At the hospital, I asked Dr. Kudoh what he thought of Prayer camps. He thinks they are a big problem. The main problem, he said, is that people who need medical attention often go to the prayer camp instead of the hospital, causing their situation to deteriorate.
After talking, Dr. Kudoh and I went to the mortuary to examine the body of a patient who died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. While at the mortuary I recognized the body of a former patient on the male ward. The body was just left on the floor in the middle of a hallway. In poast weeks, the man had been semi-conscious and bed ridden, but had been slowly improving in recent days. I asked Dr. Kudoh what had happened and he explained the man had died after being used as a patient for the nurses’ practical examination. The nurses tried to feed the man, but he choked and died. Dr. Kudoh was pretty furious at the man’s unnecessary death. To have the man die in such an unnecessary way was a bit upsetting to me as well. Under Dr. Kudoh’s supervision I had used the Glasgow coma scale on this man each day and had been seeing steady improvement. It was disheartening to have the man die from such a careless act after seeing his continual improvement.
On a lighter note, the after-school continues to go well. I am enjoying teaching the kids and they are learning quickly. I am also gleaning some interesting information about Ghanaian culture from the kids. Today, one boy asked me if I use Vaseline to make my skin so light. I was very surprised by this. After some thought however, I remembered that I have seen advertisements for skin lightening ointments all over Ghana. It seems lighter skin is socially beneficial, and Vaseline is believed to be a cheaper alternative to the proper skin-lightening ointments. I told the children I did not use anything on my skin, but was born with light skin. The kids seemed quite surprised by this.
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