I had a really great day on the third day of clinic in the
triage station. My interpreter was a guy named Roy, and he was patient with me
and really helped me out when interacting with the patients. I was taking
temperature, pulse and respiratory rates, and blood pressure, and then asking
about initial symptoms of the community members that came to see us.
I had a great time really getting to interact directly with
the patients, who came with some very typical problems. I saw many, many older
people with all types of pains, kids with coughs and fevers, and had a fun time
acting as the nurse in the clinic. One of the best parts of triage was getting
to know Roy better, because he seemed to be a wealth of information and
contemplation. He told me that he is the only son with 5 sisters, which he
doesn’t particularly mind. He has not been to that many places around the
world, but he definitely wants to travel in the future. Currently, however, he
is limited because his mother is very particular and paranoid about his safety
whenever he goes to different places. He told me that she is scared even when
she travels with Global Brigades to different communities that are farther
away, or when he goes to visit his sisters in different regions of Ghana. While
I can certainly sympathize with him, I know that I have more freedom to travel
because of the experience that I have with it.
I asked him about his education, and he told me that he is
halfway through his degree in investing. He chose it because most banks and
larger corporations now look for people who have backgrounds in IT, even though
he doesn’t particularly enjoy it. The whole time, I was having a little bit of
a hard time hearing exactly what he was saying (something I’ve noticed about
Ghanaians is that they tend to speak softly and they have a pretty strong
accent, which I have trouble with). However, I managed to catch that education
is important to him, but it’s not very accessible to Ghanaians at all. Instead
of being able to take out loans or work during school to help cover the costs,
there are almost no students who pay for university educations with their own
money. They have to depend on their parents to pay, and that creates a cycle by
which the rich get richer and the poor don’t have the opportunity to catch up.
There is very little social mobility overall, which is a social problem in
itself.
Roy also mentioned that the difference between public and
private schools is significant, both in the tuition and in the resources that
they have. Private schools have only the people who have backgrounds from the
highest socioeconomic level, whereas public schools are more available to those
who have enough money to attend. It usually happens where people from private
schools only interact with other people in their school or others like it, and
public school students mingle with other public university students, but he
likes to try to get to know a variety of people.
Even though private schools are extremely expensive, Roy was
telling me that it doesn’t mean that the resources at these universities are
that good. For example, he told me that most of the curriculum that he
encounters is theoretical; he is learning C++, but since his university doesn’t
have the technology to share with the students, he’s never actually written a
program. If the students want to learn the curriculum and practice it, they
have to purchase the laptop or tablet themselves, and that requires a lot of
money that they usually have a hard time affording on top of their schooling
and living expenses already. For most students, they have a hard time adjusting
to the real world when they are actually called upon to use these programming
languages because they are not used to creating them. If they have the
resources to practice, they often have to seek out a professional already in
the field to mentor them because professors don’t. It was at that point that I
noticed that his phone was something akin to a Blackberry, but it didn’t look
like it could connect to the internet. He could play music, but it didn’t look
like there was much else involved. Coming from a society where we all have
smart phones and personal laptops are expected in college education (UT is in
the process of getting rid of or not maintaining their computer labs), it’s
humbling to know that there are students who lack the technology to even
practice the theory that they learn in class.
Another thing that I saw was little kids (usually under the
age of 3) crying hysterically when trying to take their vital signs. They would
usually come with their mothers, who would be carrying them and take a seat at
our desk. When I had Roy tell them that I would be putting a thermometer
underneath their armpits, the tears really started to fall. There was one
3-year old in particular who cried a lot when I put the thermometer under his
arm, and obviously that affects my readings for his pulse and respiration
rates. However, one of the girls from the internship brought band-aids that had
designs like Spiderman that I was able to give him to help him feel a little
better. He didn’t stop crying until I took one of the gloves that we had
sitting around and blew it up to make a little balloon, which he started to
play with and calm down. He was really adorable and a joy to work with, even if
he was crying. Working with him and his mother reminded me of why I want to
work with kids so much; you can see them develop a trust that lasts for a long
time if you are patient and smile, and know how to work through their fears. While
I don’t have much experience with pediatrics directly, I’m incredibly excited
to get more over the next semester with shadowing. After he and his mother went
through our stations, I saw him with his balloon sitting outside on the chair,
and he eagerly waved back at me when I waved to him. It was a really special
moment for me and one of my favorite single experiences of this internship so
far.
