Nina’s Blog

slaves,crocs, food

ok finally…the weekend

saturday: so this was the day of the great outing. jen, micah, laila and kim and I went out with yisahuku to pauga and bolga. the jouney is a good 2hr drive because of the bumpy roads

pauga: first we went to the croccodile pond. there you can sit on the croc or hold his tail and they will feed him chickens. So we go and it is such a tourist place. they charge per camera, per chicken and then admission. The lake looks just like the watering place on lion king. it is small because of the dry season but there are cows, and goats all hovered around and the crocs are just chillin. there are about 200 crocs in the pond. so we go and get the chickens. I am imaging these big white chickens….they are baby chicks!!!!! I thought it was so sad, i mean i know it is the circle of life, but they were babies. I was holding them and petting them. you have to see the picture!!! finally the guys were like…”umm are you okay…can we feed the chickens to the croc now. I turned them over.  and i did hold the tail of the croc.

then we went to the slave camp. so this was a place where the slave traders stopped with the slaves on their way to the coast. the pictures are amazing. you first see the trees where they slaves where chained. then you see the holes in the ground where they put the food and had to fight to eat food. you also see the hole in the rock where there was a spring and supplied water. then there was the place where they were made to sing and play music against the rock. if they sang praises to the slave traders and acted like they were happy they got extra food. then there was the punishment rock where they were made to lay down and get beaten and stare into the sun if they tried to run away. there was a watch tower naturally built of rocks that  they had guards to alarm the slave traders of those trying to escape or people from the villages coming to try to rescue their people. then there is the block where the slave traders auctioned off the slaves. some of the money used to buy people were in the form of shells or cocco or other food.then they were made to march 4wks to the coast where many died along the way. when i get to accura i will try to go to the slave castle. this is where president obma visited when he came to ghana. it is called the gate of no return because once you passed there was no chance of going back to africa. either you died because you were sick or you were shipped out.

bolga:

Then we went to bolga and had lunch. i had fried rice and a pilafel. In bolga we went shopping for leather goods and basket weaving which are the trademarks of the village. It was good times. then we got some fan ice ice cream and went home.  I was on call saturday night.

sunday:

I had a lady with a 3mo extrauterine preg that we did an exploratory lap on.we had admitted her a few days ago, tried to induce her but she didn’t dilate. went to do a d and c and then with the instrument in the uterus was able to see that the pregnancy was in the abdomen. it had burst through the uterus. it was amazing she wasn’t in more pain. but she is doing better now and recovering from the surgery. she hadn’t had a preg in 10years so it was kind of sad. but we were able to save her uterus and her left fallopian tube. so she can try again

We then operated on my lady with polyhydraminosis. a lot of amniotic fluid in the uterus. there was concern that their might be atresia of the esophagus and immaturity of the lungs. but baby was fine,  kind of big so it could have been due to gestational diabetes. there was a waterfall of fluid when we opened that uterus. it was like a flood in the operating room.
then my posse of kids were waiting for me and i told them i would go to market. i brought some fabric that i may use to cover my couch.

and then my last blog picked up from this point.

we just got back from dinner at the hewitt’s house. awesome. it was a mexican theme. it really makes you appreciate where all the food comes from. like the tomatoes are ripe now in the dry season. we had fruit salad and the strawberries and apples come from farther away. they taste so good, but it is not at all like going to the store and getting whatever you want. it really has to be in season and in a village somewhat close by.