Elmina Castle

I got to spend a little more time in Ghana recently. In contrast to most surrounding countries, Ghana is considered stable, advanced ad prosperous. It is one of the largest cocoa producers in the world and is also home to Lake Volta, the largest artificial lake in the world by surface area. The coastline is amazing with lush green palm trees swaying in the wind and the blue ocean crashing against the white beaches. Sadly, some of the biggest tourist attractions in Ghana are the remnants of slavery along the coastline in the form of slave castles.

We spent one night on the beach in Elmina, a small fishing village with a population of around 20,000 and visited St George's Castle while we were there. Fishing boats were being made on the beaches as we watched, carved out by hand and then painted. Inside the Castle, I found myself standing at "the door of no return." The gate where hundreds of thousands of slaves fates were sealed. I stood on the stones where the slaves were brought the 30 meters from the dungeon in the castle to the ship that carried them to the plantations in America. As the tour continued I found myself locked up in a small ventilated cell, inside the rooms where slaves were held in inhumane conditions, in court where the governor pointed out his concubines, and I also enjoyed an incredible view from the top of the castle. The contrasts were great! That such a fantastic place could have such a terrible story...

The slaves were kept at the castle in order to determine who would bear the voyage across the Atlantic. The castle has been used by the Portuguese, Dutch and Brits for various things over the last 500 years, but slave trade was the most prevalent. Toward the end of the guided tour was a Nigerian word. He gave a monologue and there was silence. Reverently we all listened to this man who drew up the historic lines and spoke of forgiveness. That Africans today would free themselves from the past if they could forgive. It was an emotional moment, and all Africans said "amen" in the end.

Togo Facts

"One of the greatest stumbling blocks to understanding other peoples within or without a particular culture is the tendency to judge others’ behaviors by our own standards."

– James Downs

Below is some information I found interesting from the Human Development Report 2011. This report “argues that the urgent global challenges of sustainability and equity must be addressed together…”

Togo's Human Development Indicator is 0.435, which gives the country a rank of 162 out of 187 countries with comparable data, leaving it in the bottom 30 of member nations.  And can anyone guess which country is ranked #1?? I’ll give you a hint…it’s not the US.   Actually, Norway is ranked 1 out of 187. (For those of you dying to know where the US ranks, go to http://hdr.undp.org/en and check it out. So, I’m going to compare Togo and Norway a bit.

• Life expectancy at birth in Norway: 81 years; Togo: 57 years (WHO)
• The average daily wage in Norway is $170 per person per day; in Togo it is $2.31 per person per day (and 38.7% live on less than $1.25 per person per day.
• In Norway: there are 4,445 dentists for 5 million people (1 dentist for every 1,125); in Togo: there are 18 dentists for 6 million people (1 dentist for every 333,333)
• In Norway: 20,000 doctors for 5 million people (1doc per 250 people); in Togo: 318 doctors for 6 million people (1 doc per 18,868 people).

The West African worldview is intensely religious; people’s thoughts and actions are inspired or influenced by a religious point of view. Religion can not be isolated or separated from the worldview or life of the African.

Togo religion consists of:

African Traditional Religions: 51%

Christianity: 29%

Islam: 20%  

(US Dept of State)

African Traditional Religion (ATR): is an umbrella term that encompasses many different expressions of indigenous religious beliefs and practices. It is comparable to the variety of different expressions/denominations/doctrines that co-exist under the umbrella of Christianity. A few of these include animism, voodoo/voudon, idol worship, witchcraft, magic/ju-ju. It is the belief in a Supreme/Creator God; divinities (lesser gods who act as intermediaries); spirits; ancestors (intermediaries); the practice of magic and medicine. The ATR central point is that the Supreme God is distant and controls the universe through lesser gods and the ancestors. The goal is to minimize suffering/harm and maximize prosperity/success.

 

Ghana borders, motorcycles and marriage

Last weekend a few of us set out on an adventure. We traveled about 5 hours North West to the Ghana border where the tallest waterfall in West Africa stands.  Transportation itself is an adventure over here as I showed you last week. 5 person cars hold 7-8 people, 12 person vans hold 18-20 and motorcycles, well, the most I’ve seen is 5….

