Africa 5

It is hard to believe that we have already been here almost 3 weeks. We have had a great time so far and have enjoyed working in the hospital, both from a medical side and a ministry side. The first photo is one that we took while walking through the village this past week. These mud huts are the typical house for the people of Nalerigu. Each compound has a few mud huts opening into an inner courtyard. Your entire family including parents, brothers, sisters, and grandparents all live in the compound with you. During this hot time of year, the people sleep out in the courtyard, but other times of the year, the men sleep in some of the huts and the women in the others.

Ghana as a country recognizes Good Friday and the Monday after Easter as national holidays. That means no clinic for the hospital, but still plenty of sick patients coming in. Just in the past two days we have seen a few cases of typhoid fever (one needing surgery for a bowel perforation), an incarcerated hernia, a couple cases of seizures, meningitis, plenty of malaria, and some c-sections. But since there is no clinic, we had time to go to the Good Friday church service at one of the Baptist churches in town. When we arrived, they were having a baptism service just outside the church building. The 2nd photo was taken at that service. Most of the congregation was in a circle and they were singing praise songs during the baptisms. It was really a neat experience and there were about 20 people who were baptised. The Good Friday service was a lot of fun as well as it had even more of a celebratory feel than the normal services. It is truly encouraging to worship with the Christians of Nalerigu. Though they are considered poor by just about anyone's standards, they are rich in the Spirit of God.

The third picture was taken as Angela was helping Dr. Faile with an ex-lap (abdominal surgery). A lady had come in looking just like she had a typhoid bowel perforation, but when they opened her belly, they only found the evidence of a perforation, but no source. They finished the surgery and closed her and she got better with antibiotics and recently went home. At the beginning of each surgery case, everyone is quiet and Dr. Faile leads the team in a prayer for the patient. It is only through God's care that so many of the people here get better when we have relatively little to work with compared to other hospitals around the world.

The last picture was taken just today as Charlie and Chuck did an EGD on a patient who had been vomiting blood. We found the source and now he is being treated for his ulcers. Just before Charlie arrived, the last endoscope broke and since that time we have been using a colonoscope. Yes, that is right, the same scope that is normally used for colonoscopies. It is a little longer and a little wider, but the patients have been tolerating it well. And we don't use it for colonoscopies anymore! Thanks for following along with us. Happy Easter!