Parting Thoughts

A few more observations before leaving Ghanaian soil once again -
Traditional Ghanaian attire easily mixes in with western fashion, but it is the fit of the Ghanaian woman's dress that stands out for me. She seems to be literally "poured" into her outfit, accentuating every curve. I also enjoy seeing a particular group of people wearing the exact same fabric in varied styles of design: long, short, scoop neck, v-neck, cap sleeves, puffed sleeves, tailored suit, floor-length dress.
While the official language of the country is English, the ability of many Ghanaians to fluently speak several foreign languages is truly impressive. Granted, the less educated speak mainly in their own tribal tongue although even they can understand and make themselves understood in a neighboring tribal language as well. The more educated Ghanaians, however, often travel and supplement their studies outside of the country. This is certainly true of many Ghanaian physicians, some of whom begin university and subsequent medical training abroad when they have just completed secondary school. Several years are spent in Russia, Germany, Cuba or China, first learning the foreign language in an intensified, immersion program. Others complete their basic and specialized studies at one of the four medical schools in Ghana, then often participate in a post-graduate curriculum elsewhere. One resulting frustration is after being exposed to state-of-the-art instruments and technology abroad, one returns to the medical facilities in Ghana where this sorely needed equipment is generally not available.
Patience is a required virtue in this country; change and progress can take a long time. By the same token, Ghanaian attributes are in abundance. Her people are peace-loving, friendly and generous - always ready to say "Welcome!" "Akwaaba" here in Accra or as we say in the North, "Amaraba!"

Activity in Accra

Jim teaches at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale, so we decided to reserve a room at the new UDS Guest House in Accra for the week. We are here for the annual meeting of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons into which Jim is to be formally inducted (complete with distinguished cap & gown!) as a Fellow at tomorrow's ceremony. While he attends the conference lectures during the day, I enjoy a bit of relaxation at the guest house or peruse the various shops and restaurants on Oxford St. in the Osu section of the city.
This past Sunday afternoon, we were very fortunate to find a performance scheduled at the National Theater, an impressive building constructed by the Republic of China. It was a play called "The Day Dad Came" and was truly a special experience. Basically, the play was a comedy interspersed with occasional songs, that explored the issue of abusive love relationships in a modern setting. It was long (seven or eight acts)! It was sometimes corny. It had one scene in which an old woman turned into an angel surrounded by a cloud of mist. It had religious references, sexual references, and it was most definitely "Ghanaian" in its cultural context. The audience loved it, cheering loudly and laughing throughout the close to three-hour show. Popcorn and free drinks were distributed as we entered. The theater was packed - babies and all - and the periodic crying out of the little ones was nonchalantly tolerated by both actors and spectators. The taking of bows was an absolute delight with each actor performing his or her own style of dance gyration to the music being played along with the shouts and waving of arms in the audience. Finally, the theater manager invited everyone to proceed to the lobby in order to chat with the cast members and have photos taken with them. Unbelievably, the show we saw began at 4 PM with another performance scheduled for 8!

Leaving Tamale, Flying South to Accra

Every stay in Tamale brings unique experiences and this time was no exception. Met interesting, new friends and discovered a couple of tasty restaurants. Of course, there is always something to learn - such as ordering one's food well in advance to cut down the fairly standard two to three hour wait at places like "Mariam," "Samnandzo," or "Luxury." And after less than impressive desserts created by yours truly in the microwave, success was finally achieved by making a delicious pineapple upside-down cake in a covered skillet on the stove!
As we leave the Northern Region via Antrak Airline to spend a week in Accra, I will not miss walking through the dusty fog of the Harmattan wind (and trying to wipe it clean from our furniture and floors), or squeezing into a crowded taxi to town weaving in and out of near-misses with other vehicles, bike riders and pedestrians. Certain images, however, cause me to smile - seeing Jim carefully carrying a black plastic bag containing thirty loose eggs which he picked up in the market after work, and a young girl balancing an actual pyramid of loose eggs perched on a large, round tray atop her head.

