Relaxation Saturday

Hi everyone,
Below you will see a few pictures of our Saturday adventures. We did not necessarily have the day off, but we did have a little excursion after rounds were finished this morning.

A few updates from the hospital. The young man whose pictures were posted yesterday continues to do very well. In fact, today in the town we visited for our excursion, we ran into his dad, who was again thanking us and telling us that is son is completely normal mentally. Overnight, we had 2 deaths on the pediatric ward. First was a young child with horrible malnutrition and an illness we could not really fully diagnose or treat, other than some severe malnutrition, which obviously didn't help her chances. The other is the infant I admitted a few days ago, who would have been 8 days old today, if I remember correctly. Regardless, despite our best efforts to treat what appeared to be sepsis, she ultimately ended up in multisystem organ failure and died overnight. She was very interesting, because when the nurses told me her name, they had to explain its meaning. The name (which I will not even attempt to spell) means infant girl. They don't actually give the child a name until is 8 days old (having survived the first week on earth). This is whent he child technically becomes a person to them. I was surprised by this, but to the credit of the mother, she never left the bedside of the patient from admission until death.

We also were able to get some sun today. Even with SPF-30, Jeremy and I both have a little more color now. It is amazing what just getting outside the hospital will do for you. Of course, riding in the back of pickup truck along dirt roads, we also had a bit of an orange tint to us until we showered and removed all the dust.



Today we drove about 45 minutes to another town called Nakpanduri, where there is an escarpment....basically a giant cliff which looks out onto the plains leading to Burkina Faso and Togo, two of the neighboring countries with Ghana. This is a view from the bottom of the hike.







This is Jeremy trying to get through what the kid's call "Fat Man's Squeeze." And for those who were wondering he did make it.

















This is part of the view from the top with our group today. It really was an amazing view. The pictures don't do it justice. We were up high enough there were birds flying below us.









This tree is called a Baobob (I have no idea if this is the way to spell it) The trunk itself is huge and the branches are so little. Many people here believe the Baobob tree holds special powers. I just think it is a cool looking tree.











After our time at the escarpment we visited with a man and his wife (he is from Holland and she US) who have lived here for over 50 years. They originally came with the Peace Corps and helped with reforestation of the area. These are some of the animals people have dropped at their doorstep.

The baboon did not like his picture to be taken.





One of the monkeys was enjoying groundnuts (AKA peanuts)

















After returning from Nakpanduri, we went to the local market here in Nalerigu, which happens every three days. It is a market for the everyday Ghanaian, not really for tourists. It was interesting to see all of the produce, grains, cloth, clothing, junk, etc. available. This picture only serves to show a very small portion. To get the feeling think lots of people, hot, some good smells...but mostly not, plenty of color and little kids saying "Suminga, Suminga" (again sorry about the spelling), which means "white person, white person!" Many of the kids also want to touch you...kind of like being a rockstar I guess. Anyway it was fun and we are planning to go back again before we come home.

I think that is about it for today. We will update again tomorrow. We are trying to catch up on some sleep. We are not used to working all day post-call, so it has been a bit of an adjustment for us, but preparing us for real life after residency. In the meantime, please keep us and our patients in your prayers.

Love,
Steve and Jeremy