My 21st Birthday

Kwame and I :)

Kwame Nkrumah's tomb

Left to Right: Tulana, me, Jocelyn and Aesha

Supreme Court of Ghana

My birthday dinner

My Dad and I

May 18th was my 21st Birthday and I had a fabolous day. In the morning my Auntie Theresa delivered this amazing cake to the hostel we stayed at. The cake was on behalf of my Grandma, all my Aunties and my little cousins. Afterwards I set off downtown with my brother and 3 girls from Michigan staying at the hostel, Jocelyn, Tulana and Aesha. We toured the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Center, the Arts Center and the Supreme Court of Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah was the first president of Ghana and the memorial site was beautiful. His tomb was there along with the tomb of his wife and there was a beautiful museum (in which you were not allowed to take pictures) which held pictures and artifacts of his entire life. It was very cool - a definite must see in Ghana. The Arts Center was also really nice - it was basically an outdoor marketplace with a lot of artwork, and clothing. The Supreme Court was also beautiful, I find a lot of the architecture of the buildings are very royal and castle like, but instead of the typical grey stone-castle-look, they're all this pretty white colour with intricate design (not just typical ivy creeping up the side). Afterwards, we went to dinner at this Italian pizza place called Mamma Mia's. In addition to myself, my dad and brother, and the girls from Michigan, 6 other Nigerian girls staying at the hostel, and a friend of my dad's joined us for dinner. It was SO good and so much fun. I brought along my cake so after dinner the whole restaurant sang happy birthday and we had my cake for dessert. To top things off, after we left the restaurant, the girls got together and bought me this gorgeous Ghanaian dress! It was SO nice of them I couldn't believe it! I of course must mention that it was the first time I was away from my Mom on my birthday and I really wish she could have been there, but it was definitely a 21st birthday to remember.

My Weekend in Tema

The display is for Heinekens selling for about 2 Ghana Cedis which is less than a $1.50 :)

Accra Shopping Mall

Our feast (after the fufu)

Lunch at Imperial Pekking Chinese Food (Left to Right: Kofi, Reggie, Thomas, Wesley and my Auntie Agatha)

My Auntie Theresa pounding fufu

Reggie and Wesley

Welcome to Tema

Thomas, Kofi and Wesley

Fufu

Sorry about the long, long delay! I have been without internet for over 2 weeks now! I have SO much to update! About my first day in surgery....it was incredible! I didn't get to scrub in during my first day in surgery (however I did get to eventually! :D) but it was an amazing experience. Sorry for those who aren't interested in blood and guts but I was just a few feet away from the operating table and it was the coolest thing I've ever seen. Even if I don't get into medical school and do not become a doctor it will always be the coolest thing I have ever seen. I mostly observed myomectomies - which is the removal of uterine fibroids and hysterectomies - the removal of the entire uterus, and what I like most about surgery is that although we have so much technology now, the art of medicine and surgery is centuries old and the mechanisms are still almost the exact same. In North America now a lot of surgeries are done through your belly button (like the removal of your appendix) to avoid unecessary scarring but in Ghana they're still done with a simple cut, dabbing away of blood, reaching in to take out the fibroid or uterus and sewing everything back up. It was so simple and practical yet very impressive since it took such fine motor skills to neatly sew everything back up. However, consistent with the theme throughout the hospital, there is a serious lack of doctors and technology even in their operating rooms! There are only so many anaesthesiologists so only so many can be performed in one day. The machines that let you know the patient's vitals during surgery are scarce. In the gynaecology theater there were only two machines, so only 2 surgeries at a time could be performed. Then one machine broke down so what they were doing was they would perform surgery in one theater and then prep a patient in the other, and wheel the machine over to that theater to use while they cleaned the first one, to be most efficient. However in wheeling the machine back and forth the cords were becoming loose...I'm not sure exactly why but what started happening was the machine would turn on and off during surgery! So they stopped performing surgeries unless in case of a life threatening emergency - I actually missed my last day of rotation in the theater because it was closed. It was all over the Ghana news that Korle Bu is supposed to be the biggest hospital in Ghana and they can't perform surgery for those who need it but are not dying. It's quite disturbing but it's the reality they face.
So my first day in theater was Friday the 13th, on Saturday my Auntie Agatha picked up Kofi and I to spend the weekend with her in Tema. Tema is a city less than an hour east of Accra. We met her kids for the first time, my cousins Thomas (7 years old), Reginald (4 years old) and my Auntie Theresa's son Wesley (4 years old- they all live together). She showed us around Accra a bit and took us to the Accra Shopping Mall, and treated us to Chinese food. Then the next day my Aunties prepared us this delicious feast with jollof rice, grilled chicken and fish and fufu - which  is a Ghanaian staple. It's kind of hard to describe but to make fufu you pound cassava (yams) and plantain together (it's tough work) and then you put it in a bowl with soup - either groundnut soup (which is peanut butter soup) or palmnut soup which is a native nut to Ghana, or goat meat soup etc. Then you add chicken or beef or fish and eat it with your hands. It's delicious but I tried fufu for the first time when I was about 6 years old, so I'm sure it is an acquired taste. They sell this fufu mixture you can cook with water on the stove top - for those Ghanians away from home that don't have a special spot in their backyard to pound fufu with their fufu-pounding-stick. It was a terrific weekend.

