Last Day in Africa – Dodowa & the Labadi Beach

With almost everyone now gone, we got to sleep in and take our time getting ready in the morning which was a rare treat.  Our big plan of the day was to drive to the Dodowa Health Center and donate all our leftover snacks, drinks and supplies to them.  Today was Ghana Independence Day, but our contact Evelyn had arranged for someone to meet us anyway. 

Throughout the week as we were driving around past schools, I kept noticing large groups of kids marching around on their playfields.  At first I was concerned that this was all they got for PE, but I later learned that part of the Independnce Day celebrations includes a marching competition by the local school kids.  Other than that, its just a big family day with lots of folks hanging at the beach.

Shelby, CS & I made the trek to Dodowa, while Carly & Kristi tied up loose ends at the hotel.  Thanks to the holiday, traffic wasn’t too bad and we met up easily with Sabina to make the drop-off.  We fely slightly bad because she had her car full of kids wth her and they had come straight from the marching demonstartions, so I hope we didn’t disrupt her day too badly.  But, I think the center will enjoy putting the drinks, snacks and supplies to good use in their community.

Yesterday I gave you a list of shop names GB & I had created.  Today I share with you a list of ACTUAL shop signs spotted on the way home from Dodowa:

Glorious Touch plumbing

Gloriland Building materials

Lordy Pharmacy

Respect the Teacher Enterprises: Experts in House Painting

In Him is Life video shop and phone dealer

El Shadai lubricants and auto parts

Back in Accra we spent the afternoon emailing and packing before heading over to the Last Supper, back at Gauchos.  I can’t believe this trip is over.  It was long and hard, but fun, especially due to the folks that were also working this trip.  We had a lot of laughs and it was nice to have final gathering together (though we were missing Rick who left the night before with the rest of the exec team). 

Given the craziness the exec team had the night before leaving Accra, we planned to get there a little earlier to hopefully avoid any back-ups or problems.  Our planned worked as we got through customs quickly and all received the business class seats we deserved.  The only weird hiccup came as we went through security.  I had a bottle of wine in my carry-on.  Since I was getting off in London, I checked and they said I could carry-on.  The girl at security said it needed to be in a duty-free bag, not the grocery store bag I had it in (and even though I hadn’t bought it at duty-free).  So, I went over to the Duty Free store and explained my situation, and asked for a bag.  The lady of couse questioned the fact that I hadn’t bought it from them, but gave me bag anyway.  Back to security I went, but the girl said that wasn’t the right bag.  I responded that this was the one they gave me, and she said “OK.”  My wine was now apparently secure.

 

 

Accra – Day 13

Today was our last day of the exec team retreat which would be spent meeting with lots of folks in Accra.  First stop was breakfast at the home of the US Ambassador, a beautiful space with a front yard full of mini-monuments that was kind of funny.  We hadn’t planned on going inside, but we did and like the Japanese embassy, took our place in the nearby sitting room.  These guys only gave us juice though – luckily I brought in a granola bar.  The sitting room was decorated with an array of African art.

 

From there we drove to Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, which is the best hospital in Ghana.  Our visit started with a roundtable discussion about the healthcare workforce in the country, and then a tour of the facilities.  Being THE big urban hospital, every waiting room was quite full, and we were told this was the quiet part of the day.  We visited the children’s ward where in one spot they had three kids in a bed.  I asked GB and JC if it’s different visiting places like this now that they are fathers and both agreed it is infinitely different.  Prior to having to kids they were of course empathetic but still detached.  Now when they see these kids and parents suffering, it brings a whole new meaning to our guiding principle, every life has equal value.  Going through the labour and maternity ward, CD commented on the “ovarian lottery” and said she can’t imagine having had her kids here.  And this is the best facility Ghana has.

