Friday July 6, 2012 Africa:  Day 26

            This morning started out with a little tender mercy.  Kelsey and I got up early because we were going to be helping in the ECT ward (electo-convulsive therapy) and they start treating patients at about 7:30.  We hoped that the traffic wouldn’t be as bad at that time, but I’m not sure there is ever a time when traffic is not crazy in Accra.  Every taxi driver we asked to take us to the hospital would just tell us no.  We walked for about forty minutes without any luck.  Finally I began to get worried that we would end up having to walk the entire way and miss work completely.  I said a quick little prayer as we walked down the sidewalk asking for help in getting us safely and quickly to the hospital.  Just a couple of minutes later we approached a bus stop.  We both commented that we wished we knew what tro tro stop was near the hospital so we could just take that.  All of a sudden Kelsey somehow spots Dixon (our colleague who we were going to meet at the hospital) among the crowds of people climbing onto the various tro tros.  We got his attention, and he helped make sure there were two more seats on the bus for us.  It was just a little bit too miraculous that right after the short prayer we all happened to be at exact place at that exact time to be a big coincidence.

            I was kind of nervous to as we walked into the ECT ward.   We tried to talk to a few of the patients laying on the hospital beds in the big open room before the nurses started pulling out the equipment.  After each patient was prepped with an IV for the nurse to put in a syringe of pain killers, we would go to each bed for the actual shock treatment.  They put up a screen around the bed so the other patients couldn’t watch, then we were asked to hold either the patient’s leg joints or arm joints so they wouldn’t hurt themselves during the convulsions.  Kelsey and I just observed the first couple of patients before we had acclimated enough to the treatment to be able to participate. I will admit that at first I was feeling a little sick watching the various muscles contract in very unnatural ways.  It was also hard to see one patient refuse the medication and then watch the tears roll down her face as the metal plates were put on her temples.  Again the nurses proved their sainthood.  They were all so compassionate and  are all doing the best they can with so little to work with.  They kept going on and on about the difference the therapy makes for most of the patients.  Some patients come in unable to speak, or so depressed that they barely function. After just a few treatments (they get treatments three times a week, for up to four weeks) these same patients are speaking again and more responsive to things going on around them.  That was reassuring to hear because it definitely was not easy to see.

            We spent the rest of the morning in the Children’s Ward.  We played with a few of the kids for a while, then walked some of them to the “Special School” building that is located not far from their ward.  This was almost harder to watch than the ECT.  I just ached for the teacher who just looked completely overwhelmed.  A couple of the kids were tied into their seats with a belt so they wouldn’t just get up and run off.  Another girl instantly fell asleep and they moved her to a dirty mattress behind the rows of little wooden desks.  A couple of the kids are verbal enough to try to sing the songs and interact, but the rest just sat in their desks or walked around the room.  The teacher came over obviously relieved that other people were there to recognize the challenge he has.  He just kept asking, “how am I supposed to teach anything when they don’t talk?”  I kept picturing other special needs classrooms I have worked in with closets and bookshelves overflowing with manipulatives geared to offer the needed visual, tactile, and auditory stimulation for kids with these same levels of severity.  In this room there was a small clock on the wall and a couple of alphabet posters.  I didn’t even know what to tell him.  We then talked to the principal for a while as he gave the same pleas for help.  He wants to be able to provide the kids with appropriate tools and specialists, but he is trying his best to manage the three different classrooms with next to nothing to work with.  It would really be nice if I had unlimited funds and resources so I could grant all the requests I now hear on a daily basis. 

            Liz and Liyam were not very excited about going to the football game tomorrow, so they left this evening to spend the weekend at a beach up the coast and Kelsey and I stayed here.  We ate goat kabobs at Tickles, then walked down the pool to check out the party with a live band they have every Friday night.  We felt like we were crashing some kind of man fest because all we saw were a bunch of drunk guys standing around or playing pool.  We sat out at a table for a few minutes listening to one of the songs, then left shortly after that.  We tried to watch a movie on my computer, but in my true fashion, I promptly fell sound asleep.