Korle Bu Teaching Hospital

The Makola Market (rush hour traffic)

Rawlings Park

This is the road I walk along - I love all the green scenery...and hate the 2-ft concrete gutters

So today marks the end of the third day I've been working at the hospital and so far I absolutely love it :D. My schedule is I wake up around 6 and have a cold shower (by shower I mean collecting water in a bucket and using a cup to pour water on myself...while I stand in a shower crawling with bugs...) and then Kofi and I walk to where my Dad is staying (it's about a mile away so a 20-25 min walk), we have breakfast together, and then my Dad drops us off at the hospital around 8. The morning report is at 8:00 and for an hour the doctors discuss cases and things to improve on. Just to give you an example...it is custom in certain tribes for mothers to keep their babies indoors (in the dark) for a week after giving birth as a part of the naming process.....however after the week babies are being brought to the hospital with severe/advanced cases of jaundice among other things and so doctors were proposing speaking to chiefs of these tribes in charge of enforcing customs...interesting stuff. Then after the hour morning report my team and I do rounds. Just like on Grey's haha we go to each patient in the maternity wards in the Department of Obsetrics and Gynaecology (that's our domain) and the chief resident or consultant (i.e., attending) asks the other doctors (residents and housing officers - which are recent medical school graduates) about the patient.
I knew Ghana was a Third World country but honestly I didn't really know the full extent until I entered the maternity wards. There are 2 wards (east and west wing) and about 3 or 4 sidewards on the 2nd floor of the hospital. The 2nd floor is responsible for women who have either just given birth or are about to give birth. The east and west wing wards house about 20 women and the sidewards house 3 to 4 women. There is NO privacy in the wards....and most shocking for me, NO TECHNOLOGY. I suppose I was being oblivious or naive by expecting more technology but honestly the extent of the technology ends with every patient having a cell phone. (An aside completely off-topic: during rounds yesterday a patient's cell phone went off and her ring tone was 'Hold Yuh' by Gyptian!!.....I was instantly reminded (and homesick) of my western girls and dance parties in my apartment!!) There are no computers, no monitors, no nothing. The wards are just big rooms with many sick women on 'beds', they are more like these weird metal things with a mat on top, and some women don't even have the metal thing, but are lying down on mats on the ground. When the rounds are being done and the women are being examined, every other woman in the room can see. Pulses are checked by the doctor holding the woman's wrist and counting. The blood pressure is checked with a portable pump and for the women that are pregnant the fetal heartbeat or fetal distress is checked by the doctor taking this little plastic thing (it kind of looks like an upside-down plastic champagne glass but with no stem? I hope that makes sense), pressing the cup part onto the woman's stomach and  putting his or her ear to the flat bottom to listen. When women have been examined and the doctor thinks the woman needs a urine test, or blood work (for example) instead of being wheeled to the lab for tests or instead of a technician coming by to take blood or whatever it may be, the women have to go to the labs themselves (some women were borderline fainting and the treatment plan was walk to the lab and get a test to find out what's wrong). Majority of the deliveries are emergency c-sections. ALSO the women who have given birth, have their babies on the bed with them (I don't mean give birth to their babies there, they have a labour ward for that, I mean they are on the bed together). There is no nursery or special baby crib, the babies just lie next to their moms.....AND