Tourists for a day.

Dustin and me at the beach in Cape Coast

What a weekend we had :) Saturday we planned to go on a trip, but our phone rang at 445 that morning with an emergency c-section. So we dragged our sleepy butts up to the clinic and helped delivery baby Kwame. We got back to the house around 7 am, showered, and then we got to be tourists for the first time since we came here. We drove about 30 minutes to a town called Winneba where our friend Courtney is living and starting her girls' home called The Pearl House. It was wonderful! She has 11 girls and could soon be getting 5 more. The Lord is richly blessing her with help and it was so great to go and encourage her and see her place.

After we passed through Winneba, our driver drove us over to Cape Coast which was about another hour and a half. It is a large town where there is a university and some other things do to. We went for the purposes of seeing 'the castle.' It is a really old castle built in like 1482 by the Portugese. For 10 US Dollars you can tour this awesome castle. It was originally meant for like gold and ivory trading but eventually became used for slave trading. So, slaves that were shipped to the Americas or Britain were housed in dungeons in this castle sometimes for months. Women would give birth, pee, and poop all on the same floor in a crowded room where you could only stand. If they survived the sometimes three months in the dungeons, then they were usually shipped out to various places around the world. There was a lot of dark feelings in this castle, I just prayed as I walked through. On the bottom floor  was where hundreds of men and women were held, and on the fourth floor, the governor stayed. He had the entire floor to himself. On a beautiful coastline, with anything he needed. The hypocrisy was overwhelming. I honestly don't understand how someone could have lived in such luxury with other human beings dying three floors below. 

The side of El Mina Castle

After touring the castle we went to a restaurant that served Ghanaian food and ate authentically. I ordered banku (like, a maize-type mush that's stiff) with okra stew. I did not order any meat (of course). However, when my dish arrived there was a whole deep fried fish. Like, head and all. And I obviously can't say "I'm sorry I'm a vegetarian" because it was given to me complementarily as a gift to enjoy and experience Ghana. 

So...

At least I knew it was fresh???

I think I did pretty good. Considering... I had no idea how to eat this thing and no utensils because they eat with their hands. Bon appetit. 

Sunday we rested and did laundry. Nothing major to report.

Today at the clinic I saw patients while Savannah ran the wards. We had a few children admitted for malaria. One little girl, her name is Abigail, was admitted because she was barely responsive. She was almost gone when she arrived. However, they started giving her fluids and medication, and most importantly food, and she is doing much better this afternoon. She was so malnourished she didn't have any hair. She was one year old and weighed 8 pounds. Ok, that's the size of a newborn in the states. She was so little. Her mother had died 5 months ago, and the family was feeding her best they could but they didn't have the money to do it properly. She was marasmic, just totally wasted away. Pray for her to feel better! I will try and snap a picture of her soon. If the family wanted to give her up, I might seriously be coming home with an African baby.