June 26th

Today we started our work. Dustin went to the school and met all of the children. I was wondering why when I walked home from the clinic the children were yelling "which one of you is Tessa?" Dustin had told them we were here. At the schools here the students stay in the same classroom and the teacher rotates to each room.  Dustin is teaching French to grades 5-8. When you get to ninth grade here you take an exam. If you are in the top 40% of the test takers in the country, you are able to go to high school (assuming your parents can pay).  If you are not in the top 40%, then you are finished with school. If you go on to high school, at the end of 12th grade you take another exam. The top 10% who take this exam qualify for college. So, in Ghana essentially you have to be in the top 4% to go to college.  

Monsieur Alex who is from Togo (the country just east of Ghana, it is French speaking), and teaches the French classes, he allowed Dustin to teach 3 classes today. Classes are 45 minutes long. They are on a block schedule. He taught them a few phrases and they created a story with the phrases. In one class, the story consisted of a big red dog that ate all of the students' lunch. As Dustin says, "Tout est possible en classe de français," (everything is possible in French class). They broke for lunch, and afterwards did not return to classes. They were "cancelled" for some type of campus wide work. I saw a lot of students with machetes cutting grass. I thought it was some form of punishment but apparently it is an expectation that the students maintain the campus. 

On my end of things, I got to start my work in the clinic this morning. Savannah and I showed up at 8:00 for the devotional. It was in Twi (it sounds like the word 'tree'). But graciously, Fred the director, translated the prayers for us. Songs were sung in English and were songs I should have known. However, most Ghanaians do not read music and therefore make up their own melodies relative to if the notes go up or down. This was a fun way to relearn old songs. 

After the devo, we heard that the Dr. was in the "theatre" which means the operating room. Savannah and I ran in to catch the tail end of a hysterectomy. The woman was not intubated, she was under conscious sedation with a spinal block. So she was kind of rolling around on the table and moaning. All of this while her uterus was being pulled out of her abdomen.

At the end, we were told a woman had arrived who was in labor. Dr. Alex knows this is my point of interest and told me to go to her. She was about 4 cm dilated and I stayed with her most of the morning. In Ghana women are not to cry out and moan during labor. But, this woman did not follow protocol. She was MOANING AND GROANING. The nurses kept scolding her because she was showing weakness and causing disturbances. The midwife-nurse (who also sees patients and it basically a nurse practitioner) was in another room seeing patients when the woman's water broke. I went to fetch her and when we came back she was crowning! they were trying to stand her up and I was asking "where is she going?" They answered "she has to go into the labour ward." They were making a pregnant, crowning mother walk down the hall into another room. I was praying to Jesus that baby didn't slip out and she didn't fall out on the floor. We made it with seconds to spare. The woman no sooner put her feet in the stirrups and pushed, than that baby started coming out. It was a clean delivery and a beautiful baby boy was brought into the world.

It's interesting how life is so precious and you can observe that in the birth of a child as well as a death. We had a 14 year old boy come in today with shortness of breath. His oxygen saturation was 65%. That is the lowest I have ever seen.  We left for lunch and when we returned he had passed. 

After clinic Savannah and I came home and met up with D. We went over to the White Station people’s house for dinner. Letisha had made spaghetti!  YUM.  Then after dinner she came over to our house and helped us with all the “local” foods we bought it the market. She laughed because we bought stuff that was pretty and looked cool, but ended up being pointless. Except for the Grenadillas that we bought – they’re guavas! Yay J

The power has been out since we got home from clinic today.... now it is 7:40 pm, pitch black, and we are walking around with headlights on like we work in a coal mine. But it works.

... Did I mention that Savannah’s flashlight just died – and she is in the shower.

OOPS.

That’s what friends are for.

Tessa and Dustin