I have about 8 months left in my time working in the refugee camp. The previous two + years have been . . . have been. Let’s leave it there. It’s a mix; it always is here. The highest highs and the lowest lows. That’s what continues to draw me back – 10 years, on and off, I’ve been working in West Africa. And I love it. But, these past 2 ½ have been supremely draining, exhausting, frustrating, and rewarding. And the first three adjectives are the most definitive.






I have about 8 months left. And I’m making a change. I’ve made a change in how I approach things. I’m slowing it down. I had been running – constantly, day after day – maybe 4 – 5 (at least) 12 hour (at least) days, followed by another 5 or 6 hour day, followed by a seventh day also of a few hours of work. For these last few months left to me here I’m beginning a different approach – a slower approach. I don’t want to leave Africa forgetting – not feeling – what it is I love so much about Africa – the mix, the aliveness of it – the feelings that all these pictures and so many other sensations here evoke in me. The past 2 ½ years haven’t quite been like that – mostly it’s been those first three adjectives that have dominated my feelings and emotions – and drained my spirit and energy.

Anyway, things have been nice lately. I’ve slowed things down. I do the 40-minute walk to the school on the camp, rather than driving. I get a chance to walk, to think, to be alone sometimes and with people other times, to see people on the way, to smell the smells (some fabulous, others . . . uh . . . YIKES!!), to see the sites (vibrantly colored birds and sunsets), and to sweat the sweat (this is the tropics, after all).

It’s been good.





I’m hoping and praying my love of Africa will completely return and be here in full force upon my departure in 8 months. I’m hoping and praying my recently renewed daily positive outlook will remain with me and even be strengthened. I’m hoping and praying that my faith will continue its evolution, only now in the positive direction to which it’s recently shifted. I’m hoping and praying that when I see people coming my way I will no longer cringe (inwardly and sometimes even, so very ashamed to say, outwardly), but will have a genuinely pleased smile on my face to see them.










And I’m hoping and praying that when I leave Africa early next year, I’ll have a renewed and stronger love for all of it, rather than the cynical, pessimistic outlook that has threatened to overtake me the past couple of years.

There can be a lot of crap – but life can be a lot of good when I allow myself to see it.

This past Monday, 17 July, Adjuah was complaining of some stomach pains. On Tuesday, she was in labor. I was in Accra taking care of some other business, so one of the teachers was handling the situation. The clinic on the camp recommended taking Adjuah to the government hospital in Winneba – about a 20 – 30 minute drive from the camp. So the teacher went with Adjuah to her family’s ‘village’ in the bush to get someone from the family to join and stay with Adjuah. However, Adjuah’s mom said that she would help Adjuah deliver the baby – she’s a traditional midwife and she didn’t want Adjuah to go to the hospital. There was nothing we could do. We all worried; we prayed; we were in phone contact with each other and with someone in Adjuah’s family who had a phone. About 3:50 in the morning on Wednesday, Adjuah gave birth to a little girl. On Wednesday afternoon, some of the students and teachers from the school and I went to visit her. We drove around a bit in the bush – the area is tucked away and there are dirt tracks going everywhere. Finally, we got to the place. She and her baby are doing well; the mother was somewhere in the bush doing farming or something when we arrived, but word was sent to her that we’d come and she returned to talk with us. The woman’s amazing and did a fine job. But at the same time, looking around the small grouping of two huts and a cooking area (I refer to it as a bush village, but it’s really not even that), we all found ourselves wondering about the quality of the water Adjuah would be drinking, about the nutrition of the food she’d be receiving, etc. It’s a hard life they’re living there, but they’re managing, and they’re a family unit taking care of each other – each with a role to play in their survival.

While wondering about Adjuah and her baby’s health, I also found myself wishing I could stay there, go to their fields with them, gather fire wood with them, make charcoal with them (see pics below), go fishing with them, watch Adjuah’s Mom in her traditional caring of people – everything I witnessed taking place while there on Wednesday. In the complexity of the survival taking place in the ‘village’, there’s a simplicity that I would love to stay and experience again. It reminded me of the life I had lived for a couple of years in Peace Corps, very basic, very simple, hard, yet so fulfilling.












Other birthing news: The Puppy Birthing (and Rehab) Center is once again being put to good use. There’s a little wooden shack-like thing attached to my house, with a little doggy-door-opening. Not long after I arrived here 2 ½ years ago, a dog I inherited chose to give birth to 5 puppies inside there. Since then, I’ve lost track of how many puppy births have taken place. Recently, a slight crisis took place – one dog gave birth to 6 inside The Puppy Birthing (and Rehab) Center, and a week later a former 2-time occupant – once as a new-born and again as a rehab patient – gave birth! Sad to say, there’s not room for more than one nursing mother at a time – so ‘You’ found another place – inside a wooden structure in front of her owner’s home – to give birth to her 7 puppies.

