So, what have I been doing? My parents were wondering the same when I talked to them on the phone the other day and I'm sure you readers are too – all 5 of you. I do the usual to fend off boredom: hang out with people in town or other teachers, read, do Sudoku/crossword puzzles, watch movies on my laptop, journal, nap, etc. Cooking has become my favorite new hobby that I am terrible at. Don't worry; I've been taking pictures of every single meal I prepare and plan to devote an entire blog entry to my success and failures. Most are failures but still edible (my one victory was French toast, which is incredibly hard to eff up). I really have no other place to go but up! It could potentially be the most boring blog entry ever so I won't be offended if you don't read it. I've also started sewing – I made a small change purse for myself and some headbands. I draw a wee bit too when the aforementioned activities don't seem appealing.
The more exciting part, obviously, is the integrating and exploring! I've moved on from community walks. I think I have seen every part of the town of Antoa at least once. I have my regular shops and food sellers that I frequent yet seem to find something new every time I walk around town. The other day I was going to go buy some tomatoes and I was just going to hit up my regular veggie stand. This woman greeted me and asked me where I was going (I get asked where I am going EVERY SINGLE time I leave my house by multiple people). I told her I was buying some food and she grabbed my arm and led me around a building to a veggie stand that I had never seen before. The tomatoes were better and the lady had carrots! People sell the most random stuff but do not advertise. You have to know the town to know where to get what you want; most sell out of their house. It's like an adventure. The only problem is that I have to go and do my errands before I get hungry. When I'm hungry I get crabby and don't find the whole searching thing very amusing. So, anyway, I've started shadowing people in town. As an outsider, I have no idea what people do all day/every day. I don't think I knew exactly what my host mom or sister did when I went off to training and I lived with them! Shadowing entails me just following a person around for an entire day; doing what they do, helping out, and asking a ton of questions about things I don't understand. I am trying to shadow every profession I can think of in the town: the nurse at the clinic, a farmer, a "housewife," police officer, and seller. I'm sure there is more but it's a good starting point.
My first shadowing experience was with the nurse – it was interesting. In the morning, I met two nurses in the nearby town where they were weighing babies. They set up station in the middle of town with their weighing contraption, which was a luggage scale, and all the ladies came with baby in tow. The younger ones got vaccines and all of this was recorded in a baby health book the clinic gives to the mother when she gave birth. First, the medical assistant talked to the women and gave some advice on general health for children. Then it was baby weighing time! Each momma stripped down their little one to their undies and hung them from the scale. The weight was recorded by yours truly and plotted in each child's health book. The chart is probably similar to ones they used for us in America – I remember some percentile deal that let you know if it your child was at normal height and weight. There are two lines that denote a normal range of weight and the goal is to have the children stay within. The babies are weighed every month so their progress is tracked. If the baby gained weight, the nurse praised the momma; if the baby was out of the normal range, the momma had a talkin' to. The nurse would collect the books from me after I weighed and double check if the baby needed shots or not.
This is a picture of the whole operation:
The nurse is in the blue and white uniforms; standing near the scale.
Below is a Ghanaian waiting room
You can see the girl to the right with the Health book each mother receives.
These two ladies demanded that I take their picture. They also debated whether my hair was real or a wig
The scale sans child.
Scale with baby boy…this is my favorite!
Aww! Most of the kids didn't enjoy the sling and would start crying. This made my job harder because the scale was sensitive to their full body baby sobs and getting a good read was impossible. The key was to read their weight before the kid realized what was going on. Here is another of a bigger child.
She is definitely outgrowing her holder. Most the mothers stop bringing their child to the weighings after they receive all the vaccinations. I weighed about 3 kids that were older than 1 and all were underweight for their age. I asked the nurse why most children weren't being fed enough and she commented that the parents weren't forcing them to eat. She said some of the kids just don't want to eat, especially healthier food, and the parents don't force feed the good nutrients down their kids throat. Or in many homes, the child typically eats the left overs and by that time there is only soup and starch left - the meat is gone. The baby girl above has a protruding stomach which is indicative of malnutrition. The nurse said it is mostly due to a lack of protein. Malnutrition is something I always thought of in terms of starvation and a poor, skinny child. Most Ghanaian children are fed and are not starving; they just lack a well rounded diet. It was a very interesting morning and despite the fact that health is not my focus here, I want to continue hanging out at the clinic and learning from the nurses. I took a break for lunch and spent the afternoon at the actual clinic. There was one patient over the 3 hour period I was there and he was a pretty standard case; slight fever, diarrhea, and dehydration. So I hung out with the clinic workers and got to know them until they closed at 3pm.
The next person I'm going to shadow is a police officer at the station in town. I'm missing another baby weighing for it so I hope it's as enlightening as my nurse shadowing experience! Hopefully school will not be postponed anymore and I will get to start teaching! I'm sure I will have plenty to report on then. For now, I miss you all!
P.S.
Guess what I found in Kumasi!
I could care less about the stupid Bengals one. Clearly. But Ohio State represent in Ghana! I thought about buying it but there is something odd about buying second hand stuff from the developed world that I left. So I just took a picture instead:)
