Team Updates

Saturday morning the medical team arrived bright an early to a remote village called Baniantwe. It was so beautiful and overlooked a huge ravine. The man who had been coordinating the Ghanaian volunteers all week was sitting in the chief’s chair in his traditional crown, robe, and jewelry. We had no idea that Charles was a chief. What an example that this man, in this position of power, would choose to serve along side us all week.

After the speeches concluded, the village presented us with our largest gift ever. One by one the children brought huge tubers of yams until there was a mountain of yams before us. Then a perfect white ram was ushered in to the group. Dr. Mensah surprised Dr. Sarah by asking her to thank the village on our behalf. She did an eloquent job expressing a mountain of gratitude for this mountain of yams. One of the elders responded by saying that even the opportunity for their children to see us and meet us will impact their lives forever. How could we not give our best and do our all for this obscure, tucked-away village who saw fit to present us with these precious gifts?

Every station functioned so well and before we knew it, all 425 of the villagers who arrived for care had been seen. The same number of healthy people received deworming, tylenol and vitamins. While the team helped pharmacy clear out the last of the scripts, Dr. Joe gave the village kids a new soccer ball. Before we knew it most of the men on our team joined the youth of the village in a soccer match. We women would have joined in but we were too busy working!  I’m just kidding….those boys will remember that soccer game long after they will remember the medical clinic!

My favorite moment of the day was when I looked out my classroom window to see how our dental station was doing only to see a herd of cattle grazing in and around Kyle, Amanda and the patients. Not even a herd of cattle can stop that dental team from getting the job done.

I came down with a serious case of the giggles mid-afternoon when, every time I tried to speak to my patient, a rooster sitting right outside my window, would cock-a-doodle-do. I think my translator thought the heat was getting to me but it was just so funny.

The most touching moment of my day was when I turned to see Dr. Rob carrying our exam bed out from behind the screen to the front of our classroom. I couldn’t figure out was he was doing only to realize that his patient was paralyzed from the waist down. Rather than the villagers struggling to carry her to the exam bed, he brought the exam bed to her. I’ll call that picture I took “Compassion”.

On the trip home the vehicles took an unexpected detour to the most beautiful waterfall I had ever seen. What a way to end what was most of the team’s favorite day so far. By the way, no one was home sick with DWD (down with diarrhea).

Back at the compound, Operation Hernia had a productive day despite the generator acting up and despite losing their leader, Dr. Magdi, who came with us to the village. The team is up to 180 procedures. If they keep going at this pace, we may need to call the hernia patients from our first village of Nyamboi to the OR.

We are ready for a rest. Sunday after church we leave for Mole Game Park. David warned us that these are not tame animals and that we need to listen to the man carrying the gun who accompanies us. After dinner I noticed the nurses adding some extra stock to our trauma bag and Dr. Carol gathering extra antibiotics while pondering which one would be best for a baboon bite. Don’t worry — we’ll be just fine.  If not, there is no shortage of health care personnel to deal with just about anything!

We will try and get a blog to you from the game park if possible.

With love to all our friends and family back home on behalf of the entire Canadian and UK team!

Jenn

Our 6:00am breakfast call had everyone up early this morning for the long trip to Yaara. The short cut was washed out again this year so we set out on the longer “good road” (inside joke).

Along the way we made a courtesy stop in Old Longoro to visit and greet young Chief Solomon from Carpenter. He was in the village convalescing from injuries suffered in a car accident a few weeks earlier. While in the small village Dr. David (Mensah) explained that this village was very special for the Mo tribe. It is the traditional burial site for the tribe’s chiefs and elders. In fact, the houses in the villages were the location where generations of chiefs from each division of the tribe were buried. Had we not stopped here could never have guessed the significance of this very unassuming village close to our destination.

As we approached Yaara we could hear the drums beating in the area where the Chief Joseph and his elders had assembled. Before proceeding to the formal greeting, a number of our team, led by Dr. David himself, joined some of the village women in a bit of traditional dancing. The gifts of food presented by the town to the team were truly overwhelming.

All the clinics were very busy as expected but what stood out to several doctors and nurses, including some first-timers, was that the general state of health in the village was noticeably better than what had earlier been seen In Nyamboi. Dr David explained that this was most probably due to a number of initiatives in agriculture and nutrition that had been undertaken by NEA over the passed several years. Dr Sean, one of our pediatricians had even noted that the children’s skin felt healthier. We did not stay overnight in Yaara this year because of several logistical issues so we had to leave for Carpenter early enough to make most of the trip back in daylight.

During dinner this evening we were able to catch up with the day’s hernia team activities. Dr Magdi was glowing in his comments about how smoothly that their day had gone, and how on this trip with three operating rooms available they were smashing Operation hernia productivity records. He was especially complementary of how well the team, including the Ghanaian translators and assistants were working together. The difficult medical issues that they had encountered had also been ably addressed by the medical clinic group. Nurse Teresa’s Canadian blog fans should be aware that she has joined the Hernia Team for this year’s trip.