THEY ARE SO CUTE. Newborn babies are SO tiny (these babies more so due to low birth weight) and they are so so so precious I would take pictures of them if I could. Sadly because the babies are just lying on the beds they are often overlooked. The doctors have labs and files for, and are examaining the women, so it is only when symptoms in a baby are severe before doctors are alerted and the baby is sent to neonatal intensive care or the child health block. Anyway the residents and doctors present the patients to the chief resident or consultant and answer questions about the correct diagnosis or treatment. I really like the doctors I work with they're all REALLY nice. In terms of my work....I mostly write out prescriptions, and lab referrals or referrals for babies to be sent to the neonatal intensive care unit (during the examination of the mother my team tries to check the baby as well, however they are inconsistent.....to be fair it may be someone else's job to check on the babies I honestly do not know exactly how EVERYTHING is done) and I do a lot of observing. It's all really interesting and exciting and now that I've been there for a few days it's really nice to see a patient we checked on the day before, give birth and nurse her newborn baby.
Yesterday after work 2 of my mom's sisters my Auntie Agatha and Auntie Theresa visited my brother and I at our hostel. We hung out for a bit and they brought us each a 24-pack of bottled water and beer (Heinekens)...according to my Auntie Agatha she was told we like beer haha. They are both so sweet, anytime Kofi and I tried to say 'thank you' they said it was their duty especially since my mom is not in Ghana. I can't even tell you how much they fuss over us and how excited they are that we're in Ghana. Honestly I can't put it into words how touching it is and how sweet.
Today after work I went to the market with one of the girls staying at the hostel. We went to Makola Square Market and Rawlings Park (Rawlings is a former president of Ghana). To get there we took a "tro-tro" which is the public transit. However it is really a van that seats roughly 8 or 9 people and it can be hailed down almost anywhere but there are stops. There is a man on the "tro-tro" that sticks his head out and yells where the tro-tro is headed and it is quite efficient and cheap....just scary obviously. Then we took a taxi part of the way which was terrifying just because taxis are the most aggressive drivers and....scary. (Essentially the thought oh-my-god-i'm-so-scared-right-now runs through my head like 2857708539873493 a day) The market was intense. I wish I could've taken a lot of pictures but it is not safe to have my camera out....welcome to Ghana. The streets were CROWDED with people selling every thing imaginable. (There was a stand selling XBOX's).As you walk by all I could hear was "Sweet Sister! SISTAA COME...as they tried to get me to stop and buy from them. I bought a new pair of sandals, little gifts like bracelets and keychains and a mango.  It was really fun. On the way back we took a taxi again and I was sitting in front (in Ghana everyone shares cabs to make it cheaper) and I could barely breathe I was so terrified....although funny enough the cab driver was listening to Celine Dion and R Kelly and singing along! I was trying not to laugh...and also not cry, it was quite the cab ride.  Tomorrow my team and I will be in surgery after the morning report and rounds. My brother had his day in surgery with his team yesterday and we both assumed that we were going to be in the gallery up above the operating room watching surgeries. On the schedule it says (on our respective days) we are in the theater but the operating room IS the theater. Kofi was right next to the operating table wearing a mask!! He said it was really cool so I'm super excited and when I talked to one of the doctors I work with about it, the doctor said that I will probably even SCRUB IN tomorrow we'll just have to wait and see...

