Week #2, goats on the bus

[It is Monday morning, the internet is finally working.  Ghana lost the Africa cup final yesterday, 0 to 1, to Egypt. Boo, hoo.]

It is Saturday and the internet is not working in the apartment. Two Saturdays in a row. Saturday must be the internet “day of rest.” I’m less concerned about it, however, than I was last weekend. In fact, I’m less concerned about a lot of things compared to last Saturday.

We’ve had an uneventful week. We’ve navigated to and from the area office, and have even ventured a little outside of our surroundings. It’s getting easier. We’ve had some rewarding interactions with a number of people, in the area office and in the local community. We continue to be amazed with the vendors/hawkers that greet us at every intersection. This woman wasn’t very happy about us photographing her.

We’ve had a couple of humorous experiences.  Before I describe them let me ask, “Are the winter Olympics going on this month in Vancouver?” I think they are but I couldn’t tell you for sure. We finally got the TV going in the apartment but haven’t heard a word about the Olympics on the few stations we can pick up. We see the local newspapers occasionally and there is nothing indicating how the Ghanaian team might be doing in Vancouver. (I’m just kidding, I know that Ghana doesn’t have a winter Olympic team, not even a bobsled team.) All of the news that we’ve heard and seen focuses on the Africa Cup (soccer), which has been going on at least as long as we’ve been here. Ghana has made it through all the preliminary competition to the finals which will be played tomorrow. The tournament is a warm up for the World Cup which will be held in South Africa in the summer.

Here’s the first funny experience. On Thursday afternoon Marsha and I stopped at a grocery store on the way home from work. As we were checking out we noticed that all of the employees (except for a couple of checkers) were gathered around a small TV near the exit doors. As we navigated our way through the crowd of employees I glanced at the TV. They were watching a soccer match. I didn’t think much of it. We then proceeded to drive the remaining 2 km north on Independence Ave to our apartment. Visualize within your mind me driving this little Honda on a demolition derby course trying to get home without a physical encounter with another car. There is always a lot of honking going on during such driving. As we approached the intersection where we turn left the honking became overwhelming. Every car behind me, every car at the intersection, and every car coming toward us through the intersection was honking. And it wasn’t a little tap of the horn. It was sustained noise. I knew for certain that I had broken some unknown Ghanaian rule of the road and was being singled out for punishment – the honking torture. Marsha and I looked at each other in fear, paralyzed as to what to do, knowing that the next punishment might be worse. We then noticed that all of the street vendors were jumping up and down and screaming as well. It was obvious to see that they weren’t screaming at us. So I motioned one of them to come to the car and asked him what was happening. Ghana had just scored a goal in their match against Nigeria. The noise was a spontaneous celebration of a soccer goal. We made it home, laughing at our unfound fear but resolute to pay more attention to the national sport. Ghana went on to win the game 1 – 0. I imagine that this Sunday (tomorrow) will be equally noisy as they play Egypt for the championship.

The second humous experience.  I described the tro-tros last week. They drive the right hand lane carrying passengers and goods to and from work/home/business/vacation, whatever. They can be 6-7 passenger minivans or 20 passenger buses. The driver has his window down and is always making hand signals – jabbing up in the air with one finger, pointing laterally with four fingers, making a circle, etc. I understand it is a language for those waiting on the side of the road as to where the tro-tro is headed. A “navigator” sits in the passenger seat doing similar hand motions. These tro-tros are always pulling out of the right lane and into the main traffic. And they do so with little hesitation because they are a bigger than I am. I am giving them their space, at the moment, trying to be a polite driver. (Dr. Stubbs said that in a few months I’ll be just as hardened as they are.) The back doors of the tro-tros are usually bulging with goods stuck inside and the doors tied over the goods. And the tops are often loaded with goods covered with spider net type ropes. (See pictures for illustration.)

On Wednesday morning I had been out with President Smith of the Accra mission inspecting some of the apartments where the missionaries live. I was coming down Independence Ave late in the morning and was following a tro-tro loaded down on the top with all sorts of items. At a stop I was looking at the top of the tro-tro and noticed that something was moving under the spider netting. I watched as a goat finished eating his way through the netting and poked his head up and looked around. His body was still under the netting but his head was out. He seemed to say “OK, now I know where I am.” I wished I’d had a camera to catch this one on film.