Dedication Personified

It is difficult for me to imagine the trauma and number of fatalities seen by Jim and other members of the hospital staff after an accident such as Saturday's horrific double bus crash. Yet, amid the frustrations of an ill-equipped hospital and the lack of efficient systems for handling this type of crisis, many lives were still saved.
The other night, we went to a nearby restaurant with a young American family (originally from Houston, Texas), who live about three hours north of us. They drove down to Tamale so their children, ages 10, 4 and 2, could attend a special week of group education which was set up for families in similar situations throughout the northern region of Ghana. For the most part, the children are home-schooled by their mom who also happens to be a certified teacher in Texas. The dad is an OB/GYN plus pediatrician doing full-time volunteer work in the Baptist hospital in Nalerigu since 2008.

No rest for the weary - for Jim

It's late Saturday afternoon when I thought Jim and I would be enjoying a bit of relaxation combined with stopping in at a "naming of the baby" celebration to which we were invited by one of Jim's colleagues from the hospital. The Muslim naming of a new baby is a joyous occasion which traditionally begins at dawn, consists of the local imam coming to give his blessing and continues throughout the day with food and socialization.
Instead, Jim phoned a while ago from the hospital where he has been since early this morning, primarily having gone in to check on a small child who had been admitted yesterday. However, an all too common scene of chaos took place there soon after his arrival, resulting from a head-on collision between two buses a short distance north of Tamale. Several persons were killed and many others injured. It is yet another example of the frequency of traffic accidents in Ghana. Contributing factors include fatigue of drivers on the long trips between cities, combined with poorly maintained vehicles and roads.

Thanksgiving in Tamale

My microwave-made cocoa cake is barely one-half inch high, but definitely edible with a scoop of chocolate ice cream on top. Presentation is improved by cutting it into more appealing brownie-size portions.
It's Thanksgiving Day at home in the US so the above dessert will have to substitute for my sister-in-law's signature pumpkin and pecan pies. Also decided to forego a replacement for the traditional turkey - Ghanaian guinea fowl - and enjoy a new eggplant casserole recipe instead.
It's of course work as usual here in Tamale and Jim has surgery scheduled to rebuild a teen-aged girl's nose which was tragically destroyed by an electrical burn. Today's procedure is but another step in the attempt to restore an acceptable facial appearance for this young patient.

More Creative Cuisine

My first attempt at making Ghanaian palava sauce turned out OK. Actually couldn't do much to mess it up as the recipe mainly involves adding parboiled "alifu" greens (similar to spinach) at the end-stage of a tomato based sauce. The palava is usually served on top of sliced yams but we happened to have regular potatoes handy instead.
Maintenance is a big problem here in Tamale so when something gets broken, it often takes a long time (and a lot of patience) before it gets fixed. Case in point is our oven which, unfortunately, I may not see operating again before we are due to leave for Accra in December. Therefore, I decided to take advantage of our computer and googled "how to bake cake in a microwave." Thought I better start with muffins and even though they were not able to brown, the consistency was not nearly as rubbery as I had feared. Armed with more confidence, will try my hand at a microwavable cake tomorrow.

Weekend of Work and Play

Bill & Patricia Turner came over for dinner which managed to turn out well considering I had no functioning oven (still broken) or microwave (inadequate voltage) to heat the two casserole dishes I had prepared earlier in the day. Scooping out the contents and cooking it all in two frying pans on our stove-top burners did the trick.
Finally broke down and had the house cleaned on Saturday. Three maintenance workers from the hospital helped us to attack everything in sight. The two men, Shani and Shaibu, tackled jobs like the floors, windows and bathrooms while 23 year-old Amina, with her ten month-old daughter either wrapped tight on her back or amusing herself on the floor, scrubbed in the kitchen and elsewhere.
Sunday morning, Jim surprised me with breakfast in bed! Picture-perfect fried egg surrounded by three strips of bacon with toast & jam. Andy Norman had brought over some vacuum-packed Hormel microwavable bacon strips, some of which were left over since Andy returned to the US.
In the afternoon, the gals from COLWOD visited and while they were here, we were able to connect via SKYPE with Sr. Jacky in Kenya. They were all so excited to be able to see one another on the computer screen and get caught up with their news as it has been over two years since Jacky was transferred from Tamale to Nairobi.
Fr. Martin stopped by to greet us as well, then later in the evening, Jim and I were invited to a nice dinner at Archbishop Gregory's home. Gregory's completed autobiography (which I helped edit) is now in the process of being printed so we are looking forward to its publication.
All in all, a full weekend.

