Doing Work

To our great pleasure, water was restored late Sunday, ushering in a new week of smelling clean and feeling good. We met with Dr. Williams Monday morning, and found that all of the promises of things happening “Tomorrow, tomorrow!” were actually going to happen. Firstly, we have begun to shadow the different projects going on at the center. Right now, I’m working with a research study called Malaria in Pregnancy. In Ghana, malaria treatment is a regular part of all antenatal care, but this universal approach has the capability to encourage drug resistance in the malaria parasite. MIP is investigating scaling back malaria treatment by only treating women with diagnosed cases. Tuesday, I got to follow some field workers out to a rural health center a couple towns over. I mean REALLY rural, it made Navrongo look absolutely bumping in comparison. Also, the provider-patient dynamics were fascinating: everything at the health center moved so slow, but everyone joked around together and didn’t seem in a hurry. One of the nurses simultaneously breastfed her own infant while interviewing a patient. Weird, to be sure, but interesting. She’d could lose her job if she worked in the US.

We also were formally introduced to the staff of the War Memorial Hospital, which is next door to the NHRC, and began working there today. We’re volunteering in the Maternity ward, which covers everything from contraceptive counseling to antenatal care to delivery to postnatal care. AND comprehensive abortion care. It’s right there on their sign. Forget losing a job, the place would be burned down in the US. When we reached the hospital today, the head nurse (Gertrude) pointed us to the delivery ward and told us to go watch a delivery. And I know that’s not everyone’s thing, but that’s kind of exactly why I wanted to come here, because I wanted the clinical exposure like that. The midwives and nurses are all really welcoming, and happy to bring us into the patients’ rooms. The birth we saw was fairly complicated, and the doctor was called in after awhile. He was really fantastic, clearly used to dealing with students because he explained what was going on physiologically and what his options were medically. I’ll spare you the grosser details, but it was a really great experience, and I’m pleased to note that I’m not squeamish whatsoever.

We’ve also begun our research, navigating around the questionable internet connection,  and have started planning weekend trips in earnest. NHRC is like a ghost town on weekends. A ghost town with no running water and no one to fix it. SO we’re heading out to Paga for a day trip, which should prove exciting. Paga is the place with the crocodiles, so it’s bound to be eventful!