Great People Doing Great Things

Woezor !! (meaning You are Welcome !! in the local Ewe language). I hope everyone is doing well around the world wherever you may be reading this.

Recently our second group has returned back from another great weekend excursion. Highlights included visiting New Seed International, Wli Falls, Monkey Sanctuary, and a traditional Kenti Weaving Village. All and all everything worked out pretty well except for my slight injury at Wli Falls. At the falls I was climbing some slippery rocks and ended up slipping and catching my fall using my left hand. Except on my left hand I had my steel watch of 1.5 years on which was developing a sharp edge to it. I ended up slicing the bottom of my palm about ½ inch deep and about 1.5 inches wide. So with the gaping wound on my left palm I needed to battle through the chaos/wind storm that is Wli Falls (the tallest waterfalls in West Africa) to get back to where my med kit was to stop the bleeding. As of right now as I am typing this my hand is well on its way to recovery after visiting the local doctor at Keta Hospital.

This morning’s trip to Keta Hospital was pretty memorable. I arrived at around 7:30 AM to try and avoid the rush, but despite arriving early I was only seen by a doctor by 9 AM. At the hospital I needed to visit several stations to organize my paperwork, take my vital signs, and then finally wait for the doctor. My boss told me the one Doctor who works at the hospital was Cuban, so I immediately broke out my Spanish as I greeted her in the morning. After falling into her good graces she immediately told me she would see me, but I just needed to wait one moment for her to tend to an emergency. As I was waiting for her I saw a gurney with a patient on it who seemed to be sleeping enter her examination room. After she was done with the woman, she told me that she was a 24 years old woman who arrived to the Hospital dead on arrival and was already deceased for more than one day. Somehow her family neglected to bring her medical attention or pay attention to her at all until this morning where they transported her already dead body to the hospital to see if there was anything she could do. Unfortunately she passed away and I , of course, do not know the entire full story but it is particularly difficult for me to hear and see someone pass away so close to my age of 27 years old. After I received my shot and prescription for antibiotics I was able to leave the hospital. My whole consultation with my doctor occurred in Spanish, which was pretty cool. By the time I left her office every single seat was filled and the hallways where stacked full of people. A conservative estimate for the amount of people waiting to see the one doctor the hospital had would probably be around 175 patients. As well I tip my hat to the government of Cuba who is providing this Doctor at the clinic. For if she wasn’t there who knows what the public health implications of the region would be. I have met so many people (foreigners and domestics) here in Ghana who are working EXTREMELY hard to better the lives of other people, and putting their lives on hold/straining their lives to serve others.

I met two more of those people who are literally SACRIFICING their lives for the well being and future of others today. They are the two Americans who are currently running Father’s House International (an organization and orphanage who is currently taking care of/raising 8 ex-child slaves from Ghana) http://www.fathershouseghana.com/. The children at the orphanage were sold by their parents into slavery in the Volta Region to fisherman. These fisherman would use the children to dive deep underwater to untangle nets. This is extremely dangerous work as many children drown from diving deep and getting entangled in the nets and drowning. As well they are not taken care of properly and given no education. These two American from South Carolina who are working to slowly rehabilitate the lives of these children are doing absolutely amazing work. As a group I was able to bring students to the orphanage and we were able to meet the saved kids and see where they lived and play soccer with them. They also played drums for us, and showed us their homemade drum set which consisted of tin cans, bamboo, and a card board box drum bass. The children were super friendly and outgoing, something I am sure they weren’t when they were held as slaves. Seeing the whole compound and playing with the kids was an awesome experience and motivates me to continue doing great things for others once I get back to the states.

In Ghana it has been great to see the community mentality in full effect which many developing countries have. Neighbors know each other really well, communities rely on each other for survival, everyone looks out for one another and are extremely kind and friendly in their demeanor. Ghanaians are extremely welcoming people and gracious people. The best parts about traveling are truly getting to know the people, and so far I feel I have definitely been able to meet and become friends with the Ghanaians I work with, have met while traveling, have met while working at the schools, and have just met when walking down the street. Overall it has been an amazing experience to be here and work in this country.

Anyways that is the latest that is happening out here in West Africa. I definitely miss everyone back at home and only have a little bit more than one month left in this country and I plan to take full advantage of the time I have here.

Thanks for reading.

Love to all,

Rudolph