More C Sections and Swimming Again- June 15

 Thursday June 15

In our car ride to the clinic, the radio was talking all about inflation and how apparently Ghana's inflation is worse than even war-torn, more impoverished countries in Africa. I've seen things about this on campaign posters around town.

Today in the maternity clinic we started in the antepartum ward and saw mothers with gestational diabetes and anemia mainly. We saw one patient have her membrane ruptured to induce labor. 

The manner of the doctor and nurses was definitely different than the US, a lot more casual and not quite as personal or coming off as being very caring to the individual, they’d move very fast and not explain things that much. The layout may feed into this, it is tight quarters with lots of patients in beds right next to each other. The doctor would ask other patients to look away when doing cervical checks. 

We then went to the OR and there were 3 C sections we observed today! It was interesting to see the same procedure on 3 different patients because the reasons were slightly different for each and the baby's size was definitely different, the last one was a really big baby and the doctor had to use forceps and push on the stomach to get the big head out. 

The worst part to watch each time was definitely them putting in the epidural because they didn’t give lidocaine so it was obviously painful. 

The last patient I would’ve thought was maybe 25 years old was actually 16. The doctor said that the father was arrested regardless of his age because the girl was under 18. 

After each surgery, the woman was wheeled to the recovery room and the baby was kept on a cart in the hallway. They definitely didn’t do skin-to-skin soon after and I also have noticed that in the labor ward so that’s interesting that things feel very clinical and medicalized even though they’re not too far past majority homebirths. 

There were no fathers present although I think at one point the nurse did take one of the babies to show the father. 

We then went home then I went to swim at the University of Ghana pool. It was about an hour drive to the pool and it was luckily uneventful. The traffic was pretty bad and we were at a standstill several times. During this, the road would be filled with people walking around the cars selling things, mainly women carrying their items in large baskets on their heads (usually packaged food or drinks or baked items), and men carrying things around their shoulders or with their hands (anything from phone cords to car floor mats to sunglasses). There are sometimes kids too who sell things or beg at the window. You can see how close cars and trotros get in the picture below.

I arrived and changed in the locker room. 

I walked into the pool deck, there was one lane line in the water and maybe 10 people leisurely swimming, mostly kids. I was stopped by a guy sitting on the blocks who was either watching the kids or teaching them lessons. He told me the pool was not open to visitors and we had a long conversation where I tried to explain that I had been here before and been given permission by the coach; he asked me for the name of the coach which i didn’t remember (if he had told me it at all when we briefly talked) but at least I told him the name of the team (Legon Sharks) which I think convinced him a little that I wasn’t making it all up and he sent me to go talk to another guy who also looked like he was maybe teaching or watching the kids.

The other guy was kind of asking me the same questions but then he asked if I was the girl who came in the Uber last time to which I said yes. He pointed to Bullet (the swimmer I talked to a lot last time who tonight I found out on WhatsApp that his real name is Foster) who was in the water and told me I could swim in that lane (I hadn’t seen him swimming earlier). 

So I swam for about an hour. The water was really green and felt like open water swimming, I'm not sure how it got like that when it was really clear last eek. There is no clock so I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. As I was getting out some kids swam up to me and were very curious to hear where I was from, they asked if I was from Canada first then asked if I had ever been to Scotland or Japan. 

For the last 20 minutes of my swim, I noticed that the Legon Sharks swim club members started showing up and were crowded around a whiteboard. They had matching T-shirts. 

When I got out I talked to Bullet/Foster and he said that this practice about to begin was mainly for the younger ones and that he swam on his own this afternoon but had also trained this morning, I think with running and biking. The whiteboard was the set they were writing out. There were maybe 15 kids that seemed ages 11-16 and they started with dryland on the field. 

I said hi to the main coach and thanked him again for letting me use the pool. I talked to Foster a bit more, he said that he trains in the mornings before his school, then comes after school (biking here it seems) and swims. 

I changed in the locker room then left. I did notice lots of college-aged people coming from the gym area, and the tennis courts were being used.

I took a Bolt car to meet my roommates for dinner at a place called Bistro 22. It was pretty upscale and had nice outdoor seating. I had a salad with mango and beef and we ordered sides of mashed potatoes because that’s the first time we’ve seen them here. 

We then went back home and had leftover birthday cake that our coordinator had bought for my roommate’s birthday earlier this week.