Teaching and Old Friends

We all arrived safely in Ghana on Jan 3rd. Steph and Jess arrived early in the morning, made friends with an American teaching couple, and had their first meal and shower in Ghana at the teachers’ home in Accra. Olivia and I arrived in the late evening and were greeted by the Bethel Clinic staff (five of them came to the airport!). Steph and Jess had also returned to the airport where they were waiting for us. We then piled in a bus and made the two hour journey to Akatsi, arriving after midnight.

Yesterday started off with breakfast and some table tennis. The village health worker women all gathered by noon and the first day of training went well. We discussed expectations, the role of the community health worker, and concerns and questions the women had regarding health problems in their villages. Then came the name game with clapping and laughing and the bonding that comes along with that is so important.

Today the second day of teaching resumed. Akatsi has presented new challenges when applying the teaching program. It is less rural and the villages surrounding the town center are larger than where Olivia previously taught the program. This means the women are more educated and quite smart. Thus, the teachers are able to go into more detail regarding the subject matter than in previous teachings. The larger village sizes also mean it will be more challenging for the women to
share the information they have learned and the skills they have gained with those they live with. Some come from “villages” of 700. We are thinking of ways to help them learn to teach more effectively. All in all those who are helping us do the teaching from the Bethel Clinic NGO as well as the Ghana Health Service are very good and in fact have done most of the teaching themselves. This is encouraging as we try to prepare the Bethel Clinic NGO we are working with to take over this group of Kekeli women and conduct future teachings themselves.

Some random thoughts:
• It is definitely the dry (hot) season here.
• There is a distinct smell to (my experience of) Africa that came back to me on the night drive to Akatsi. It smells like an outdoor bbq on a humid day and I like it.
• The people here have been incredible. The Bethel clinic family has provided us with a two room area in their home, cook our meals, and have generally thought of everything we might need and provided it before we can ask (today they had a light installed in the outdoor shower so we can see at night!). It is truly incredible to me that I could meet this family last time I was here (2008) and they have been so quick to open their doors to us in such an incredible way.
• In the same vein, the program has gone very well thus far. Simply the fact that we showed up and the next day all 20 women were here and ready to learn is a testament to the impressive work the clinic and others put in prior to our arrival.
• I am typing this from the porch. Crazy, eh? The mobile networks here (which is how I am connecting to the internet) are really quite common and make organizing programs like this so much easier than they would be otherwise.
• Lastly, it has been great to connect with old friends. From being greeted so warmly at the airport, to seeing my friend James who worked closely with me on my last project here, to meeting Bernice from Seva clinic (where Olivia worked in 2007), it feels completely different to be here now knowing so many wonderful people and catching up on the last two years of life.