Good-Bye BMC!

It has been over a year since I first arrived in Nalerigu and at the Baptist Medical Centre.  Today as I leave I cannot really describe what I am feeling.  It is bitter sweat . . . I am excited to go home and see my family and eat Chinese food, but I am feeling like I left so much work undone.  I am sad to say good-bye to people I have become so close to over the last year.

As this date has neared, I was starting to get trouble from some of the staff about leaving.  They would ask why I was going home and at first I told them I was going home to get a job and they would look at me funny and tell me I already had a job here at the BMC.  It was hard to explain that I needed a job that could pay my loans, etc.  Then Chief John (our X-ray and lab Tech) told me there were only two reasons people could return to the states.  One: To receive more training that they could then return and utilize at the BMC.  Two: To get married.  After that I have been telling everyone that the reason I was returning to the states was to get married.  That answer was much more satisfying to the Ghanaians and they would answer back, "Oh yes you need to get married and then bring your husband and child back to Nalerigu!"  (The fact that you get married implies that you will quickly have a child after.)

As I reflect back on the good, the bad, and the ugly of my year here in Ghana and drive away from the BMC for the last time for who knows how long I know that I will defiantly miss this place and these people and I am already yearning to come back.  Below are a few of things that I will and will not miss!

Things I WILL NOT miss:

1)  The constant drumming coming from town can drive one a bit nuts, especially at night when you are trying to fall asleep.  It is like living in a drum circle. 

2) Waking up to the Muslim call to prayer at four in the morning is not my favorite thing in the world, especially because I am really not a morning person.  Over the year, I have gotten used to it and usually I can turn over and fall back to sleep.    

3) Everything in Africa comes in seasons and that includes the bugs and other small animals.  Each season brought some new creature that always seemed worse than the last.  Beatles, scorpions, snails, spiky large caterpillars, termites, fire ants, earwigs, snakes, tarantulas, a super large and really fast spider that I have never been quick enough to kill, these giant worms, bush rats, and geckos to name a few have all made my stay here interesting.    

4) I have always been a bit of a tom boy and back home it is rare to see me in a dress or a skirt.  Here I have worn a skirt to work every day because it is culturally inappropriate for a woman to wear pants.  Although, I have come to appreciate wearing skirts a bit more (and will probably wear them more in the future), I cannot wait to get home and put on a pair of slacks for work.

5) Market is an interesting cultural experience, but having to buy your food from there is exhausting. I am so ready to be able to head to a grocery store whenever I want (market is every three days here) and not have to worry about bartering for my food.

6) The lack of entertainment . . . Although we have played some riveting games of Pictionary and Monopoly Deal, there is not much to do here in the Gu.  What I really cannot wait to do is go to a movie theatre. 

7) My twin bed . . . I have not slept in a twin bed since I don’t know when and I am constantly almost falling out at night when I roll over!

8) Feeling disconnected from the world . . . I am a bit of a news junky.  I used turn on the television as soon as I was home to a news station and let it play, in the car I listened to NPR, and at work between cases you would often find me on the internet reading article from some news outlet.  Here it is often days before I get the chance to check the internet for news, I feel like I am always playing catch up on the worlds current events.

9) Burning my trash!  I can’t wait to just be able to leave my trash at my curb to become someone else’s problem!

10) The heat and constant sweat coming from parts of my body that I never knew could sweat!

Things I WILL miss:

1)  Although I do not enjoy being woken up at night for emergencies, I have come to love the walk to and from the hospital at night.  The campus is calm and quiet, and although I know that my attention should be focused on the ground watching for snakes, I find myself always staring up at the sky where there are more stars than I have ever seen before.

2)  I have met some incredible people here that have given up the comforts of a western life to serve the poor of Northern Ghana.  The short term volunteers that have come and gone have all been wonderful to meet and work with at the hospital.  But it is the long term missionaries who over the year I have built relationships with that I will truly miss.  T and Julia Welch, Bart, Jane Anne, and Elizabeth Gibbs, The Coppola Family (Mark, Lynn, Sarah Grace and Elizabeth), The Hewitt Family (Earl, Mona, Emily, Abby, and Benton), and The Coram Family (Michael, Julie, Taylor, and Noah).  

3)  Wearing flip flops to work everyday . . . there is defiantly nothing better than that.  I was thinking the other day how I have actually not worn real shoes for almost whole year.

4) Being outside . . . Even when you are indoors here in Africa the way the windows are made it is very open to the outside.  Basically there is just a screen with some open slabs of glass.  Being here is a lot like how it was in back in college, I walk or ride my bike everywhere and as I go I appreciate the chance to be outside.  At home, I used to spend my whole day in the depths of the hospital and often never saw the sun (especially in the winter) because there are no windows in the operating rooms or ER rooms and patient’s curtains are often pulled tightly shut.  Going to lunch here is not running through a building down to the cafeteria, but a 5 minute walk across the campus, under flowering trees and blue skies.  I go from ward to ward though open air hallways and between operating cases I enjoy sitting in the theatre break room which is just enclosed by screens. 

5)  Rice balls and ground nut stew . . . yummy goodness in a bowl.  I was taught by a Ghanaian friend how to make the dish so I am hoping I will be able to find the proper ingredients in America!

6)  The patients . . . Although at times they can be incredible frustrating, for the most part they are kind and thankful for the care they have received.  They are poor humble people that when it really comes down to it, they are just trying to get by and survive the day.  Their smiles are incredibly large and beautiful (even the toothless ones) and I have enjoyed working with them throughout the year.  Laughing with them, mourning loss with them, and most importantly seeing the sick get well.  The most awesome thing has been to see patients walk into clinic after they had been so sick in the hospital.  There have been some that I truthfully did not think would survive and I just prayed they would not die.  Seeing those people in clinic always reminded me why I was here and why I was called to become a physician in the first place.  

7) The easy pace of life here in the Gu.  Don’t get me wrong, I am incredibly busy at the hospital, but when the work day is done or the weekends are here, the pace of life is slower here.  There is no rushing around to appointments or engagements.   

8) Having a personal watch guard . . .  any time of night when I would come home he would jump up and walk over to make sure I got into my house okay.  It made me feel safe to know that he was around. 

9) The friendly greeting you get from friends and strangers alike.  Along this line I think I will actually miss hearing the children yell at me “Saminga Hello,” because that greeting is always accompanied by excited waving children with great smiles.