Notes From Ghana

Notes from Ghana

It has been a long long time since I last posted a blog, which I am very sorry for. Time seems to flow by here, days soon become weeks in a matter of minutes. Today is Saturday and everyone except Matthew and I are at the airfield. Matthew is looking after the nursery and I managed to sleep in until after 8am which I haven’t done since I left England! At the moment I am working on displays for the Charity Dinner on 8th May, our preparations are well underway! When I last wrote to you I was about to start my stint at Agomanya Hospital, working two days a week with different departments, observing and offering a spare pair of hands when they were needed. I spent most of my time in the Maternity Ward, where I was allowed to observe several deliveries, and when the moment came to hold the mother's hand, wipe the sweat from her face and help her to breathe. It was such a unique experience, and also so surreal, in the background there was gospel music playing over the intercom and outside cockerels were crowing and sheep were being herded past by a goat boy. On my first morning, I was sitting waiting to see the Sister in charge of Maternity when I heard clapping and people singing. One of the nurses took me by the hand and said “Let’s go pray together,” and led me to the corridor, which was lined with the doctor, nurses, health aids, visitors and even some patients with IV still in their wrists. The corridor was dimly lit, despite the walls being painted yellow. In the centre, there was a statuette of Mary; with her head bowed and lit candles in a half circle by her feet. Someone had scattered a few frangipani flowers around the table. The light coming through the door at the end was flickering over the walls as people moved and danced to the music, creating beautiful silhouettes of women in traditional dress. Everyone was singing or humming along to the hymns in Krobo (one of the local languages) and then suddenly it stopped and people began to pray aloud in a mixture of Twi and English. At the end of the service everyone recited the Lords Prayer and went to start work in their separate departments. It was definitely a memorable way to start at the hospital and despite not being a Christian myself, the routine put me into a good mood for the rest of the day. To get to the hospital turned out to be a bit of a palava really, in the car in the dry season it is a twenty minute trip but now the rains are here, it has taken me as long as an hour and a half before. The conditions of the roads really influence how quickly something can be achieved, especially if they are dirt tracks, and some of the photographs Teresa took on her mission highlight how few and far between tarmac roads are. Once again the importance of what Medicine on the Move could do for Ghana and in the future, West Africa, struck me. For example what is a 13 -18 hour trip (dry season and rainy reason respectively) to the Afram Plains from Kpong field by car, is do-able in 45minutes by Ultralight, and provides a far far smoother ride for any patients needing assistance. I think that this charity is going to be essential in the development of rural healthcare in the whole of West Africa. On May 8, there will be a charity dinner event at the Fiesta Royale Hotel in Accra, for Medicine on the Move. At the farm everyone is busy making preparations, selling tickets, raising sponsorship to pay for the venue and trying to persuade companies to donate items for the silent auction. I have been spending two days a week going into Accra to visit businesses and trying to persuade them to buy tickets to the event or generate some interest in the charity and what it is trying to achieve. The event will be hosted by a radio and television star, BlaKofi, who has to be one of the most energetic and vivacious people I have ever met. She has her own modelling agency and has organised for some of her models to dress up as air hostesses at the event, and we will then auction off the outfits that the girls were wearing! Yesterday Matthew and I went into Accra and spent the whole day trying to sell tickets. We managed to sell about five but we will have to return on Monday to do follow ups. Delivering a sales pitch is actually a lot more difficult than I had first envisaged, the concept of medical aircraft in Ghana being built by Ghanaians is a bit unbelievable and we had a lot of sceptical looks from various offices we visited! However once we had explained a bit more about the charity, people became very enthusiastic and we had some people give us a financial contribution on the spot. In one of the offices I actually met someone who had studied at Cardiff (which is where I will be going to study next year) who was telling me about all the good places to go out there! One of the aircraft is having its first flight test on Monday. Last week everyone got called down to the airstrip so that it could have its first engine check. We all had to hold the struts on the wings of the aircraft to hold it back while Eric (the owner) moved the throttle to full power. The engine is pretty strong and we were all exhausted by the time we’d finished, having to put our full weight and strength against the force of the aircraft to keep it on the ground. 