So I'm working at a nutrition clinic that was set up by Point Hope (the NGO that I've been working for) when the refugee camp first opened up. The clinic gives babies their polio, measles, hepatitis, and yellow fever vaccines, along with some other ones that I can't remember and doses of vitamin A. It used to double as a day care center for malnourished children where they could come and get 2 meals for the day while mom was away at skills training (also funded by Point Hope). About 5 years ago when the government officially stopped recognizing the camp as a refugee camp Point Hope was supposed to start pulling out as well. So that means goodbye child care at the nutrition clinic. Goodbye cooking classes. Goodbye skills training for moms. Pretty much all that is left is the vaccination part and a little bit of the supplemental feeding, funded by Point Hope still. So my project has been sort of difficult to get off the ground floor since Point Hope can't really
put to much more money into the nutrition clinic.
I've been doing steady help on Tuesdays and Thursdays weighing the babies before they get their vaccinations. When I can tell that they are really malnourished I send them into Bismac's office and he can talk to them about breast feeding or regular feeding or whatever else they might need help with. On the other days I've been assigned 5 children that come to the nutrition clinic but have not been doing so well or have been on the program for a long time. With them, I am doing interviews with different people in their families, visiting their house, and just seeing what we can do to help them out. The camp also has a farm set up by Point Hope, which is supposed to be producing food for the supplemental feeding program, but up until the other day it wasn't really producing anything, due to the fault of- well that's some drama that we don't need to get into. The guy that manages the farm is also living at the volunteer house (Chris, Australian- has been mentioned in previous weeks) so I've been working with him to bridge the gap between the farm and the nutrition clinic again. On Wednesdays I go to the farm and oversee the food handout and fish the pond there for massive catfish to give out as well. Since there are only a few families that show up I also do other farm work to help out. Recently, since it is the end of the month, the nurses at the clinics have been going out to different areas of camp to set up mini clinics to reach those that can't come to the nutrition center. I've been going with them in the morning to help set up by the side of the road (and by road I mean dirt path through camp that cars drive on) to weigh and vaccinate more babies. I like some nurses better than others, most of them just yell obroni in my face when I look tired or hot, but there are a few who try to socialize with me and have even been letting me give out polio vaccines when we go out in the field (you just drop the liquid in the child's mouth, they said I'm not ready for the needles yet). Next week we'll start going around camp door to door and handing out coupons for mosquito nets to those that don't have them yet.
So, overall I'm enjoying my time at the clinic. Some days are better than others. Like I said some days I'm all over the place, on the farm all day, then interviews in the afternoon. And some days I play snake on my phone and watch Mexican soap operas with the nurses and call it a day, what are you gonna do?
This week has been a major recovery week from the weekend. I've been eating as much as I can to make up for losing it all and I woke up Thursday, after forgetting to take an antibiotic dose, with a crazy fever. Don't worry it broke by the afternoon and everything was good again. I had to take tro-tros to and from camp all week and I learned a few new important lessons. Being an obroni in the morning means you are going to camp. For some reason all my tro-tro mates have just assumed that, which is actually nice- less thinking that early. If your driver gets sick of sitting in traffic he will take you a back way to your destination. It's ok.. you'll still get there. Eventually. And finally ride them like a roller coaster. Keep hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times and watch out for sliding doors. Other than that not much else to report. My bucket shower technique is getting pretty good and I turned down 3 marriage proposals this week. I think I'm getting used to it here.
Ghanaian food this week: Lucozade- seriously I lived off of this stuff this week. It's like their version of Gatorade except its carbonated and it's the only thing that kept my muscle cramps away after losing all my electrolytes.
Best thing I saw carried on a head: 5 stacks of egg cartons (not just your standard 12 egg- egg cartons. These ones hold 25 each so if that fell...)
Number of time the lights went out: 5 This week wasn't bad.
Here I am weighing the babies at the clinic.
Once we weigh them their weight gets plotted on a growth chart so that we can track their status.
Here I am with one of the nurses I actually like (left) and a mother that we brought in from the field one day. Her baby was 4 months old and had never taken to her breast milk. The mom cried the entire time we were talking to her about ways to feed her baby. She said she was getting worried but didn't know what to do until we came along.
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