July 5th Crocs

We are now in Cape Coast, a small coastal town. We are staying at Hans Botel. Not hotel, but Botel. The owner made up the word, it is half hotel and half botanical garden. The hotel was built around a crocodile habitat. The small lake has 40 crocodile that live in it.. The crocs were there before the people. We were able to touch this croc as he had just eaten, so it was pretty safe! :-) We took a paddle boat ride through the lake and survived.

July 7 Clinic & Canopy Walk

Waiting room

Today we did an outreach clinic in the morning. The medical students all helped with taking blood pressures, weighing, and take diabetes blood tests. Then the resident physician assistant talked to everyone who had problems and prescribed meds. We saw about 200 people (women, children and men) in a 4 hr period. The people come from all over. Do not make appointments but they spread the word that medical personnel will be at a specific location at a specifics time so they all just come. I helped with crowd control. My Olympic experience came in handy! These people are so warm and hospitable! After we finished at the clinic we went up to the school which was right beside us. My daughter Lisa had brought two soccer balls to give to a school so she give to this one! They were so appreciative of it. We took some awesome pictures!

Me & the Kids

Students waiting to help

After the clinic and school we went to the Kakum National Park.it is a beautiful rainforest! It is in the central region and covers 145 sq miles. It is the only place in Africa where there is a canopy walkway which is 350 meters long and connects 7 treetops! It is like walking on a network of suspension bridges that are only a foot wide and 130-160 feet from the ground!

Mama's & Babies

The mother carry their babies on their backs until they are old enough to walk. After the babies are born, the mothers have to take them back for their new baby checkup. When they come (of course in many cases they have walked many miles to get to the clinic) they are all dressed in white. Apparently this quite a site to see the mothers all coming with their newborns dressed in white with their dark skin.  In many cases the mother will have a baby on her back and a huge load on her head.How they can carry so much is amazing.  When you watch them walking their upper body does not sway, it is totally upright. In this pic she is holding her wares, but many times, they do not.

Village

Village

We visited a small village which is typical of the rural areas.  Here are some pics. 

Village

Shea Tree

This village makes shea butter for so their livelihood. Here is a pic of the shea tree which produces the nuts. These nuts are dried and then the seeds are extracted. The seeds are then roasted and ground using a mortar type mallot. Then they are sent to a grinding mill for finer grinding. When it comes back it is butter.

Village Chief

Roasting the seeds

Here is the Village Chief.  He wanted to marry my Granddaughter! LOL! He has been Chief for 54 years and will continue until he dies. This village has four families who rotate the chief position. When a chief died, it rotates to the next family. Our guide was of the royal family but not of the current chief. He said he could become chief someday if it comes around to him.

July 6 Slaves

Today we toured one of many facilities along the African coastline which housed Africans who were captured and put into slavery. It was so sad. There had been over 3M slaves through that facility alone and there would be between 300-400 men, women and children in that particular location at one time. Squished into windowless rooms with only a pot in the corner to relieve themselves. If they tried to escape and were caught they were put in a cell with a few slots in the door and left there to die...no food or water. The slots in the door were used to see if they were dead. When they were dead, they took them out and threw them into the sea. So sad. Much more to tell but need to get to bed. Will post later

July 3rd Kings Palace

We visited the King Palace today. He was away though. The palace was built in 1925 by the British. Upon the return from exile of the Asantehene Nana Prempeh I from the Seychelles Islands, the building was offered to him for use as his residence. This was because prior to the Asantehene's exile, his old palace had been burnt down in the a war. The war was fought between the British and the Asantes because of the refusal of the Asantehene to give the Golden stool to the then governor of the Gold Coast. The King sits on the Golden Stool whenever he conducts royal business. Prempeh I only accepted the palace back after he had paid for the cost of the building in full.Two kings lived in the palace, namely Otumfuo Prempeh I and Otumfuo Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II, the 13th and 14th Kings of the Asante Nation. The old palace was converted into a museum in 1995 after the new palace was built.Opoku Ware II was the first king to live in the new palace, which he occupied until his death in 1999. Asantehene Osei Tutu II, currently resides in the new palace. They have wax figures of the previous kings in the museum. They are so real looking it was scary! In the courtyard are drums and chairs and boat-type woven carrying baskets which are used to transport the king from place to place. The King is carried in these baskets as he does not walk long distances. The selection of the King is via matriarchal order. She selects the king but the King selects the First Lady. So currently the First Lady is the current king's mother. It was a little confusing. Selections are only made from the Royal Family. They had certain artifacts in the museum (the palace is now a museum and the King lives in another building on the same site--didn't know if I mentioned this). Anyway, the artifacts are just stored there and are used currently for certain occasions. Every 6th Sunday the King receives homage from his people and it is a big ceremony. Cool eh?

