Metropolitan Washington Association of Occupational Health Nurses, Inc.

TO THE PEOPLE OF GHANA

You welcomed us with open arms. You sent us fruits from your garden and ground. You listened to us as we taught you and your children about health and staying healthy. You welcomed us in your churches and schools. You thirst for the knowledge that will help you and give you long life and happiness. We care and love you. We hope that from our visit that you will continue to do the best that you can in living healthy. We know it won’t be easy, but we’ll be grateful if you just try. Another time and another season, we hope to visit you again.

MY DREAM BECOMES REALITY

It was March 17, 2008 at about 5:45 in the morning when I arrived with a group of 33 health professionals on a mission trip. The flight was more than 12 hours from Baltimore to JFK airport in New York then continuing straight to Accra via North American Airlines. We were advised to be at the airport four hours before the flight. I was one of the first persons in the line. To pass the time we all made sure that our luggage was under the 70-lb. limit that was required. My dream had started at the age of five years old while living in the islands where I grew up. I remembered sitting on the steps in front my parents home, just day dreaming of living and working in the far away lands of Africa. I must attribute these dreams to the mission stories that I had heard while attending church. They were inspiring, to say the least and caused me to dream about working for God and others.

Over the many years, these dreams had vanished and pushed into the recesses of my mind. I had looked for all opportunities possible for these dreams to be a reality and that they would come through, but with my family responsibilities, such as carrying the health insurance, they seemed impossible. As my kids became older, a very close friend, Charlene, promised me that we would travel to the Gambia. She had spent sometime there, in the Peace Corps and wanted to return to visit friends. Unfortunately, she had to cancel all plans and my hopes were crushed, again. I became resigned that all my hopes and dreams of me traveling to Africa was over, it was history.

ARRIVAL IN GHANA

But here I was, after all those years plus a 12-hour flight, bringing my dream to reality. We collected our suitcases, one at a time and waited for out transportation downstairs. We each took turns, taking pictures around the decorations welcoming us to Ghana. It said “Akwaaba”, which is welcome in their language. A crowd of men swamped us as we tried to take our suitcases to the bus. One of the travelers ahead of my group had given a porter a US $10.00 bill for carrying his suitcases and the men started hustling us. One man practically took my suitcases out of my hand while I protested. I gave him US $3.00; he took it then asked for $10.00 more. I informed him that I was arriving and cannot give him any more money. My roommate states that she offered one man US$3.00 dollars and he refused it. Others were giving money away and it appeared that many more men came out of the woodworks, and surrounded our bus. I have never seen so many porters in one place before! We boarded the bus and had to collect tips for the three men who actually packed our suitcases on the bus, since the crowd of porters was asked to leave.

The bus was not air- conditioned and I started to sweat profusely, as we traveled to Valley View University Women’s Retreat Center where we would spend our first day in Africa. The road was long, the temperature was high and the sweat was running all over me as if I was under a slow drip shower. I had to search desperately for my washcloths to stop the water coming out of my body. While I was contemplating how hot it was and my difficulty breathing in this weather, our guide asked if we wanted coconut water. The chorus responded “yes”, me included… We knew that the coconut water would quench our thirst and refresh us and it did.

MONEY ISSUES

The majority of us realized that we needed to change money right away, instead of using US dollars for our purchases. Some folks wanted water and the amount that they paid for the water, in US money was extremely high. I decided to send to town for water and it was much cheaper. Before traveling to Ghana, I had changed most of my hard bills, $100.00’s, to much smaller denominations. One lady from our group, collected money from us to change to Ghana currency: CD’s. I gave her two fifty-dollar bills to be changed. On receiving our money, we were told that those will smaller bills, would get less money for their exchange. I received 98 CD’s because I had two larger bills. In some cases, for having $20.00 bills, one could get as little as 90 CD’s. I was in a crowd when this happened to me and I showed my roommate and the others with me and went back to our bus. When my roommate, Maxine, came to the bus she said that the lady in the money-exchange booth sent me some more money. It appeared that she overheard my conversation with the group inside the building. She was embarrassed and tried to make amends. On several occasions we had two persons who came to our hotel to make exchange for us and we encountered the same thing. One Lady in our group exchanged US $50.00 in small bills and got less than 40 CD’s. It appeared that this was normal for most people that did exchange. The locals did what they wanted. But when we traveled to the market and we met a guy who gave us the same rate for large or small bills. After my one encounter with the US $20.00 bills, I would get people in our group to change my small bills to larger ones before I completed my exchange. I never expected to learn such monetary lessons while bringing my dream to reality!