The Heart of the Homeland

View of the hotel from my window

The banquet hall where my parents had their wedding reception

my father's high school 

The chapel where my parents were married 22 years ago

my mother's high school

my paternal grandfather's house (he died 42 years ago)

The night we arrived my Dad and my mom's sister, my Auntie Agatha met Kofi and I at the airport. We had only met this aunt once and it was over ten years ago so it was quite the reunion :). Then we went back to the hotel where my Dad was staying and after chatting for a bit and calling my mom, we showered and went to bed. The next morning we had breakfast together at the hotel. I had a Ghanian pancake which was delicious. They're much sweeter than North American pancakes and they're huge.....like bigger than the plate. I also had eggs and hashbrowns (on a separate plate)....every serving in Ghana is roughly 2 in 1, it's crazy. In the  morning I was also able to see more of the hotel...since we came in at night I didn't see much of it at all, it is honestly a paradise. After breakfast Kofi and I went and checked into the international students' hostel. The hostel (I haven't taken pictures of it yet) is pretty nice.....it basically reminds me of a summer camp. I met my roommate (I won't add her name because I have NO idea how to spell it....I've been waiting for the right time to ask haha). She is Nigerian and a surgeon specializing in pediatrics, she is very nice and so are all the other people staying at the hostel. They are all super friendly. After checking in we went to visit my Dad's brother and sister. My Dad's sister, my Auntie Mary lives in Anomabo, a small town/village where my Dad grew up and where both of his parents are from. "Anomabo is where you come from" so my Dad tells me. My Auntie Mary is very sweet and Sunday (officially day one in Ghana) was the first time I met her. The house she lives in was bought and built for my grandma who lived there until she passed away in 1998. Of course every single person that we've met since being in Ghana, and even family friends/members in Canada/U.S, call Ghana our home but seeing as I had never been to Ghana before I never took that very seriously. At my Auntie Mary's house there were pictures of Kofi and I up on the walls. Baby pictures and other pictures that I have no recollection of taking, or had never seen before, were framed and hanging in the living room and a few in the dining room. Although it was my first time entering the house, it obviously seemed sort of like my home. It was a weird feeling, similar to like when your parents tell you about something you did as a baby, familiar but you have no memory of it. It's nice knowing that although we had never met, she and every family member we've met since being here care SO much. After seeing her and a cousin of mine for a bit, we drove down to cape coast to see my Dad's brother, my Uncle JPJ (which stands for I think James, something, Johnson. I honestly should know...I'll have to ask my Dad...again haha).
An aside: driving in Ghana is one of the scariest things in the entire world. Honestly I could probably never do it (and I never say never). First of all, you have to know EXACTLY where you're going and know the streets like your life depends on it (because it actually does). From what I could see roads that had 2 lanes could suddenly turn into one lane but the left lane doesn't end it turns into a lane for oncoming traffic.....secondly, there are people, sadly a lot of children, in the middle of the streets. They have no problem weaving in and out of cars to sell phone cards, food, water, and lots of other things, plus even if they are not selling anything....watching people crossing the street even scares me because they walk SUPER slow (I know so do I haha) and they seem to not try and speed up when a car is coming (sometimes they do, but not often) and cars also don't slow down when they see a pedestrian so during the trip from Accra to Cape Coast (close to a 2-hour journey) and back, I saw so many people cross the road and make it to the other side JUST IN TIME.....so scary. Also notice I said make it to the other side and not to the sidewalk....there aren't sidewalks in most areas also making the roads scary....in fact what's worse is there are these concrete trenches about 2 feet deep on the sides of the roads....i.e., another reason why I could never drive in Ghana and am scared even just walking down the road. Also there are a lot of round-abouts, which with people walking everywhere, bikes and honking, speeding cars = terrifying. By the way honking is used excessively here; taxis honk at people walking by as a way to ask if they need a ride, cars obviously honk when they feel someone has done wrong, people honk to get kids trying to sell things away from their cars...or to their car...there are a ton more reasons. Another reason driving is scary is the major roads. For example there is a "high road" which is like a high-way but there is only one lane for each way of traffic, therefore there is a lot of "overtaking" which means passing people who are slow by going into the lane of oncoming traffic and getting ahead of them. This is SO common it sometimes looked as if we were just on a one-way two-lane road. Because it is so common if a fast car is trying to pass a slow car and the fast car doesn't give him/herself enough time i.e., there is an oncoming car in the other lane.... the slow car has to veer off to the right into the gravel so the fast car can pass and avoid a head-on collision...scary. Also on roads that are not major there are numerous potholes if they are paved at all, and goats and chickens along with people milling about everywhere
Anyway back to my Uncle JPJ...he lives in a gorgeous house on top of a little cliff and was delighted to see us. He has 5 daughters and one son and the eldest daughter actually lived with us for a bit in the States...I hadn't seen her since I was probably 7 and Kofi didn't even remember her but it was a nice reunion. Speaking of reunions I also met one of my father's daughters for the first time. Her name is Araba and is 13. She goes to a boarding school in Ghana and lives with my Uncle JPJ on holidays, she's a sweet girl, very shy and softspoken and definitely resembles my Dad. At my Uncle's house we took some pictures, had some drinks and watched a bit of soccer. Then we went back to my Auntie Mary's house for dinner. My Auntie Mary only had education up to grade eight and her english isn't that strong. She told my Dad that Kofi and I spoke too fast and that she struggled to understand her. For dinner she made fufu for my Dad and jollof rice with chicken for Kofi and I.....less than 24 hours in Ghana and I had chicken for the first time in almost a year and a half. Clearly with the language barrier my Auntie was mostly only able to smile at us a lot and feed us....so I ate all the food she cooked for us.
After dinner, my Dad gave us the scenic route back to Accra. We saw the high school he went to, St. Augustine's, which is also the high school my mother's father taught at, where 2 of my uncles attended, where 2 of my cousins are now attending and where my mother grew up (when you teach at a high school they give you a bungalow on campus so that's why my mother grew up there), he showed us my mother's high school, Holy Child, the chapel they were married in and where they had their wedding reception, and he also showed us the house his father grew up in, in Anomabo. It was a very long day, but a great one. When we got back to Accra he dropped us off at the hostel and said he would meet us in the morning at 8:00am to take us to the hospital for our first day of clinical rotations....

