At 11pm
on Saturday we (Christy, Caz, Madso, and Joanna) arrived in Enchi!!
No words could express our
delight and relief. At many points along the way we didn’t know if we would
ever make it! Our day began at 6am when we left our guesthouse in Tamale –
piling us and our many bags in a couple of Taxis. We took a 6 hour bus trip to
Kumasi. The intercity buses are air-conditioned with roomy seats thus making
that portion the pinnacle of our journey, aside from the customary chaos at the
bus station. From there we again took taxis to the Kumasi Tro-Tro station. Two
very trusting looking men offered to take us there, we agreed assuming they
knew where that was. After an hour long extended tour of Kumasi including
driving down the middle of a hectic and odorous market we realized they were
completely and utterly lost. After being deserted by our drivers in the middle
of said market with a pile-up of vehicles all honking behind us, we concluded
we were either part of an elaborate kid-napping scheme, or our drivers were
finally asking for much needed direction. Miracle upon miracle we arrived at
the Tro-Tro station. At the station we had some delightful interactions with
the local vendors, one of whom attempted to sell us men’s boxer shorts (he
assured us that though we were women the boxers could still be worn by us, we
assured him we were ok without them.) Another local man offered to marry us. We
did enjoy buying fanmilk (icecream treats) a dough ball and a large loaf of
bread from out of our Tro-Tro window. Finally after both our bags and our group
members got packed into the Tro-Tro we took off on our supposed 5-6 hour trip
with spirits high and the end of our travel day in sight…. So we thought. Looking back on this portion of the journey
with a couple goodnight sleeps behind us we would like highlight the positives
of our Tro-Tro trip. We enjoyed the extra bonding opportunities created by the
cramped space in our Tro-Tro and the q30 minute roadside breakdowns. Christy
learned how to become a human pretzel. Caz learned how to make 8 hour long
small talk with a persistent local Ghanian. Madso learned how to cope with
near-death experience feels like. And Joanna learned the power of prayer. PTSD
may be in our futures. Christy’s mother – we may need your counselling services
upon our return home. If we survive our Tro-Trop trip back to Tamale. (i.e. we
ever agree to get back on a Tro-Tro to return home). We also furthered our
knowledge about how to (temporarily) fix an overheated Tro-Tro – you pour water
into it and have 12 Ghanaian men look at it and occasionally remove parts of
the engine. We also learned that remote village children are particularly
enamoured about the prospect of meeting and talking with some“brunis” (white
ladies). At 8:30pm we attracted a swarm of village kids who were waving,
giggling, and pushing each other towards us, seemingly both excited at the
prospect of touching our translucent skin. In our tired (delirious?) state we
said goodbye and hid behind the Tro-Tro. However white ladies can’t hide in
shadows very well and the kids followed us over to the other side. We made the
mistake of asking “What is your name?” and received over 80 simultaneous
replies. That is an English phrase they clearly know well. Eventually the
Tro-Tro started up we said our goodbyes and off we went once again.
We figured we must have been
close to our destination when one of the fellow passengers who spoke English
told us “this is where the road gets rough – put on your dust covers.” (The
road gets rough now?!) We then proceeded to close our eyes, go to our happy
places and pretend we were on the Indiana Jones Disneyland ride….fFor 3 hours. After
some bouncing and bumping and synrochnized Hail-Mary’s we reached the end of
our journey. Enveloped in dust and grouchy demeanors we arrived in Enchi, only
to be told by the Tro-Tro driver “that time was running out and the Taxi
services were closed for the night.” Once we figured out what that meant he
agreed to drive us to our Guest House in hopes that it would still be open for
us. Thankfully it was and we arrived to our wonderful gift basket of snacks and
drinks from our Enchi Mama Philomena. Our hearts were warmed and we felt very
welcomed!
In the morning refreshed and
rested we had a closer look at the beautiful town of Enchi. We are thankful to
be staying in 2 very comfortable rooms (including air conditioning and small
fridges – we were beyond ourselves!) right beside each other. We all wore our Sunday best (our new African dresses)
to meet our Enchi mama Philomena. She took us on a walk around to see the town.
Enchi is much smaller than any places we’ve been before and very green. We
already love it. We also walked around the markets and bought some local snacks
including avocados (butter pear they call it), pineapples, groundnuts, popcorn,
oranges, and more. We enjoyed a picnic-style lunch with Philomena back at the
guesthouse. She is wonderful. We already love her very much!
Our first clinical day went well.
In the morning we had a tour of the Presbyterian Health Clinic by Philomena. We
learned about what services they offer. In the early afternoon we presented our
medical supply donations to the staff. They were very pleased by the items,
especially the baby weigh scale! The minister who oversees the clinic came for
the picture-taking. And as expected he laughed at our attempts to communicate
to him in Twi (the local language).. We are thankful for the opportunity to be
able to very practically support the clinic here and show our gratefulness to them for having us.
This afternoon we are sitting in
our cozy guest rooms sorting through donated items. Care packages for students
in Ghana were donated by kids from Aberdeen Preparatory School after they
learned about Global Health. The gifts have travelled far and will be given to
kids at one of the local schools here in Enchi sometime this week.
Much love to our families,
friends, and fellow students (We miss you already!)
Enchi out.
Please note this lovely blog post was composed on Monday April 7/14, but we have not had internet access to be able to post it until today.
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