Final Thoughts

Sunday June 14, 2015

I can’t believe it’s over. It’s too soon, I’m not ready to leave. What’s interesting is that it feels as though I have been here way longer than I have, yet it has only been 6 weeks. We’ve done so much! On my outreaches I have seen a total of almost 3000 patients, referred hundreds for surgery, and witnessed personally upwards of 60 surgeries. I have worked in the hot, humid sun, pouring rain, deep rainforests and salty beaches. I have been on more adventures than I could have hoped for with others that I have come to love and made friendships that will last forever. Words cannot explain how much I will cherish every second of this journey. A week ago I felt content with leaving. I felt ready. We had spent the last few weeks talking with the first meals we were going to have when we got home, how much we were craving a laundry machine and those loved ones we left at home. But when we were saying our goodbyes before we left the hotel and on the ride to the airport, I wanted nothing more than to stay. I am not the type of person that struggles with goodbyes or has problems with missing others. There were times on my mission in Toronto that I nearly forgot that I had a family (sorry guys). I didn’t have a problem with leaving on a two year mission, and didn’t look back when my family dropped me off at the MTC. But there have been perhaps 2 times in the past 3 years where I could honestly say that I struggled with leaving a place that I had come to call home. Toronto and now Ghana. A part of me will always remain in both of those amazing, and drastically different places. 

Thank you to all of you who supported me during this amazing time of my life! Thank you for those that donated to my fundraiser and helped me pay for other expenses. None of this would be possible without you. I am eternally grateful. Thank you to my readers and for putting up with the sporadic posting schedule, elementary spelling and grammar and my struggle for words. This is my first blog ever in my life. It was a learning experience but I am so grateful that I did it. I know that for years to come the thoughts I shared here will help me remember and relive the experiences that I had while in Ghana. I love you all and I have much more to share besides what I was able to write here so just ask! Take care everyone, Me peh yo (I love you) 

Do I Have To Leave?

Friday June 12, 2015

Last day of our overnight trip to the Central Region with St. Thomas

Thats it. The outreaches are over. Just finished my last one today. I was with St. Thomas all week. It feels so surreal. It hasn’t quite hit me yet that I leave tomorrow. I still feel like I will go on another adventure, attend church on Sunday and be back driving across the country doing outreaches again on Monday. But that’s not going to happen and it makes me incredibly sad. Ugh I can’t think about it.

This week was great though. We were on another overnight outreach trip to the Central Region. We stayed in a town called Assin Foso. It was a pretty typical St. Thomas week. Average of 60 or 70 patients a day, Ema convincing us to eat fufu with him, Seth not smiling in photos and a lot of down time at the outreaches haha. 

Needless to say he was completely blind in
that eye.

The most interesting thing that happened this week was probably a patient that we saw on Tuesday. Seth came up to me and asked for me to come check out a patient that was lying down on one of the church pews. He said that it was something he had never seen before. And it certainly was! The man had nearly his whole eye out of its socket! I was instantly intrigued. A few of us sat down and with the help of a translator started asking him some questions. We weren't able to get much information but he said that it came on suddenly about 3 months ago. He woke up one morning and noticed that his eye was starting to come out of its socket. We don’t know how much medical attention he has had but he has to have seen a doctor by now. There is a decent hospital in town that he probably went to go see. I had no idea what was wrong. We all had theories but they were just shots in the dark. We weren't doctors yet. But when we went into the clinic on Thursday we showed a picture of it to Dr. Gyasi who immediately recognized it as a tumour behind the eye that was pushing it out. After he said that it made so much sense! We felt pretty foolish for not thinking of a tumour haha. He did come into the clinic the next day, Wednesday, for a consult. Dr. Gyasi wasn’t able to see him but he said that he would have referred him to another Ophthalmologist anyways, one that specializes in cases like this. He said that he would absolutely have the eye removed and probably have chemotherapy. But then there was the question of if he could afford that. Unite For Sight doesn’t cover extreme surgeries like that or chemo. So I don't know what has happened since we saw him but it was such an interesting case to see. Perhaps one that I may never see again, at least to not that extent. 

Mary Ellen, Rachel and myself with Kenneth, one of the assistants at the clinic

Dr. Gyasi the Ophthalmologist for St. Thomas Eye Clinic

The last couple of days Mary has been teaching me Korean! She served her mission in South Korea. I don’t know why I haven’t been learning this the whole time! I love Korean! It is such a cool language. I am able to read it now which is incredible. It’s a slow read mind you and I don't know what I read almost all the time but its fun to decipher the characters. One of new roommates in the Fall, Ethan Forbes, served in the same mission with Mary. We realized that connection while we were out here. So I hope to learn enough Korean to have a few half intelligent conversations with him at least. Should be fun!

