trade tour. I asked if they learned about that in school in their history classes. They said no not really, very minimal attention was given to that subject. They too were appalled at the gravity of the Slave Trade and equally as appalled at how little recognition/reparation there has been from their country. I explained it was no different in our country and asked why they thought they were taught so little about this dark part of our common histories. He said, “cover up due to shame”. Sadly, we were all in agreement about that. 💔

Now back to our regularly scheduled program…the safari…namely the baboons.

But if you really want to see baboons, just hang out at the Mole Motel because they were all around us. Baboons are Africa’s version of our Seagulls at the Beach…major food thieves but they are cute little buggers!🤣

After a 2 hr rain delay, my 2 “African daughters” and I boarded our plane back to Accra. (Everywhere we went people referred to Me as their Mom 😊 – totally fine with Mom, still hell no with Granny😘)

Claire and I head back to the Volunteer House this afternoon but sadly we had to leave Kirsten in Accra for her return to Canada after almost a month here.

We will miss you lady. Thank you for organizing this Safari trip and making this lifelong dream come true. Wishing You All the Best from your new North American Amigas!! 💗🇨🇦🇺🇲💗

So back to the funny yet disturbing cliff hanger. At Nataki’s Birthday party, I was holding a child on my lap out in our yard and something kept biting my ankle even though I kept shaking it away. Finally I looked down and noticed that multiple flies kept landing on the open sore on my ankle!!! That really is a thing here. They have what look like medium-sized house flies (Bot or Tumbu flies) that lay eggs in open wounds!! No matter how hard you swat them away, they instantly come back with a buddy or two. I am not exaggerating, Google Myiasis….completely gross!!!

I put the child down, and ran into the house to spray my ankle with antiseptic and then bug spray before applying a BIG Bandaid. I swear to God, if I awoke 3 days later to find maggots crawling out of my ankle….I would have caught the next flight back to Maine!!! ✈️

I have tolerated a whole lot of discomfort to make this trip possible but that would have been the straw that broke Sheilzy’s back!!!🤣🤣🤣

We should be in the Park shortly so Got To Go but just had to drop you that bit of 😳!!😇 Have a fantastic weekend all!!💗

Hi everyone!! I sure hope all is well back in the States. We’ve had a lot going on and I just realized that I haven’t posted in almost a week. Well then, let’s get this keyboard ticking.

Last weekend we headed East for 3 days. It really was nice to leave Frankadua for a bit and see other parts of Ghana, namely the Cape Coast. We blew off some steam in a variety of ways including a rope bridge walk in a rainforest canopy, feeding alligators at a Preserve, singing in a Kareoke bar, drinks+swim at a Beach Club (massive rip tide cut that swim short-quite scary) and some shopping in an African market.

Both days at Cape Coast included tours of Castles/dungeons that played major roles in the TransAtlantic African Slave Trade. Those tours were so moving, educational and absolutely heartbreaking. We learned that during the 300 years of these atrocities, 40 million African captives died in filthy, inhumane dungeons including these in Cape Coast. Prisoners were only able to survive a few months in these horrendous conditions. The 20 million who did survive (barely), were then sold off to Brazil, Portugal and the Caribbean before many were then sold off to the United States-if that is, they survived the deplorable conditions on the Slave Ships.

About mid way thru the Slave Trade, the United States established their own Slave Dungeons in Ghana and began direct slave transport to the US.😔

Female prisoners were often seperated from their children and regularly raped by their guards or severely punished/killed for resisting.

I found it impossible to hear our Ghanian tour guides relaying all of this deeply dark part of our history without feeling great shame and sadness for what many of our ancestors did to these beautiful people.

The other question that weighed heavily on my mind was “why do we know so much about atrocities such as the Holocaust yet the African Slave Trade seems to get far less attention”? Now please, please don’t get me wrong. I truly feel the Holocaust deserves every syllable of the recognition it receives regarding the 6 million Jews that lost their lives and countless Jewish survivors who lost virtually everything. What I don’t understand is how 7X as many Africans lost their lives in this Slave Trade yet the outrage does not seem anywhere nearly as comparable. Why is this?? Do we care less about people who suffer a similar horrendous fate (and in FAR greater numbers) just because they have darker skin?

When we got back “home”, people in town would smile and ask if we had a nice weekend….tough to answer that….yes, at times very nice and others were quite heart-wrenching.

Monday it was back to business at the clinics and back to the motorcycles to do the wound care out in the remote farmlands. As nice as it was to get away, I dare say it was nice to be back again too! (Never thought I’d say that about this little frat house of ours). We have an African family here now of staff members, coworkers, neighbors, shopkeepers etc who we interact with regularly and even bump into when we are several towns away. It’s not uncommon to be in a crowded market far from here and hear “Cheeeelahh”! (They don’t pronounce “SH” so that’s my name here-makes Me laugh every time!)

There was a Big 60th Anniversary Celebration at the local High School today. It was so impressive to see the Village Chiefs+Elders in their full African regalia parade by to the beat of multiple local drummers…as below

But the highlight of my week was our Little Nataki’s 1st Birthday Party at our house. We thought 10 kids would come to celebrate but it was actually quite an event!! Her mother Mary, our Cook, really does not have a lot of money but that didn’t stop her from throwing a beautiful party for her baby girl. There were probably 60 people here-food, trumpets and Nataki arrived on a wagon in a beautiful party dress. Ghana’s Cinderella!! We helped Mary decorate, bought a nice Bday cake for her, collected a good sum of cash for them and gave our girl a little African dress (that was a fun shopping trip- reminded me of the good old days dressing my babies). Mary was clearly touched and very grateful for everything.