A couple of  Africa "animal encounters.” There are rats here. I was walking to the adjacent building last night to do laundry and saw one along the fence line. He was about 6 inches long with an equally long tail. He didn’t seem to mind me. He was a small one. We’ve seen the rural rats sold by the roadside called “grass cutters” that are as big as badgers. We’re told that the locals like to eat them. They are sold “fresh killed.” I’ve also encountered my first cockroach. On Thursday morning I stepped into the bathroom and noted this bug that I thought was a beetle in the shower. He was about 2 1/2 inches long, and dark brown. After deciding I didn’t want to get in the shower with him I disposed of him, promptly, with the toilet plunger. He actually crunched as I whacked him. He was wriggling as I scooped him into the toilet and flushed him. (I did this all discretely, trying to muffle my impulse to scream, not wanting to get Marsha involved, who would have really screamed had she seen him.) I saw President Smith’s wife later that morning and described the bug to her and she casually said that it was a cockroach. She has had to deal with them at her place. She assured me that they are harmless. Harmless? That’s the biggest cockroach I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen lots of cockroaches but none big enough to put a saddle on. Only today did I mention it to Marsha. Surprisingly she didn’t seem too concerned. I can’t imagine the same response if I were to casually mention I’d seen a snake.

One more thing. It rained on Wednesday afternoon. It was refreshing. The sky to the north got darker and darker for about thirty minutes and then the rain came down. Big drops, lots of rain for twenty minutes, and then it stopped. Ten minutes later it did it again. And then it stopped. It rained off and on for two hours. We looked out on our balcony and watched it pour off the roof. We watched the locals wind their way home in the intermittent rain unconcerned about getting wet. We didn’t see one umbrella. When it rained hard the locals would stand under the trees. When it let up they would move on. The next morning the air was heavy with life. The smell of new blossoms was very distinct. Outside of our front door we could smell a sweet fragrance similar to the syringa at home when it blossoms. It was an olfactory delight, a pleasant change from some of the disturbing odors we have previously noted. The sweet odor lasted the entire day. We also saw blue sky for the first time! Not the dark blue we are used to at home but more of a pale blue. But, definitely blue. We’ll take what blue we can get.

We are going to walk to Ruth’s to get fruit. She has a little fruit stand about a quarter mile away. This will be our first walk outside of the compound. Next week I’ll describe our living and work facilities.

P.S. I got to do some “doctoring” this week. One of the elderly guards at our compound, Edward, came to me while I was doing laundry (in the next door building.) He described his legs as having “bad hurt” and pointed to his calves. I examined both of them and didn’t note anything worrisome. So I went back to the apartment and partially filled a paper cup with about 30 aspirin tablets and took it back to Edward with instructions to take two with each meal for a day. (I think he was a little confused when I instructed him to take the medication three times a day with meals. I suspect he doesn’t eat three times a day.) I saw him again about 36 hours later and he was all smiles, pointing to his legs, saying “no hurt.” Amazing what a little aspirin can do for musculoskeletal pain. Perhaps he has never taken a pain reliever before.

First week in Accra

16 Jan 2010 – 23 Jan 2010

Short version: hard travel, big time culture shock, crazy drivers, good accommodations, wonderful people, I think we will be OK.

16 Jan 2010 -23 Jan 2010

Long version: It has been a whirlwind week! We left the cold and smog of SLC on Saturday morning and arrived in the heat of Accra mid Sunday morning. Immediate sweat!! We were greeted by Mark and Sharon Stubbs, the physician and wife that have been serving as Area Medical Advisor for the past 18 months. They were accompanied by Arlon and Linda Petersen who provided a van to carry our luggage. We were taken to our temporary apartment where we rested for a couple of hours and then “toured” Accra.

First impressions of Accra: aggressive drivers, especially at the round abouts, dirt and garbage everywhere, hot and sweaty, lots of people, none of them white, lots of equatorial vegetation, especially palm trees and bougainvilleas, hot and sweaty, big potholes, lots of tro-tros (passenger vans carrying pedestrians), lots of incomplete construction (we’ve seen this in other countries; it seems to be the universal method of building, leaving rebar sticking up out of walls for “next years” addition), goats untended on the sides of the street, hot and sweaty (have I mentioned that?) We had dinner Sunday night with the Stubbs. We were expecting Ghanaian food, but instead had mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, carrots, and chicken. How about that? Come halfway around the world and eat an American thanksgiving dinner as our first meal in Africa.

