Schools and clinics

We finally had the opportunity to go help at some schools and a couple clinics. We drove about 9 hours north of where we live in Kumasi to a little village of Sandema. A fellow named Jonathan makes it a business to coordinate clinics in far out rural areas where access to health care is very limited. He contacted me through church and we were able to come this time. It is difficult to get that far away. What an experience. 3 doctors and a pharmacist came from Tamale teaching hospital to see patients. They would be waiting for a few hours to see a doctor. They were quite patient. Mostly what was prescribed were vitamins with iron and other "blood tonics" since their diets are so poor. Anything significant was referred to a bigger hospital some distance away. The first day Lynn and I helped take blood pressures at the clinic. What we mostly did was go to several schools and talk and teach handwashing as well as hygiene and puberty changes to older students. I had as many as 350 students standing outside in a courtyard while I talked to them about the changes going on inside! It was rather interesting. I guess my school nurse experience paid off :-) Lynn of course jumped right in the middle of some games with students. He played a few minutes of volleyball with older students and did some hopscotch and rock juggling. Also on the first day there were some drummers that came to the clinic while waiting for the doctors to arrive. They were singing and dancing while waiting. Lynn of course, joined in!

We had to greet the chief of the village before going to the clinic

This picture is from a market. I had to put it in for all those essential oil people!

Our church sent 4 medical people from the states to run a neonatal resuscitation class and newborn care. We helped put some kits together

This is a maternity bed in the clinc we worked in. There are no stirrups anymore. It is pretty antiquated

Imagine having to ride 30 minutes over a dirt road in labor in this motorcycle ambulance on a hard cot. They would have to kick start it to get it going and take a mother who is having labor and having difficulty to the next town where there is a bigger hospital

Teaching handwashing

While waiting for doctors to arrive for the clinic some musicians came and played their drums and flutes and danced. As you can tell Elder Wardle joined in!

We visited several classrooms and did our largest group instruction in the courtyard. School nursing at it's finest!

New experiences

We have been in Ghana 3 and half months and it seems there are new experiences almost daily. We have been stopped by police 4 times with radar guns and taken to the police station once for running a red light! Luckily for us they soften up when we tell them we are missionaries. We just say "oh no" anytime we see them flag us down. Only once did they have a car.....life in Ghana. We went to Accra in February to go to the LDS temple there with some church members from towns called Techiman and Tamale. We have been teaching some temple preparation classes. It was a neat experience to go through the temple with them. We also enjoyed dinner there in a restaurant that was as nice as what we find back home. It was called Lord of the Wings. It continues to be very warm here. As long as we have moving air we are fine but without fans we sweat in a hurry! We have experienced a doctor's visit with one of our sisters who needed her eye checked following an injury. We sat for 5 hours waiting to be seen. They do not have appointments. Luckily we saw an american doctor who is here on a 5 week rotation. We also visited a little neighborhood preschool and kindergarten. The teacher waved us down one day as we were walking home from our exercise. She invited us to come visit her school. They were tiny rooms but the children were all very warm and friendly.

This is common method of travel. I don't think they have a seatbelt law here!

An overloaded truck going down a steep hill. We have occasionally seen the remnants of these truck loads when they take a corner too quickly! They are quite top heavy

The Accra LDS temple at night with a full moon

Tamale and Techiman groups at the temple

Meet Frances Dodoo a former track star at Washington State University...He currently teaches African studies at the University of Ghana and is part of the Olympic committee in Ghana

Cheri is a friend of Lynn's cousin she met in China. Cheri teaches at the University of Ghana also

do you think it will keep it's load?

In the villageof Nkawkaw right by a missionary apartment

We went to a high school track meet for a couple hours at the stadium close to home. There were 64 high schools represented and the stadium was packed!

This is a Ghanian funeral celebration. It goes on for 2 or 3 days. The person was deceased a couple months prior but a celebration is planned and family and friends come from all over. They sit and visit and have a loud speaker that announces the name of a person attending and how much money they contributed to the family!

The neighborhood preschool.

How would you like to do your shopping at this market?

After 5 hours of waiting she got in for an eye exam. This was the first step to check vision. There are about 5 people in there at once. 2 are checked at one time

Yes, that is a sewing machine. We see all kinds of things on people's heads!

These are the four golfers each with their required caddy!

It's a barrel on his head!

This was a very sweet stake patriarch at his home. He had a pen with goats and chickens in the front yard. He joined the church in 1983 while in Germany. He had a cocoa farm and sold it. He travels 3 hours each way to work at the LDS temple twice a month by tro tro. (a large van)

This is a tro tro. Loaded down as usual!

Two of our wonderful missionaries walking a blind sister home. One is from South Africa the other from Utah