A'soalin'

It is7:15 AM in Cape Coast right now, 1:15 AM back in Utah. Roosters are crowing and goats are bleating outside my window. I can hear pots banging, taxi’s honking their horns, the sound of sweeping, and people singing hymns in english. In the hallway by my room, I can hear my host sister-in-law washing her clothes and listening to a Christian radio station. It is a calm morning for Esuekyir—usually there is far more chaos to wake up to. Auntie Matilda told me yesterday that “too much sleep is bad for you”, and I’d say that Ghana (from what I’ve seen so far), has maintained that mentality pretty well. There’s not much to do once the sun goes down, unless you go out to the bars to drink and dance. Otherwise, people are in bed between 8-10 PM, and then wake up to start their day between 3-5 AM. I can hear people bustling around by 4:30, and taxis are running by 5. Emmanuel tells me that he usually goes to bars with his friends every night, and his average amount of sleep is 2 hours, from 4-6 AM. I don’t know how he does it, but Ghanaians are so BUSY. There’s so much to do in your day when it comes to cleaning, cooking, shopping, and visiting. A lot of it probably has to do with the habit of getting things done before the heat of the day. I was always an early riser at home, but I’ve been proud (and surprised) to find how rested I feel once I wake up around 5:30.

This week has been a lot better. I think I’m reaching the point where people tell me you start to acclimate…but I’m not sure if I’m all the way there yet. I feel like I’m in sort of a limbo. I don’t yet feel so much ease that I can do whatever I’d like, but I’m not horribly homesick anymore. I didn’t think last week was that bad at the time, but when I look back on it now, I was having a REALLY hard time. I remember how I kept staring at my clock and felt like I was going to bash my head against the wall in insanity from watching the minutes pass and think about the hundreds of thousands of minutes yet to pass until I go home. I remember sitting on the front steps on my home, trying not to cry in front of the locals while I read the book my family wrote notes in for me (oh, how could I have known how much I would need that book??). I couldn’t imagine that I had only been here one week, when it had felt like eternity. But now another Sunday has come….and I feel like I will be okay. I will hope that by next week I will feel contentment, and by the next I will be on top of the world (hey!).

It’s high time that I talk about the work that I do here. I came to Ghana through ProWorld, but the organization I do my internship through is HEPENS. It stands for HEalth Protection and ENvironmental Sanitation.

It is managed by Nicholas Baidoo, who is a nurse and my internship supervisor. He provides for a lot of the funding to keep HEPENS afloat, but isn’t there often because of his other work schedule. The other HEPENS personnel, John, Eva, and Jonah, are volunteers and are largely the ones who keep HEPENS afloat. What they do with HEPENS (and what I do as an intern), is they travel to different villages or communities and schools to teach about different health topics. To be able to reach out to more villages, they also do weekly night classes. Sometimes, if given the supplies, they go to these villages to do various health testing, ranging from blood pressures, to weight, to diabetes, to HIV/AIDS, etc. All of them serve as translators for me and Jenna when providing the counseling or doing the presentations. They also provide counseling services for people with health issues to figure out what is their best options for them, in terms of going to the hospital or working on their health at home. In most cases I would advise people to go to the hospital, but I’ve found that (1) most people lack the money to even travel to the hospital, much less afford the medications they need, (2) the hospitals sound like they’re over-crowded and don’t give much time to counseling patients for long-term health maintenance, and (3) there’s still a lot of taboos and superstitions about hospitals and causes behind and illness (i.e. someone getting sick as the result of sin). It’s hard to know what advice to give people when you have these kind of cultural differences, but it’s crucial to understanding how this society works and how to successfully help people.

From Left to Right, Jon, Nicholas, Jenna, Jonah, and Eva

So I help participate in the outreaches that HEPENS does. The first week we were here, I went to various villages to introduce myself into the community, then take blood pressures and weight. It was customary for me to meet the Nana (or Chief) of the village to get his consent and support to teach there. I took all the blood pressure results from the 30-80 people we saw (a small fraction to the hundreds who actually live in the village), and got percentages of the amount of people who are pre-hypertensive and those who currently have hypertension. This week Jenna and I prepared a presentation on Hypertension to present to the village of Kwamoano and Ansemanso. The first in Kwamoano was a huge success. Not very many people came, but the women who did listened attentively, asked a lot of questions, and enthusiastically joined in on a game of soccer to finish off our presentation. Oh, how much fun that was! I have a lot of inhibitions coming to a new country and letting myself go when I don’t know what’s culturally appropriate, but there were no inhibitions with these women. They were running around in their dresses and flip-flops, getting aggressive and getting in loud, but playful disagreements about who fouled who and what-not. I realized that these women probably had tons of work to do throughout the day, but they took the time to support us and participate in what we had prepared. That meant a lot to me.

Jenna providing counseling on hypertension

Ansemanso didn’t go so well, however. Our tro-tro (a small van taxi that goes long distances, and has a higher rate of crashing than the rates of getting malaria) arrived late, so only a handful of people showed up, and most of them fell asleep during our presentation or just left. The Nana told us we would have a better turn-out if we came earlier in the day (it was roughly 10 AM at this point).  Our presentation also took much longer than normal because about 30 seconds of presenting is equal to 3-5 minutes of translating. I was so exasperated by the end. We decided the just end there and not even do the soccer. I will remember to do shorter presentations that are more to the point in the future….and get up earlier.

Village of Ansemanso

The teaching in schools is by far my most favorite part of working with HEPENS. On Mondays, Thursdays and some Fridays, we travel to various school districts and teaching kids ranging from 6-12 about proper teeth brushing, hand washing, and bathing techniques. I felt overwhelmed and disgruntled at being thrown into it at first, but the children are forgiving of my insecurities and are eager to learn and participate. I start by asking questions (while Jonah, Eva, or John translate), to test their knowledge on the subject. I draw the mouth for them to label the teeth, gums, and tongue in English, then demonstrate whatever I am teaching. I then have two participants come up to repeat what I’ve taught them, and then ask questions at the end to help review what they’ve learned. The donations I came with (thank you Mom!!) serve as prizes for those who participate. The children call me “Madame Mary”, and it’s customary for them to say “God bless you” to me whenever I leave. Old students will run by the classroom I’m teaching in to whisper my name and wave before the teacher smacks their cane at them. It’s sweet that they seem to like me, but I’m sure a large part of it comes from me simply being an Obruni with fascinating skin and hair.

This is the work that I will continue to do for the next 3 months. Because the organization is still so new, I have a lot of freedom in terms of what I want to teach. There’s a lot of problems with prenatal health, so of course I’m going to find some way to talk about birth…although I didn’t expect to be at the opposite end of the paradigm and actually be in a place where I would wonder if giving birth in a hospital is better than giving birth at home...of course that has to do with nutrition and the infant mortality problems here already. Different people, different situations I guess. Either way, I’d like to focus on prenatal and postnatal nutrition, especially since many women don’t have access to certain food or vitamins needed.

I am happy and healthy here, despite my down days. It’s the little things that make my days go well, like Eva showing me how to buy my own laundry soap to wash my clothes by hand, or having a familiar dinner of French-fries and fruit, or finding an orange-flavored fan ice as a treat on a hot, sweaty day. I love you all back at home, thank you for thinking of me and remembering me. Can’t wait to see you again.

*I wanted to post more pictures, but ran out of time at the cafe. There will be more next time!