Hello, hello! For the first time in a while I actually have some things to tell everyone about. When last I posted I said that April and I were headed off to the HIV/AIDS clinic with Dr. Williams. The clinic is at the regional hospital in Bolga and doctor visits occur on Fridays--the reason that Dr. Williams goes then. While Ghana doesn't have a terrible HIV/AIDS problem, the numbers are increasing and the health care system is working as quickly as possible to address the issue. After arriving at the clinic April and I sat with 2 different health workers who were taking basic data on the patients. The nurse I was sitting with was taking vitals (blood pressure, temperature, weight) and I got to help with the weighing. At one point the thermometer slipped from under a woman's arm and fell to the ground where it broke. There was no replacement and for the rest of the day, there was no temperature put on any of the charts--it really made me realize what limited resources the health system here has. After weighing people for a while, I got to go sit in the consultation room with Dr. Williams (April sat with another worker also in the consultation room). Perhaps the most interesting thing about sitting there was watching as Dr. Williams prescribed the drugs. Because of limited funding and resources, the drugs that they have to give at the clinic are first line HIV/AIDS drugs. This means that it is very, very important for patients to stick to their drug regimens so that resistance to the drugs does not develop. When patients didn't seem as though they would comply or hadn't attended adherence counseling (something they must do in order to get drugs) Dr. Williams was almost harsh with them. At first I was taken aback but then I realized that if they are not very upfront with the patients, they will have problems with adherence and if resistance develops there will be no drugs to offer patients. Despite having a sore bum after sitting on benches all day I am really glad I went but it was tough to sit in a room full of people who are walking around with a disease that is a death sentence, especially when those people where pediatric cases.
Friday night was a lazy night which was nice after a tiring day. Saturday April and I woke up to Ashley yelling through our window telling us to get up and open the door. We did as she said and found out she had received a phone call saying that 2 of our friends from Ouaga were on their way to visit for the weekend which we weren't expecting at all. They made it here despite some visa troubles and we had a fun weekend--even if we weren't prepared for visitors it was still really nice to have them. After they left on Sunday, we were invited to the home of one of the workers here, Armstrong. His wife, Mercy, had made us red-red (the plantains with bean stew) because Armstrong knew that is one of our favorite things to eat. Not only was the food delicious but we got to play with Michael, Mercy and Armstrong's 7 month old son who is adorable. It never ceases to amaze me how kind and welcoming the people are here.
This week has been on the busier side. Dr. Williams is out of town for the week so April and I have been meeting with CD, another one of our supervisors, to get our projects set up. It was the first time we had met with him one-on-one and prior to the meeting he scared us a little (don't know why). But after talking to him we realized that he is not scary and is incredibly helpful. My project has changed many times since last I posted and until I have a final one set up I won't tell you what it is. We did, however, get to meet our field workers this morning who will be collecting our data. Both April and I are working in the realm of maternal and child health so we have female workers who speak both of the local languages. As an added bonus they are former fieldworkers from the Centre so they have interviewing/surveying experience which is great. I think we will be training them either tomorrow or Friday depending on how our meeting with CD goes today.
Well that is all to report for now--it's April's 21st birthday today so we are going to go out to dinner tonight which should be fun. Other than that we have no big plans for the weekend--we may go to the pottery making place about 20 km from here in Sirigu or we may go to Tongo and see the rock formations/go hiking there. But we shall see since our weekends don't always go as we plan. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the fall weather (while we continue to roast here!)!
