Internet problems

The internet is down at the schoolhouse (the only place we have internet access here on the hospital compound). We drove to the internet cafe here in town today and I wanted to let y'all know not to worry if you don't hear from me for the next few days. Apparently the internet is not always reliable, especially in the rainy season. We've had a lot of rain this weekend and I was told that maybe things will dry out in a few days and the internet will work again. So hopefully you'll hear from me soon but until then thanks for all your prayers and love! 

Not your typical rainy Saturday

Today is the kind of day you want to curl up with a book or watch movies all day and not have to leave the house. But today wasn't a typical lazy, rainy Saturday for me. It started at 8 am with hospital rounds (we get to sleep in 30 mins longer on weekends). I rounded with the doctors in the adult wards. In adults, we see more of a variety of diagnoses – a man with abdominal pain going for surgery today, a woman with pneumonia that will probably not live much longer, a girl with a snake bite who still has a lot of swelling of her arm, a man having a sickle cell crisis. I saw 2 babies delivered today... the midwives told me to come back and they will let me deliver the next baby! I figure in the 4 months I will be here, that is definitely something I need to learn to do. It was pouring down rain and I walked to lunch down the muddy road – when it's a dirt road there's no way for you not to get muddy shoes, but at least I had an umbrella! After lunch it was still raining, but I went back up to the hospital and checked on some of the kids that had been admitted for malaria and were receiving blood. And then I helped in a wound dressing change – this teenager had a burn over his entire back and we had to sedate him in order to change his dressing. It was one of the worst ones I have seen. So that's been my Saturday so far... and it's only 3 pm! Maybe I will relax a little this afternoon...   

A week with kids

It's been a busy week in pediatrics with lots of sick kids and many that we've been able to help. We had clinic again yesterday and saw more kids – we see kids with respiratory infections, skin infections, parasites and other things, but 75% of what we have seen has been been malaria. We round on the hospital wards every morning at 7:30 am & this week I've been able to see many of the kids I admitted on Monday & Wednesday and see their improvement. Today I saw a little boy who looked really bad yesterday and needed blood badly. This morning when I saw him, he had received the blood and was laughing and looking great. What a great feeling!  There are some medical students here as volunteers and we've been rotating around so I will probably go back to adults tomorrow or on Monday, but at least I'll be here long enough to get to come back to peds. :)

The Pediatric Ward

The pediatric ward is for the kids that have to be admitted to the hospital. It is a large room with beds and cribs. I think there are about 40 beds, but many times there are patients on the floor and on benches. Private rooms are not an option here. Patients must have a family member (and many times there is more than one) that stay with them, help care for them and give them food (the hospital does not provide food). Here are two pictures of the ward – one of the side of the room with cribs and the other with patients lined up to see Dr. Miller and me this morning. Many of these patients are the ones that are feeling better and are ready to be discharged. Dr. Miller is a volunteer pediatrician who is here for 2 months. He has over 50 years of experience and after his wife passed away 10 years ago, he began to be involved in medical missions and now spends over half of the year at different hospitals around the world that need doctors. He is very knowledgeable and I have really enjoying working with him and learning from him.    

My mailing address

People are asking me what my address is so I decided to post it on here in case anybody wants to send me anything. I think packages could take up to a month but I'll be here for 4 months. :)

Amy Elrod, Baptist Medical Centre, Box 50, Nalerigu via Gambaga NR GHANA

Today was another busy day at clinic. I'm definitely not bored! :) I'll post more tomorrow...

Busy day in pediatrics

Today was a busy day at clinic! They have an outpatient clinic here in the hospital on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. They told me that probably 800-900 patients came through clinic today. People come from all over to receive medical care and the medical staff does what they can to help the patients. Today I got to work in pediatrics. The pediatrician and I saw 96 patients! It was an exhausting but rewarding day, knowing that I treated many patients that would have died without receiving medication. Probably 75% of what I treated was malaria. I had to admit some of the patients to the hospital because the anemia from the malaria was so bad. This is crazy since I never have treated malaria before! I have definitely been on a steep learning curve ever since I arrived, but I have already been a help even with the knowledge I do know. I was very overwhelmed last week with the medical side, feeling that I should have gone to medical school to really be useful here, but today I was reminded that there is a lot I do know. I remember when I was in Brasil and being told the phrase, “In a land of blindness, he who has one eye is king.” I may only have 1 eye, but there is a lot I can do here. God has also reminded me that it is He who has called me here, knowing my abilities and also my weaknesses, and it is He who will continue to give me strength & wisdom to take care of these people. Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for me, as well as all of the permanent and volunteer medical staff - for health, strength, and the wisdom & knowledge to treat these patients. Pray that they would see Christ through the love in our eyes and the care that we give, even when we can't tell them because of language barrier and the endless line of patients.   

