Diet, Festival Baby Boom, Newspaper Stories, and Sky Bar

 Thursday June 22

Today I was in the malnutrition ward again. It is technically called the RC ward in the name of Reverend Campbell, although I’m not too sure what his role was and why it’s named after him. There is a plaque in the ward to Dr. Cicely Williams, a doctor here in the 1950s that did pioneering research on malnutrition and discovered and treated a protein malnutrition disease called Kwashiorkor. 

We went to the ER and the dietician assessed a child who was in for respiratory distress but may qualify to be admitted to the malnutrition ward depending on how he does. 

We observed the doctors doing rounds on the patients in the malnutrition ward, mainly checking heart and respiration rates. Each child is weighed every morning, some continue to fluctuate without much forward progress. 

One of the resident doctors is a mother with two young children and schools just started their 8 week break. So, she showed us a workbook document she made to keep her kids entertained and learning until summer school starts in a few weeks. She said that most schools here offer summer school but it isn’t the norm for kids to do it; but it is normal for working mothers, especially doctors, to send their kids to summer school. 

The dietician talked to us about the “4 Star Diet”, the eating recommendations pushed by the Ghanaian gov and other groups. A child’s diet should consist of something from each of the 4 groups: fruits/veggies, legumes/nuts, grains/staples like cassava, and animal sources. It’s kinda their version of the US food pyramid or our revamped balanced plate. 

We went to the general wards and saw the patients who were less than 6 months (if they are this young they stay in the general wards not the malnutrition ward). The dietician spoke with the parent and then weighed them. One baby’s weight had gone up so the father was very happy. 

While sitting in the ward (it was a pretty slow day) we heard a band going by in the street. We weren’t quite sure of the reason but have noticed some instances like this because a period of a ban on noise making recently ended. May 15 to June 15 is a period of preparation for the Homowo festival celebrated by the Ga people which is the annual harvest festival. The ban is supposed to include instruments (even in churches), radios, megaphones, and even automobiles, in order to allow for people to focus on the sounds of the sea (the Ga are from the coast) and for a period of reflection and renewal before the festival. Even though there’s this “ban”, I don’t think it’s actually enforced by anyone and automobile and other human-made noise certainly didn’t stop. The church I’ve attended is part of the Ga presbytery but they still used instruments and had loud music so I think maybe just the noise in the street aspect is what’s mostly observed. When we got a little drumming lesson on one of our first days at the art center shops, they did tell us to play quietly because of the ban. Apparently fishing in lagoon is also banned during this time to allow the population to recuperate but I don’t if this is actually followed or not. Here’s a link about the festival, apparently is has caused controversy in the past with churches wanting to be loud https://theconversation.com/amp/accra-the-ga-peoples-annual-ban-on-noise-restores-a-spiritual-connection-with-the-sea-203261

Dr. Nyarko talked to us today and said that right now is a baby boom because 9months ago (August/September) is when most Ga subgroups celebrate the festival and party a lot. I have been told by locals that I should be here in August to see the festival; it is definitely the biggest event or holiday of the year. 

I then went to from the hospital to the main post office. My driver went through parts of Makola market so it was very crowded and there were several minutes of sitting stopped. I bought some stamps then walked around the area a bit and bought a newspaper from a stand that had at least 10 different newspapers which was interesting. 

I’ve read the whole thing, there’s lots about their upcoming presidential election. Apparently in the recent past, usually they have a Christian president from the Coast and a Muslim vice president from the North so there’s representation, but I think this year there might be a Muslim president for the first time. 

There were stories on all kinds of things; football results from the Ghanaian league but also about Manchester United, a story on a woman suing a local hospital for her medical records (under privacy laws, there aren’t many patient protection/rights laws here), an appeal for funding for the sickle cell clinic at Korle-Bu teaching hospital (it was recently world sickle cell day, they had a banner at the children’s hospital). 

In the car back, the radio was talking about world news and they talked about Trump’s indictment. My roommate once had a Bolt driver who was a Trump fanatic and talked the whole time about how much he liked Trump and America (he has never been to the US). 

I got home and then we went out to Sky Bar, a restaurant by the mall and airport (so about an hour away) that is on top of the tallest building in West Africa. The view was amazing even though it was cloudy and it was a very upscale place. 

The drive to and from was extremely bumpy due to all the rain the day before, there were so many huge puddles on one stretch of the road that is a dirt road. 

We then came back, talked a lot about the Titanic submarine, tried to watch Accra medic, then went to bed