 

Driving around Accra, many of the shops, taxis & buses are named with religious connotation.  My favorite so far is the Clap for Jesus shop.  GB today started writing down many of these catch phrases and started a competition of who could come up with the best shop name.  Our top contenders so far:

 

Trust in God Insurance

Bread of Life Bakery

Love thy Neighbour Family Planning clinic

Jehovah’s Mighty Hand massage parlour

Why Life? Coffin Shop and funeral parlour

 

 

Our final event of the trip was lunch and another roundtable over the brand-new Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.  This building just opened in December and we would be their first big event – while this fact was not so good for us, in the end it will have been an excellent training exercise for the staff their.  One thing we’ve been encountering along the way is the notion of getting things done on “international time” versus “Ghana time”, and let alone “American time.”  Luckily Kristi had gone ahead to make sure everything was set and when we came in the room it all looked great.  But as lunch and the roundtable started, their attention to details and little things kept popping up:  They brought exactly 25 plates and sets of silverware – when we needed a couple more it was quite the request.  There was no garbage bin anywhere.  We had set each spot with microphones due to the noise of the HVAC system, but folks still couldn’t hear so then they sht off the AC (in the middle of the afternoon).  As the room strated warming up, we then had to open windows to get some breeze, but that also brough tin the noise from the streets.  Sigh – it was one little thing after another.  Not the best event to end our fabulous time on, but it still went fine.  More importantly, I shattered my previous high score on Brick Breaker while trying not to nod off.

 

From the roundtable we stopped by an open market on teh way home to do a little shopping, but I didn’t get anything there – I don’t like all the haggling and all that.  Back at the hotel I snuck in a quick run on the treadmill before working on getting everyone out the door to the airport.  I couldn’t believe they were all leaving – the six days they were here flew by so much quicker than week one.  Sadly, getting them to the airport was only half the battle.  Once they arrived it turned out that BA had oversold its business class, leaving CD & RR with coach seats.  Luckily Carly was at the airport to help and we got Lisa on the phone from our travel office, but the best we could do is economy plus.  And CM switched seats with RR which was super nice of her, so I think they all landed in London safely and somewhat rested.

 

Back at the hotel, we celebrated their departure with a bottle of wine and plans to sleep late!

Tamale, Damongo, Savelugu – Day 12

Today we left the hotel at 5:30am to hop on our plane up north for site visits.  Given all the craziness that occured the last time we tried to fly north, I didn’t real believe we would make it until airborne.  The flight took about an hour, and then we had a two-hour drive ahead us over to the West Gonja hospital in Damongo. A bumpy, dusty ride.  Seriously – so bumpy, so dusty.  In contrast t the south which is mostly Christian, the North is predominantly Islamic, so we passed by several mosques as we drove.  There also seems to be a lot more bicycles up here.

West Gonja is a Catholic Mission hospital, serving a large community, complete with a surgical area and maternity ward.  We started with roundtable meeting between our staff and theirs – the conference room was so hot I literally almost passed out but managed to make it through.  Then we toured their facility, which was a fairly large compound.  One of the most interesting things was the solar panels provided by the Austrians to light the operating room.

From West Gonja we had to head back on the bumpy, dusty road over to Savelugu to see the Guinea Worm Eradication program led by the Carter Center (http://www.cartercenter.org/health/guinea_worm/index.html).  What made the drive back especially difficult is that the AC in our car wasn’t working very well – I think it got maxed out on the initial drive and maybe the filters got clogged with dust.  So Shelby & I both just tried to conk out for a bit in the back seat and ignore the fact that our AC was noisy but not producing much.  Guinea worm is a really horrible disease, and hopefully close to eradication.  First we visited a local water source complete with a filtering program.   It was so hot when we got out of our cars – we later confirmed it at 105.

 

Then we headed over to the clinic.  See this beautiful girl?  See the creepy worm coming out of her leg?  Thats why we’re here and doing the work we do.

Landing back in Accra we were all looking forward to cool clean showers at the hotel before dinner, but TY changed up the game plan and asked we go straight to dinner at Captain Hooks.  I was so grimy, but oh well.  After dinner we surprised RV with a birthday cake since he’ll be flying on Thursday and not really able to celebrate – he was genuinely surprised by it which was fun.

 

Banking day, Accra – Day 11

I spent today staffing our CFO, as he went on various meetings with financial folks in the Accra area.  I had anticipated just hanging out in the car with RC while he went on his meetings, but he actually invited me to join them which was nice and turned out to be pretty interesting.

