I am so heartbroken, but I am actually heading home today from Ghana.  I've been havng some severe headaches and vision problems in my right eye pretty much since I arrived.  Judy, my host, is actually a nurse and has been searching for answers in all of her medical books.  I have seen two of the best eye doctors too in Ghana.  Judy has gone above and beyond to take care of me and try to keep me here, but we finally reached a point where we both felt I needed to head home to see the Doctors in the US. 

I'm sure that I'm going to be fine, but I need to have a few tests done for peace of mind.  Another reason I'm leaving so soon is that in a week Judy is heading for Cote d'Ivoire.  I was planning on going with her, but we would be a 15 hour drive from the airport, and the medical care there is not as good as even here in Ghana.  I have never been so sad to leave a place or people.  I am not telling them goodbye, but rather I am saying "See You Soon" because I pray with all my heart to be back to work here again. 

Please pray for safe travel and for wisdom for the doctors at home.  My Dad has made me an appointment for Monday.  I will keep you updated.  I am so sad to be returning earlier than expected, but I am still so grateful for the month I had here.  Hopefully I will get to see you  all face to face to tell you more about it.

Much Love,

Emily  

This last week has been pretty busy.  We went to the village, Akplale, where we have spent a lot of time.  There is a Christian clinic there who serve the people in the area.  Otherwise they have to travel an hour or so by car and pay a lot to go to the city hospital.  The clinic was so dusty since it was so dry, and they had a ton of drugs that had been brought from the US that were not organized at all.  So we spent two days cleaning and organizing the pharmacy there.  It was a big job, but the man who runs the clinic was really appreciative of our work.  The last day we were working there, a local healthcare worker held a “Well Baby” clinic for the mothers in the area.  It was so cute!  I wanted to bring all of the babies home with me!  There the mothers received education about caring for the babies, the babies got weighed, and they received immunizations.  It is amazing how many children come into the clinic with the same problems: malaria or worms.  Whenever a child comes in, they automatically receive a pill to kill worms since it is such a common problem. 

 

This is what makes what we are doing so important.  Though the education that Judy gives the leaders of the village who then take that information to the families, they learn how to prevent these problems of worms getting into their system.  All it takes is using a latrine, wearing shoes outside, and washing your hands after using the restroom and before preparing food.  It is so simple, but the people just have no idea how to prevent the problem.      

 

We had our first real rain today since I’ve been here!  It was great because it cools things down and the farmers here really needed it for their crops.  More than that, the people need it for drinking water.  When we went to visit a church in a village last Sunday, we had lunch with the pastor and he described their situation.  In a whole area of Ghana there is no water running out of the water lines, so in order to survive the people in the village must take a $5.00 taxi ride to a water source, then they pay another $1.00 for the water that will last them 3 days.  This is a ton of money for people who make a little more than $1.00 a day, but some how they are making it work.

 

I have been experiencing so many cool things here so far.  I have met so many different people and seen many different places.  Judy and I are about to head back out to the village, Akplale, for another 2 weeks to do more health training and to work more in the clinic there.     

 

Hi All!  Yes, I am alive and well in Ghana.  I have so much to tell that I don't even know where to start.  When I arrived in Accra, Ghana last Sunday the missionary whom I am working for was there to pick me up.  Her name is Judy and she is great!  All I can say about her is that she is a joy to be around.  She is real and down to earth.  She loves to laugh and has been babying me from the second I arrived.

We have been pretty busy so far.  I left the morning after I arrived for a village called Akplale a few hours outside of Accra.  We spent a week there teaching a program called community health evangelism.  It truly is sad how little the people here especially in the villiages know about disease and how it spreads.  The whole idea of the program is that we educate leaders of various villiages who then go and educate the families in their communities about such concepts as how malaria spreads to how children can die from something as cmmon as diahrria.  As this program has proved in the past, education and prevention is 80% of the battle. 

Even though the official language of Ghana is English, most people outside of the city speak tribal languages.  This last week in the villiage I tried my hand at a local language called Ewe.  I'm not very good. All I can say is "Hello", "Thank You", and "The food is good."  They mostly laugh at me when I try : )  

The next 4 weeks I will still be in Ghana doing various projects all over the country.  Then I will be heading for Cote d'Ivoire.  I have to run now.  More to come, I promise! 

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.  Flying over the Sahara today was amazing!  I am here in Ghana safely and head out to a small villiage tomorrow for a training seminar on basic health for the villiage leaders.    We are going to teach them basic things like washing dishes after they eat, digging trash pits instead of leaving it out, etc.  I have to run, but I just wanted to give you an update.