July 2 Sword in the Stone

We went to Okomfo Anokye Hospital. This is a historical site in Ghana as well as a teaching hospital (like the University Hospital). Okomfo Anokye was a spiritual leader in the Asante Kingdom which is located in the city of Kumasi.Kumasi is the capital of the Asante Kingdom. Asante was the most powerful empire in the West Africa region during the 18th century. The Asante kingdom was larger then the current day country of Ghana. The first king of Asante was King Osei Tutu I and Okomfo Anokye was his closest advisor. In time Osei Tutu I founded the Asante kingdom. The site of the hospital is where the Asante kingdom was organized in 1697. It included 11 divisional chiefs. It is stated that the fingernails and some of each chief's hair was burned into a black powder which was mixed for all the chiefs to drink. The rest was buried in the ground where Okomfo Anokye planted his sword. He stated that if anyone removed the sword it would mark the collapse of the Asante empire. We saw this sword today, embedded on the hospital grounds.

Talk about King Arthur and the sword in the stone. This was real! Okomfo's sword has been in the same place since 1697 and cannot be removed. Countless people have tried too remove it but have failed. In 1964 Mohammed Ali came to Kumasi for two weeks and tried to remove the sword but was unsuccessful. It is said in 1950, when the hospital was being constructed, the contractor, a Mr Gee, tried to remove the sword using a bulldozer. He mentions that he had planned to use the bulldozer many times but he when actually tried, the sword would disappear and reappear weeks later. I found this so interesting!

July 1st

There are over 4M people in this city! The poverty is tremendous! The women all walk so straight as they usually have things on their heads. These are some of the things I have seen on their heads. 100#of sugar, large metal bowl with a plethora of items from bags/bottles of water, a 2x3 wooden box filled with loaves of homemade bread, a full meal including a huge pot filled with food with other bowls that are also filled, clothes, fabric, household items ---new pots, plastic ware, toilet paper/towels.

Anything you can think of. We are traveling in a large bus with big windows. When we are stopped in traffic, people come up to our windows to try to sell us things. It's like Walmart on the go! This is how they make their living. You can get pretty much anything. I have seen candy, small office supplies (pens/pencils), household items, veggies, other food, water etc.

Venders in wooden shack-like booths sell their wares. Again, you can get anything - tires, appliances, furniture. We even saw caskets!! The main roads are paved but all the side streets are dirt. The dirt is red like Southern Utah. When it rains you can imagine that it is a total mud pit! When the rain clears though, they go around and fill up the holes just like how we fix our asphalt roads.

They have regular car taxis but also larger mini van type vehicles. They seat 15 people normally, but we have seen them backed in. We went to church and actually used one of these taxis but kept picking up people who were also going with us. We ended up with 21 people in our taxi! Apparently if you see a taxi coming on the same direction that you are going, you just flag him down, pay 1CD and get off wherever you need to. The currency is 3CD to 1US dollar. So it is pretty cheap. So of course the taxi drivers want to get as many people in their taxis as they can.

June 28 #2

We left Sunyani after visiting those sites and hopped on a bus and drove 6 hrs into the Central Park of the country to the Mole National Park. This was awesome. Animals all around. We had to be careful. Our accommodations were in this park. I was standing with a group of people as we were getting our room assignments and had a small plastic bag in my hand with trash from the bus. There were baboons all around. One of them was brazen enough to approach our group and grabbed the bag from my hand!!  Since it was trash she was disappointed (there was a baby holding onto her belly as I noticed later.

Thieving Baboon!

There were also warthogs just roaming around eating the grass just like goats! There were not harmful and they even had babies with them. An elephant also came into the yard. It wasn't huge but not a baby either. There are monkeys around as well and you have to watch your food when you are eating at the outdoor dining room. I also went on a safari ride thru the rest of the park. We saw antelope, deer, monkeys and baboons. We were just like in pictures where we sit on top of a 4x4. It was cool! I also took the leap and slept overnight in a treehouse in the jungle.

Treehouse in the African Jungle!

