For my post today, I wanted to show the daily process of the medical clinic. We had a pharmacy set up at our home base in Adidome, and every day we would pack up our bus and head out to a village about 30 to 40 minutes away. Daniel, who you see in the photograph below, is the driver for International Needs. He has such a servant’s heart. Every day he stands on top of the bus and loads up all of the medical supplies. When we arrive, he unloads them with the help of our team, and all of the children who wanted to help :)

Once we have all of our stations set up, registration begins. Daniel and Syfaco had incredible patience as they sat out in the hot sun and tried to give a little bit of organization to the hundreds of villagers who had come to see the doctors. We were all so thankful for their help in making everything run smoothly from the start! During registration, Syfaco and Daniel would get the names, ages, and weight of the people, and start them with a blue card that would fill up with all their medical information. The first stop after registration was with the nurse’s. Every American nurse had a translator, and we were fortunate to be able to have some Ghanaian nurses with us as well.

Next, they came to the de-worming station, which is where I hung out when I wasn’t taking photos. We learned from our translators how to say “dwi,” which means swallow, when we wanted them to swallow their deworming pill, and “mi,” when we wanted them to chew their vitamin. We got a lot of laughter from the people as we butchered their language :) It was hard!

Here are some of our translators who helped to make the day more fun as we got to chat with them and learn about their lives.

Next up was the doctors, who were able to find out the medical conditions of each person. They would ask a series of questions in order to write a prescription.

If needed, there was wound care available. This part was so difficult. I’m still amazed at Dr. Nina and Dr. Janet’s composure as they were cleaning the wounds of some of the people. I know that I can’t even describe in words what it was like to be in the room, but I’ll try. The boy below was about 18 or 20, and was brought in by a teacher because of the wound on his foot. He had stepped on a broken electrical wire, and it had burned a hole in his foot. He hadn’t been able to come to school since it had happened, as he couldn’t walk on it. The doctor’s were heartbroken when they saw the severity of the wound. If he doesn’t have medical attention and someone to change the dressing on the wound, he will more than likely have to have his leg amputated. I can’t even describe the grief I felt as I watched his face when the doctors were doing their best to clean out his wound. It looked excruciating. And I felt so helpless as I sat and watched. That night at our debrief, there were many tears shed for the pain and suffering we had seen that day. As I shared my feelings of helplessness, our group leader shared a little story with us. We have each been given a bucket full of our talents and skills. God asks us to pour out our bucket into the Grand Canyon, and we raise our eyebrows and say, “God, come on, do you see how tiny my bucket is? I can’t fill up the Grand Canyon. Not even close!” But God isn’t asking us to tell Him what we can and can’t do. He is asking us to take what He has given us, and give it back to Him. Are we so ungrateful for our gifts that HE has given us that we think we can’t be used? Just as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish, He will take our gifts and use them for His glory. My prayer when I returned home is that my heart would continue to be broken for the things that I saw in Ghana, and I’m happy to say that as I write this post, it’s still being broken.

I’m sorry for the graphic photograph below, but I really want to show the reality the situation when there is a lack of medical care available. This boy has been heavy on my heart since I returned from Ghana, and I would love help in praying for miraculous healing for his foot.

The last place the people visited was the pharmacy. Once again, this was a tough place to be. The team members working here saw all the statistics…how many children had STD’s, how many had malaria, how many had illnesses that had gone untreated for far too long. I’m so thankful for their persistance and for using their skills to help in such a draining and heart-wrenching way.

In spite of all the hard things I have just shared, I want to end on a positive note, because these people are SO JOYFUL. I know I have said this in previous posts, but it’s because I was constantly blown away by their beautiful smiles and their laughter in the midst of everything. They cracked me up, because they want to be very serious for a picture, and then as soon as I showed the picture of them, they would burst out into a huge smile, and I would whip my camera back around quickly and try to capture their beautiful smile before the got all serious for the camera again :)

We gave the kids stickers. I don’t know why they ended up on everyone’s foreheads…

And some “toffee,” which the kids reminded us about all day. “Toffee, toffee?”

Below was the old school building. Thanks to International Needs, they now have a building made of concrete instead of mud. They also have wells at each school in the villages, so that the children can be hydrated while at school.

Little women :)

Our fearless and encouraging leader. I bet you can pick her out of the group :)