Life in Abomosu--Baby Goat

In Latin America everywhere you look there are dogs and they are quite annoying.  In Ghana everywhere you would expect to see a dog, there is a....... goat and for some reason they are quite endearing.  Especially our special neighbor  Baby Goat.  Baby Goat lives on Stephen's farm and we met him our first morning in Abomosu and all fell in love with him.  

 Goat walking down the street with the cars in Accra.

Goat on a farm.  Probably eating cacao...

 Abuelo must have lived on a farm in another life because he picked up Baby Goat like a pro.  I think he scared Baby Goat a little though...

 Baby Goat gets some lovin' from Danette.

 and Kassie

 The attention was a little too much for Baby Goat and he had to hide between Kassie's legs.

 The Good Good Abomosu Life.  Kassie relaxing with the goats and chickens.

Amazing Posture, Talent, strong neck muscles

The women in Ghana astound me.  They are incredible women of strength, beauty, entrepreneurial skills, and good nature in addition to having amazing posture.  The photo above is a typical woman in Accra.  While the cars are stopped at a light, Ghanians will walk in between the cars to sell you merchandise--anything water, chickens, door handles, tools, dishes, food--you name it and they have it on their heads. 

Stephen

I love this man so much!  Stephen is in charge of World Joy in Ghana in addition to many other things. He is very well respected in the district, and is an incredibly kind man.  

 The morning before we left for the Hospital I was wondering around and found a Chocolate Farm (cacao grove).  Stephen cut a pod off the tree and instantly became my best friend.

 Stephen and Kassie our last day.

 Stephen and Abuelo.

 Stephen and Kellie

 Stephen and Obruni.

Stephen and Danette.  

World Joy Guesthouse

The World Joy Guesthouse is amazing! We stayed outside of Abomosu.  The house is at the end of a single track dirt road that seemed to develop pot holes by the hour.  Our neighbor across the street was Mrs. Cutlass because every morning she would walk around her yard with her machete.  Our next door neighbor was always outside washing clothes, giving her children baths in the front yard, or preparing meals.  The amazing Stephen and Margaret lived at the very end of the "road"

 Our bedroom--4 of us slept in here.  The fan saved us, except when the power would go out.  We couldn't open the windows because they had netting on them to keep the mosquitos out.

 Cockroach!  The first morning I was the only one up and had just come out of the shower when I saw him.  Luckily he was the only one.

 The bathroom.

 Danette getting ready for her Midwife Training Session in the dining room.

 The Alarm Clock.

 Yard.

 The road to the Guesthouse.

Enyiresi Government Hospital. The day I spoke Spanish...in Ghana

Ghana is divided into districts (our equivalent of a county).  The district that World Joy focuses on is the Atiwa District.  Each district has one hospital and in Atiwa, that hospital esta en Enyiresi.  We visited the hospital Monday morning and I was incredibly impressed by its cleanliness. 

 

 Abuelo (Dr. Thueson) waiting in the waiting room--the patio

 World Joy staff meeting with the Enyieresi Medical Director.  He is the only doctor.  That day were were also 2 traveling Humanitarian doctors from Cuba.

 The lab.

 The ER.  No patients that day.

 Peds.  Unfortunately there were 5 peds patients.  :(  This adorable little girl was recovering from burns she sustained from falling in an open pit fire. You can see the purple medicine on her in the photo below.  Sadly burns are quite common in the villages because all the cooking is done outside on an open pit.

 Maternity Ward/NICU.  The little one above was born earlier in the morning at...28 weeks!!! I hated that we were all walking around unsterile but the little guy seemed to be doing great.

 The other little one born that morning.  All wrapped up in a wheat sack.

 Finishing up Hospital grounds tour.

 Midwife training.  These midwives knew their stuff.  They work at the hospital so they have more experience than those in the clinics in the smaller villages.

   Bringing a suitcase full of flip flops was definitely worth it--they were so happy to receive them!

Saturday-- AKA The Arrival

There is nothing like waking up to see everything completely covered in snow and knowing that you are on your way to Africa where there is no snow!

The flight:  We all arrived at the SLC airport, Kassie and I bought our farewell Starbucks, hopped the plane to JFK  where we found Kellie, took the short ;) flight to Accra and suddenly we were in Africa (where there was no snow... I love it already)  :)

The airport:  We went through Customs, got all our luggage (luckily...one of Kassie's bags was the second the last to arrive), exchanged our money, and followed Ike out without getting stopped once.  We somehow were able to fit all the bags in the van and met Yao, our driver, Twi language expert, and friend.

Accra to Abomosu:  We left the airport and drove to the grocery store...inside a mall... to pick up some groceries for the week.  Kass and I found some Ghanian chocolate (that turned out to be...not so great), some African nutella (that turned out to be...really great), and digestives (which turned out to be... crackers).  Some prices were comparable to the states, some things were cheaper and some were substantially more expensive--a 2 oz bottle of mustard was the equivalent of $10USD.  whew.

The drive from Accra to Abomosu, the village where we would be staying for the week, was a 3ish hour trip and was gorgeous...and bumpy.  :)  We were all trying so hard to stay awake because it was so beautiful but jet lag + spending the night on an airplane = very tired people.

We finally arrived at the Guesthouse outside of Abomosu, ate our dinner of rice, chicken, yam balls, meatballs, and pastries and fell asleep.