Birthday party at Pinocchio's!

There were 6 of us on the outreach this week. Mary Ellen, Marissa, Rachel, Alyssa, Evan and myself. Arnold was the only one that wasn’t there from the normal St. Thomas crew. In his place was a guy named Ernest. He is the quite type but we all loved him. We were able to get him to talk more by the end of the trip. Evan is another volunteer that got here last week. He’s from California. Great guy. He and Alyssa have the same birthday! They were literally born on the exact same day. They both turn 20 today, Friday! We met up with the others working with Crystal and headed out for dinner. We had heard of another place (from the senior couples of course) called Pinocchio’s, an Italian restaurant with amazing gelato! There are a couple more volunteers that got here just last weekend, working with crystal, that came as well. And guess who else came?! Johnny!! It was so good to see him! He said he has never been out for dinner with volunteers before, so we felt pretty special. We bought him his dinner and gelato. I love and respect John so much! He has a beautiful wife and 5 kids with his 5th just born last week! he has been trying to build a new house for his growing family. When people build homes and other building here they have to do it over a long period of time because it takes so long to raise the funds for it. They almost always pay cash so they have to wait until they have money before they can pay for the work to be done. Everywhere you look there are unfinished buildings. So needless to say we had John covered. What we didn’t know was that Evan ended up paying for the whole dinner! He’s the birthday boy he shouldn’t have had to pay for any of it! He was incredibly stubborn though and had already used his credit card. We were very grateful and began devising plans on how to pay him back. Ultimately we decided that he payed out of an act of service and we know that there are certain blessings that come from those that serve others. We did buy him gelato though, a lot of it haha. Happy Birthday Alyssa and Evan!

We are pretty much full Ghanian now

If you are wondering why I look so freaking awesome in the photos it’s because I am wearing a shirt that I had made for myself by a tailor that lives close to the hotel. A bunch of us had things made by tailors. We bought fabric at a fabric store called Wooden or at the market. I had two shirts made and I love them.

I don’t want to leave tomorrow. I really like it here. I love the work we do and those that I work with. I’m trying not to think about it. I still have 1 more day. Make it count.

Saturday June 13, 2015

Then there was one. Our last day is regrettably here. We made the best of it though. This morning we went to the Art Centre one last time to blow the rest of the cedis we have left over. It was Austin's first time at the market. I felt so experienced haha even though its only my third time there. I got some great last minute souvenirs. After the art centre we met up with Daniels good friend that is serving his mission in Accra. We went to his bishops house where they made us fufu and jollof for our last supper. It was so much fun. We took trotro's there too which is always fun. for the first time I saw what it would be like to be a missionary here and it would be incredible! The amount of things that they put up with and learn while they are here is amazing. I respect the missionaries here a ton. When we got back to the hotel we had to pack and head to the airpot. Saying our goodbye's was the worst. I am going to miss everyone so much! Ugh I don't want to go home! 

Trotro? Aburi? Heck Yes!

 Saturday, June 6, 2015

Our short hike down to the falls after our bike ride.
Solomon is in the front.

I love our weekends here! We have had the best adventures every Saturday. Cape coast, Bojo beach, Elmena, Wli falls, monkeys sanctuary, and now Aburi! Aburi is a place in the Eastern Region where we went mountain biking to another waterfall. It was tons of fun! We hired a van to take us up there for 80 cedi’s. There was a place we rented the bikes from and we had a tour guide, Solomon, that took us to the waterfalls. Solomon was 15 years old. Great kid. The bikes were mediocre at best haha but I wasn’t expecting anything more. They were like ones you would buy from value village or the DI. Solomon took us all through the town, through people back yards, down single track pathways until we finally got to the trail to the falls. We had to hike the last few hundred meters because the trail was too rocky for our bikes. The falls were small but still beautiful. There were a few small shallow pools as it rolled over the rocks. Enough for us to cool off in. Ghana is a very beautiful country. The forests are so lush and green. After the falls we headed back to the rental shop through the botanical gardens. There we stopped for some drinks and some pictures. Once we gave the bikes back, we said our goodbyes and took a trotro back to Accra. A tortro is a large van that serves like a taxi except way cheaper, anywhere from 1-5 cedis. We stopped in Osu (part of Accra) to get inner at this turkish place a senior couple told us about. It is called DNR and it was amazing!! We loved it so much that I think we are going to try and go back. There have been some great food places in Accra I am surprised. It has been great. 

