Coming to an end!

Hello Everyone,

It is Thursday afternoon, and we are sad to write and say that our time here is quickly coming to an end. Today was our last day at the hospital, and we have said a lot of good-byes. Many of the local staff have asked, "When are you coming back," as if we are coming back on a schedule. I would say that we have both had a great experience, and would both be honored to have the opportunity to serve here again in the future, if that is indeed what is in store for us. We will just have to wait and see.

Just to sum things up a bit, this week has been busy at the hospital. We have seen a large volume of patients, especially since the surgeon has arrived. We have seen both very joyous outcomes, and unfortunately have continued to have many more deaths than we are accustomed to at home, however we have maximized the care to the best of our abilities in the system which is in place here.

Outside of the hospital setting, we had the opportunity to return to the orphanage today. Greg and Wendy, who are missionaries here, had obtained mosquito nets for the children. We were able to go help hang those in the rooms. Hopefully they will be used, and the children will be protected. While there I noticed that 8 of the 18 children have ringworm on their head, and only a few are being treated. The local public health will give treatment for 2 weeks, which is certainly not enough. I talked with one of the volunteers from there, a young lady from Germany, and I am going to calculate the dosages for the children and leave the money with her to see to it that all of them get the full 6-8 weeks treatment that they need. I will also leave a little extra for any of the others who may get ringworm and for the few who need treatment on their skin as well. It is a very minimal price (less than $10) to treat all of them for the full course.

Tonight dinner will involve all of the volunteers here as we are preparing to leave. It is a traditional Ghanaian dish, groundnut soup (peanut soup) served with rice. It is very common here because it is inexpensive and there is a good supply of peanuts. Afterwards will be station meeting, and then we will all say our good-byes. Jeremy and I will leave here at 4AM in the morning, travel by car about 2 1/2 hours to Tamale and then catch our 1 hour flight to Accra. We will be in Accra for the entire day, then leave on a 1AM flight, arriving back in Atlanta between 8 and 9 Saturday morning. Please pray for our safe travels and our continued health as we return home.

Talk to you all soon,
Steve