Our first stop was EcoBank, a regional bank throughout west Africa and slowly moving through the rest of the continent.  We arrived at the bank a few minutes early and checked in at the reception desk.  20 minutes later when nothing had happened, I checked back in with the receptionist – “oh, his office is in the other building.”  Right.  Next door we went, now 15 minutes late, and they kept us waiting an additional 10 minutes.  Finally we got it in.  The is an example of our phrase of the trip:  TIA = This is Africa.  When the unexplainable happens, TIA.

Next stop was the US Embassy, where we met with Susan, the chief Econ person, currently on a 2-year post in Ghana.  The US Embassy is a huge compund, fairly new – just opened in June 2007.  It looks like a huge american government building.  Entering security we had to present our passports and surrender any electronics (cell phones, ipods, cameras).  Crazy.  Susan was an interesting person to meet.  She is actually from the Eastside and went to UW.  She is also a former Olympic figure skater, having competed in the 1976 and 1980 games for Italy.  I can’t believe she grew up in the northwest though – she had this incredible frenetic energy that had both AF and I thinking she should be a New Yorker.

 After the embassy visit, we went to Le Tandem for lunch and then over to this big Artists Gallery to do some shopping before our final stop of the day, the Bank of Ghana.  Again we arrived a few minutes early which was valuable as it was quite a maze of stairs, halls and elevators to get to the Deputy Governor’s office.  Once we finally made it up there at 3:00pm, his assistant greeted us with a stern “We expected you at 11:00am.”  We both made a couple of apologies as I pulled out my packet of notes to check things out.  Luckily Carly was on the top of her game as always and had provided me with printed confirmation letters for all three meetings, including this one, signed by Anna, saying they would be delighted to see us at 3:00pm.  Anna responded with a big “hmmmm…” at her mistake.  This final meeting was the most productive of the day I think, and Professor Bawrumia was very engaging.  More improtantly, he had some very cool cuff links – pink and black blown glass it seemed, which matched his black suit and pink tie.

It was neat to sit in on these meetings, and I really appreciated that AF not only invited me, but engaged me in the conversations as well, especially when it came to health stuff. 

Back at the hotel, the evening was spent hosting a roundtable discussion with some of our grantees, and then into bed early for our 5:30am departure to Tamale the next morning.

Cape Coast – Day 10

Today was the first day of the exec team retreat, but that just meant they would be locked up in a meeting room all day.  Therefore, I managed to get myself on the sightseeing plan our CFO had in mind, which was going to be way more fun than sitting around the hotel all day.  Our plan was to drive West to Cape Coast, about 3 hours, to visit the Kakum National Park and Elmina Castle – RC was also along for the ride.

The Kakum National Park is home to a tree-top Canopy walk, which was built by USAID in the late 90’s to promote eco-tourism.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakum_National_Park

The canopy walk consists of seven rope and plank bridges, suspended amongst big giant trees.  You head across  the top of the rainforest as the bridge gently wobbles, looking down at the vegetation below.  We hoped to also glimpse some of the elephants that live below, but no such luck – they are good at hiding.  It was a really fun little hike and adventure.

 

After lunch at a nearby hotel, our next stop was the Elmina Castle, the primary junction point for the Atlantic slave trade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmina_Castle  This was a heavy visit, filled with lots of horrific tales contrasted with a beautiful setting.  Our tour guide was great, providing lots of useful information as we walked through the place, but man was it hot.  AF was definitely regretting his decision to wear jeans today.

Once we were done, we had to endure another long car ride home.  While I have definitely enjoyed the opportunity to scour so much of the country, I am defintely starting to tire of the long car rides – I’m scared to calculate how much of this trip I’ve actually spent in a car/van.  Speaking of which, here’s what our motorcade looked like yesterday, 4 vans and 1 SUV – not conspicuous at all:

Back at the hotel I couldn’t wait to shower as it had been a hot sweaty day.  Just as I shampooed up, I ran out of water.  This has been happening sporadically to other folks but I had so far avoided it.  It seems Accra is having a major water shortage, so the hotel has water being delivered constantly, but they sometimes just can’t keep up with the demand.  Tonight I was in conundrum because I was short and time and what water I did have was hot, not cold.  As I waited a couple minutes minutes pondering my options, the cold water slowly trickled back in and I was able to finish rinsing off in time to help Shelby herd everyone into the vans for dinner.

