I'm so glad I went to the village

I didn't get to share about my afternoon to the village yet. I went into the bush. Literally, Mrs. Baba, Mary Anne, several nurses, and I all went together in an SUV and off-roaded to a village an hour and a half away. We were on nothing but a dirt road, which she called the "highway." Then we took off and went straight onto grass and drove over bushes and weaved through trees. You really had to be there to understand this. She knew exactly where she was going the whole way. There was a narrow dirt walking path that she kept the tire on. She said the problem during the rainy season is that it becomes to muddy and the car gets stuck, so they are literally blocked from getting to the remote villages to give the people healthcare. They give immunizations to the children and, if anyone is sick, they will admit them to our hospital an hour and a half away. There is also a nutritional rehab center they can go to for malnutrition treatment. So, as we are driving, all you see is green shrubbery, trees, and dirt. At one point, when the road was a little wider, there was all of the sudden the most beautiful red flowering tree. It was next to the church. I thought it was so ironic that the one thing that catches your attention is near a church. That's how we should be. Bearing the fruit and radiating. This tree is called "flamboyant."

As we were driving, the radio was playing a station in Accra, the large city in the south. Today is "Malaria Day." The talk radio was encouraging people to recognize signs of malaria and not to ignore them, but to take action and go get medicine. They are even teaching people basic things like, if you have not had your menstrual cycle in two months, go to an antenatal clinic. Seriously, people do not think of prenatal care here. They want to have their babies at home and then miss all of the prenatal care. One segment of the show talked about the issue of time management with women such as how they can effectively manage time working in the kitchen, the introduction of modern technology, and what the microwave does to change their culture. Can you believe they are talking about the microwave? This is what it is here. I can't explain how primitive. Some who can afford it in larger towns will have cell phones. These people have skipped a whole generation of the land line phone. It's too hard with the terrain to keep up with that, so they are able to have a few cell towers, instead, to provide communications. No TVs. The cell phone with extra fees can provide internet exploring and emails, though.

Back to the village, we arrived and I saw some babies who were sick, then gave immunizations to many. These immunizations give these children promise. Then, I had a cultural experience. I needed to use the bathroom, and I asked Mrs. Baba if there was one in this remote place. We were literally out in the pasture with several mud compounds nearby. No town, stores, etc. So, they brought me inside one of the mud compounds. A lady who lived there let me come in. It was a circular enclosed mud area on the sides with open air on top and a hard mud floor with a form of a drain. That is the toilet, basically the floor. After that interesting experience, I was invited into her home. Most of the homes are circular huts about 5-6 feet in diameter. It seems like a privileged wife gets to live in the rectangle one about 9x 9 feet. It was a hard mud floor with no windows and jars stacked on each other that held their clothes. Their food was in one corner, which included a bag of peanuts and a bowl of flour. The rest of the floor was empty for lying or sitting space. It was hot and muggy in there. Mrs. Baba told me that meningococcal meningitis thrives in these types of enclosed climates. She's right. That's why it is so rampant. I asked, why can't they have windows? She said the men don't trust their many wives and don't want them to sneak out of the window and leave the mud compound. This was just a phenomenal cultural experience for me. It was enriching to be a part of how they live.