We had to walk about 1 1/2 miles to get to it. We had a guide and he had a rifle! It was pretty cool! Didn't get much sleep. The animals and birds were pretty noisy! We heard a hyaena during the night! We visited a typical village during the day. It was sad to see people living in such poverty.  We met the Village Chief and saw how they made Shea butter. So cool! The houses are made of clay and Shea butter and the roof is from tree branches!  The hotel facilities were pretty elementary. They have limited water so it is only on for a few hours each day and it is a trickle. The provide large plastic buckets of  water for you to take 'bucket' showers with and to flush the toilet. So with the limited water and the same clothes for 4 days, I am sooo very happy to now be in Kumasi! It has been an awesome adventure thus far. Took us about 8 hours on the bus to get here. I have pictures on my camera and my phone so will post when I can get access to my daughters laptop and now that we have internet in this location. Will post again!

June 28 Catchup!

Sorry this is mt first post. It has been a long and busy few days. Flew to New York on that first day and then flew to Accra, Ghana which took about 11 hrs. Then we boarded a twin prop plane and flew about half an hour to one of the main cities, Kumasi. This city is about 4M people but very far behind compared to the US. After getting to Kumasi we then took a bus for 3 1/2 hrs to a small place of 80,000 called Sunyani. This is where my daughter and the other students have being staying. Unfortunately, my suitcase did not join me to Kumasi. There is only one flight a day so we had to leave it as we were coming back to this city on Saturday which is today! I had one extra change of clothes in my backpack carry on which helped but in being those two sets for FIVE days was worse then camping! It is so hot and humid that my clothes were wet most of the time! We are now back in Kumasi and I have my bag! Hooray!..and of course internet access. Hooray! So let me tell you w hat I have been doing. On the first day in Sunyani we really just met up with the rest of the group. Then we  toured the clinic and regional hospital. My heart goes out to these sweet people and the health professionals trying to help them with limited resources. I wish I have money to give them or at least to buy a bed for one of the wards. The clinic said they can only help the number of mothers who are in labor with the number of beds that they had. There were 6 beds and only 3 with mattresses. My daughter said that she was trying to help a little boy about 5 who was hit by a car. He was not doing well and they needed an x-Ray of his chest. They had a machine donated to the hospital but they did not know how to use it! My daughter has been an x-ray tech for 15 yrs and tried to help but ran out of time :-(  the dr at the hospital also told us that they did hv a CT scanner but they used it, they had to divert the power from the rest of the hospital in order for it to work! So sad!

June 23 Regional Hospital, Fufu, New Dudds!

Spent the day in the Regional Hospital today. This is the largest hospital in the area. Amanda Truong, a medical student from the U, and I were able to shadow a dermatologist all day today. There is one exam room and he calls the patients in 1 at a time. He also had 3 Ghanian PA residents with him today. It was so interesting to chat with practicing PA's in Ghana. The cases we saw today were interesting but also had an element of frustration because of lack of tools. The provider literally has a pen, a chair, and a desk. Nothing else. Dermatology in the US is deeply rooted in procedures, taking biopsies, draining abscesses, scraping off skin samples. Very different form of practice here. However, the Dr. we were working with was very skilled and could recognize the skin conditions just through history and sight. A hefty challenge for me, even basic dermatitis looks very different on African skin than what I am used to.

Victoria Stephens and Olivia spent another day in Chiraa. So, so close to helping with a delivery. Mother came in at 42 weeks in labor, contractions 2 minutes apart. However, her water had not broken yet. The midwives do not rupture the membranes, so the patient went off to the regional hospital by ambulance. The girls were so disappointed. 2 more days, maybe they will get lucky.


Olivia helping to smash the Fufu (our dinner)

We received our Ghanian outfits! Hooray! Master Paul, the tailor, made these dresses for the girls. Fabric cost about 14 cedis-about $5 and it costs 20 cedis to have the dress made, about $7. Ridiculously inexpensive. 

June 21 Monastery, Water Polo, Bar

Had a day off today. Went to the monastery in the morning and the rest of the afternoon at the only pool in town. Monastery was peaceful and beautiful. Mango trees, large spiders, and great rock formations. Looked a little like southern Utah. The pool was fabulous. There is one "nice" hotel in Sunyani and it has a pool. You can pay a few cedis to swim. They also serve pizza poolside. A little slice of heaven. We had a great water polo match with some locals. It got a little rough, no holds barred. My jaw, elbow, and other various places are pretty sore, but it was a ton of fun. 

The kitchen ladies made Red Red with fried plantains for dinner tonight. Delish. We have eaten ethnic every night. Most are pretty unique, like nothing we've tasted before. All wonderful.
After dinner, we walked to the local bar to watch the Ghana-Germany world cup match. Took a picture of Victoria Stephens ordering at the bar, first and last time that will ever happen. Exciting game, a tie is better than a loss.