Since they had been cooped up all day in a meeting room, we went next door to the Palm Royal hotel’s Ghanaian Village, a tropical outdoor spot reminiscent of Hawaii.  They seemed to have a good time, and GB even showed off his dance moves twice, first with CM and then with KS.  After dinner, we set-up shop in the “office” as usual to ready ourselves for the next day.

Akwadum – Day 9, part 2

From Lekpongunor we headed up and into the mountains to Akwadum for the afternoon.  We encountered heavier traffic/obstacles than usual, especially for  Saturday, so it was a difficult 3-hour drive and we arrived almost 45 minutes late.  The community had set up a canopy for us to sit under which was great since this would be happening in the afternoon heat and it was HOT.  The performance was amazing – a wide age range of kids performed dances and role-played scenarios to promote HIV awareness.  The chief of the village attended, along with his entourage and a giant fabric umbrella to shade him from the sun, carried by an attendent who followed closely by wherever he went.  There wasn’t a huge crowd when we first arrived, but once the music started, everyone came out of the woodwork and the space easily filled up.  Shelby was on an end seat next me with several small admirers inching closer and closer – I thought a couple little girls might end up in her lap. 

(Note: I took some shorts viedos but I apparently can’t post them without purchasing a “space upgrade” so you’ll have to wait to see those.)

Once the performance was over, the Chief invited us back to his “palace” for three minutes.  Given our long visit the other day, I truly hoped he would hold true to his 3-minute promise and he did, so we we could hit the road back to Accra.  Because we had arrived late, this also cut down me & Shelby’s chance to discuss our book drive with our new friend Mohamed, but we did manage to get his email so we can start working on that.

What should have been a two-hour ride back turned into a horrendous three-hour journey.  Because of time, the delagtions had to go straight to dinner with no break and no freshening time, but apparently dinner went great.  I meanwhile headed to the airport to pick up the rest of the exec team who was now arriving for the actual retreat.  Luck was on our side and their plane landed 30 minutes early, so we scooped them into the vans and and back to the hotel pretty easily.

Lekpongunor – Day 9, part 1

Today would be our longest day of the trip.  At 7:00am we left for Lekpongunor with both delegations, arriving at the CHPS clinic to learn about their work from Evelyn, Victoria & Elizabeth.  The delegations were very engaged and asked lots of questions.  JS even pondered a new job as a community outreach clinician since they get to ride on motorbikes.

 

Next we drove into the village where the delegtions met with agroup of community women, while NM, Shelby, RC & I “met” with men of the community.  We split the genders up because we felt the women would not be as honest or free if the men were in their same group.  However, so as not to offend the men, we set-up a dummy meeting so they felt as if there voice was being heard.  We even got the Chief and and the elders at our meeting which actually turned out to be quite interesting.  The Chief did dominate the conversation, so it was good to split the groups.  The most interesting thing the chief said was that they needed education on breast cancer – Evelyn had actually joined us as well and afterwards she said she would make sure they get breast cancer education materials into the village since they perceive this as a need.  As we were loading up the vans I was mobbed as I handed out the rest of my gummy vitamins, but I also saw my friend from the other day, the woman in red.

Tema & Ghana – Day 8

Today was our first big “game day” – the exec team arrived, and we met up with the Japanese delegation for a full day of meetings and site visits.  We began with breakfast presentations, then hopped into the vans to drive to the flour mill in Tema.  While the big wigs toured, Shelby & I hung out outside, stocking the vans with lunch and exploring the overloaded trucks parked nearby.  It was a hot day, but the group seemed to enjoy the tour.

 

Next stop was at the Noguchi Research Institute where our team has several projects we fund in progress.  The building was hot to walk around, but it was great to hear from the investigators.

