11 April 2010 weeks # 11 and 12

I thought I’d start with this photo.  It made me think of sailing. 

Last weekend I was traveling to and from the states and was unable to post a blog.  I had the unfortunate responsibility of having to accompany two missionaries home.  Both had developed mental health problems that prevented them from continuing their service here in Africa.  One had to be sedated to travel safely.  We left on Thursday night and flew through the night to Frankfurt, Germany.  We had an eight hour layover in Frankfurt and then flew to Denver where I delivered the sedated missionary to his family.  I then traveled with the second missionary to Salt Lake City where his family met us.  It was a difficult experience for all three of us, especially the two missionaries.  Both were tearful and very upset about returning home.   I sat between them on both flights and had a lot of time to talk to them.  There was nothing I could say, and I did try, to convince them that they had no control over the development of their mental health issues.  They were not failures.  I am hoping with appropriate medication and counseling they can get on with their lives. 

I made it to the hotel late Friday night.  I spent Saturday catching up on sleep and shopping for items that we need and can’t get in Accra.  I spent Sunday with Christopher and left Monday morning to return to Africa.  The Salt Lake to New York City (JFK) flight was OK, but the JFK to Accra flight had an incident that deserves an entry on my “Funnier Now Than When It Happened” list.  It was about one hour into the ten hour flight.  I was seated in the back, left side section, in the aisle seat.  Next to me in the window seat was a large man, not fat, just very big and muscular.  A shoe horn could have helped him squeeze into his seat.  He was so big that he couldn’t put down his serving tray because it rested on his legs.  (He really should have been in business or first class.  On second thought, I should have been in business or first class.)   In front of me (aisle seat) was a woman in traditional Ghanaian dress, with the matching fabric dress and headwrap.  The head wrap was very colorful and VERY TALL.   Behind me (aisle seat) was another big man.  I didn’t look at him while boarding, and after this incident really didn’t want to look at him the remainder of the flight.  The two aisle televisions that I could see were right above me and eight rows ahead. 

The following all happened in the space of about ten minutes.  The flight attendants were serving drinks at the same time the in flight movie started.  They served me and the man next to me.   Out of the corner of my eye I saw this man take his Coke and balance it on his serving tray, the serving tray that was resting on his legs.  The flight attendants moved on to the row behind.  This man tried to reach for something beside his tray and he spilled his Coke over the side of his tray onto the left leg of my suit pants and into my shoe.   I don’t think he got any of it on himself.  He mumbled an apology but offered no help other than picking up his overturned plastic cup.  I got the attention of the flight attendants and had them hand me paper towels which I used to clean up some of the spilled Coke.  The towels did little for the wet pant leg and sock.  I patted them as dry as I could.  I took a deep breath and tried to remember what I had learned about forgiving others.  I also tried to mentally calculate how long it would take my sock to dry out and how difficult it would be to get a wool suit dry cleaned in Africa.

I decided to see if the in flight movie would be appropriate for watching.  I started to lean back to watch the screen over my head.   I got my seat part way back and the man seated behind me immediately pushed my seat forward.  I guess he figured I was infringing on his space.  I waited a minute and tried it again.  He pushed me forward a second time.  I tried it a third time with the same result.  I thought, again, about what I’ve learned about forgiveness.

Being resilient as I am (laugh, laugh) I decided to watch the screen eight rows ahead of me.  As I started to view the screen and to adjust the headphones to the proper audio channel the woman in front of me put her seat forward and sat upright, obviously interested in watching the same screen.  Her VERY TALL fabric head wrap came upright and blocked my view completely.  No matter how far I moved to the right toward the aisle I could not get a view of the entire screen due to this beautiful Ghanaian fabric head wrap in my line of sight.  I was not about to move left toward my Coke spilling neighbor.   

Fortunately, the movie was not worth watching.  I decided that there would not be any benefit gained from further pondering forgivenss so I decided on the next option:  drugs.  I searched for an ambien but discovered that I had packed them in my checked through luggage.  Aargh!  It was a very long flight to Accra.

I am going to insert some pictures taken two days ago at the Orthopedic Training Center in Nsawam (a two hour drive from Accra.) 

Marsha and I took Rebecca Tetteh, her mother, and her brother to the OTC.  Ike Ferguson was there with a team from SLC fitting wheel chairs.  Two physical therapists were part of the team.  I wrote about Rebecca in my week #5 blog.  She has just turned eleven years old.  She was born with congenital bilateral hip dsyplasia and bilateral club feet.  Through the assistance of a number of people she has had her feet repaired and now walks with crutches.  We brought her to the OTC to see the physical therapists.   We also wanted to have her orthopedic shoes and crutches examined – a 10,000 mile check up on the hardware.  She spent an hour with two therapists who instructed Rebecca and her mother, Roseline, on exercises at home to strengthen hip/pelvic musculature and to prevent hip contractures.  We then took her to the fabrication building and had her shoes and crutches examined.  The technicians took the crutches and repaired parts that were wearing.  They took her shoes and completely resoled and reheeled them.  The shoes have special platform positioning to prevent the body’s tendency to scar back into a club foot position.  The crutch repair and shoe renewal took about three hours.   The charge was Ghc 10.00, about $7.00.  

The Orthopedic Training Center is Ghana’s resource for individuals with extremity disabilities such as amputations, paralysis, polio, congenital disorders, etc.  It is a service provided by Catholic Charities.  Sister Elizabeth Newman is the director.  She has been at the OTC for about 35 years.  The OTC has an outpatient service, a mobile unit, and an inpatient service.  They have over 6,000 patient encounters a year.  The inpatient service has about 100 – 125 patients at all times. (The picture above is Sister Elizabeth talking to the mother of one of the inpatients.)  Most of these are children with congenital deformities, primarily club feet, and patients with new amputations.  We saw one girl about 10 years old with bilateral below the knee amputations, a left mid forearm amputation, and a severely deformed right hand (fingers absent,) all the consequences of injuries secondary to a fire earlier in childhood.  She was an inpatient at the clinic while the technicians refit her three prostheses, having outgrown her previous ones.  She was animated and excited to see us.  I did not glimpse in her eyes any of the despair I would have expected in someone with such devastating deformities.

As we were walking with Rebecca toward the fabrication shop a young man about 12 years of age with a right leg amputation, ambulating with hand crutches, approached us.  He and Rebecca had a brief encounter, pausing for a moment and glancing at each other, and then passed.   The encounter was very touching for us adults as we observed in these two individual’s eyes and body language a recognition for each that there is another person in this world with similar disabilities and that life does not need to be limited because of physical handicaps.  It was a precious moment.

Marsha and I have been in Ghana three months this week.  Each day is a new adventure.  Each person is a new story.  Each experience is endearing.