DAILY SCHEDULES
We had a hectic schedule. We arrived at our rooms at the Women Retreat Center and where our hosts had us scheduled for that first afternoon. I decided to get a bath and relax because I was tired. Some of the others went to the clinic to teach and screen the villagers. After waiting and seeing no villagers, they came back to campus.

The next morning we heard that a few persons were there looking for us. The second day we did screening of blood pressures and weights, conducted an HIV presentation, and many folks wanted to see and speak to our doctors. One lady was diabetic with a sore on her foot. She had the sore wrapped with a soiled cloth and she was picking it with her dirty fingers. One of the nurses felt badly about the whole situation that she decided to get the patient some sterile gloves, ointment and sterile gauze and taught the patient how to care for and dress her wound. We hope that with this teaching that her foot was healed. We gave out condoms and toothbrushes at this clinic. We screened more than a hundred patients from 9 a.m. until 12 noon.

In the afternoon the group went on tour and I elected to go to the U.S. Embassy to see my co-workers. I had a blast traveling through the city of Accra and visiting with folks that I talked to regularly but had never met in person. Security at the Embassy was tight and I couldn’t take any pictures. In fact, I had to leave all electronics equipment at the front desk before going to the Health Unit with my escort. I was introduced to the staff, and then I emailed my boss and a few co-workers back in the U.S. We talked and laughed for a short time and before I knew it, it was almost an hour. I quickly said goodbye and was escorted back to the security area, where I collected my camera and cell phone. I then traveled to meet my transportation on the outside. In less than 15 minutes, they arrived and I rushed to get in the van. You see, the guards are on the outside moving the traffic along. Due to high security, folks can only linger for a few minutes at a time before the guards asked that you move your car.

We left for Kumasi early the next morning and it took us almost six hours to reach our destination. I was awake at 3 a.m. for the trip to make sure that I had everything packed and ready to go. On the way we stopped at a rest area to use the bathroom facilities. We had to pay for the toilet paper, so I paid and started to walk towards the bathroom. On the way towards the toilet a lady was sitting in a chair that told me that I needed to pay 20 pesos to use the facility. Since the lady who sold me the tissues didn’t have change and I left the dollar with her, I was not in the mood to pay any more money. It wasn’t an urgent issue for me at this time, so I returned to the bus and sat down as we waited for the others to return until we get to the hotel.

The “La Saab” hotel in Kumasi, had no elevator, so we had to carry our suitcases up the stairs. We teamed up with others and assisted them up those stairs. Only a few men were in the group and we couldn’t rely on them helping us all. We had the opportunity to meet with the coordinator of the trip, Pastor Boafa. He gave us an orientation of the place, the people, the customs in the area and how to avoid being ripped off and crimes in the area. The information was quite interesting and informative and it made sense. One of the instructions was not to buy from anyone outside the hotel because the price would be inflated. I took that into perspective but others did not. As long as I was told the price and it wasn’t reasonable, I kept walking. Others would try to bargain for a much lower price for the things that they wanted. I did not have the time or the patience for that, and I didn’t try to negotiate even when we were in town. On person paid $50.00 for a painting and the painter state that he would touch up the painting for her. She left Ghana and the painting was not delivered to her. We listened to all types of sad stories from vendors who wanted a sale. Some of the stories were so sad and unbelievable at times.

One day we went to town and tried to buy souvenirs. When we left town, we headed straight to the hotel. As we reached the hotel and got out of our bus, the vendors that we left in town approached us in front of our hotel. They had followed us all the way to our hotel trying to continue selling us things. That was a bad mistake; we were shocked with what they had done. As we got out of the bus, we all ignored them and went inside to our hotel rooms to prepare for the evening. Eventually without anymore sales, they got back in their van and left. We couldn’t believe that grown men acted that way. If they wanted to sell you something and you held it in your hand to look at the item, most times they refused to take the item back. After having that experience a few time, I would put it down and walk away, they would usually gets the message.

