Just wanted to let you all know I am alive and have survived my wanderings so far (which have included Ghana, Germany, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Breskin, and Bruge....). I may have a little more energy left for a few more day trips before heading home.
I broke my camera and am not able to post my own pictures (yet), but here are some I stole from friends, and will call my own. I will write more about Africa when I get back. I will say, though, that it was an amazing trip, and was the highlight of this past month. I love the people of Africa- they are extremely friendly and cheerful, even amongst such poverty. It was inspiring.
This was the US team I went with. It included ~12 medical students, ~5 doctors including several surgons who did a total of 12 surgeries, two psychologists, a phlebotomist, several nurses, a child developement expert, and of course two pharmacists. This is all of us on the second day. Each of the five days we went to little villages around the city of Elmina, two hours south of Accra. We were lucky this day, as the village was located on a beautiful ocean. We partnered with a Ghananian organization that also does medical missions in Ghana, and they had a team of about the same size. They were great to work with, and I made a lot of friends..
This was the pharmacy- it was located in a green army tent. Each day when we were driving to the new village, we knew we had finally arrived when we saw the green army tent for the pharmacy! On this day, it was set up right next to the ocean- probably the first and last time in the history of pharmacy that the pharmacists have an ocean-side view!! You can see here that we pulled up the sides of the tent for ventilation, as it got really hot inside.
Here I am, hard at work. I am preparing malaria medication for a 3 year old. I had to do a lot of math, to prepare this medication, so I did it all longhand, and checked myself a million times. Afterwards, my co-pharmacist informed me that he had brought a calculator.......! Just to give you an idea of how the pharmacy worked- we had suitcases and crates of medications, and each day we packed and unpacked the suitcases an set up the pharmacy, sorting most medications by drug class. We also tried to find chairs, and tables to use as make shift shelves. We had a limited amount of medication, but this is what made it fun and challenging- trying to substitute the various medications we had, for what the doctors wanted. We dispensed a lot of antibiotics, pain medication, and malaria medications. We also gave everyone a multivitamin and a "de-wormer". We also gave a de-wormer to all the kids at each village which amounted to over 2000 kids!! Jamie was the other pharmacist, and we worked great together- he was my "mentor" during my residency, so we already had a good repoir. He is also an Infectious Disease Pharmacist, so that came in handy. The medical residents rotated throught the pharmacy each day, and we also had ~5 Ghanians working with us, so we had a full house in our tiny tent. But, the help was welcomed, as we filled over 4000 prescriptions, about 800 per day. Just to give you an idea- at the CVS I worked at, we filled ~700 daily, and we had 2-3 pharmacists, a bunch of techs, and AUTOMATION!!!! We did everything by hand here, from counting the pills, to labeling the bottles. And don't forget that none of the people spoke english, so we had to relie on the interpreters to get everything right. We had amazing interpreters, though.
My favorite part about the whole trip were the kids. They were so much fun!! This is still on the second day, when I brought smarties. I started handing them out to the kids. This is a picture of me, after I started a small riot. It started with a few kids, and then their friends saw, and they ran over, and then a few more kids ran over, and more and more. This picture was taken right before the "riot" started, when I still had smarties to give out. Now, imagine 3 times as many kids, all crowded around me with their hands in the air shouting "madame, madame" and wanting candy, and me trying to give them each a few smarties. And, mind you, this is all taking place around the pharmacy tent. They were strong little kids, too! I was actually afraid some of the littler ones were going to get trampled! How did I solve this problem?? I actually ran away! Literally. First, I was right next to the pharmacy tent when this happened, and I realized I needed to somehow get back in the pharmacy tent without them seeing me..... or else we would have a tent full of kids- not exactly ideal...... AND, I didn't have any more candy. So, I ran away and circled the entire perimeter of the clinic and when the coast was clear I made my way back to the pharmacy tent. I learned my lesson, though! From then on, I ONLY gave kids candy if they were alone, and there were no other kids watching. It made for some funny pictures, though.
This is a picture of Elmina, that was taken when we went downtown to see the Slave Castle. I loved the bright colors of Africa- lots of pinks, greens, blues, and yellows. Elmina is a fishing village. This picture was taken about 6 in the evening, when all the fishing boats were coming back into shore. You can see all the nets, and people, and comotion going on.
And, last, but not least, this is a group of us swimming in the ocean, outside of our hotel. Yes, we had an ocean side resort. It was actually really nice, for African standards- we even had AC. The only thing we didn't have was warm water, but even that I was fine with, as cold showers actually made me warm up. (Remember after the polar bear swim how all of us would actually heat up more than usual?? I guess it's our bodies way of protecting itself....). It was a great little swim. The rest of the team was standing on the beach watching us like we were crazy. I was actually still wearing my clothes, as I hadn't had time to change into a swimsuit, and gave into peer pressure of "just jumping in".There are so many more pictures and stories to tell. So, be prepared for a part 2, 3, and maybe 4 :). But, I will end by saying that it was a great trip, and I have taken a lot of pictures of Africa and Europe and was looking through all of them last night. It is the African pictures that make me the happiest to look at and that I have the greatest memories- probably because of the relationships that I made and the lessons that I learned.
Well, now at least if I do die of malaria, you have one last (hopefully somewhat enlightening) post from your favorite daughter/sister!
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