My African alarm clocks

There are definitely different sights and sounds here in Africa.  My "alarm clock" has been one of them.  I did bring an alarm clock, but it's been other things that have awaken me most mornings.  The first morning it was a rooster at 6 am, who made his rooster sound (what's it called?) right outside my window.  The next morning it was the heavy rain at 530 am (it is the rainy season) and then this morning I woke up at 3:30 am to some animal sound that sounded like the EKG/heart rate sound on the hospital monitors we have in the States.  Someone told me it was probably a bat.  I am in Africa but I haven't seen any lions or zebras yet; lots of goats and chickens though. And there are tons of bats!  Yesterday I was walking with my roommate & was asking about all the birds I saw flying above us (there were hundreds!)... she informed me they were bats.  Yea, so I didn't think bats came out during the day... I'm learning lots here in Africa!  :)

Ghanaian Beauty Queens

I got to meet “Miss Ghana” AKA “Ghana Most Beautiful”!  She and a couple of the other beauty girls were on my plane from Accra to Tamale. I was sitting in the airport admiring these women with their fancy African clothes, big gold earrings, stylish purses and high heels and thinking, “I totally brought all the wrong clothes to Ghana!” I sat by them on the plane and when we landed all of them were powdering their face, putting on lipstick and fixing their hair and once again I was thinking that I packed all of the wrong things. It wasn't until I got to the “baggage claim” (the little building we walked into after getting off the plane) that I saw the women walk in with their crowns & pageant ribbons and it dawned on me that these were beauty queens! Well, they walked outside and everybody ran to go try to take pictures of them and my driver explained to me who they were. We were driving away from the airport and all of the sudden all the cars in front of us stopped in the middle of the road and everyone started getting out – they all got out to greet Miss Ghana in her car. So I got out with everybody else & went up to greet her and took a picture!

Where do I begin?

So I'm still trying to figure out this whole blog thing. :) Below is a picture of me in front of the hospital... was just trying to figure out how to upload pics. After a few days of being overwhelmed at all the new sights and sounds and recovering a little from jet lag, I am ready to write and share some more about my experience. Where do I begin? There are so many things I want to tell you! I will write more about the hospital and the work here in the upcoming weeks, but I ask that you specifically pray for God's guidance as to what He wants me to get involved in during my time here. There are so many ministry options in addition to working in the clinic and the hospital and I really want to spend my time here wisely and be doing what God wants me to do.    

Pictures

Kids from the town

Above - Nalerigu - the village the hospital is in

Below -  me in front of the hospital

Safely in Nalerigu

The African adventures continue!  I finally made it to the Baptist Medical Center in Nalerigu at lunchtime today.  There are so many things I could write about just from today.  But the main thing is I wanted to let y'all know I made it safely here.  After catching a 5 am flight (that had handwritten boarding passes), and then driving 2 1/2 hours that became more like 4 with stops we had to do before leaving the city...  I am definitely excited to be here and be done with all the traveling for a while.  I am staying with the journeyman that's here and everyone I've met so far has been really nice.  I can't believe I'm really in Africa!!

I was reading Exodus 23:20 this morning "I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and bring you to the place I have prepared."   This is the verse my Brazilian family shared with me when I moved to Rio in 2003 and I was reminded again today that God is with me and is leading me to the place He has prepared for me.  He is so faithful and I am excited to discover what He has for me here in Ghana!

I'm in Africa!!!

I made it to Ghana!! I am here right now at the Baptist Guesthouse in Accra, the capital of Ghana. Thank you for the prayers! It's been a long trip but problem free. I left Atlanta yesterday and flew a 9 hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany and then a 6 hour flight to Accra. I have now been in 4 continents in a little over 3 weeks – no wonder I am exhausted!! On the flight to Germany I sat next to a lady from Bosnia who only spoke 5 words of English. I think it was probably her first time flying. I had to help her with her seatbelt and then to find someone with a wheelchair once we made it to the airport. She was so sweet but I felt so bad I couldn't talk more with her.  I forgot how frustrating it was to not be able to communicate with people! Between her and all the German, I was feeing lost. But I made it to Ghana and at least the official language here is English. :) I was very much relieved to see my bags at the baggage claim & to walk out and find someone waiting for me at the airport. And I can't wait to sleep in a bed tonight!!! But the travel isn't over yet! Tomorrow I leave at 5 am to catch a 2 hour flight then a 2 ½ hour drive until I will finally arrive in Nalerigu. Ok, well that's all I'm gonna write for now because my brain isn't working very well with the jet lag and lack of sleep. I think I need to sleep!!       

The day is here!

In a few hours I will be on the plane headed to Ghana!!  It's interesting to me how I have changed over the years. For one, I still haven't finished packing & I leave in a few hours!  I used to have everything all packed days before I left, but I guess this is my Brazilian side coming out - I now would rather hang out with people & leave everything else to the last minute.  Even now, I am sitting here writing about how I haven't finished packing, when I really need to just be packing! :) But the biggest difference I see in my life compared to when I first left for Brasil years ago is that "peace that passes all understanding". I am both excited and scared - but mostly I am just filled with peace.  As I prepare to embark on this new journey, I can't help but think about God's faithfulness in my life and especially about Brasil and how He was so good to provide everything I needed.  As I prepare to get on that plane today, I am filled with peace knowing that the Lord has brought me to this point and will go with me every step of the way.  I am excited about those of you that will be "going with me" by reading this blog & through your prayers.  This is my first time writing a blog, so I don't know how it's gonna turn out, but I will try my best to keep y'all updated these next 4 months in Africa.  Please pray for traveling mercies as I leave tonite.  It's gonna be a long 2 days of traveling until I finally arrive in Nalerigu.  I will write as soon as I have access to internet (maybe in Accra tomorrow night), but know that I love you guys & am thankful for you!!!