Well, we’re off to another early start in the morning so it’s time to sign off for today

Jacques

Our time in the village of Nyamboi came to an emotional close. The day was full of the breadth of medicine. One moment I was watching the pediatrician team of Dr. Sean and Dr. Julie carrying very sick infants down to our nursing station with pneumonia, malaria, diarrhea; then I’d see Dr. Rob cheerfully heading towards his patient with the fractured arm carrying a splint made of tongue depressors. A woman was laboring most of the day in the exam bed next to Dr. Joe while he kept on seeing patients. Dr. Gillian spent some time doing joint injections on the painful arthritic knee of some of the village elders. I passed by Dr. Sarah speaking with David about a follow-up approach for a young may with severe epilepsy while much laughter could be heard from Dr. Kirsten who got to work with our enthusiasic village midwife Ayi. I cried when Dr. Carol took off her earings at the end of the day to give to Letisha the clinic nurse.

All of this was supported by our fantastic nursing team who screened the crowd, cared for the sickest of the sick, poured tylenol into the febrile kids, and did all our diagnostic testing. Robin and Mary spent the day controlling and moving and interacting with the crowd of close to 1000 people while encouraging us all along.

The eye team had a record-breaking day seeing exactly 100 patients. It is incredible to consider the transfer of skills that is happening by Dr. Martin and his team to the 3 local optometrists.

The dental team was busy all day under the tree and I didn’t want to count how many teeth were in their big jar.

At the end of it all, this combined team saw over 500 patients and a few hundred went through our vitamin and tylenol lines. Oh and I forgot that our surgeons, Dr. Morag and Dr. Paul, screened a whole list of hernia patients for next year’s mission.

Back at the compound 88 procedures have been completed. The team is way ahead of schedule and are graciously fitting in the emergencies from the village. Dr. Rob had to operate without cautery today but did just fine. Flexibility and adaptability are so important around here!!! Our little boy who had the emergency surgery is doing very well and will probably go home tomorrow. What a miracle. One other critical child will stay with us another day.

As the sun was starting to set in Nyamboi the chief and elders presented the team with tubers of yam and a feisty ram. He spoke very deeply to us about this miracle of God that we are to them. Never in their dreams did they envision health care being brought to their remote village. He explained that he had no words to thank us, nor did they have any material gifts to gift us. He especially thanked our newcomers. So as a token of their love and gratitude they carved us each a spoon out of the wood from one of their local trees. Their village has been using these “spoons” long before our great-great-grandfathers came to the land and before the word spoon even existed. Each team member will have many more stories about what this wooden spoon represents to them.

Please pray for health and strength for this team who are working so hard. So far we have all been well and no one has been sick.

Today is our most difficult journey to the remote village of Yaara but we are ready! Please pray for safe travels as the final segment of the road is ….well….challenging might be putting it lightly!

Talk to you soon!

Jennifer

Today was a truly wonderful day. Our morning began with a special time under the gazebo with the entire team and all the NEA staff. Chef Abraham gave an inspirational devotional on Romans 12:5-8 which speaks about how we, who are many, form one body as we each use our gifts to serve. He challenged each of us to play our role well on this team of over 100 members so that together we can be vessels of healing to so many. He concluded with the quote, “What you are is a gift to you; what you do is a gift to God and to mankind.”

The Canadian team presented three plaques to be hung on each of the operating room doors in honor of David Mensah, Brenda Mensah and Moses Mensah. Moses was David’s father who died at a young age of a hernia in the village right next to the compound. It was a moving moment to realize how easily his life could have been saved by a procedure that hundreds will receive in these two weeks.

After breakfast Brenda surprised us with a visit from a local tailor. Can’t wait to show you our outfits!

We also had a surprise visit from 2 optometrists and an optician from Sunyani who heard about our eye program and decided to donate 2 weeks of their time to help Doc Martin, Marion, Jacques and Brigitte in the nut house. (They run the eye clinic in the peanut storage building on the compound!). Amazing.

New team members went on a tour of the compound while the veterans set up for the staff clinic which began after lunch.

By the time we all congregated hot and sweaty for dinner around 7 pm, the team had completed 22 hernia procedures and just under 200 NEA staff and families were seen by the medical, surgical and dental team. Overall, we noticed a big improvement in the health of the staff on the compound this year.

We are all too tired for a costume party tonight. Off to sleep to prepare for a very busy 2 days in Nyamboi village.

Jennifer

Dear friends and family,

It is with a very thankful heart that I report that every team member and every piece of baggage except for one (piece of baggage, that is) is safe and sound on Carpenter soil.

After an 11-hour ride, the team climbed off of our special bus and was warmly greeted with the words “Welcome Home” by David, Brenda and many of the NEA staff. For two-thirds of our team who are returning to Ghana for a second, third, fourth or fifth mission, these words are ring true. This place has become a second home to so many of us and we were so excited to greet our dear friends, brothers and sisters once again. It was so special to me to then watch as the 43 of us formed a huge circle and joined hands with a large group of our Ghanaian friends. Pastor Yebohah thanked God for bringing us safely to this place for this special time of service and committed these next two weeks into God’s hands. It was a special reunion.

I had to dry my tears quickly as we needed to prepare for tomorrow’s patients. After setting up the clinic and preparing the operating rooms, the team is now settled for the night. Most of us are in a wonderful new dorm together! I hope they all sleep well … there is much work ahead of us!

Thanks to you all for following our journey. We are grateful for your prayers and your support.

Jennifer

Jennifer Wilson, a physician in Uxbridge, Ontario, launched GRID’s annual health team several years ago and continues to lead it. She and her husband Graham are committed to alleviating suffering among Ghana’s poor. Jennifer is a board member of GRID.