Week #4 -- "weatha" instead of "weather"

We’ve had a great week!  We got our satellite TV working.  We had to drive to the vendor about a mile away and pay for a month’s service, in cash, no checks or credit cards accepted.  It is Ghc $115, or about US $79, per month.  Stand in line and pay cash.  We’re going to keep it for a month and see if it is worth it.  For news we have a choice of the BBC, British CNN, British Sky News, and Al Jazeera.    We’ve been watching the news primarily on the stations from Great Britain.  When we get tired of the King’s English  -- “weatha” instead of “weather” --  we switch to Aljazeera and listen to English with an Arabic accent.   

 

In addition to leaving behind their language when they left, the British left behind a few other quirks.   We are actually not on the third floor of our apartment (as I reported last week.)  We are on the second floor.  The British call the first floor the ground floor and the second floor the first floor, etc.   All of the locks on the doors have to be turned around twice with the key to lock or unlock.   Our apartment is technically “flat 24.”  The electrical outlets are 220 volt with British plug pattern.  Each outlet has a rocker arm serving as a breaker.  We have an assortment of adaptors to fit all the different types of plugs on appliances.   The major bank is Barclay’s, a British bank.  But we drive on the right side of the road.  How did that happen?

We’ve become very bold this week, venturing out into other parts of the city.  On Thursday we walked about two miles to a grocery store and back.  On Saturday we drove to Osu, which is the “touristy” part of town.  Marsha purchased some fabric.  This is a picture of the “fabric store.”  I talked with David, a three year old, while Marsha was shopping.

 I have learned a lot about malaria this week.  We have had two missionaries very sick, VERY SICK.  One of them had a fever of 106 through the night and altered consciousness.   His fever would not come down with Tylenol and alcohol sponge bathing.  He was taken to the hospital in the morning and given IV artesunate which is curative.  He was improved within 4 hours of the medication.  The second one had been experiencing a week of headache and fever, not to 106, but above 101.  His CBC was reported as showing greater than 300 parasites per high power field.  I would have loved to see the peripheral smear.  I remember, vaguely, looking at prepared slides of malaria in medical school.  I would have found it very illuminating to be able to see this missionary’s peripheral smear firsthand.   His blood indices were also informative:  the white cell count was normal (not what I would have expected for such a fever) but the red blood cell count was a hemoglobin of 9, which is significantly anemic.  The anemia prompted me to read more about malaria.  Unbeknownst to me, a major cause of malaria death, especially in children, is the profound anemia caused by the intracellular parasites and the subsequent red blood cell hemolysis and secondary loss of oxygen carrying capacity.  When these missionaries are cured of the acute disease they are usually so wiped out they cannot function.  Now I know why.  They are anemic from the parasite hemolysis.  

We've been here an month, now.  Each day we see more of the beauty of this land and its people and less and less of what bothered us the first few days.   We love the kindness of the people.  We are beginning to see the profound photographic images all around us.  I regret not having a camera with a telephoto lens in order to shoot pictures from a distance so I would beel  feel that I am not intruding on these individuals' lives as much as I do with my little point and shoot.  I asked the woman in the first picture if I could take her picture and she was very hesitant.   After a moment she said something to me in Twi, and then turned to her side, which I assume was a consent to the picture.

 
This is a typical scene along the roadside.