A Typical Day for Me in Tamale

Along with Jim, I rise around 5:30 AM and make breakfast before he goes off to the hospital. This could be a choice of oatmeal (or Jim's preferred variation called "Tom Brown"), toast and an egg, French toast, pancakes, fruit, etc. Our oven is now "kaput" (temporarily, I hope), although the stove top burners and microwave are doing fine.
Activities of the day always include boiling a good supply of water and the somewhat lengthy preparation of other meals, often taking a taxi into town to do marketing, and sometimes washing a load or two of clothes in our little machine (which takes two hours and 15 minutes per cycle), then hanging it out to dry on the line in our backyard. There is also plenty of reading, trips to the bank, post office, library, and of course to COLWOD - mainly in order to say hi to the gals who work there and to check on the dress that Sylvia is making for me.
Fortunately, I like to cook and because the shopping and preparation involved take up a fair amount of time and effort, I decided not to volunteer teach in the schools during this particular stay.
Has anyone noticed that I haven't mentioned house cleaning? Except for the bare necessities - mainly keeping the kitchen and bathroom respectable - I do my best to get past what would bother me to no end in the US. Dust and dirt are ever-present (it will only get worse with the annual Harmattan wind approaching from the Sahara) and it's surprising how I manage to basically ignore it. For the time being, we do not have someone to clean regularly - which may and probably should change - but Jim has arranged for a small crew to come in periodically to get the job done.
Early to rise means early to bed as well. We choose not to have TV so no distractions there, but I do have my trusty iPad. Even without available wireless access, I'm able to re-charge it for my various books on Kindle and an occasional game of "Angry Birds."

Pizza and Eggplant On The Menu

As I sit here writing this entry, our little stove is in several pieces along with various tools left behind by Ishawu, a nice young man who works at the appliance store in town. Ishawu has now gone to see if he can locate something close to a duplicate of the broken mechanism wich evidently regulates the oven.
Last night, Andy and I actually managed to make our own pizza even though the temperature seemed to hover at a steady 300 degrees instead of the recipe's recommended 425. Our crust wasn't exactly on the crisp side, but the veggie toppings along with some pepperoni brought from home did the trick.
Abdulai, our loyal night watchman who is here daily from 6PM to 6AM, is a farmer by day. His first gift of produce soon after I arrived was a vegetable that resembles a cucumber or zucchini but with a softer outer skin texture and very large seeds. I have to admit that it didn't have much appeal to either fry up or even add to a stew. Yesterday, however, he handed me a real treat - about five or six hearty eggplants. Here, the eggplants are not very long - more rounded or pear shaped - and are referred to as "garden eggs." Yum!
Now if only the stove can get put back into one usable piece....

Satisfying the Palate Without Power

Unlike the occasional power outages in the US which typically result from a particularly strong storm, loss of electricity here in Tamale is a frequent occurrence. And, even when power is on, low voltage and/or inadequate electrical systems often do not allow for two or three appliances to run at the same time.
Cooking has been a special challenge for me, especially when preparing for a group of guests. Our small stove which runs on a butane gas tank works pretty well for stove-top cooking, but the malfunctioning oven is inconsistent to say the least. When I am lucky enough to manage lighting it (holding a lit match with pliers to maneuver the flame into the little dark hole), I hope that whatever I'm trying to bake has a chance to cook at somewhere near the correct temperature.
Heating food in our microwave is fine except of course when the power is out or the voltage is too low - this magically happening at supper time for the past few nights. When the meal is finally placed on the table, we often enjoy it sitting in the dark.
Then again, there is always fruit!!! Depending on what is in season, a variety of delicious items can certainly satisfy the palate. Unfortunately, mangoes are not in season at the moment, but pineapple and pawpaw are found in abundance.