Boti falls. The little pool we cooled off in is on the right.

Austy, D and I shreddin' it up.

Another end to another adventure. #ghanabegreat

Sunday June 7, 2015

It was an Obruni Sunday thats for sure! Last week we all received assignments from the bishop for this week. Daniel is part of the BYU mens chorus so I volunteered him to sing in Sacrament meeting and he did a fantastic job! I taught gospel doctrine and really enjoyed it. I hope others did too haha. The girls ran primary pretty much. Gavin taught gospel principles and Austin was supposed to teach elders quorum but I think that the presidency wasn’t informed. I would have loved to hear his lesson though especially since we had a non-member with us and they were talking about home teaching. The non-member was Kofi from the Telecentre! he finally came to church! He came late but he came! It took us 5 weeks but he came. It was our last Sunday in Ghana so we had to have him there. It was also Elder Nelsons last Sunday as well. He was an Elder in the ward. He bore his testimony and it brought back so many memories from my mission. How I felt when I finished my mission, my last testimony and Sunday. It was an emotional time me and I am sure it is the same for him. I will miss this ward. Singing hymns a cappella an octave or two lower than it should be, not knowing if the power will stay on for the whole meeting and witnessing all the converts. There was another confirmation today. That is 7 total since we arrived here. I love it. 

Last Week With Crystal

Saturday June 6, 2015

The Somanya kids and I right before I fell over. 

Just 2 weeks left! Time has flown by! It was the beginning of our lasts. This was our last week with crystal eye clinic and it was a blast! I love crystal so much, I am going to miss them a ton. What was great about this week was it was almost the same as my very first week here. We got to go back to Teshie and the refugee camp. I saw some familiar faces and got to speak Ga again in Teshie. There is a school at the church that we were holding our outreach at Teshie and the kids were so funny! They loved playing with us, especially if you lift and throw them around. Except when you do it to one child everyone wants a turn, which I knew would happen. What I didn’t know would happen was how they were all literally jumping on me to the point where they made me fall over. But then they helped me up and brushed the sand off my legs and feet. They were so sweet. Probably some of the happiest kids I have met since I have been here. That was on Monday June 1. 

Tuesday were were back at the liberian refugee camp. It was pouring rain all day, so much that St. Thomas cancelled their outreach because of flooding in the area they were going to. No day off for us though. What was nice was that all the visual acuity tests were done when we arrived so all we needed to do was dispense the medications and glasses. We finished quite early. So we ended up going to the Art Centre one more time. I got a few more souvenirs and gifts which was good because there were some other things that I wanted and also I knew how to barter with the shop owners. After we met up with the rest of our group at the mall, had dinner and saw Pitch Perfect 2. Not as good as the first one but I still enjoyed it. 

Mary! She was so cute! She did this sweet little
dance after, it was so funny. 

Wednesday we were in a place called Somanya in the Eastern Region. One of the patients there was 100 years old! She wasn’t the oldest person I had met on the outreaches but she was definitely the fittest. She didn’t look much older than 80. Today there was more rain, I am used to the periods of rain. It is the rainy season however. It has rained a lot the past few days, so much that there is flooding in parts of Accra. Ernest said that flooding happens every year. What was different about that night was what we found out the next morning from John. 

John told us that there had been an explosion at a gas station in Accra at around 10pm. There were over 100 confirmed deaths! No one has ever heard of anything like that happening. I asked him if he knew how it happened. He said the news was reporting that it started from a generator close by falling over causing the gas to leak out into the water. The men that tried to recover the generator were smoking. One of them threw their cigarette into the water and it caught fire. Quickly it caught up to the gas station and-BOOM. Very sad that something so little could cause such damage. What made the situation even crazier was Johns side of the story. That day we had dropped him off as we came into Accra so he could take a trotro (a sort of cheap bus) back home. If he would have stayed with us and gone home from the Telecentre he would have passed right by the gas station around the time it exploded. He was definitely being watched over. We don’t normally drop him off in random places but that day we did, and for that I am grateful. 

Yours truly.

Thursday was our first time ever going to the Crystal clinic! I loved it! It is smaller than the St. Thomas clinic but the smaller atmosphere is nice. Dr. Clark, the Ophthalmologist is really nice. For some reason I was really tired that day so I ended up sleeping for 2 hours at the clinic after my surgery rotation. 