On Monday we went to the Africa West Area complex next to the temple. We met a lot of people, most of whose names I can’t remember. We found the office in which we will be working. I saw an American missionary (my first patient) with three weeks of headache and backache, treated for malaria three weeks ago but still having head/back pain. I spent half an hour trying to decide how to further evaluate and treat him. We then drove to see some of the “medical facilities” in Accra. Ghana has a medical school. The associated hospital is Korle Bu, a facility built by the British during WWI and probably not upgraded/remodeled or even painted since then. Dr. Stubbs took us to various buildings at the hospital, all of which were very worn down. There is one CT scanner at the hospital with good quality films. The one MR scanner is down most of the time. We went to the ENT department to meet the head of the department, Dr. E.D. Kitcher. While walking across his waiting room (no air conditioning, everyone is sweating) I noticed and tried not to stare at a middle age woman with incredible mid face distortion, probably fibrous dysplasia, a young man with a parotid tumor probably 20 cm in size, and an older man with a draining right ear and total facial nerve paralysis. I did not see the boy that Marsha later described to me as having single eye proptosis. Dr. Kitcher was very cordial. (I had been warned ahead of time that the local doctors are always suspicious of the outsider white doctors who show up offering to help.  When I told Dr. Kitcher I would be in Accra for eighteen months he became very  emotional and asked  if I could possibly teach in the department.  What an unexpected response!)  His exam rooms were small, without much equipment other than a head mirror, speculums and tongue blades. He and his associates (?residents) see clinic all days of the week with patients on a walk in basis.  The doctors don’t go home until all patients have either been seen or have left to get home or back to work. At one o’clock in the afternoon I would estimate the waiting room had 40 – 50 patients (probably not all were patients, some were family members.)

On Tuesday we drove 25 km to Tema to the Missionary Training Center. We gave tetanus, meningococcal meningitis, and polio immunizations to 21 missionaries. We also placed TB skin tests. We stopped at the Accra Mall on the way home. Not surprisingly, the mall looks like most all other malls we’ve ever been in. It is fairly modern construction. There are clothing stores selling clothes to probably American/European patrons (you sure don’t see the clothes in the windows on the Ghanaians walking the streets), a general merchandise Target type store, an electronic goods stores, a Nike store, a book store,a  food store, etc. We bought several bags of food in the Shoprite grocery store. Great variety, but steep prices. Marsha bought a small pork roast for approximately $20 American. (The Ghanaian currency is the Cedi which exchanges at $1.00 US for $1.40 Cedi.) We came home and crashed – still getting over jet lag.

On Wednesday we again went to the Area complex in the morning.  We got our ID badges and did some more orientation. We spent the afternoon in the car, again driving around the city looking at important locations such as pharmicies, fruit/vegetable stands, grocery stores, the bank, and a few restaurants (most of these establishments are vague in my mind as to location—there are very few streets marked with signs; I’m told when you are lost if you ask one of the locals he or she will direct you to “go straight”, meaning he/she has no idea of directions or how to solve your predicament.)

On Thursday morning Dr. Stubbs and I went to C&J Hospital to meet the director, Dr. Phillip Amekudzi. The hospital is small but is supposedly one of the best in town. The hospital is a good resource for our missionaries because it is the only one that allows the church to pay after treatment instead of the policy at the other hospitals which require payment to get in and for each item or treatment rendered, such as drugs and meals. Dr. Amekudzi is willing to help us in all medical situations. If he or his associates cannot take care of a missionary they will arrange for someone more qualified to assist. For lunch we went to Champs, not the same as the sports bar in the US. We had Mexican food. Isn’t it great that one can always find Mexican food throughout the world (except in Mexico)? I closed my eyes while eating the enchiladas and I could imagine I was in Boise eating at Chapalas except for the language, which we have been told is Twi, a local dialect spoken by all the natives except when they are addressed in English and then they switch to a semi-intelligible British English. We took the Stubbs to the airport on Thursday night. You do not leave your car while unloading passengers. Locals are standing nearby ready to boot your car. (Enterprising business, they watch you to see if they can get a boot on your car at any time while you are unloading. It requires a bribe to get it off.)