That’s the quick recap of the highs and lows of the week…. which honestly is really no different than every other week here … a lot of amazing things swirled in with just as many heartwrenching experiences. It really is difficult to put that feeling into words but all of us that are here understand the emotional conflict when people ask, “How’s Africa?”. My answer… “It’s a whole lot a whole lot a!!”

Time to wrap this up for the night. In the morning, Kirsten, Claire and I are flying to the North of Ghana to Mole National Park for 4 days to go on a Safari!! I am SO EXCITED!! I’ve dreamed of going on a safari since I was a little girl watching Born Free (that Little Lion Cub Elsa stole my heart). And above and beyond that, coming to Africa and not going on a safari would be like going to Paris and skipping the Eiffel Tower right?

Thanks for being a part of my blog!! Bon nuit mes amies💗

Wednesday greetings from Africe to everyone and safe travels to Arizona Cheryl. My only regret about this trip is that I can’t be there with You to support our cherished Uncle Ed and his wonderful family at Aunt Connie’s funeral. I’m going to do my absolute best to stream her service on Fri but regardless, I’ll be sending Love, Support and Comfort to all of You. Please know you will all be in my thoughts and prayers. 🙏💗🙏💗🙏💔🙏💗🙏💗🙏

As for this week, my little friend Grant was able to start Kindergarten on Mon. I went to the school that morning with his Mother to register him. Turns out it is $31.60 per term not per year as his Mom Olivia our local shopkeeper had told Me (she speaks broken English so things can get lost in translation) and there are 3 terms in a school year. So after books/uniform, the cost to sponsor Grant was actually closer to $100/year. Well that $65 difference certainly wasn’t changing my plan to start this boy on a decent educational path…. especially when I realized during the registration process that his mother is illiterate and likely wants better for her son. While we were registering him, I asked her how she spells Grant and she had to ask someone. 😔 I tried to play it cool as not to embarrass her but I was so moved by this interaction. Today on our way to work, she ran over to give us all a big hug- and whispered in my ear, “thank you for everything yesterday”.

Big entertainment at clinic today!! It was monthly Infant Vaccination/Weighing day! More supplies were needed so the staff called a company called Zipline (which is absolutely nothing like a zipline in our country) and 10 min later, a 5′ wide drone flew over and dropped the supplies via parachute in our lot. Brilliant solution for this remote clinic!!!

The only thing more exciting than the drone today was that our cook Mary has an 11mo daughter that was one of the babies in the crowd today! I spotted the babysitter Grace (Mary’s niece) sitting with all of the Mom’s and babies in clinic, looked down in her lap and there was our little Nataki!! This beautiful baby often comes to work with her mother and crawls around our place, laughing and entertaining us. She is one of the happiest babies I’ve ever met. I just love her!!

Now on the other end of the age spectrum, we had a few elderly women who were struggling with symptoms from illnesses such as Malaria, Typhoid, worms etc … so enough playing with babies and back to work we go because these women needed IV fluids and medication.

Haven’t looked at a datebook nor calendar in weeks so completely missed Labor Day weekend! (Now that’s a lifetime first) Hoping you all had an enjoyable Holiday Weekend to cap your summers. 🇺🇲🌅🇬🇭 We’ll make up for that this weekend though when our group travels to the Cape Coast for a long weekend of sight-seeing.

Big Love to you all.💗💗💗 Sheila

Hi again all. I have WiFi tonight so I’m using every second of it!

Several of you have mentioned wanting to donate money or supplies. I tried to set up a GoFundMe site today but unfortunately, that site is only supported in 19 countries and Ghana isn’t one of them. Rats!! I tried to set up the page as if I was in the US (instead of Ghana) but it would not let me connect to GoFundMe that way either.

I was redirected to a site called SpotFund but the reviews on that site are very mixed and scams are huge here so I don’t want to work with them.

The only way that I think I could safely get money from the US to Me here would be via Venmo. My Venmo acct is @Sheila-ODonnell-3. It is attached to one of my bank accts and I can withdraw money here from an ATM with my bank debit card.

If you have a Venmo account, you can send funds directly to me. If you don’t have a Venmo account, many of our own kids do so you could pay them and they can Venmo me?

I assure you that 100% of your donation would go to some wonderful people that I have made personal connections with: Healthcare Providers, Teachers, Coordinators of after school band/soccer programs, needy families etc etc etc. If you want to choose where the money goes, that’s fine-just tell Me where and I will make it happen. Or if you want Me to distribute the funds as I see fit, that would be easy because the need is everywhere.

I just sponsored a little boy named Grant in our village so he can go to a decent school this year that actually has a teacher. Many schools lack teachers so kids show up to an empty classroom. It cost Me $36 (American dollars) to send this boy to school for a year. My God, I’ve spent more in 1 night on dinner+drinks at home!!

Please know, I am NOT asking anyone for money since this was my idea to take this mission trip, not yours. I am only posting this info in order to try to make this happen for those who have asked how to donate.

If anyone has any input/ideas here regarding how to best accomplish these financial transaction, I would be VERY grateful to hear from you.

💝Sheila