Our last week here has really flown by fast! It doesn’t really feel like I’ve been here for almost a month but when I look back at all the things that I’ve seen and done it all starts adding up. Monday was a holiday because of Ghana’s independence day so I was very glad to have an extra day off from clinic. Of course we still rounded in the hospital as always but it was a nice break none the less. Monday was also the last day that Kim and Jess were here because they left for Accra very early on Tuesday.
Since there are just three of us left (Rich, Sheila and I) we have been dividing up the hospital for rounds in the morning and so far we have been able to finish everything on time for clinic and/or procedures. I usually start in peds and then work my way into the adult wards where I find Sheila and Rich and then we all go to the isolation ward and finish rounds there. That is where they have the meningitis patients and the TB (berkla) patients.
I am enjoying the independence and confidence that I gain by seeing patients on my own and I feel like I am learning a lot every day. Inspired by two of my patients on the ward right now, I am writing my Inmed presentation on malnutrition. These two kids are tough to look at because they are so malnurished. The girl is 3 years old and weighs 5.4 kg and the little boy is 31/2 and weighs 6.1 kg. I am trying to get them well enough so that they can go back to the nutrition clinic and continue to get fed there, but they are nowhere near ready for that yet.
Today, Thursday, Sheila and I spent finishing up all the things we wanted to do in Nalerigu before we left. We visited the Happy Child school, where kids from 3 years old up to teenagers go to school. The kids were on break when we got there which was good because they went crazy when they saw us coming. Sheila and I had to break free in order to finish our tour of the classrooms. We also went to the orphanage here in town. Lena and Jaquelyn work there every afternoon so we went with them. There are 18 kids that live in a housing compound with one woman cooking for them during the day, and one caretaker staying with them at night. These kids are starved for attention so they were very excited to play with the jump ropes, frisbees, and crayons that we brought for them.
Tonight we had dinner with Greg, Wendy, their kids, Rich, Lena and Jaquelyn. We gave them all a couple of gifts as well as some of the things that we are not taking back with us, like granola bars and candy. We are also leaving a whole bag full of clothes to donate to either the orphanage or one of the local churces in town. Tomorrow will be the last day working in the hospital and we will have clinic in the afternoon. We fly to Accra from Tamale early morning on Saturday, so we leave Nalerigu around 4 am. Our flight back to the States is on Sunday night so maybe we will have some time to explore Accra a little better this weekend.