The Days March On

Greetings from noisy Donkorkrom - not noisy with cars, motorbikes, music, or anything else. It is the sound of nature - some massive sounding frogs, a few ducks, the occasionally baaing of a goat. I've never really thought much about goats before but kids (baby goats) are exceptionally cute. They run around all over the place here. As I understand it in this society goats are your wealth. The more goats you have, the wealthier you are. Several Sundays ago I went to a Ghanian church service (4 hours worth). Part of the service involved the giving of a goat and a massive bowl of cassava (a kind of starchy tuber) to one of the ministers to celebrate his ordination. I'm sure that there must be some way to know which goat belongs to which person but for the casual onlooker they appear to roam at will around the town, in the gutters, eating whatever they come across.

Things are going quite well for me. I recently got my Course 4 marks (the exam I wrote the 2 days before I departed for Ghana) and I passed with a healthy margin so I was very excited about that. My living accommodations have also been modified. I had been staying at a 'hotel'/guest house about a 15 minute walk from the hospital. However, one of the doctors here has arranged for me to stay at his house which is fabulous. It is good for several reasons, one of the biggest is that it means I'm close to the hospital if something happens so I don't have to walk 30 minutes to get here and back, I'm now a 5 minute walk, if that to any part of the hospital.

The days flow by quite peacefully. Things are relaxed here. The doctors never really are off call but they also make sure to take some personal time, they just might have someone bang on their door while they are relaxing. The person will be clutching a patient folder and need some information - perhaps about dosing, a concern about a patient's status, lab results just became available, etc...but within 5 or 10 minutes the docs are back to their relaxing. I think it is a very equitable arrangement as these doctors have fairly significant responsibilities.

Yesterday afternoon I went and visited the orphanage here in town. It was a cool experience and I intend to go back. There are 21 children and 3 caregivers - a huge job I'm sure. The kids were eating supper in various states of undress while I was there but they were very cute and definitely warm the cockles of one's heart. The oldest appeared to be 10 or 11 so I'm not sure if perhaps the older children go to boarding school but it should be fun to get to know the children there.

Today I observed the most disgusting thing I've seen yet. A woman with severe mastitis had a very large necrotic area on one of her breasts. Today we debrided the breast. An piece of necrotic skin the size of my hand (with fingers together) was removed - for those of you that don't know me...I have pretty big hands. I think the worst part of it was the smell. Necrotic fatty tissue doesn't smell very good, and it doesn't look very good either. Today I also observed 2 hernia repairs. I think I'm about ready to assist on one as I've watched a few now. I don't think that the tradition of 'watch one', 'do one', 'teach one' quite holds true but I'm starting to feel like I'd have at least a better idea of what to do all scrubbed in and across from the surgeon.

This evening another medical student arrived. She is from the UK and will be here until I leave. I think it is going to be nice to have another 'obruni' (white person) around to talk to and bounce ideas off of so it will be cool to get to know her better. She has spent the last few weeks in East Africa so it will be interesting to hear how medicine in Ghana is different from other parts of the world.

I hope all is well in your respective parts. Thank you everyone who has posted comments and also to those who have sent me personal emails - I appreciate your thoughts and care.

Take care