In the Village

Today was a break from the hospital for a visit to a few of the outlying villages with the public health group. They have an impressive community health system set up in this area. A team of public health workers visits each village once a month to weigh babies, give immunizations, and do basic preventative health education. They also keep records of births, deaths (including neonatal and maternal), and incidence of diseases like meningitis, malaria, and diarrhea. Each village also has a designated health worker who has a decent supply of chloroquine for malaria. If anyone has a fever or any signs of malaria, they have quick access to medicine that will treat the most common cause of fever in these villages. There is a problem with resistance to chloroquine in Ghana, but as the physician who was guiding us explained, "If you have a medicine that will treat only 80% of the people with that disease, that is much better than not having medicine, and treating no one."

As many parents in Utah do not want their children vaccinated, I asked one of the workers what the vaccination rate in his area was. "100%" was his reply. I don't know if I believe this, but when I pressed him about it he insisted, "no exceptions." He explained that in Ghana, the government can and occasionally will intervene if a parent refuses to get a child vaccinated. Dr Brown, our physician guide, said the rate probably isn't 100% but that parent refusal is a rare problem.

One of the side benefits was interacting with everyone at the villages. We had to follow protocal and meet the chief and elders of each village, and ask permission to leave. Ghana seems to be the only place that is more friendly than Utah (and less creepy about the friendliness). In particular, the school-aged children were excited. In the first village we visited, a small group of kids were gathered near the road. When they spotted our van, they all yelled "OBRUNI!!!" in and started running, en masse, behind the van. They loved seeing pictures of themselves in the viewfinders of the digital cameras. And they always followed behind the van as we left, waving franticly and saying "goodbye" in a slightly musical way that reminded me of the "Goodnight" song in "The Sound of Music."

The roads themselves were a little, well...rustic. We were in a 4WD vehicle from the WHO (much to the excitement of the public health students), and the ride was bone-shaking. But, we passed several taxis overloaded with goods going into town for the market. Most of these taxis are Opel hatchbacks. Many had one or more flat tires, and two were so overloaded that there was a person sitting to the left of the driver. I'm not sure how these cars made it, but somehow they did.

Recent Local Food: EBA, a stew with fish and okra. Served with banku, and apparently to be eaten by hand as it came with the required bowl of water for washing hands. I used a spoon for the broth, though.

Overly religious sign: "The Power and Eternal Life in the Blood of Jesus Christ Church Welcomes You to Kumasi."