Myself, Jarome, Marissa, Evan, Rachel, John, Alyssa, Mary, Esther, BB and Ernest in front.

Friday was our last outreach with crystal ever! Sad day. We were in an area called Kibi in the Eastern Region. Afterwards the local volunteer had cooked us chicken and rice. It was probably the best chicken and rice that I have had here. I will always remember those guys. Ernest, John, Bismarck, Jerome and Dennis. I had a blast with them and I will never forget all the great laughs we shared and the things I learned from them. Maybe someday in the Future I will see them again. 

Well Worth the Wait

I apologize for not posting anything this past week. The internet at the hotel has been on the fritz again. I will try an post a couple more times before my time is up here. There is still so much more to my story that I wish to share. Stay tuned and thank you, everyone for taking the time to read my poorly written and edited blog. 

Saturday May 30, 2015

Marissa was really excited for her burger.

Another amazing day full of adventure! I can’t put into words how much fun today was! We swan under a 300 foot waterfall and fed monkeys! We drove a ton but it was well worth it. I would do it all again in a heartbeat. We left at 6am and headed to Wli falls in the Volta region. All of us went except for Annie and Jerry. Even Kofi came! Annie said she was going to the temple with one of the recent converts at church that she met our first week here. And Jerry actually went home today. Yesterday was his last full day in Ghana. He was only here for 2 weeks. It was his birthday yesterday so we went out for dinner. He has been craving western food for 2 weeks! A senior couple that we met at the temple, the Sanders, told us of an amazing burger place called “Burger & Relish.” And boy did it live up to its reparation! Maybe its because we have only been eating chicken and rice for the past month but it was delicious! Probably one of the best, if not the best meal (as far as western food goes) I have had here in Ghana. Jerry was a very happy man. He is very picky with what he eats which I found very interesting that he would choose to come to a country with so much foreign food. He doesn’t eat anything that looks remotely strange, or even any fruit except for apples. Ya I know! What does he eat?! My answer: I don’t know, but he survived his two week trek in Africa. His parents I’m sure are very proud. 

Our classic group selfie. #ghanabegreat

Anyways, we didn’t get to the waterfalls until 12:30-1pm. The drive was long, especially when we had to wait in line for the fairy to cross the river. After we payed the 15 cedi admission fee our guide, Matthew, took us up the 30 minute hike to the waterfall. You don’t need a guide but its just another way for them to make money because they always expect a tip at the end. The waterfall was amazing! the pool was only a few feet deep but standing under the waterfall was incredible! You can definitely feel the power of water when it hits you in the head after falling 300  feet. Out guide told us that we can’t stay under the waterfall for more than 20 minutes because then we run the risk of getting a wicked headache from the constant raining down (pun intended) of what felt like solid water pellets at times. It was so much fun! We got some pretty amazing pictures of all of us. Kofi doesn’t know how to swim so we spent a little time trying to teach him the basics. It’s funny because no matter what age you are you still look like a child when you are learning to swim. He was flailing about trying to keep his head about the water while struggling to execute the concept of kicking haha. He did well though for his first time. It amazes me how many people don’t know how to swim here, I mean they live on the ocean! But then again they don’t have public swimming lessons for children like we did growing up and not everyone goes to the beach here. The stigma of “black people can’t swim” is definitely evident here. 

All of us at the lower Wli falls. 

After a couple hours we had to head back. For some reason Daniel and I decided to run back. It has been a while since I have exercised so it felt good to feel my legs fill up with lactic acid again. What was great about it were the mangos we got for 1 cedi at the bottom. Mmmmm they were so good! The best that I have had here. When the others arrived we left and headed for the monkey sanctuary. 

It was only about 45 minutes away which felt like no time at all compared to the long drive we had in the morning. We payed the 25 cedi admin fee and bought a few dozen bananas (which by the way are SO good! They are the cute little ones that take 3 bites to finish. Mmm!) and headed into “the sanctuary.” It was just a large back yard with a few buildings that people lived in. While our guide was explaining how to feed them one of the monkeys reached down from the tree we were standing under and grabbed the banana right out of his hand. we weren't even in the sanctuary at this point. She was an aggressive one that wasn’t afraid to come close to the entrance. When we got inside there were monkeys popping out of trees, buildings, climbing down ladders, and crawling across telephone lines to come see us. We were instructed to hold the banana firmly out in font of us. The monkeys would climb up onto our arms or shoulders and eat the banana right out of our hands. We didn’t have to peel them or anything. Sometimes there were multiple monkeys on you and all they were focused on was the food. They could hardly care who you were as long as you had food thats all that mattered. After a while the only hungry ones left were the timid monkeys. It was hard to get them to crawl on top of us because they were scared of us. What was hilarious was the reactions of people from the monkey jumping on them. Marissa was the firs to be attacked. She screamed and almost threw the monkey off of her. After that first one she was fine but the pictures are priceless! I loved the monkeys! I wish that some of them weren't so shy and afraid of us, I would have played with them for hours. By this time the sun was beginning to set and we had a long drive home. Luckily I had my laptop and so we ended up watching Enders Game until my laptop died with 15 minutes left in the movie. I guess I should have charged it more before we left, my bad. We got home around 11 and went straight to bed. The end of another successful adventure in Ghana. 