Our schedule was hectic, to say the least. We worked in the mornings at schools, hospitals and/or clinics, went back to the hotel at lunchtime and in the evening we screened people at the churches. Some of us would take time off to run errands and go to town. Sometimes we stayed home to rest, for we were tired.

Attending the schools during the day was so rewarding. When the children saw our cameras, they would surround us to be in the pictures. They would hold our hands, as if they had known us for a lifetime. Others wanted our emails and addresses but we avoided giving them out. We were told that they will be asking for all kind of things. I did give one girl my email address but I did not hear from her. I figured that she did not have a computer to write to me. I felt sorry for her and told her not to give my email to anyone else. I would have loved to keep in touch with her.

The children were excited to get pencils, books and anything we had. We had a few composition books that we gave to only some children. Most of the schools were large, with many students and they all wore uniforms. One school we went to had 900 secondary students and 800 primary students. We did blood pressure checks and AIDS teaching to the secondary school children and dental screening for the primary school. One child had a composition book that was written through and through. I personally looked through the book and the spaces that were left were so small that a three-digit number could not fit. I gave him a new book and he was so happy he could barely contain his excitement. Other students came asking for books and they had to prove to us that the book that they had was written from cover to cover. Before we left all the composition books were gone, totally finished.

At one of the churches during the night, I met an 18-year-old, high school student, She was bitter about her father leaving the family and although we talked, she said very little about him. Her mother was struggling for the children, working two jobs and sleeping on the floor, so that her children could get an education. The mother’s blood pressure was high and I explained to this young lady, different ways to help her mother with her exercise and diet. The young lady just wanted to cry because of what the family is going through. Another nurse, Grace gave her address and information to this young lady, so she could contact her.

One clinic experience stands out to me. We had limited supplies for children, but we had many, many children seeing the doctor that day. I was somewhat selfish because I kept the supplies in my room and took them when we went to the schools and clinics. The reason was that the analgesic supplies that I had were the only acetaminophen and ibuprofen available to treat children that we had on hand. I decided to walk with these supplies one day to a clinic and informed the doctor working with me what I had. Do you know that a six-year old boy, who looked as though he was only three-years old had a swollen elbow? The doctor, Dr. Yvonne Wilson, prescribed that medication for his pain. The parents were elated that we had the medication on hand and they were very grateful. We and they were blessed by the contribution of one nursing student, Zaphia. At that clinic we saw many people who needed our help but the children were in the majority.

(Click on photos to enlarge - story continues after this set of photos)

TOURS

Most of us will always remember two very important tours that we made: Our trip to the gold mine and the Slave Castle. The gold mine trip was very rewarding. We sat in the classroom and viewed the map of the gold underground and how it is mined. We then were given safety equipment to put on before going underground. These were for our own protection and they weighed us down. We observed students in the underground schools and we heard drilling but we all felt safe. Walking in the dark with only the lights on our heads, reminded us of the miners around the world, who sacrifice their lives daily.

Visiting the Slave Castle was the saddest and most solemn tour that I’ve ever made. The history of slavery is not easy for anyone, especially for people of color. As we heard the details of our fore fathers and the things that they suffered so many years ago, I could not help reflecting on the past, wondering how they made it through those dark, long years. We cannot go back. We must look ahead to the future and make it a better place for our children and their children.

CONTRIBUT0RS
So many people helped us with contributions for this trip. It was not easy and we did the best that we could. Our appreciation goes out to our families, co-workers-Tina, Ella, Kay, Emil, Karen and the Occupational Health Professionals for all their funds and support. We could not have seen the smiles from children and their families, if we did not have the overwhelming support from all of you. We may not remember all the names but your thoughtfulness and kind gestures will not be forgotten. Thank you again for your unselfish contribution to our Ghana trip and best wishes to you and your families!

Your sister, nurse, and friend,

Irisdeane Charles, RN