Hi all you avid readers of this blog! On this day, both Dr. Schoofs and I lectured for the UCC students...I am going to let Nancy tell her experiences in the following blog, but my students were GREAT. They asked really good (and very complex questions) and were extremely attentive. The classrooms are not air conditioned so their instructor was REALLY HOT (and not necessarily in a good sense) while lecturing. The students (about 60 of them) sat mostly in the front of the classroom and anytime one of them had a question, they did not hesitate to ask...their nursing program has been updated by Janet Gross (our host) who is a retired faculty from Morehead State University in Kentucky. She is one tough bird...retired and has lived in Ghana, working with Ghana students and developing their nursing program for the past 2 1/2 years...quite remarkable as there are really no "creature comforts" to be had here. She does it for the love of teaching...again, very remarkable. To think...how many lives will she have changed for the better...anyway, I lecture the 200 level students on HIV/AIDs from the western perspective...and tried to make my lecture as interactive as possible, giving the students an opportunity to tell their stories and give their perspective on something that kills a lot of Ghahaians. Interestingly, one common belief is that America introduced AIDs into the continent of Africa because of virus research. Some also believe that it is a form of population control...somewhat depressing. Overall, the students were just like American students though...they listened, they asked good questions and they really wanted to learn.
After the lecture, we went to a seamstress...we all have bought African material and she fitted us for what we wanted...I also bought a really cool African shirt. We will pick up our new African outfits next Tuesday.
Next we visited the International Center where we met Dr. Kwadwo (English professor who spent a year at GVSU as a Fullbright scholar) where we discussed future programs with GVSU and UCC. He gave us some really good Ghanaian chocolate...Ghana used to be the number 1 producer of chocolate in the world.
Finally, we went to a very cool beach-side restaurant. This time I split an extra large Tilapia meal...with fried rice and Star beer...it was very good. And the company was even better. Dr. Silvia Mupepi has arrived...so Janet, Silvia, Nancy, Ranelle and myself all had a lovely meal. Now we are finishing our day by blogging. Tomorrow, we will visit some nearly hospitals.
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Hi, Sound like a very interesting trip.
ReplyDeleteRemarkable viewpoint about the source / cause of AIDS. Does that mean they have a common dislike for Americans? Which might be expected if they truly believe that we are the cause or are using the disease as a form of population control?
The health payment system is also intriguing. If you can't pay for your hospital stay, as Nancy said they keep the patient in the hospital until they can. --- Do they work for the Hospital to pay it back?
On a lighter note, you said Ghanaian chocolate is very good --
How do they keep it from melting in all that heat? Any chance of bring some back?
The Stilt Village you talk about I think is called Nzulezo on one end of a five kilometer-long Lake, Amansuri. I found a website for the village in fact (If this is it?).
http://ghana-net.com/nzulezo.aspx (hope you can open it to see)
The site also has an appeal from Nana Ackah, Chief of the village for a nurse to be transferred to their community "the absence of a nurse as well as other health facilities has resulted in some deaths which otherwise could have been prevented" he said. A possible opening for you!?
Keep cool.