Hospitals and Shawarma’s

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Today we finished our overnight outreach in Takoradi. We were in a village close by where they spoke Ahonte, similar to Twi. I was on visual acuity and everything seemed to be going as normal until this one lady. I called for the next patient and she struggled to walk over to the chair. I walked over to help her and noticed that there was a certain strain in her breathing. She sat down and she was in some sort of pain. Tears were flowing down her face and then I saw her clutch her chest. Thats when I switched into EMT mode. She was about 70 years old and spoke zero english. John, our usual translator wasn’t there at the time and so I looked to the line of patients and looked for the most likely candidate for knowing English. I saw a man in his 30’s wearing western clothes. I pointed to him and called him over. He just pointed at himself and looked around. “Yes you!” I said. He came over and I tried to get him to ask her if it felt like someone was standing on her chest and some other questions but he couldn’t follow along with my english very well. While I was trying to talk to this man Jerry had gone into the church and asked for one of the local volunteers to translate. We then got Richard to come out as well. I knew she was having a heard attack. Richard and I got her down onto the ground in the recover position to ease some of the discomfort. At this point everyone was looking at us and Ernest and a few of the other local volunteers were around us. Richard was great to have. We knew that she needed to get to a hospital and take Aspirin. There was a local pharmacy close by and we sent someone to go get some but they took too long so we decided to take her straight to the hospital. 

I wonder where those wheelchairs were when we got there. They have wheels!

We got a taxi and Richard, one of the local organizers and myself went with. Richard and I went because we knew that if she went into cardiac arrest that the taxi driver and the organizer didn’t know CPR. Luckily it never got to that point and we made it to the hospital about 20 minutes away with no problems. But it was just our luck that the taxi we chose just had to get gas on the way to the hospital. I don't know if he would have ran out but it looked pretty low. But still, this lady is having a heart attack! We don’t have time to stop! Anyways we make it to the hospital and I run over to a nurse and tell her what happened. She tells us to put her in the wheelchair and take her to the back to see the doctor. I turned around expecting to see a wheelchair but what I found was a plastic chair with wheels, 3 wheels exactly. I wish I would have taken a picture of the wheelchair we used, it was sketchy but I wasn’t surprised, it’s Africa. We roll her to the back and speak to another nurse that tells us that we need to fill out a form before we can see a doctor. I told her that we didn’t have time for that, this women was possibly having a heart attack. I went and knocked on the doctors door went in and told him the situation. He met us in the main ward and helped us get her some Aspirin. Initially the nurses said that they didn’t have any Aspirin left. Urgency definitely was not at the forefronts of anyones mind in that hospital. Fortunately she had improved on the drive over. Her pain had decreased and she had calmed down. A few minutes later Aspirin had been found. It was some dissolvable one and the nurse brought it in inside a small medicine bottle with some water. Then she just held it…watching it while it slowly fizzled. The doctor insisted that she shake the bottle a little to help it dissolve but there was no lid so she just swished it around, barely. At that rate it would have taken 5 minutes to dissolve. We needed a lid or something to shake it up with. The doctor asked where the lid had gone and she replied that she had thrown it away (face palm!). Eventually another lid was found and we shook it up and gave it to her. The doctor thanked us and told us we could leave. After we left Richard and I talked about what we thought it might be. Her pain had gone down on the ride over and so had her pulse. So we think that it was just unstable Angina and not a full heart attack which is really good for her case. I’m scared to think about what would have happened if it was a myocardial infarction. I mean the hospital barely had Aspirin. I doubt they have any equipment or medication to treat heart attacks. She could very well have died, who knows. What’s important is that she is fine now and the last I heard she was doing better. They were going to keep her at the hospital overnight for evaluation. When I came on this trip I thought that maybe I would get to use some of my EMT training but never did I think that it would be cardiac related and in such a dramatic fashion. Defiantly an exciting experience and one for the books. 

