My patients are all still alive, praise the Lord! I’m rounding on the adults now, so I don’t feel so much like a fish out of water when it comes to my own knowledge base. There was a group here from California today, doing dental and auditory checks on some people. They are spending 2 weeks travelling through Ghana, doing the same in other small villages throughout the country. They are all very nice people, and I was able to have lunch with them at the team house today (which I didn’t even know existed until today!). I came away from the day with them, however, almost ashamed of being an obruni and being associated with them. That sounds harsh, I know, so let me explain myself a little. There is probably (Ok, I KNOW there is) a large portion of my own pride issues in that feeling, thinking that after 2 weeks, I’ve mastered how to interact and fit into the Ghanian culture and they have not. And maybe there’s a little bit of feelings of ownership, like I want to be one of the only obrunis around. How selfish am I?!? But, on the other side of the coin, I definitely had the distinct impression at one point in the day, that we were on this African safari, and the little African children were the animals. We were driving by a couple of the schools, and the children were all crowded around the van screaming “obruni!” like they always do, and here are a group of women, all hanging their cameras out the windows, taking pictures of them. As I type that, I realize that it doesn’t sound like something totally insensitive to do, but at the time, all I wanted to do was to jump out of the van and run from the situation. It just felt so wrong.
Maybe another reason for my reaction to the people from CA was the fact that a few of them were pretty stinking dolled up for being in Africa. One of the women had her hair perfectly done, her makeup perfectly applied, her fingernails and toenails perfectly french-tipped, and her bracelets and necklaces and earrings and diamond rings all sparkling and matching. Now, there’s nothing wrong with looking nice, but I just think that when you’re coming to work in the midst of a poverty-striken village, wearing all of that is kind of like flaunting what you’ve got in front of them. It just struck me as highly inappropriate.
Then I was talking to a couple of them, and saying something about how friendly everyone in Ghana is, and how impressed I’ve been about that overall. She proceeded to say how her experience has been that people are very pushy and rude about getting people into their shops, and force them to buy things, and yell at them when they don’t. It just shocked me, because all of that was such a misinterpretation of intentions! They talk loudly, they even talk loudly to each other; they’re never yelling like we interpret yelling. And yes, they are very excited to see people who are going to buy something, so they to what they can to get you to go in their shops. But if you politely refuse, they won’t get upset. And if you don’t buy something from them, they are almost always still exceedingly nice to you. So, what a sad experience for them if they’re interpreting everything so negatively!! We’ve had the advantage of having Cam and Anne to process through things with, so maybe that’s where we have been blessed to understand motives and intentions a little better these past few weeks.
And then, at lunch, a couple of the Ghanians (that I’ve come to know) served us the whole time, while we just sat around. It felt so wrong that I was completely anxious for lunch to be over, so there wouldn’t be this difference of roles anymore. I tried to get up and help them serve at one point, but they had already got everything ready, so there wasn’t anything for me to do. I just feel like we’re supposed to be coming in the name of Christ to these people, and befriending them, and livinng in their culture, and that having them cook,clean, and serve us propagates thsi master/servant relationship. We’re these rich obrunis that they’re waiting on. Now, I’ll be the first to say that it’s nice to have the woman who cleans clean our apartment, and to have them make us meals sometimes, don’t get me wrong. I’m just curious as to what that does for the relationship or the view of the Obrunis by the Ghanians. Maybe nothing, who knows. I’ve thought similar things when I watch the watchmen at the house open the gate for us to drive in with Cam, or the women at the house doing the ironing and cooking. But maybe it’s never hit me like that before because I’ve never been put in a direct situation of being physically waited on. Again, it just doesn’t feel right.
Went into the surrounding villages again this afternoon to do more of the health survey that the community health program is conducting, and again was just struck with the level of poverty these people live in. Words just can’t do the situation justice, so I won’t even try. I now understand how diseases are transmitted fecal-orally, and how people get diseases from flies, and how animal to person disease transmission happens, let’s just leave it at that. I had this thought, though, later in the afternoon, that it would be so awesome to be able to come back and do clinics in some of the more remote villages. Maybe I could be based out of the hospital here, and utilize some of the staff for translation and nursing, but then do week-long clinics in 4 or 5 different villages throughout the region. How totally rewarding would that be!!! Something I’m tucking away, for a time when I have more freedom with my schedule than residency will allow…..!