Travelling First Class?

So my travels began on Friday morning. My brother Kofi and I took the bus from Ottawa to the Montreal airport around 11 a.m. Since my Dad travels a lot he has this fancy VIP-only card to get him into these fancy lounges the airport has, and lucky for us my brother shares the same name as my dad, so my dad mailed him his card to use. This picture was taken at the lounge in Montreal where they had lots of free finger foods, newspapers, nice couches and free wine and beer. Also there were showers,computer and printer stations and wi-fi.I had to resist taking pictures since that would be very un-VIP of me but trust me the lounges (especially the one in Amsterdam) were amazing. After hanging out in the Montreal airport for a good 6 hours we flew to Amsterdam, which was about a 6 hour flight. I love flying, especially take-off. :) The dinner wasn't too bad and I watched the Black Swan and mostly slept.  We arrived in Amsterdam around 8:00 am (2:00am at home), and before heading to the lounge Kofi and I explored the airport. Shipol is amazing. I loved the airport; there was so much to see, so many shops, 2 McDonalds and lots of restaurants. One thing I noticed was that there was tons of beer everywhere, people were having beer with breakfast at 8:00am! Nuts. Anyway after exploring, we headed to the lounge where there were even more options than in Montreal. We drank beer, watched soccer, had sanwiches, used the computers and slept (in my case, even snored....according to Kofi :P). Then 7 and a half hours later we flew to Accra which was another 6 and a half hour flight. On this flight I was a bit more productive, I watched the Fighter and Social Network, and episodes of Modern Family and Sex and the City haha....finally we arrived in Ghana......