Quiet Weekend

The three visiting GYN physicians traveled further north to the hospital in Nalerigu this past weekend in order to perform fistula repairs for women there.
Saturday morning, I met Jim in town after he finished seeing his patients and we did a few errands together - paid our broadband bill for the internet, picked up some items in the market, then stopped at the library. No dancing at any of the local night spots tonight, but we did speak with Jim, John, Beth and Stephen via Skype. Left-overs for supper and reading in bed under the mosquito net.
Like last Sunday, we again attended Mass at the small chapel on the hospital grounds since Jim wanted to check on his patients afterward. We also visited our friend, Dr. Bill Turner, in Intensive care as he is recovering from malaria; thankfully, he now seems to be doing much better. Ended the weekend going out for supper to a local place called "Mike's." By wearing long sleeves, long pants, socks, and spraying ourselves well, we were not bothered very much by mosquitos sitting at the outdoor tables.

Visiting MDs

Dr. Andy Norman, a GYN physician from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, is back staying with us for a couple of weeks. Two female physicians who are staying at the Catholic Guest House in town accompanied him on this trip and all three are doing fistula repairs on Ghanaian women who have experienced difficult and long labor during childbirth.
While Jim is taking care of a serious snake bite and a deep facial cutlass laceration at Tamale Teaching Hospital and Andy, Karen and Candice are busy at the West Hospital in town, I try to put supper on the table for all of us at night. I like being chef of my own kitchen once again; our previous cook, left the area a few months ago. Shopping and food preparation take quite a bit longer than in the US, but it's all "do-able" and forces one to try and be creative. Daily boiling of lots of water is always on the agenda since we cannot drink that which comes out of the faucet. Found some nice eggplant yesterday so will attempt that for tomorrow. Tonight looks like it will be garlic and oil pasta with a side of beans.

Socializing

We were recently invited to a dinner held at a compound run by Baptist missionaries. A retired American couple from Indiana built a small group of buildings from which they minister to the local people and train visiting Baptist volunteers. The gathering was held in a large, round, screened gazebo in the center of the compound. Two of the visitors hailed from the French-speaking country of Burkina Faso, located about five hours north of Tamale, so I enjoyed a nice opportunity to use my French for the evening.

Market Madness

Tamale's huge open market consists of a labyrinth of multitudinous stalls containing various items of food, household products, clothing, cosmetics, toys, etc., etc. The narrow passageways have a partially enclosed wood covering above and a cement-like strip on the ground with a rut down the center to catch any water. People passing one another in opposite directions can pose quite a challenge. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to where particular goods are located; vegetables are next to handbags, meats are alongside hair accessories. Jim loves it! He thoroughly enjoys bargaining for a good price of a pineapple or hunting for a box of tinfoil. On a recent attempt to stock up on supplies, we could barely carry the shopping bags and maneuver the aisles at the same time. A young girl of about 12 or 13 came to the rescue with her large, round basin-like bowl, piled all the items inside and carried everything on her head until we were finished shopping.

Return to Ghana - October 2011

If I had any thoughts of handling the taxi negotiations at the airport in Accra with aplomb on this, my fifth arrival in Ghana, I was sadly mistaken. In no time at all, I found myself in the midst of a screaming group of seven or eight drivers who insisted on taking me for a fare much more expensive than what I had expected to pay. When all was said and done, they clearly pointed out to me that I had make the mistake of saying I wanted to go to Abokobi - an area located a good distance from the airport - instead of requesting Abokobi Rd. which is about a ten minute drive to the Transit Lodge where I planned to say the night before my flight up to Tamale the next morning. It was as if I had asked a New York City cab driver to take me to Albany when I only meant to say something like Albany St. in Manhattan. In any event, Philip won the bid in the shouting match and took me on my way. Immersed in the usual bumper to bumper Accra traffic, I couldn't resist one of the numerous young men and women selling various items alongside the taxi window. Am now the proud owner of a Ghanaian "Recipe Book For All" which should come in handy. And, I'm back!

Friends and Students 2010

Out and about with Sylvia and Margaret and in the classroom at Etoile Royale.


Teaching both French and English


Ghanaian Cuties


Sylvia


Margaret giving Cyndy a Ride


Fun in the Classroom

Ghanaian Wedding - 2010

Hey all!

I'm finally posting a few pictures from last year. I hope you enjoy them!


Mother of the Bride


Parents of the Bride


Cathedral in Tamale


Jim and Cyndy ready to attend the wedding


Wedding Party