Notes From Ghana

Rainy season

As I'm sitting down to write this, it has started raining. The rainy season is beginning in Ghana. In the two weeks I've been here the landscape has changed from dusty and brown to green, where grass has begun to grow and the leaves are changing colour. Rain in Africa is not like rain in England, its heavy and thunderous, huge droplets hammer down onto the metal roof, the air becomes cool and fresh. I love to walk in tropical rain, there is something so refreshing in being drenched in a few seconds.

Unusually today has not been as hectic as the fast few weeks have been (not for me anyway!) Jonathan has taken Patricia and Rosina to Tema to learn how to weld parts of an aircraft engine. Elizabeth is supervising a new lady in accountancy, and Matthew is grading the road before the ground becomes too heavy to work. I’ve taken advantage of the empty house to write this without getting distracted by feeding the snake or trying to catch the spider in the shower!

Ever since I arrived two weeks ago, no two days have been the same. Initially I spent time making an inventory of all the medical equipment that had been donated in the office, while next door Patricia and Jonathan continue construction on four different aircraft. One of these is a four seater medical Ultralight which is due to be completed and ready to fly in roughly eight weeks. The workshop is almost like a giant toy shop with parts of planes on every surface!

At the weekends we go to the Kpong (pronounced “pong”) Airfield where Jonathan and Elizabeth have set up a flying school, teaching people from a huge variety of backgrounds to learn to fly. So far I have been up in the planes four times, sometimes on the shuttle run between the hanger on the farm and the airstrip or with one of the pilots who come to fly solo. I was lucky enough to get to fly around the Kpong dam which is just downstream from the Akosombo dam which is the main source of power (hydro-electric) for Ghana. Because of the heat these tiny two seater Ultralights have no doors so for nervous passengers it is a bit disconcerting to look down and know that there is just a seat belt keeping you inside the aircraft! The visibility is improving every day as the Harmattan fades, due to the rain. (Harmattan is during the dry season where the air is thick with dust.)

Currently there are three planes on the farm in the fleet named Alpha-Alpha, Alpha-Delta and Kilo-Tango. My favourite is Alpha-Alpha which I am hopefully going to learn to fly in. I was recently taught by Rosina (a pilot instructor in training) how to perform a pre flight check, which is especially important in Africa, as little animals are often tempted to make nests in the hollow wings, such as the suicidal squirrel which recently ran across the airstrip a few days ago! It takes a minimum of thirty hours to obtain a private Ultralight flying licence, which is surprising considering how long it took me to learn to drive!

The farmhouse I’m staying in is called Rocky Farm and was built by the Porters a few years ago. Initially,  I thought that they had an unusual sense of decoration until one of the large flat spiders on the walls which I had presumed to be unusual stickers started moving! Geckos and lizards run freely around the house and the other day Jonathan killed a scorpion with his flip flop. Matthew keeps a rock python in a cage on the porch and feeds it live mice and has recently acquired a monitor lizard, which happened to be running across the floor or the lounge! I’m sharing a room with Patricia who is training to be an aircraft technician and has quite a sociable approach to using the bathroom which was a bit of a shock the first time she walked in on my shower!!

One of my main tasks as a volunteer for Medicine on the Move is to plot a huge map of all the hospitals and health centres in Ghana against a map of all the airstrips so that an initial assessment of the current facilities can be made before proposing sites for new airstrips. To do this I had to go to the Ministry of Health in Accra to get hold of the list of facilities. The civil servant I spoke to was exceedingly helpful and was prepared to lend me his 32GB pen drive after spending just ten minutes with me, a brilliant example of how generous the people are in Ghana. I left the Ministry in a very good mood, only to discover later that there was nothing actually on the pen drive, which meant another trip into Accra to sort out that problem (not so much fun sitting in the car with an outside temperature of 43.5°C!)

Last week I visited Agomanya hospital to make a donation of baby blankets and insulin syringes to the sisters there. The hospital has just one permanent doctor to treat around five hundred patients (minimum!) everyday. I’m planning to spend two days a week working in various departments in the hospital for four weeks alongside working on the map with Jonathan. I will also be spending time at a nutrition session for mothers and babies in Akuse with a lovely lady called Mary.

Next week we are expecting two American volunteers to visit to perform a scouting trip. One of the them is a pilot and will be spending time with Jonathan and the other a nurse who I will be spending time with, visiting various healthcare units and planning a first aid course that I will deliver to the airfield workers. The scouting trip is an initial trip before bringing out a team of doctors from Iowa who will take part in some of the first missions to the rural areas via the Ultralights and the four seater to deliver treatments and much needed medical supplies.

Working aside, I have spent a few days exploring Ghana. Patricia, Saskia (a Dutch girl who is doing a research project on the local banana plantation) and I went to the market at Somanya via a tro-tro. A tro-tro is one of the main forms of transport it Ghana. Travelling in one is definitely an experience I wont forget! Basically the aim of the driver is to pile as many people and luggage into a small van, we were all squeezed into the back seat with a few sacks of soya beans, several litres of palm oil, a huge basket of plantain and two chickens. Inside it is sweltering, so, even though I was sitting next the window, when I climbed out one side of my body was wet through!

The market was huge, and vendors sell everything and everything that you could think of. I bought several yards of cloth to make a skirt with at the seamstresses and several peppers for the BBQ the next day. Saskia bought a new pair of trousers from a stall that was made of jeans, literally. They were all hung up around a wood and wire frame which created a little room with shade which offered some privacy (a little hint – to find out if the waistband of a pair of trousers fits you, try wrapping it around your neck!) to the shoppers. You can buy water in 500ml sachets (for the equivalent of 2.5p) from hawkers, who sell a huge variety of products. In Accra I passed someone who was selling a combination of chalk, chains and a real live puppy (to whom Jonathan replied “Daabi medasi, me didi dada” meaning “No thanks, I’ve already eaten!” in Twi which caused uproar among the street sellers!)

Yesterday I spent the day with Matthew learning how to drive the tractor and level the runways. Before using the tractor we had to fix the engine and I learnt to bleed the engine and fix a leak in the fuel system and the difference between a spanner and a ratchet!

In the evenings we often relax by watching films. Last week Matthew bought what he thought was the first series of Lost on DVD from a hawker in Accra, but it actually turned out to be a celebration of films starring primates, so we enjoyed a selection such as Funky Monkey, Congo and Greystroke Tarzan.

So for the first two weeks in Africa, it has definitely been an experience. From the sign board on the road to Accra which reads “Circumcise Your Child Here” to the children who all wave at you as you drive past, Africa is without doubt a place like no other, and I don’t really want to leave!