9 to 5 ...ish

When I arrived in Ghana, it became clear fairly quickly that I would have to be very self-sufficient in order to maintain a significant workload. I wasn't handed a work manual or assigned specific tasks; I would have to be proactive in creating work for myself based on the needs I saw and within the scope of my abilities. 

Luckily, my co-volunteer working in Public Health is also a go-getter. She and I have been quite successful in tackling projects as we see fit. 

We spoke last Monday with our  director Eric about our desire to have more work. He was able to connect with someone who asked if Claire and I could visit the Regional Maritime University and give a presentation about breast, cervical, and prostate cancers to a group of students who would be presenting the information to children in schools.

We were to present Friday (3 days later).  On topics with which we had no detailed experience. With very limited Internet access (only available at the office, and during a week peppered with power outages). Roadblocks aside, we were up for the challenge.

We spent the week cramming intensely, researching during the days and saving informational .pdf files to our computers and reading them at home at night. We created a PowerPoint presentation and several interactive activities to break up the monotony of an 80-slide presentation detailing the causes, effects, treatments, and prevention of each of the aforementioned types of cancer.

On Friday we boarded a tro-tro in Kasoa, and three transfers and an excruciatingly sweaty 2 hours later we arrived at the university on the far side of Accra, in a city called Nungua. 

We called our contact there, Derrick, who met us in a courtyard and said he didn't think we were coming (we weren't sure why, as we had confirmed twice). The room he had booked for us had been rebooked. But Derrick pulled some quick strings and secured us a makeshift presentation hall in a lounge room, where there were several students laying on couches watching Beyonce music videos.

Claire set up her laptop, and the students gathered. Our talk went smoothly. I was concerned there would be a lack of interest or lack of understanding (we had no prior idea of the students' level of background knowledge on cancer). But the ten or so men and two women were overall attentive, and actually asked very insightful questions and were enthusiastic about the activities we incorporated.

 Claire and I with the students at the Regional Maritime University

At the end of the talk, one young man presented us with two cans of Malta (a Ghanaian drink resembling nonalcoholic Guinness beer) and a formal thank you: "On behalf of my fellow students and our program we thank you kindly for visiting and educating us. We wish you safe travels back to Kasoa and best of luck in your time in Ghana."

Claire and I took a taxi to the tro tro station, convinced a confused shopkeeper to trade one cold Coke for our two cans of warm gross Malta, and began a 3.5 hour tro-tro death crawl through traffic back to Kasoa. 

With the cancer talk out of the way, we were able to refocus on some of our original tasks. Our internships here are based on researching tuberculosis for the Ghana Health Service. We conduct interviews in nearby towns to determine the present knowledge of tuberculosis. The government has recently started subsidizing screening and treatment for TB, but most people aren't even aware of the disease let alone that the treatment is free.

We also give informational talks about TB in schools to children around the community. We recently created two new games to involve the children interactively, and painted a giant "TB Tree" that the children can pin "leaves" with terms written on them to as a fun way to learn the definitions of tuberculosis-related lingo.

The making of the "TB tree," which students will be able to pin leaves onto matching terms with their categories. For example, "covering your mouth" will be correctly matched with the branch labeled "prevention."

Our next big project involves setting up free screenings for both Tuberculosis and Hepatitis A and B in the community. We initially wanted to keep our focus on TB, since our research here is about that disease. However, Eric was adamant that Hepatitis A and B are bigger threats in the community, so we decided to tackle all three. 


We are only in the beginning stages now, researching the resources we will need and how much it will cost. We have a meeting scheduled this afternoon with a director of a local private hospital who has coordinated screenings in our town in the past. I am only here for another 5 1/2 weeks though, so this goal will definitely be a lofty one! But we're excited to take it on.

Work is becoming more and more of a familiar pattern, and I'm excited to have these projects to focus on. Stay tuned for the updates!