Jessica’s Blog

Saturday, April 24, 2010

We rounded on the pediatrics ward this morning and discharged about half of the patients.  Many of the discharges had been there for a few days.  There were no deaths over night.  The boy with sudden loss of consciousness who had malaria was awake and looking around.  All of the kids showed good improvement.

We went to market before lunch with Lisa and one of her Ghanaian friends whom she had met on her last trip to Nalerigu.  I drove everyone in the truck.  It was my first time driving outside of the BMC complex.  The pot holes and goats made quite an obstacle course.  At the market, I made friends with a little boy who was about three and wanted to hold hands and walk through the market together.  He would tap my hand and point when he saw something interesting, and refused to let go when we started heading back to the truck. 

We went home for lunch and a second group planned to go to market afterwards.  Jill and I joined them as well.  This time a teenage boy asked me out of the blue if I’d marry him and a 20-something man yelled that he loved me and asked if I loved him back.  Two in one day is a new record.  Bright found us and helped guide us through the market.  We were late meeting the rest of the group at the bus.  While they were waiting for us, a group of Ghanaian children swarmed the van.  The Sulaminga kids were overwhelmed with all of the attention and were glad when we arrived and we could leave.  I felt bad for holding everyone up.

We spent the afternoon catching up on blogging, and then had supper with the group.  For desert we met at the Dickens’ for games and snacks.  The kids were playing flashlight tag outside.   About half of us joined them and the other half went inside for homemade limeade.  Their version of tag is very similar to the Moonlight, Starlight that we used to play at Grandma Robin’s house.  I ran for a hiding spot since I joined the game late and had limited time, and tripped on a speed bump in the drive way in the dark and wiped out.  I hope that the red dirt will wash out of my new Ghanaian skirt.  After that, I hid with Abigail who is about three and has a cast on her leg.  We went at a much safer pace in the dark.  After a few rounds, we went inside and the girls beat the boys at a round of Cranium.