Kristi Goes to Ghana

Safari love it!

(So far I love it!)
Feb 13-14

Another great weekend in Ghana!  This weekend I met the MOCA (Mission Outreach and Community Assistance) team that arrived from Buffalo, NY and went to Mole National Park for a safari!  The trip there was LONG!  First, I travelled 2 hours with Bob to get from Saboba to meet the team in Tamale.  From Tamale, the trip was 4 hours and the roads were awful!  Our driver, JK, drove slowly and tried to avoid all of the bumps and corrugations on the dirt roads, but the van we were in was very old, with no shocks and no air conditioning!  We were VERY lucky that it rained the night before, so the roads were wet and not dusty.  Otherwise, by the time we arrived at Mole, we would have been hot, sweaty and covered in red dust!

The team from NY is great!  There is one ob/gyn doctor, Dr. Brar, and her daughter, Gaggan as well as two nurses, Ellen and Debbie and a nurses aid, Cate.  They are all so nice and welcomed me into their group!  It was so nice to be around people closer to me in age, similar to me in personality and from
America!  It definitely made the long, bumpy ride much better!

Mole was fantastic!  We took the two hour afternoon walking tour and had our own guide, complete with a gun to warn any animals that got too close or put us in danger.  We saw lots of antelope, birds, warthogs, monkeys, one crocodile and ONE elephant!  There are over 800 elephants in the park, but the park is so large and spread out, that the rest must have been deeper into the park.  Plus, because of the rain the night before, they didn’t need to travel to the watering hole for water.  At least we saw one!  The scenery was beautiful, but it was hot!  We were all covered in sweat when we finished the tour.  Luckily, Mole has a pool!  A few of us put our suits on and enjoyed the pool before dinner, and it was amazing!!  Dinner was very good too- we all had omo twu with groundnut soup, which was very good!

Sunday was a whirlwind!  We got up early to eat breakfast outside by the pool, looking at out the gorgeous scenery, and the watering hole with no elephants!  Then, it was back on the road.  The trip back to Saboba was quicker than the journey there, but despite leaving before 9am, it was 3:30 when we got back.  As soon as we walked in the door, Bob told us to rush over to the PHC, where there was a possible ruptured ectopic pregnancy to be seen!  We grabbed water and rushed back to the van.  When we arrived at the PHC, the situation had been resolved, and there was no ruptured ectopic, or acute abdomen.  However, there were 20-30 women who had been waiting to be seen by the team for possible surgeries!

I should explain; the main purpose of the team coming was to perform hysterectomies for women with vaginal prolapse, fibroids and uterine tumors.  Dr. Jean and I had seen/screened several of these patients to be evaluated by the team for possible surgical repair of their condition.  Because of all the snow on the East Coast, the team was a day late arriving, and thus a day behind schedule for evaluating patients/scheduling surgeries.  Women had been waiting all day to be seen by the American doctor.  We began screening patients right away, but were only able to see about 12 before it was past 7pm and we were all exhausted and starving.

To help expedite everything, I made a list of all the patients we did not have time to see, and organized them into groups to be seen in the next few days.  I went out with a translator to help explain to the women that not everyone could be seen, and when to come back.  As we were going through the list, you could see the disappointment on the women’s faces when they learned they had waited, and fasted (for possible surgery) all day for nothing.  It was heartbreaking, but most of the women just nodded and left to return again. 

One woman had a condition that could only be repaired with a hysterectomy but she wanted to have more children.  We explained to her husband that there was nothing we could do for her until she was finished having children.  The husband got VERY upset.  He was upset because they had been told to come and be seen by the team, only to wait all day to be told there was nothing that could be done.  I don’t blame him for being upset, as I am sure I would be too.  As he became more argumentative, I took a step back and let a couple of the health workers talk to him and reprimand him for behaving irrationally.  Then, Dr. Jean stepped in.  She must have heard the commotion, and came out control the man.  She got right up in this man’s face- more like his neck as Dr. Jean is not a tall woman, and began speaking in a calm, but very firm voice.  It was quite amusing to see her inches away from this man, looking up at him, putting him in his place!  He finally backed down and took his wife and left.  By the time we all made it back to the house, we were ready for food, showers and bed!