Last day in Nalerigu to Iowa

My last blog....

Wednesday was a very interesting day. We rounded again in the morning, did some procedures and then the women headed off to Gambaga to visit the witches' village. The witches' village consists of a group of mud huts containing around 90 so-called "witches." For one reason or another these women have been designated with that title and shipped off to this village due to their lack of safety. Some of the women were thought to have special "witch powers" and other women are there because when they cut off the head of a chicken, it fell in the opposite direction than is desirable.

A Peace Corps worker visited this community around a year ago and had some extra beads from which she taught the women to make necklaces. She then brought the completed necklaces back to the US to be sold. We were visiting the village to return the money she had received from the jewelry she had made. The women were so happy!! Wendy, one of the volunteers, then gave a short talk to the ladies telling them that although we may appear different from the outside, we are all the same on the inside. We are all women who desire to be loved and deserve to live without oppression. After the talk, we bought our fare share of necklaces and bracelets and then returned home.

Jessie and I headed back up to the hospital as Wednesday was another busy day in clinic. After clinic finished around 6pm, Wendy made us a wonderful dinner of potato soup and garlic bread. We then headed back to our house to complete packing. After all of our goodbyes were said we only had 2.5 hours before we needed to awaken.

The truck picked us up at 4am Thursday morning and it was officially time to leave Nalerigu. Yes, I did cry. The roads were in decent condition since it hadn't rained the day before, but the sleeping goats in the middle of the road made the trip like an obstacle course. Yisahaku was a great driver and we made it to Tamale around 2 hours later. From Tamale we flew back to Accra where one of the workers at the guest house picked us up. We had transported a sputum sample on one of the patients to be evaluated by the lab at the University of Ghana, so we dropped that off before heading back to the guest house.

At the guesthouse, I took a nice 30 minute nap after which Jessie and I headed to a store we had heard about called Global Mamas. The store was fantastic!! It is a small place that holds many fare-trade items made by the women in the villages of Ghana. They sell all sorts of things there like bags, clothing, jewelry, etc. Although, I prefer the items that were made by my friends in Nalerigu, this was also a great place and I did find a few more gifts to bring back. We returned to the guest house for dinner and then headed to bed as we were leaving for the airport at 5am.

The next morning went fairly smoothly and we were soon on our plane ready to fly back to the US. Unfortunately, our plane was delayed in leaving Accra which meant that our plan was late flying into JFK. This resulted in our inability to make our connecting flight to Detroit that night. Thankfully, Delta put us up in a hotel, payed for food and got us a connecting flight in the morning that would get us into Cedar Rapids at the same time. We got back to the hotel very late, I took a nice warm shower and then crawled into a VERY clean fluffy bed. I only was able to enjoy the bed for about 3 hours because we needed to leave the hotel at 4am to make our flight out of Laguardia. Yikes! Little sleep in the last few days. After just a few hours of flying and a connecting flight in Detroit, we have finally arrived back in Iowa. The air smells so clean here!

After arriving home, Joe was at the airport to greet me (he is doing so well with his hip since I left). We took Jessie home and then headed back to our house to unpack. As soon as all of the talking and unpacking were done, I was craving seafood so we headed to the only place that has seafood in Iowa City, Red Lobster. :) I had some delicious crab and then went back home, finished laundry and slept for 12 hours. I awoke at 10am this morning only to get ready for work which started at noon today. It's a bit crazy, I know, but I'm not complaining. My life is still about 100 million times easier than the people who I cared for in Nalerigu.

Although I am very thankful to be home with my husband and can't wait to see family and friends, I greatly miss the people who I met in Ghana. The feelings about leaving are definitely mixed. I feel like I was able to make a small difference there, but know that the people of the community provided so much more to me than I did to them during that month. I also feel that I left with unfinished work. I have the utmost respect for all of the people of Ghana. It is a wonderful country and I do look forward to a time when I can return to the city of Nalerigu, this time with Joe.

I wanted to thank those of you who have been reading my blog. I appreciate your patience in reading my poor grammar and punctuation. I also am so grateful for all of your positive comments and prayers during my journey. I have been so enriched by you all. I do pray that this blog may make some of you think about serving abroad or if nothing else help you to appreciate the life that you have been given. I am planning to empty my closet this next weekend as there are certainly people in this world that could use them more than me. You may consider doing the same. I also hope to not revert to American portions of food. It feels unfair to have a plateful of unneeded food when I watched children die from starvation in front of my eyes.

Today I am thankful for the calling that led me to Nalerigu, Ghana. I am thankful for each and every moment I had with the people there. I am thankful that they have opened my eyes to a new world. One where happiness does not come from the square footage of your home, the amount or brand of the jeans you are wearing or how full your refrigerator may be. I am so thankful for the life that has been given to me and for the wonderful people that have been put in it.

What are you thankful for today?

Jill