Wache! Cooked rice and beans with spicy gravy on top.
Oh and a hardboiled egg to go with.

The rest of the day fails in comparison but I will try to make it sound some what interesting. I had some pretty good food on this trip. I was the first week that I actually had breakfast every day. I am so used to eating a couple pieces of cold toast that I felt so full after eating breakfast 4 days in a row. I had wache, eggs and bofrote nearly every morning. Wache is rice, black beans and spicy sauce. bofrote’s are sort of donuts. They are really good! I also tried some Ghanian porridge. It looks disgusting but has a very unique taste. It has sort of a cider taste to it as well as a kick of ginger at the end and its served warm. John and BB had it every morning. Its made of a grain called millet I think as well as some root that they use as a spice, they call it soap as its nickname. 

One of the most interesting things I have ever tasted. Surprisingly tasteful. 

Breakfast time. Thats BB on the left, then Austin, John and myself.

On our way back from Takoradi we stopped and got some food. We first stopped at a place that sold rice and chicken (the usual). I was holding out for our second stop in an hour but then I found out what BB was having and really wanted some. He had a egg sandwich and hot chocolate! It was actually really good. It was like an omelet sandwich. There was lettuce, onions and spices inside the egg. The hot chocolate was made with sweetened condensed milk, hot chocolate mix, sugar and hot water. Then she poured it into a clear bag and thats how you drink it. I actually don't think I have ever mentioned this but everyone drinks water out of bags here. Little 500ml pouches that you can can buy literally anywhere for nothing; 10 pesewas which is less than 3 cents. You can buy huge bundles of these pouches from a lot of the stores. Its 30L of water for 3 cedis. I personally have been getting the bottled water for the past couple weeks and prefer it over the bagged water. I buy 1 or 2 large two litre bottles a day for a few cedi. It is more expensive in the long run but its much easier to carry around than pouches that easily break and are hard to keep cold. The second place we stopped at for food was this outdoor restaurant with live music and everything. We got shawarma’s! Ok well they weren’t true shawarma’s but they were still pretty good. There were no pickled beats or peppers or magic garlic sauce but instead they just put lettuce, chicken, onions, ketchup and mayonnaise. Still worth it but definitely does not compare to home. What was funny about this place was what they used to wrap the shawarma’s in…printer paper! Haha no joke the literally had a bundle of printer paper that they would use to wrap them with. Oh Africa your ingenuity never ceases to amaze me.

A little ink and I would have been set.

We got back at the Telecentre tonight around 11pm. Everyone was still up so it was great to see everyone. We talked all about what had happened this past week. I love it here. I love the people, the culture, most of the food haha, and especially the people I am here with. I couldn’t have asked for a better. We have so much fun! As we speak Austin is fighting to get through another episode of diarrhea whilst trying to kill a centipede in the bathroom that is looming near. Good times. 

Back with the Boys…and Annie

Wednesday May 27, 2015

Jarome, aka "Biggy."

This week I am back with Crystal eye clinic! It feels good to be back. I missed these guys. Ernest, John, BB and now Jerome. Jerome picked us up from the airport but wasn’t working with us because he was working as an intern at the hospital. He is an Ophthalmic nurse. I love him, he’s a super funny guy. It has been a fun few days with him in the mix. We are on another overnight outreach to Takoradi. It is a city in the Western Region past Cape Coast. They have been very long days. Roughly 300 patients every day. Luckily we have been working pretty fast so we are finished around 6 or so each day. We are staying at a pretty descent hotel too. The first 2 nights we didn’t have AC but last night we did. Because of the power outages, when the generators are running there isn’t enough electricity generated to run the air conditioners. I am sharing a room with Daniel and Austin and there is one queen sized bed haha. It has made for some interesting nights. Our second night all 3 of us were pretty out of it. We watched a movie on my laptop that night and afterwards went straight to bed. Austin and I had fallen asleep near the end of the movie. I honestly done know why but I moved from the bed to the couch after the movie and sept there for an hour or so. I woke up and remember asking myself why I was sleeping on the couch, I returned to the bed only to find that Austin was sleeping like my dog does by taking up the whole bed so all I am left with is a small sliver at the end. At that point I was too tired to care and so I slept on my back for another 30 minutes or so and then I groggily asked austin to move over. He gave me a death stare and rolled over. He doesn’t remember anything. Now Daniel was sleeping in his net on the other side of the bed. Where was my net? On the floor haha. It takes up too much room with D’s net and I was too tired to get it. Our first night we all slept in our nets. It was the first time Austin had even pulled his net out of the bag. He had bought one of the ones that you have to hang from the ceiling. The exact kind that they tell you NOT to bring because they are pretty much useless. We ended up draping it over top of mine and D’s nets. It looked so funny because it hardly left any room for Austin in the middle. Anyways back to the weird night. In the middle of the night Daniel felt something move near the side of his tent. He flicked it but it didn’t move. He thought it might be a lizard or something so he punched it. Turns out is was Austin’s foot. He had been moving his toes in his sleep haha. Right at the moment Daniel punched his foot Austin was experiencing a scary part of his dream. A dew days ago the 3 of us watched the conjuring and it took its toll on Austin. For those of you that have seen the movie you will understand this a bit better. But the part where the girl is having her foot pulled in her bed was the exact thing that Austin experienced in his dream when D punched him in the foot. So he woke up pretty startled. And for some reason Daniel was laughing I guess, he doesn’t really remember why. So that was our night. It was pretty funny to talk about our 3 different experiences and perspectives on what happened. Sorry if it didn't make sense or just was not funny at all, but to us it was hilarious. We even started laughing about it when we were each writing it in our journals later haha.