 Back at the hotel, we had a short break before heading over to the Japanese ambassador’s residence for dinner.  Shelby, Rick and I accompanied the group, bu then set up shop in the sitting room adjacent to where the big group was meeting.  Heading into the evening, we were hopeful we would be fed but weren’t entirely positive.  As the time ticked by and courses passed through the hallway in front of us, hopes began to diminish, though they did bring us wine.  We looked out longingly as they began to gather around the sushi cart.  At that point JC spotted us in our tiny room and dropped off his sushi plate when we said we hadn’t eaten yet.  I snapped up the salmon piece which was pretty good.  After they had all gotten their sushi, our fortune turned around.  Yoko (who we’ve been organizing the visits with) came in and invited us to get sushi as well.  So exciting to escape from our captivity!  At the sushi cart they had several different fish and seafood to choose from, and then the chef rolled them right there in front of you.  I chose salmon, shrimp, squid and octopus. 

Back at our table they also brought miso soup, a plate of tempura and a fruit plate for dessert.  We felt very priveleged to have received such a fine meal, even if we guilted them into it.

Akwadum – Day 7

Today we left early to scout a site where we will see a community performance educating their peers on HIV.  Getting out of Accra this morning was a nightmare – it took us an hour just to get across town to the road towards Koforidua.  Then we had another two hours before we arrived very late to meet with Patricia, the local program officer for this program.  We then jumped back in teh vans to head another 20 minutes out to Akwadum, the local village where all of this would take place.  Just like in Lekpongunor, we first met with the village Assemblyman, and then he took us over to meet the Chief and get his permission to visit.

The chief was fairly young and a new chief.  I learned later from Mohamed, one of our contacts, that the prvious chief died last year.  This new chief was then selected by the community, but he does come from a certain lineage that allows him to be considered for chief.  Similar to our experience in Lekpongunor, we first went through and shook hands with teh several men assembled before sitting down.  Patricia then explained who we were and why we were they there.  Unlike Lekpongunor, this visit then stretched out a bit as the chief sent his spokesman inside to grab a a bottle of schnapps to present us with.  Everyone then had to take a drink, and introduce themselves.  Next, the chief asked for a description of who would be coming saturday and what kind of work we do.  (Per Mohamed, many of the new chiefs are young and well-educated).  Shelby explained and then the chief asked about the education piece, saying he has a library but it has no books.  We let him know that we are focused on health, but would share his needs with our colleagues.   After another round of handshakes and discussion of the program for Saturday, we finally were released to wander over to the performance site.

This was our only spot to scout for the day, so we headed back to Accra to check email and prepare the hotel for the Directors arrival:  checking rooms to make sure the AC worked, water worked, stock the room with snacks, etc.  Over email, Shelby and I check in with Libraries to see if they had any programs going on in Ghana that could help our new friend, the Chief, but sadly we do not.  So, heads up:  Book drive coming your way soon!

With the rooms done, I got in a quick run on the treadmill and showered before rushing off to the airport to pick up the group.  Let the games begin!

Dodowa – Day 6, part 2

From Lekpongunor we headed inland to Dodowa, to visit their district health center, which was a very nice facility.  We were greeted by Alice & Kate who showed us around their out-pateint care, pharmacy, in-patient care, laboratory, records room and consulting rooms.  Prashant was able to photograph the whole process of getting a blood sample from a child to test for malaria while in the lab – I meanwhile passed out gummy vitamins to everyone waiting for their lab results, including my friends below.

They have about 80 staff and are open 24 hours a day.  Some of their nursing staff and lab staff looked so young though!  They also have an amubulance, maternity ward and brand new dental clinic.

The rest of the day was spent driving home, working out, emailing and finalizing things before the Directors arrive tomorrow.  I had planned to get to bed in plenty of time to get a full eight hours before our 7:00am departure in the morning, but then Cocktail was on and I got totally sucked in.  It was right at the part where they do the hippy hippy shake – you can’t turn it off then!  It was a little scary how well I still knew that movie 20 years later