Friday June 29, 2012  Africa:  Day 19

            Kelsey and I spent the morning at Pantang Psychiatric Hospital.  We are going to be working in the drug rehab unit, but it’s still unclear what our responsibilities are going to be.  So far it has been a lot of observing.  That could be the extent of it, but there is so much to learn from these observations that I think it will be very interesting work. 

            We accompanied a few of the staff on their cleaning check rounds.  Every bed, closet, living space, and bathroom is inspected and checked off.  If there is some kind of infraction like having too many articles of clothing on one hanger, an empty water bottle next to a bed, or a cuff of a shirt rolled up and hung that way in the closet, then the person is called out during the “Morning Meeting” and has to stand to accept the responsibility of the mistake.  I couldn’t get over how serious they take things here.  It’s a good thing they don’t inspect my room!

            The Morning Meeting is also quite an experience.  The twenty rehab patients meet in a circle and started the meeting with a prayer, scripture, singing of the Ghanaian National Anthem, and a recitation of the rehab motto.  Then the group listens to general announcements, the results of the cleaning inspections, any other “bookings” or infractions that were recorded the previous day.  Someone had left a little sachet of water in the common room the night before.  The group leader asked for the who did this to stand in order to accept responsibility for this action. No one stood, so the group leader then had every person in the circle stand and they all had to take the blame because one person’s actions becomes the family’s responsibility if the individual is not courageous enough to step forward.

            The group leader announced that it was now time to begin the second half of the meeting.  All of a sudden the entire group chants back in a monotone, emotionless tone “second half; we love second half”.  The leader was not satisfied with the quiet response so he made them do it again, this time with more enthusiasm.  I was biting my tongue so hard trying to keep from laughing at this point.

            The second half of the meeting was filled with a person coming up and discussing a words of the day and how it relates to their experience in rehab, some other people came up and gave trivia questions (mostly about various facts of Ghanaian government procedures) for the audience to answer, and a couple of people shared more scriptures.  My favorite part, though, were the singers.  One man came up and led the group in a gospel song.  The other singer got up and sang “You Feel Up My Senses” with more emotion than I have ever heard this song performed.  I’m pretty sure I almost bit my tongue off at this point.  I just kept thinking, “How did this become my life?  How did I end up sitting in a drug rehab unit in a small town in Africa listening to a man sing John Denver!?!”  I love all of the unexpected experiences my life’s path seems to take me to.  Especially this one.

            Kelsey sat through a couple of groups following the morning meeting.  The first was the weekly “Sharing Meeting” where they all go around and share their answers to different journal prompts they answer during the week.  They answered questions about how they spent their weekend, how they slept one night, the hardest part of another day, and how they are coping with the program. 

Then the patients that have been in the program for less than two months met for a self-esteem group. They all stay for a minimum of six months, but could end up staying for much longer (one guy had been there for more than two years) depending on if their counselors think they are making adequate progress).  It seemed to me that a lot of the concerns and feelings that were brought up in these meetings were based on the fact that they have no idea when they will be able to leave to see their families again.  I couldn’t imagine being there day after day and without an end in sight.  At least prisoners get the courtesy of having a sentence time.

Kelsey and I joined the patients for a delicious lunch of banku and fish.  I think the men were happy to have some distractions from their routine.  As we were finishing, one man came up and told me how sad he was that I didn’t sit at his table.  Another man jumped up to clear my plate for me, and while one guy helped me wash my hands by pouring the warm water on my hands while I stood over a bucket, another old man told me that he was going to come visit me in the United States.  My tongue was seriously hurting by this time as I tried not to laugh at them fighting for our attention.

The patients have siesta and recreation time after lunch, so Kelsey and I left to go back to Accra.  We met up with the other girls who spent the morning at the other psychriatic hospital and left to meet our friend S. at a bus station to go to the Volta Region for the weekend.  It took some time finding everyone in the same bus station (and by bus station, I mean crazy market area with people, vendors, taxis, vans, and coach buses all vying for the same limited space).  It was also really uncomfortable when one bus driver literally pushed us on to his bus in front of everyone else.  I felt like I had just walked back into 1963.  It’s kind of disgusting the power that white privilege has sometimes.

I spent the bus ride talking to S. about various Ghanaian traditional beliefs, the Church, and religions in general.  We got to our hotel, checked into our rooms (I ended up in what we decided must be the “dance room” because it was lit only by a dim blue light bulb that barely illuminated the blue walls), then found some dinner at a little shop near the hotel.  The hotel advertises that it also has a restaurant, but apparently they don’t actually have food to serve in their large dining area.  We all ended up talking more about religions and I had many opportunities to answer questions and share my own beliefs and testimony about our church.

I went to bed tired from a busy day, happy to have more great missionary experiences, and a little nervous about what creatures may have been sharing the bed with me.