Annie is the only girl on the trip and Gavin is the only guy back in Accra with the other group. Everyone that is one this outreach is: Austin, Daniel, Richard, Jerry, Annie and myself along with the Crystal workers I mentioned earlier. Richard and Jerry usually get their own rooms but they had to share this trip. They also had a queen size bed in their room along with a small couch like ours but they refused to sleep in the same bed haha. So they take turns sleeping on the couch. They keep asking if there is another available room but I don’t think that there will be. Annie one morning finally said, "why don't you just share a bed!" ....(silence). Not all men can share beds I guess.

John and his new "girlfriends." He always has new girlfriends wherever we go haha.

The first few outreach days have been pretty good! The work is the same as it always has been. I love spending time with John. I am trying to learn some more languages from him. He’s taught me some more Dangme. Thats his native language. We have had some good laughs and inside jokes. He is defiantly one of my favourites. 

It doesn't get much cuter than this.

Of course there are always children wherever we go. they love hanging out with Obruni’s. There was day especially where this one girl loved looking through my camera at everything. She wouldn’t take any pictures, she didn’t know how, but she just used it as like a magnifying glass to look at everything. There were some other kids that I spent some time talking to and taking pictures with too. Black babies are still the cutes things on the planet hands down. I have met and played with some pretty cute kids. I wish I had pictures with all of them but I don’t. 

She was the one that loves my camera.

Temple Trips!

Saturday May 23, 2015

I finally was able to go to the temple this week, not just once but twice! Thursday was another clinic day with St. Thomas. I got to see some more surgeries which are always awesome to observe. I love the doctors at the clinic, Dr. Gyasi, Dr. Ela, and Dr. Elom. They all remembered who I was and glad that I knew what I was doing so I could train some of the others in the group. Everyone else hadn’t been to the clinic yet. They did a lot of surgeries that day, around 30. I only shadowed about a third of those. After that Mary Ellen and I switched with Annie and Richard so they could observe the rest and left to tray and make it to the last session at the temple. We made it with about 30 minutes to spare. The temple grounds are beautiful! The church has a stake centre on one side and apartment buildings on the other for senior couples and members traveling from far away to stay at. There were only 2 others in the session when I got there, a total of 12 ended up showing (most were temple workers). So naturally who do they pick to be the witness couple? Mary Ellen and I. It was my first time and I can say that I was very attentive throughout the whole session haha. Mary Ellen actually did the endowment for one of Sister Hill’s names! I met some amazing members at the temple. I love how no matter where you are from you immediately have this strong bond with other members especially at the temple.

The temple Thursday night.

Friday was a really short day with St. Thomas. We saw maybe 40 patients. We got home around 4pm and chilled until the crystal group got home. Then some of us went out for chinese. Saturday was our temple and beach day. We went and did baptisms in the morning, and Annie and Gavin did a session in french. Gavin served his mission in Paris and Annie took it in school. We met a few senior couples outside the temple. The first ones we talked to knew the Hills very well and was able to call them for me. I talked to sister Hill on the phone (I told her that I was your nephew Toni). She was pleasantly surprised to here that I was in Ghana haha. I hope I will have time to go and stop by there place to visit. They don’t live on the temple grounds but they live close by. The temple was very busy. All the members come in from all over on saturdays, They were really accommodating with us, it was great. To speed things up they had us do the confirmations right next to the font dripping wet haha. 