9GZ AE (the name of the plane) is nearly finished and looks fantastic. To make an aircraft in Africa takes about 1500 hours, which is about 125 working days of twelve hours. Both Patricia and Jonathan have been working extremely hard to make sure that the aircraft will pass its test and inspection by the GCAA. Unfortunately I will have to miss the 9GZ AE’s first flight because I am going to catch a tro-tro at 5.30am on Monday morning to continue to sell tickets! One the highlights in the past few weeks as been my flying lessons. Two weeks ago I went up in Kilo-Tango to have a 45 minute lesson at the end of the day on Sunday. It was a beautiful day, the sky was clear and the visibility was incredible, I could see the sea which is about 80km away. I learnt how to perform switching turns in the aircraft, which involves incorporating roll and yaw movement. We were above Kpong Dam and as I was practising Jonathon sang a Viennese Waltz which actually worked out quite well timing wise! The stick is actually a lot more sensitive than I had first thought, quite a few times Jonathon took over control because I was getting too close to stalling the engine! All the same I felt perfectly at ease in the air, even though there are no doors on the planes, I have complete faith in Jonathan’s abilities. He managed to fly flown the plane through a tropical storm (not on purpose) dragging a 800ft banner behind him so I am confident he knows exactly what he is doing! Because it was so clear, we went to circle around Osoduko, the mountain I climbed a few months ago. I could see the route we had taken so clearly, but everything was in miniature, it didn’t look real. Everything looks so different from the air. As we landed at the farm the sun was setting and we finished our conversation about goats and Ghanaian politics as we put the plane away in the hanger. At night the sky is clear and the stars seems so much closer than they do in England. One night Matt and I decided to camp in the bush. I took a cutlass and cut a path (badly) through the grass and then cleared an area to put the tent up and have a fire and Matthew went in search of firewood. We made a fire and set up camp with two kerosene lamps which were hung from stakes driven into the ground. To keep the mosquitoes away I cut some Neem fruit which we burnt on the fire and all the dogs came to keep us company. We had some music playing and the fire crackling and I honestly couldn’t think of anywhere that I’d rather be. In the morning we went to buy some bush mangos and made a smoothie with banana and Moringa powder. Unfortunately the mangoes are fibrous so we had to keep picking out hairs but they were perfectly ripe so it was delicious. We learnt our lesson though and strained the next batch we made to make ice cream with. The local price for about 50 mangoes is about the equivalent of £1.50 and at the moment it is peak season! The farmers sell them at the roadside, from ceramic dishes where they are stacked into a pyramid on a rather rickety looking wooden stall. There are also stalls selling tomatoes and onions and one woman sells clay pots at the bus stop which Matthew uses to plant lemongrass in. I think it is possible to find absolutely anything you want in Ghana, provided you know the right place to look. A lot of shops in the towns are wooden and don’t look like much, but once you get inside the selection of products is incredible. I have found Exeter corned beef, Cornish Pasties and even Philadelphia Cream Cheese in various shops locally! Last week when I was coming back from the hospital I stopped off to buy a drink from one of the shops and the owner invited me to take a seat and I ended up spending about an hour there talking to her kids and some more children that had come along as well, who told me their names were Prince and Joyous. They had made a football out of plastic bags and had drawn a hopscotch grid on the floor with chalk. They were very excited to have a yevu talking to them, I’ve never felt so interesting before! As the rains as here the car is under a lot of stress going backwards and forwards on the dirt track everyday. It has broken down several times in the past few weeks and I’ve spent hours sitting at the mechanics and under trees waiting for it to be fixed. Once in Kpong I was waiting with Matthew for the fan belt to be changed and there was some sudden commotion and people running shouting "Snake! Snake!" As everyone else ran away from it, as it went under a tro tro that being fixed, Matt went towards it to try and catch it. As he picked it up, all the mechanics started shouting and backing away, telling Matthew he was crazy. The boss muttered something about "Never seeing anyone doing that before", and as Matthew went to release it away from the cars, he shrieked "Kill it! Kill it! " It was hilarious and all the men were laughing at their boss in spite of themselves. Unfortunately one of WAASPS members of staff recently lost her grandfather and we decided to pay our respects by attending the first stages of the funeral. Surprisingly funerals are actually a big part of the culture in Ghana, every weekend you see hundreds of people wearing black, red or white on their ways to funerals, which typically last the whole weekend. Some of the biggest businesses are coffin makers (there are some amazing varieties, such as carved cows and coca-cola bottles which you can see in the street) and hiring of canopies, chairs and music systems. It is considered an insult if the family do not ensure that they provide a lavish send off for the individual and consequentially they spend a lot of money on the funeral proceedings. We all wore black and had to shake the hands of all the older men before we were allowed to sit down. There was loud music playing, much more of a party atmosphere than a sombre affair. The event would continue all night until first light and then memorials would be read out over the course of the weekend. It was very interesting to attend a funeral because they are quite social events, more of a celebration of someone’s life than a mourning ceremony (unless of course the individual died young, in which case people are mourning their passing before their time.) People often take gifts of things like sweets, that people can suck to stay awake and we took a big bag of toffees and Matthew took some Moringa as gesture of condolence. A lot of people take things such as cola nuts which have a high caffeine content and they chew them to stay awake during the night. So by the end of this week everything that we are working towards will have happened, the dinner will have taken place and hopefully been a success to raise the $12,000 needed to finish the medical aircraft. All the foreign visitors who came to attend the conference will have gone back and everyone will go back to the airfield to have the monthly BBQ.