‘You’ was from the second batch of puppies to which the dog I inherited gave birth. After leaving The Birthing Center to go to her new owner, she developed an eating disorder – her new owner wasn’t feeding her. After a heavy rainstorm, I heard some puppy crying out back, and went out to find ‘You’ in The Birthing Center, all dripping wet and shivering skin and bones. I was able to dry her off and take her through a week of rehab care (in which I began talking to her as ‘You’), expecting to find her dead every morning. Instead, I witnessed ‘You’ go from just lying there in a heap of puppy skin and bones, to crawling with her two front legs, to standing in a swaying style, to hobbling, to walking away, and now – to giving birth. I wanted to sack the other mother, ‘You’ belonged in The Puppy Birthing (and Rehab) Center, but realized that ‘You’ had found her own solution and all was fine.

Liberians are being encouraged to repatriate - meaning go back to Liberia. Check out this story for a little more on the feelings and obstacles all around regarding this process.

Over a month ago our physical education teacher, Morris, had been hospitalized for something called pleural effusion. He's still in the hospital - I get to visit 2 - 3 times a week. I've been bringing him some flavored milk, a couple of apples here and there, etc. As usual, he's not really told what's going on - the nurse comes in the morning and sets Morris' chart down and goes out. Before the doctor comes in, Morris grabs the chart and quickly tries to get what he can out of it - which usually isn't so much, but that's how he found out about the pleural effusion. Reading this article about pleural effusion makes me a little worried, but it's so hard to get answers here.

He's at the same hospital, Korle Bu, as Dixon, who was to have his surgery 27 April - if you've been reading this you know all the delays. Finally, two weeks ago all was set, once again. But the two surgeries before his took too long, so his was postponed another week. Then last week, the day of his surgery, I got an urgent call from him - he needed to have 5 pints of blood donated prior to having his surgery. AI YAI YAI - will the frustrating delays not end for this poor guy? People pay a lot for blood at the hospitals here, around $40 per pint. So, if you can find donors - good. However, donating seems to be a business for some people, and if you don't have family, as in Dixon's case, then . . . you might as well buy from the hospital. But, without going into details, it worked out that we got the blood donated (and it turned out that only 2 pints were required). Wednesday, 12 July, we are hoping and praying that he will finally have his surgery.

Some of you may remember my friend, Jeannie - another SMA lay missionary here. She had a bad fall and ended up - after several weeks of misdiagnoses and efforts here - being sent back to the US for medical care. She also will have surgery this week.

So please keep these three people I care about in your thoughts and prayers this week and in the future for their recoveries.

Surgery is expensive here - and even more expensive (double the cost) if you are a non-Ghanaian. So, when I heard from a French SMA lay missionary, Elise, who's a physical therapist working in the clinic on the camp, about the Mercy Ships, it was an exciting time for us. The possibilities . . . the saved money . . . oh my goodness. Check out the link - it's really a good thing that goes on, and here's a link with an update on the Mercy Ships in Ghana. Click on the flags of the first link, and then all the other links - interesting reading.

The bad news is that, after the initial screening a couple of weeks ago, Elise got a call that the Mercy Ship is booked up until the end of its time here - so no more screenings at this time - or possibly ever. It's too bad - I was building up a list of people with Glaucoma and other eye problems as well as people with other conditions requiring surgery and who have no other resources to help receive this surgery. And now - we could be back to trying to find the money by begging, borrowing, and doing whatever's necessary.

On a different note, the World Cup is football to the world outside of the US - in the US we call it soccer. But the World Cup is a huge obsession for everywhere else in the world - huge. Ghana made it to the world cup, and they beat the US. It's been exciting here - people dancing in the streets. Read about the World Cup here. Ghana's success brought Africa together in support of Africa. (The financial support led to other problems and criticisms, though - part of the cause of all the strikes at Korle Bu - all the money being poured into football, but what about health and the healthcare providers??)

Ghana has it's own version of American Idol I recently found out. Johanna, a Dutch lay missionary who works with me on the camp, is involved with a Liberian acapella group - Ebony Heritage. And they were the opening act for the final show of Mentor, the Ghanaian Idol. It aired a couple of Saturdays ago, 1 July. But there was also a World Cup game that slightly overlapped the show. I went to a neighbor's home to watch for Johanna's group, but Mentor started late so we switched to watch the end of the World Cup game - France vs. Brazil. We turned back just as Mentor was starting - and 5 v e r y l o n g hours later the winner was going to be announced, and we still hadn't seen Ebony Heritage. Only it was a trick - as though the program hadn't delayed long enough we had yet another commercial break showing the same commercials for the 10 millionth time and then came back to the show to be told that all the 12 contestants would be given prizes first and they would call people from the audience to do it. I was out of there! - it was 1 in the morning and it had gone on long enough. But click on Mentor and read about it. I found out the next day that one of the worst two of that night, Prince (when I heard Prince was to perform I thought, wow, this might turn out to be an interesting show - a Prince concert - I'd even been to a Black Eyed Peas concert three years ago in First Ave, Prince's place in Minneapolis - truth is, I didn't really think it would be the Minneapolis Prince performing - but I did hope it would be) was the winner, and the one who performed the best that night, Maya, came in fourth. So happy I didn't stay for the next 1/2 hour+ for them to get me to that disappointment.

Anyway - there's so much more - but this was to be short - so I promise some shorter, single topic ones with pictures in the near future.