On Friday morning we moved into our permanent apartment. It is probably 900 sq. feet. It has a small kitchen with an oven and a microwave. It has a generous sized living room and balcony (we’re on the third floor) and two small bedrooms with an adjacent bath off each bedroom. The second bedroom is set up as an office. The living room and bedrooms are airconditioned. The kitchen is not. The furnishings are comfortable. We have satellite TV which doesn’t work at the moment and slow internet (dial up speed) which works intermittently. We didn’t have internet in the office all day on Thursday. We were told that it was out for the entire country. I am amazed at how this announcement caused such little annoyance for everyone I met. I guess you get used to such inconveniences. In the afternoon we drove again to the MTC in Tema. We gave second dose immunizations for hepatitis to twenty one missionaries and read TB skin tests from Tuesday. There were five positive who will now go to an X-ray facility and get chest films to make sure they do not have active TB. I had been warned that up to fifty percent of the native missionaries are skin test positive. Fortunately very few demonstrate findings of active TB. All of the missionaries positive on skin test are warned, extensively, about symptoms of activation during their life time. It is unfortunate that they are not offered treatment for latent TB (nine months of INH) but it has been tried in the past and none of the missionaries are compliant with daily treatment. Any of the missionaries with findings of active TB undergo sputum testing and three drug treatment if positive.

On Saturday we drove with another couple from the states to see where the famous Ghanaian batik fabric is dyed. It is quite difficult to describer this facility. It is in a series of outdoor shelters with dirt floors, black from years of smoke, and very greasy. Multiple pots, three feet in diameter, are sitting over open fires heating a mixture of water/oil and wax. It is very smoky. Natural dies are added to the mixture and the artists apply the heated mixture to large bolts of white fabric by hand using big foam blocks which have been carved into patterns. The patterns are all done by sight with no measurements for accuracy. Multiple patterns are done over top of each other. When finished the long bolts of fabric are then placed on beds of rocks on the ground to dry. Once can purchase fabric here at the “factory.” You are escorted to a room at the front of the complex, very small and very dark (no lighting inside) where the fabric is piled in stacks. The selection changes daily. Most of what we saw was primarily brown/yellow/orange/green monochromatic varieties of various repeating geometric designs. Marsha did buy one piece which was a dark purple with a central design of contrasting colors. We then drove about ten miles to two “retail stores” (two of many located around Accra) which are open shanty on the street. We met Esther who owned both stores. She was delightful. She is a large woman who was wearing a dress of the beautiful fabric she displays on her walls. We were her only customers for about the twenty minutes we were at the stores. The variety of fabric was a visual delight. Marsha picked out two pieces of fabric and purchased enough for a dress from each. Esther called her “tailor” who measured Marsha, which consisted of looking at Marsha long enough to remember her build, taking four quick measurements, and then deciding upon the style of dress to make. We bought the two pieces of fabric (Marsha said it was less than half the price it would have been in the states) and left one with Esther for the dress. We will pay for the dress when Esther calls and says it is ready. As we left Esther hugged each of us. We then returned to the apartment and spent the rest of the day trying to organize ourselves and trying to get communication up and running. We could not get the internet to work.  Skype video would not work. We did eventually get  Skype audio with the computer in the kitchen in Boise. We ended up making several phone calls to family. We’ll try Skyping on the internet in the office, which we are told is faster.

Summary of the first week: we’ve made it through it! Many times this past week we have found ourselves looking at each other questioning whether we can do this, but we then contemplate the situation for a moment and quietly nod in agreement we can. We are confident that we will be able to find meaning and fulfillment in our daily lives once we can get beyond the sights/sounds/smells of our surrounding and the inconveniences of living here – having to wash every fruit and vegetable (and eggs) and all the dishes in Clorox, having internet which works sporadically, having to drive with white knuckles, and getting used to the heat – the oppressive, moist heat of the day, and night (it changes very little at night.) What has given us encouragement this first week is the sincere greeting we have received from each of the Ghanaians we have met. They are a loving, kind people.


I doubt that future entries will be this long but I have had a personal need to get this first week into a written record. I am going to attach some photos of the first week.