Laughter in the Darkness

I have become very use to the darkness of Ghana since I have been here. Traveling in the dark, walking along side my fellow Ghanaian in a pitch black sky. No city lights, no moonlight, no distraction of illumination from a porch light from a local home. In Ghana, night is as dark as black can come. Last night, after my visit and teaching with the local town of Ho V/R, I had an experience of joy that I have become familiar with in all my trips to Ghana. My experience was being surrounded with the sounds of laughter of young girls and women. Just as the night had become late, and I was certain that we were all exhausted as we departed, two little girls reminded us all of what is the most important. It was the carefree simplicity of being a child. They reminded me of what it was like to be a girl and look at one another and giggle at absolutely nothing and being in the joy of your best of friends. You see, laughter is my favorite sound of all. It can create a new friendship or renew the day of an old friend. Laughter can overshadow everything and anything. You can be in laughter with another person and forget that there is a whole world around you that is happening. It can replace time as you get in the moment of hearing the laughter of another person. You can simply be in the joy of laughter with another person and create a carefree moment that will be in a capsule of the moment. Leaving last night, the Freedom Hotel van came to pick me up. As I saw those two little girls and all the women surrounding them, we offered them a ride to their road. In the van, all the seats were taken out of the back, so on the floor we went. I was in a van full of Ghanaian women, two girls, and I in the darkness of Ghana. Those two little girls would not stop giggling, and soon before I knew it we were all laughing. In the darkness of the night, I couldn't see their faces and they couldn't see mine, but we could hear each other in our sounds of laughter. I could hear their giggles and feel their joy. It was the best sound the world could offer me at the moment. Between English and Ewe, it was a mutual laughter of understanding. It wasn't laughter that was in the awkwardness of being crammed in the back of a van without seats with two cultures of Volta women and one American woman. It was a unity of laughter that expressed happiness of just being girls together sharing a ride, just being who we are. As much as I love laughter, they did as well. We shared that in common. Leaving them at the end of their road to take their walk home, they were still laughing, but waving good-bye. They were all laughing, jumping, and waving farewell. As we pulled away in the thick darkness, I could still hear their laughter.

A Killer In the Night

Malaria. It is the number one killer of children under 5 years of age in Ghana. On Thursday evening, Sam and I received a call to visit an Accra hospital because his neighbor's child was admitted to the hospital and in danger of losing her battle to malaria. We arrived at the Accra Legion Hospital Children's Ward to find 3 year old Matilda weak and lifeless. As we arrived, her father was also walking into the Children's Ward with a small cooler. I found this different, and assumed he had gone to get food for their family to bring to the hospital. (In Ghana, it is custom to bring your own bedding and food.) In my surprise, it was a cooler with a blood packet for Matilda's blood transfusion that she was in desperate need for. The shocking part of this mystery cooler with the life saving blood, was that it was her father that was the carrier of the cooler container. In Accra, if your child needs blood due to malaria, the child needs in right there, right now. It is the family that has the responsibility to go and search for the blood type of their child that is needed for the transfusion. The hospital will not and does not go and get the blood. They do not go and send a healthcare worker in search of it. They do not make any phone calls to track down the correct blood type. Matilda's father had walked into the Accra Legion hospital at 8pm Thursday evening with a cooler contianing the blood that would transfuse the malaria from her body. Here is the shocker: He walked and drove around Accra for 7 hours going from hopsital to hospital trying to find the right blood type. There is no courtesy call ahead to the next hospital, and the hospital will not allow him to call ahead to find out if there is blood available at a hospital. Its first come first serve, and at any time there could be blood ready. Imagine: You are a parent, you are in danger of losing your child to malaria, and you are sent on a wild goose chase to find the right blood type for her transfusion. I honestly can't imagine the desperation, the fear, and the panic. Here is the next thing: money. It cost a lot of money to treat malaria once you get to the hospital stay, and the transfusion. Not only did he have to go search for the blood, he needed the money to pay for the blood out of his pocket, and the money to pay for the transfusion. The money for blood, he had. The money for the transfusion, he did not. If Sam did not arrive with the money to give this man to pay for the transfusion, this little girl would be in danger. The cost for this little girl in the American dollar was $250. Most Ghanaian families do not have this kind of money. She received her transfusion. Before we left, I held her lifeless little body, her silence spoke volumes of words. According to Sam, a bednet for Malaria prevention cost $9.50 (US dollar). Most Ghanaian families cannot afford this. The Ghana Goverment has run out of subsidy since February 2009 to provide bednets to families. It is hopeful that the subsidy will return in September. This is the desperation of a family in Accra, where there is some chance of healthcare, even if you have to go for the chase for blood and money. Take a story like this to the Voltra Region and imagine how alarming the desperation would be. There would be absolutely no money for a bednet, little chance if any to go to a hospital for medical care. Essentially a child or a family member would die from this disease. This is a preventable and treatable disease.
From this story of Matlida, I am happy to report that as I ate my breakfast this morning, she walked in the door of the Dunya residents. She returned home from the hospital last night. She is going to make it from this round of malaria. She is still very week, but there is color back in her body

Evenings in Akatsi

Posting coming soon

Akwaaba!!!

I have arrived in Accra, Ghana. I'm on my fourth day and it has been a transition to adjust to the culture this time and walk the unknown territory of Accra. I will leave for Akatsi tomorrow and work 3 days with Emmanuel Lokoh before returning to Accra for a day of rest. I will then depart to Ho in the Volta Region where I will spend the week there working. The details have yet to be written, but I am looking forward to the revelation of my journey. I'm looking forward to being back in the Volta, which is where this adventure began 3 years ago. It will be like going home to visit old friends and seek out new faces for an opporunity to create new stories with them.