June 5th, 2018 by melindaroney

It has been an eventful 4 days in Nalerigu!  We flew into Accra, the capital of Ghana, which is on the coast.  From there we flew north to Tamale (pronounced TAH-meh-lay).  William (a missionary from the US) and his son Trey picked us up in Tamale and then drove us 2 more hours into Nalerigu in northern Ghana.  We passed many people planting crops (by hand) as it is the beginning of the rainy season.  When we arrived we were welcomed to the Guesthouse and were shown around the grounds of Baptist Medical Center.  The accommodations and grounds are quite nice. We toured the hospital and were introduced to some of the nursing staff on the wards and some of the doctors.  The hospital has 2 male wards, 2 female wards and a pediatric ward.  They have a maternity ward which is staffed by midwives and also have an isolation ward.  Surgery is called “Theatre” and they have 2 good sized ORs and a few procedure rooms.  We also saw the lab, pharmacy, the clinic area and the x-ray room.  There are 6 physicians here, 3 Ghanaian physicians and three from the US.  I am working mainly with Dr. Tim Cahill but his wife, Dr. Laurie Cahill, is a physician too.  Both are family physicians.  Laurie has just started back part-time as she has been raising and home-schooling their 3 daughters.  Dr. Heidi Haun is a surgeon and is married to William.  All are missionaries serving the people of Nalerigu and the surrounding area.

On Sunday, I rounded with (observed) Dr. Tim.  They invited us to go to church with them in town.  It was a simple, beautiful one room church.   The sermon was from John 8, mostly in Mampruli but some in English.  God is “”nah-WOO-nee”, and Jesus is “YEE-sa”.  Most in attendance were women and children since the men were planting crops.  After the service we met Pastor Alex and his family.  Pastor Alex also works in the pharmacy at BMC hospital.

Later that afternoon many people gathered to play Ultimate Frisbee on a field near the Guesthouse.  Alex (my son Alex) played the entire time and had a blast.  I spent some time talking with Laurie and her two older girls as well as one of the Ghanaian physicians’ children.  The children showed me the large population of bats that live in the trees in the complex, which is really cool since I love bats.  They are very large bats!  The Cahill girls showed me that when you clap all of the bats take flight.  The bats are odd in the sense that they are active in the daytime, not just at dusk.

Later that night the Hauns invited people over for “movie night”.  We met some teachers from Germany who are in town teaching at the school in Nalerigu for a year.  In other “critter news”, the Hauns have camel spiders in their driveway.  I have yet to look at them as I do not care for spiders.  I have just heard Alex and Stefano say “That’s a big spider”.  Should I see one, I will remind myself what William said, namely that they are not spiders and they eat insects (which is probably why the reside under the Haun’s bug zapper).

In the next blog I will focus more on the patients, diseases of poverty and giving the best care possible with limited resources.  If you are interested, google Baptist Medical Center Ghana to see some pictures.  There is also a great video featuring Dr. Haun regarding BMC’s mission.

Melinda Roney, MD