We
usually start breakfast at 8, but today, when I woke up from some commotion in
the room, I saw that it was already 8:15 before most of us had even gotten out
of bed. It’s really funny the way that it works, but since we are still not
leaving until 9:30, it doesn’t make sense to wake up so early just for
breakfast. People don’t understand the value of grabbing breakfast on the go,
apparently.
Today,
we finished the family profiles that we needed to do from Ekumfi Ebuakwa. Our
group talked to 4 people, and I felt that it went a lot better with being able
to create a conversation rather than simply having an interview. One lady that
we went to see was a nice little lady that was funded by her daughter. She was
really sweet and when we asked her for a picture, she took off the headband
that she was wearing and replaced it with one that looked like it was made of
really high quality fabric, perhaps silk. Right before we left, she went to get
long sticks of sugarcane for us because we had said that we like sugarcane. She
gave one to each of us, and the sticks were at least 3-4 feet long, and I felt
bad because we have so much more than she does and yet she was giving us this
plant that she had grown herself.
When
we asked one lady what she would change if she could have one thing for the
community, and she said that she would want to improve conditions in the school
and make the school feeding program healthier. Two others said that they would
appreciate more employment opportunities in their community so that the
children wouldn’t have to leave to find employment, which was a common theme in
our data. The last lady we talked to thought that the economy was bad, and
wanted to be able to have more people stay in the community so that they would
buy things from her and give her disposable income.
The
last man that we interviewed told us that they didn’t have clean water and
wanted water structures for them to have. What distracted me during that
interview was the fact that he was wearing an employee polo from Discount Tire
that had been monogrammed with “Brett” on the right. We as an intern group had
been talking the day before about seeing shirts from the United States (like
those that are donated to Goodwill but not sold or those that are printed with
mistakes), and it was so interesting to see that those clothes actually make it
to the rural communities here. When he was talking, he also was in the process
of tying bamboo/grass stalks together for a contraption to catch shrimp. The
idea is that you can put cassava in one part of the device, and the shrimp get
caught when they go to eat it. He told us that he was taught how to make it
during arts and crafts in school, which I thought was an awesome way to spend
extra time at a young age. All the while, his wife was sitting in the back,
taking corn kernels off of the cob into the stove pan. I can’t imagine why they
cook corn like that or how much extra time it took to do it, but it was
interesting to see.
When
we were conducting one of the interviews, a little girl from the community kept
pulling on my hair, and then tried to play with the anklet that I got from
Nicaragua that I wear on my right ankle. She and the other children were also
extremely fascinated with the second pair of plastic sunglasses I got from the
Color Run. They asked for my “This is Public Health” bracelet thing and my
watch, but it’s non-negotiable that they are going to stay with me.
We
had lunch in the courtyard of the Queen Mother’s house, which is a beautiful
and extremely well-built, clean area complete with barbed wire on the enclosing
walls of the land. It was apparently built by the same man that sold the 200
proof alcohol from yesterday, originally for himself. The community didn’t let
him keep it and made him sell it to the “royal” family of the community for
courtesy reasons, but it was very pretty and clearly well-maintained. We had
some time after eating and started to form a small little dance circle, and
there were several kids that were sitting apart from us and laughing, sometimes
trying to imitate our moves. It was really cute and I wish I had gotten it on
video. L
We
started making our way to the community of Ebirum, where we will be doing a
surprise medical brigade for the next four days because one of the schools that
had committed to coming ended up canceling due to the Ebola scare. Instead of
~25 people that will be working with the community, it will be 12 of us for the
first 2 days and 9 of us for the next 2, after the interns working with
economic development go off to start their own tasks. On our way, we passed a
large soccer field with about 20-30 boys that were playing what looked to be
organized soccer. They were wearing royal blue, but that didn’t stop them from
waving at us when we drove by. Speaking of, it’s a cool feeling to be in the
bus because we start to feel like we’re the ice cream truck – the kids get
extremely excited about us and start waving very enthusiastically. They always
make me smile.
When
we got to Ebiram, we were walking to meet with the chiefs of the community when
we came across a lady who was wearing a shirt with stars and stripes and
Obama’s face on the back. It was very surprising for me to see because Obama
has a Kenyan background, but one of the coordinators of the brigade told us
that after Obama was elected, there were many things that were named after
Obama. On our car ride back to the compound, we saw a sign for “Obama College,”
which was hilarious to see.
The
chiefs of the community were two quite elderly men and one that looked about 50
or 60. The older men, who were dressed in large dress-looking cloths, looked to
be about 80 or 90 years old. They were extremely courteous to us, and the
younger elder was very proficient with his English, but we still used to
translator. We went around and each introduced ourselves, and the funniest
thing was when Noah, the first of the only two interns, said that he was here
to get a girlfriend, at which everyone laughed. The younger elder laughed along
as well and offered his daughter to him, jokingly. Before we came up to them to
take the group photo, one of the elders did a “bro” handshake with Noah and
called him “brother,” which was hilarious.
We
took the picture and tried to uphold one of the community traditions by which
everyone else waits until the elders leave before leaving themselves, but
because they wanted to hold a short meeting amongst themselves afterwards, they
laughed it off and told us that we would go see the setup for the clinic. It
was at the local school, which had a huge courtyard (larger than the size of a
football field). One of the coolest things about it was that it had a small
playground that was next to it. Everything was small and looked a little rusted
from my perspective from farther away, but it was a difference from the schools
we saw in both Nicaragua and Panama before.
On
our way back to the compound, we saw the public latrines that many of the
Ebuakwa community members were talking about. They look like the normal
outhouses that exist in places like campsites in the US, where there are
several stalls all connected, and the only thing that is attached to them is a
sign that separates the men’s side from the women’s side. Apparently they are
all government-funded and built, which is definitely a step in the right
direction.
I
had some time after meeting the chiefs of Ebirum and before dinner, and I took
some time to revisit some of the pictures that I have of my summer with OA
2014. I don’t think that I realized how much I enjoyed the experience and how
much I miss being a part of the work that we did, especially with Longhorns:
Beyond the Surface (our show about social justice issues), and the people that
I was around. I had an amazing time with the program overall, and I can’t
believe that there’s a chance I will never be a part of a community like that
again. Not to mention that I miss #ClubTurnUp more than I thought I ever could.
I always say that impermanence is a component of beauty, because not being able
to have something forever is always a reason to value it more, but it’s
difficult to move on from something that was great. Orientation has become an
incredibly important part of my life, and I’m really disappointed that I won’t
be there to work late summer orientation, even if that’s only because I’m going
to be here in Ghana doing global health work.
We
had a crash course in triage and blood pressure at night to prepare for our
medical brigade tomorrow, and I hadn’t realized that there are future
physicians that have never taken and don’t know how to take blood pressure
manually. However, we were informed that it takes about 4 hours of blood loss
for an amputation to be in order, so it worked out for us.
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