It has been a hard couple of days. In Africa, getting started is very difficult. My goal for this week was to get the medical container opened and the contents distributed to the appropriate medical departments. This step is the beginning of the end of a two year effort to improve the conditions at the hospital.
We finally opened the last container of medical equipment and supplies at the Tamale Teaching Hospital and Tamale Eye Clinic. I didn’t make any progress the first day toward opening the container. In fact, it didn’t look promising. Today, I insisted, begged, and pleaded that the medical equipment be unloaded.
It took about eight men to open the doors of the container. The container had a seal which had to be sawed off. The container also had two padlocks from the hospital and one other doctor. The hospital couldn’t find the key so we sawed off the first lock. The doctor supplied the second key and we could finally see the contents of the container. Volunteers at Project CURE helped to load the medical equipment and supplies. Those volunteers wrote well wishes on the first box to be unloaded from the container.
We’ve also discussed the step down transformers needed to convert 110 to 220 power. We are adding 110 power wiring in the eye clinic, lab, and the maternity ward. It takes a lot of thinking and talking before the action can happen. Today, the electricians were wiring the eye clinic. I also reviewed supplies from the first container. I went around to the various departments to see the medical equipment in action. Today, I was treated to observing part of an eye surgery performed by Dr. Seth Wanye with a brand new Scan Optics portable surgical microscope. I have a picture.
We woke up at 5 AM to leave at 6 AM to go out to Fufuiso. It is one of the last villages to have the guinea worm parasite. We saw four children with the disease. I gave a girl a bracelet made by the children of New Hope United Methodist Church in Callaway, Virginia. It helped a little to ease the terrible pain caused by the parasite. The soka pumps are being used which we bought in 2007 for the worst city that year.
We are planning to go to the “Oversees Region” of Ghana on Saturday. We talked about taking the new bridge at Kpasinkpe (pause in pay), but the new bridge has a very bad “old road.” It is faster to go by canoe across the White Volta River. It will only take fourteen hours to get to this village and back to town. We will celebrate the mechanized water system in Singa on Saturday. It is one of the first water systems in this very remote region. This area feels like you have traveled hundreds of years back in time. Water is a severe problem in this area.
On Thursday, we are going to the new church construction at Sagadugu. My pastor’s hat will be on and my Rotary hat will be off. We are trying to get ready for the roof. I hope to see the roof on by next week. I thank God for Kofi Boakye who is overseeing the church construction. We will drive the two hours back on Friday morning to attend and speak at the Rotary Celebration at the Tamale Teaching Hospital.
It is a real pleasure to have Stephen Shipes on this trip. He is experiencing a lot of wonderful things for the first time. One of his conclusions is that it can be very difficult just to help people. One day, I hope to find an easier way to make a difference in Africa! I have respect for the people like President Joe Mumuni of the Tamale Rotary Club who tries to make a difference here every day of the year. I also met a lot of dedicated doctors at the hospital today.
I was thankful to see the eye surgeries being performed on the new portable surgical microscope. I also enjoyed talking to the maternity ward. They are looking forward to a lot of new medical equipment. It is hard to help people in Africa. Is it worth it? You bet. Thanks to all of you at home who are making a difference.
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