One thing that I noticed about Ghanaian children is that
they tend to be obedient. When Roy or their parent would scold them for crying,
it only took a little bit of time for them to stop crying and resort back to
slight sniffling. I also saw another woman who breastfed right in front of me,
which is completely natural in this culture but not in American culture. I was
a little taken aback by her even though I have seen it before and know it’s not
taboo to do so but it’s a Western view on the matter and reminds me how deep my
preconceptions run.
Eventually, Roy had to leave to speak to Deanna about the
focus groups that we are conducting, so I had Frances, a twin (!) and another
interpreter, come help me instead. I really enjoyed working with him as well as
Roy because he showed an interest in learning how to use our equipment and take
the measurements that we were. The main thing that he asked about was how to
take blood pressure, which I explained to him. He wanted to practice on my arm,
which I let him do. I think that his measurements were just a little bit off (I
think the diastolic pressure he took was too low), but he seemed content to try
it. He then wanted me to take his, so I did and told him that, according to my
measurements, he is quite healthy. The one thing that I saw happen with him had
nothing to do with him personally, but the culture of the community.
One of the questions that I have to ask for the initial
assessment is whether women are pregnant, or if they aren’t, when their last
menstrual cycle was. What happened once was that I asked this to a young lady
(I think she was 15), who immediately look uncomfortable and hesitant to
answer. She seemed to be at the age where, even to a doctor or health representative,
it was difficult for her to talk to a man about her menstrual cycle. I have yet
to have the chance to really ask a Ghanaian about gender roles here, but
considering how religious people seem to be, and the fact that we were in a
rural community, I’m sure that the feeling was not uncommon and stems from a
cultural expectation. Even in the United States, it is a prevalent problem.
I have always thought that it is a wonder that all the
people who work for Global Brigades (especially the in-country people) are
awesome. They are knowledgeable and inquisitive and have a really open mind and
great perspective. They seem to have a great grasp of their culture and customs
and a unique ability to share it with us in a way that shows that they have a
basic understanding of what we are used to, not just according to the media. They
seem to have the ability to really engage with us foreigners and create a
connection (though not with every single person, which is an unrealistic
expectation to begin with) with many of the brigaders. But the fact I have been
able to have great conversations and interactions with all the staff I have
encountered in this internship and the two brigades I have been on before is a
real commendation on the GB staff selection process, whatever goes into it.
During my breaks (lunch and after we started to close up), I
started interacting with some of the kids. What I saw was a continued
fascination with cameras and pens, and after much pestering I ended up giving
an 11-year old and a 13-year old a pen and the patterned band-aids. I took some
great selfies with a lot of them (yay!) and had an awesome time just playing
with them as children. One of the girls was holding this cute little corn on
the cob with the husks peeled but kept on and tied together, which made for a
little doll-looking toy. I’ve always thought that there is a special type of
perspective and ingenuity that comes with interacting with children that is
hard to find in any other type of context, and that feeling is lost on me
during the normal school years because of my limited contact with people
outside the ages of 18-22. Even volunteering with Dell Children’s, which is
full of young patients, doesn’t let me really play to talk to them.
The most awesome thing happened when we were driving back to
our compound; we randomly saw a herd of longhorns running along the side of the
road! It was simultaneously the weirdest and most interesting thing that
happened so far because cattle are so few and far between in general, and there
usually aren’t many non-humans along the main roads. The fact they were
longhorns didn’t hurt the matter either. J
The last thing that we did was meet a little bit to talk about
our key informant interviews, where we started to see some of our work really
come together. The notes from our discussion and our analysis of the
information I will hopefully be able to share when we compile it, but I’m
extremely interested in reading more thoroughly what was said in both my and
the other groups’ interviews.
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