So, we took a taxi up to a town called Kpalime where we argued with 3 zemi-john drivers until we finally settled on a reasonable price (45 minutes later) to take us up the mountains to the border crossing in Wli where we would stay for the weekend.  We camped overnight in a little village by the border with no electricity or anything like that. A family in the community cooked us traditional African Banku (fermented cornmeal and cassava dough that you dip in stew) and we ate outside by the moonlight listening to music and watching the village kids dance around us.  It was so cool to experience a “normal” night in an African village.  Sunday morning we woke up early, crossed the border into Ghana, left our passports and tent with immigration to ensure we were coming back, and began our hike to the waterfall.  It is said to be the tallest waterfall in West Africa and was absolutely beautiful. Thousands of bats make their home among the cliffs surrounding the falls and woke to greet us as we swam in the falls.  After a few hours of soaking up the sun and relaxing by the water we headed back to immigration where the border patrol returned our passports and tent in exchange for a “small gift from our hearts” aka money.  In Togo we made our way back to Lome and our home onboard the ship. Oh, and I almost forgot. My zemi-john driver declared his love for me and was convinced I’m going to stay in Togo and marry him. Don’t worry, I told him no. We get a lot of marriage proposals here…and they’re usually followed by “and you can take me back to America.” 

On a different note, things on ship are going very well! The hospital is filling up quickly and tomorrow we start admitting patients for plastic surgery. I’ve been working in max/fax the last several weeks and have really enjoyed the patients and challenges that come with that specialty, but I’m looking forward to our precious skin graft children joining us soon!  I oriented to charge nurse over the weekend and will take on that new role this week.  Thank you all for your continued prayers and words of encouragement! I am loving my time here and trying to take advantage of every opportunity to meet new people, go on adventures and spread God’s love to this beautiful nation.  It is a blessing!!   

Stop and Starts in Africa

So, transportation in Africa isn't as easy as one would think. Here are a few pictures of our weekend adventures and transportation encounters over the last week or two. My camera has turned up "missing" so hang tight while I borrow other peoples cameras. I'm hopeful mine will turn up soon.

Hiking around Mt Agou

First car breakdown of the year

The local mechanic

and a flat tire

Only 4 in the back of this car so far

Mercy Ships approved zemi-john riding

The tallest waterfall in West Africa - found in Ghana

More blog posts to come soon!!!

WELCOME TO WORDLESS WEDNESDAY



HOSPITAL OPEN HOUSE

   


PRACTICING FOR OUR
EVACUATION DRILL





HOSPITAL OPEN HOUSE -
SUTURE PRACTICE



A NEW PATIENT





B WARD NURSING STAFF AND DAY VOLUNTEERS



SCREENING DAY





WEEKEND HIKE



RIDING ON ZIMMY JOHNS - OUR NEW TAXIS



Screening Day, Togo 2012

Screening Day

Screening day was a huge success! We won’t have exact numbers until Friday, but what I’ve heard is that over 3,500 people showed up for the screening and over 1,600 were selected for further screening!!! Thank you everyone for your prayers! It really was an incredible day! People started lining up the night before and at 5am we opened the gate and everything was underway. It was so exciting to see so many people walk into the gates scared and uncertain and hours later, after telling their story to many people, they walked out of the stadium with their head held high and hope in their eyes because they had received an appointment card. It was beautiful!

One of the coolest places in the stadium was the prayer tree. Everyone who walked through the gates, whether they qualified for surgery or not, was offered prayer as we escorted them out, and I don’t think anyone turned it down. We had day volunteers from the community who were eager to pray with everyone. God is undeniably at work here in Togo and it is so exciting to be a part of His plan for these Togolese people. We serve a living and active God who is the God of ALL nations and people!  

Psalm 47:7-8

“For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise. God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne.”

Nursing Staff

Bon Jour!

First day exploring the streets
and market in Togo

Bon Jour from Lome, Togo! I can’t believe I’m back in Africa! It’s a little surreal. Part of me feels like I never left. The ship is still so familiar and many people are back this year for another field service. Reconnecting with friends and co-workers has been great fun. But at the same time, so many things are new. New country, new faces, new patients, new field service….

The ship is an excited place right now, full of energy and anticipation! Most of the nurses have arrived in the last few weeks and Screening day is Wednesday at the stadium.  We are expecting around 4000 people to show up in need of medical attention and I am eager to meet some of our future patients.  I found out this week that I’ll be back on the plastics team this year.  My unit will take care of patients that have contractures from previous burns or snakebites or facial tumors such as Neurofibromas, with a few other plastic surgery cases mixed in. The first 2-3 weeks of surgeries will just be maxilla-facial patients though, so I’ll get a little experience in that area to start.

A few things to pray for:

-Our Screening Day on Wednesday February 1^st. It will be an intense morning of screening potential patients and scheduling them for surgeries over the next 4 months. Pray that God will send those who we can help and that the ones we can not help will stay home. It will be hard to turn people away, but we won’t be able to treat everybody’s conditions.

-Good connections and friendships to be formed with all the nursing staff as we being working in our teams. We will meet our day volunteers tomorrow and start training them, so prayer for good, clear communication and bonding with them as well. These are the translators and local people we will be working closely with for the entire outreach.

Women from the fishing village church I visited this morning