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...