After the temple we took a taxi to Bojo beach for the rest of the day. It is supposedly the nicest beach near Accra. By Ghana standards it was pretty nice but I found the water worse then when we went in Elmena. It was very salty and it just felt really dirty. I only swam for maybe 45 min. The beach was pretty sketchy too haha. There were rusty bottle caps, broken glass, and other garbage strewed everywhere. But nonetheless it was fun. It ended up raining pretty hard on us at the end of the day. What was cool about Bojo beach is that we had to take a boat ride across the canal to the beach from the hotel. The boats that they have in Ghana are all hand carved. I have seen many boats being chiseled on the beaches here. They use them mainly as fishing boats. We stayed and at dinner at the hotel as we dried off. Then we got a taxi ride back to the Telecentre. It is the beginning of the rainy season here so we get flash rain storms nearly every day. And when it rains here it doesn't ever sprinkle. It pours!  

Taking the boat across the short canal to the beach.

Sunday May 24, 2015

Arnold came to church! He works on the St. Thomas crew! We had been inviting him for about 2 weeks and then he shows up after sacrament meeting! We caught hime talking to the mission president out in the hall. We were all very excited to see him. He seems very interested in the gospel. Tapping into the missionary side of me feels so good. I spent a good amount of time talking to him along with the mission president about the Book of mormon and some other questions he had. He had been asking for a book of mormon for the past week so we got him one and he seemed excited to finally get one. The missionary work in general here is flourishing. There has not been a week where there hasn’t been a baptism. In 4 weeks we have witnessed 6 confirmations! Its amazing to see people so receptive here. I hope that Arnold reads the Book of Mormon. I am with crystal thus next week so I wont be able to talk to him but the others will definitely help answer any questions he has. 

Chicken, Chicken, Goat!

Wednesday May 20, 2015

This week I am with St. Thomas again. Mary Ellen, Annie, Richard, Jerry and myself left for the Eastern region in the morning. The first town we were in was (I cant remember, oops), but it means “all you need is Salt.” Implying that it is very fruitful and has everything that you need to live. I love the Eastern region, it is so lush here! There are more bugs however, I’ve gotten more bites here than my whole trip thus far combined. Most of the bites I think though are ant bites, not mosquitoes. They have these super tiny ants everywhere that you cant feel when they crawl on you but I couldn’t feel any of the bites I got. I definitely slept in my net though. 

The kids here are wonderful! We love teaching them games to play like frisbee, missionary tag, and a modified form of duck, duck, goose just with chickens and goats (we figured it related to them better). Chickens roam the streets like squirrels here and there are more goats then dogs in Ghana. We played with a big group of kids in Osiem who were so cute! They caught on quickly with the concept of chicken, chicken, goat but they didn’t understand that you had to beat the other person to the empty spot. But it was still fun haha. I of course threw my frisbee around as well, the kids are always fascinated with that and fight over who gets to throw it next. 

Today we were in a town called Bogoro and there was a school next door the the church we were at that was playing music and singing really loud. After we had finished with all the visual acuity Annie and I walked over to see what was happening. Some of the students were practicing for a dance competition. The girls were practicing their dance number and the boys were on the drums. There were kids everywhere! After a short while one of the dance teacher came and grabbed my hand and pulling me in said “Come. You will dance.” It took me a minute but I picked up on the few dance moves they were doing. All the kids were laughing and cheering me on and would get especially loud when I got a certain dance step haha. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures or footage of me dancing. Maybe that was for the best to save me from any embarrassment back home. 

After the outreach we were told of a small waterfall nearby that we could hike to. We finished early so a local woman took us. It wasn’t what I expected but still really cool. The waterfall was more of a trickle than anything but I am sure it looks pretty good during a huge rain storm. 

Our hotel was pretty nice as well. The rooms weren't as good at the ones at the Telecentre but we had a restaurant right in the hotel that made pretty good food. I had a big Tilapia fish with fried rice that was really good! And at 35 cedi a night for my own room it was a lot cheaper than the telecentre as well. 

One of the volunteers, Richard, the medical school graduate from London has been doing his own partial examinations at the outreaches. I shadowed him for a while each day and learned a lot about different diseases and conditions. He is very smart and knows more than he should about eyes because they don’t focus too much on Ophthalmology in med school. I get to use the Ophthalmoscope and everything, its pretty awesome!