Mole National Park

Mole National Park is located in Northern Ghana and is a difficult journey at best - transit in the North of Africa is unreliable and sometimes just doesn't exist. However now I can say that I have been on my first African safari! We went on both a jeep tour and a walking tour. We saw a lot of kob and some bushbuck (2 different types of African antelopes), elephants, monkeys, warthogs, and of course several different and colorful birds.

toilet paper

My husband and possibly mother-in-law will appreciate this more than anyone else I know, but toilet paper here is often green (colored)

taking fufu

Fufu is a Ghanaian staple. It is a pounded doughy grain (usually made from casava I believe). You eat it with your hand (right hand only) by pinching off a small piece and then using it to scoop as much broth as you can mange. You don't chew it - you just swallow the ball whole. This is the quintessential Ghanaian food - although many of the dishes here are eaten with the hand without the assistance of a spoon or fork. There is not a lot of variety in the food - given access to resource - but rice, chicken, fish, fufu, banku, and ampesie (boiled yams) are generally available. At this time of year there is also a lot of pineapple, watermelon, banana, orange, and apples.

sunsets

really nothing to say here - just have truly enjoyed the beautiful African sunsets.

Hospital Pharmacy in Ghana

I I spent most of the week upon returning from the Drug Safety Campaign working in the Okomfo Anokye Teaching hospital. This is one of the largest hospitals in all of Ghana. It is certainly the largest in Kumasi (which is Ghana' second biggest city.

Reverse osmosis machine

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Most of the aseptic area is consumed by this reverse osmosis machine - which is how the pharmacy is able to purify water for IV's, eye drops, solutions, etc. Something that we take completely for granted in the U.S. (that we would be able to have sterile water).

Neem tree leaves

The leaves of the Neem tree (which is abundant) contains quinine and is often used as self treatment / herbal remedy for malaria.

the hospital clean room

Had an interesting discussion with the main pharmacist in the clean room. They have no hood (this includes for mixing chemo) and the conditions basically would not be considered acceptable anywhere in the U.S. - but it is this or nothing, so they do the best they can to keep things clean and sterile. Everything is prepared on as needed basis - nothing ahead of time because it might be too difficult to keep sterile or it may go bad. They have requested a laminar flow hood and hope to get one soon.

water in Ghana

water in Ghana is sold in plastic sachets. this is 'pure water' which has been filtered and is safe to drink. if you are more discriminating you can buy bottled water for ten times as much (literally - this bag is 0.05 cedis and a bottle is 0.50 cedis) - and honestly i think the sachets taste better than the bottled water.

Lake Volta

Lake Volta is a huge manmade lake (the largest in the world I believe). It runs up much of the eastern side of Ghana. During the National Drug Safety Campaign, we stayed in a port town called Yeji in the Pru district. It is the northern terminus of the once weekly ferry from Accra. The morning that we arrived in Yeji we took a ferry across the lake to the more remote Makango on the eastern bank of the river.

a broom

I have seen one conventional handle style broom since coming to Ghana (and this was in the big teaching hospital). Most brooms are much more simple – a collection of tree needles fastened together.

Kintampo falls

The National Drug Safety Campaign wasn't all work and no play....on Saturday on our way back from Pru district we stopped at the Kintampo waterfalls for some fun. I ended up a trifle bit more moist than I had originally intended. We actually climbed up under the waterfalls - there is a little ledge that you can sit on if you can fight against the force of the water coming at you to get up there. The falls were hours of fun.

All mic'ed up and ready to go

There were over 700 kids at this school to listen to our drug safety talk. We started with the megaphone (seen on the table) but it wasn't loud enough so they brought in this microphone and portable speaker (also seen on the table) so that all the students could hear us.

Dinner in Pru district during the campaign

We were fortunate to be well proved for in regards to housing and meals during the drug safety campaign. The local health district director arranged for us to be housed in their guest house and to have meals provided for us on every day (except the weekend days that we were there). Each day a truck would pull up to the house and deliver breakfast (tea and bread), and then lunch (usually fish and rice, or chicken and rice), and dinner (ranging from more rice & meat to fufu, banku, or ampesie). We got very lucky as I've heard that some other groups did not get very good food throughout the week.

National Drug Safety Campaign 2010 - Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana

The National Drug Safety Campaign is something that the Ghanian Pharmaceutical Students Association organizes every year as an outreach to communities that have limited access to healthcare knowledge and health education. This year the students focused on the rationale use of medication - this includes things like take a full course of antibiotics, take them only when you need them, and take them orally - do not open the capsule and pour the contents on the infected area. We also taught the communities about malaria prevention, HIV/AIDs, Swine flu, and candiadisis. This is me teaching a group of high school students some basic HIV / AIDs education.

Community Pharmacy in Ghana

Today (Wednesday 14 July) I spent the day in a busy community pharmacy near the University Hospital. Many patients come to this pharmacy after discharge from the hospital. The basic work flow is much like U.S. community pharmacies. Ghana has National Health Insurance (so they are a step ahead of the U.S. already). The National Insurance covers most things that are on the BNF (I think it is called - British National Formulary). So patients start by giving their Insurance / ID card and their prescription at the in-window. This information is entered electronically and then passed down the next computer station where the pharmacist deciphers what the prescription was written for and then enters this information electronically and it is checked against their inventory. Next it is passed to what in the U.S. would be the technicians to fill. Then it is given a final check by another pharmacist at the out window who then dispenses it to the patient.

There is also a separate area to process prescriptions that have to be payed for. This is a pretty high tech pharmacy and I am happy to get to work here.

Tomorrow we leave for drug education campaign...more posts in a week or so......

Yesterday (Monday 11 July), we traveled by bus (about 5 hours) to Kumasi. The road was mostly good. We arrived at our hostel and met Alex, the new local Student Exchange Officer. He showed us around to a few local pharmacies (there are many) and the University hospital. We will start work tomorrow in one of these local community style pharmacies. Then on Thursday, we are traveling to a smaller village as part of an outreach organized by the University of Kumasi pharmacy students. This is a remote area about 2 hours out of Kumasi where it sounds like we will be broken up into smaller groups and do educational teachings to the villagers. I am looking forward to this should be very interesting.

:)

Safely arrived in Accra

Hello my friends. I have safely arrived in Kumasi. I flew in to Accra on Sunday (10 July). I was happy and relieved to be meet at the airport by 3 of the brothers from my host family as well as the 2 Catalan girls who are also on student exchange here with me. We spent the day at my host family's home. We were well fed and cared for. Food here is definitely a little different than American food and I would probably suggest giving the fermented millet porridge a pass. However, it is mostly good and I am happy to report no digestive problems yet. As for water, I am only drinking pure water (which is sold in little plastic sacks) or mineral water, so I am sure that helps.

I spent the night with my host family and Monday morning - off to Kumasi.

really...a blog? really?

So I have created a blog (insert eye roll here) about my student exchange in Ghana. I have never had a blog before, don't tweet, and am not even all that great at facebook so we will see how this goes. However, this did seem like the best medium to share information about my experiences, upload pictures, and generally keep everyone up to date on my doings while in Africa.

so it begins…

Finalizing all the details and getting ready for this adventure to begin.