Hohoe Municipal Hospital

Today was my second day of volunteering! Yesterday was our first day, but for me it consisted mostly of learning about the Ghana Health Services (GHS) and the hierarchy of the medical system. Hohoe is considered a municipal village, meaning it is of "middle population size". A district is the smallest and a metropolitan is the biggest, based on population. The Hohoe Municipal Hospital is the only major hospital in the area that can provided "specialized" (the term is loosely defined) medical attention to its patients. They have many different wards/units, each with their own head person in charge.

This morning's volunteering was three parts: 
Part 1 consisted of further orientation and learning the hospital's recently developed 5-year plan to enact their vision of providing excellent healthcare service while ensuring that their patients live the healthiest life possible. As I was being informed of this 5-year plan, I was awe-struck at how patient-oriented the hospital was trying to become. The doctor who was orienting me, named Courage, explained that two years ago, the hospital directors came together to revamp their program, with a vision of treating the patients with empathy, care, and compassion - ideas that were not enforced in years past. 

Part 2 involved a tour of the different wards/units in the hospital: dental, antenatal, labor, eye, physiotherapy (which I came to find out is the same idea as physical therapy), HIV testing/counseling and several more, including separate wards for males, females, and children. It was wonderful touring these wards because so much of getting around in the hospital involved going outside, walking down a path and then entering a separate small building. To me, half of the construction of the building was outside, with walkways and small roofs overhead. It did not come off as dumpy or unfinished constriction, but rather felt as if the constructors were both embracing the natural beauty within the hospital grounds as well as accommodating for the intense heat, which would no doubt be worse indoors. 

Part 3 involved observing/learning about the HIV counseling and testing ward, which was my favorite part of the morning. Every Tuesday, different members of the wards come to this unit to pool together their specialties and help test patients for HIV and counsel those who are positive. They also counsel those who are negative on how to continue to avoid contracting HIV and to help them lead healthy lives. Different areas that are addressed by each staff member include sexual safety, taking vitals, nutrition counseling/monitoring and helping women in the many stages of pregnancy with regards to passing HIV on to their child during both labor and birth. I have always known about HIV but today I was given the opportunity to ask upwards of a million questions about the stages of HIV, ways of contracting, the effect it has on the Ghanaian community members, etc. I felt like a sponge, absorbing every bit of information that I could. I was also given the opportunity to sit with Carl, a specialist in nutrition while he took vitals of patients and counseled ones about adequate nutrition when necessary. According to Carl, a telltale sign of a PLHIV (person living with HIV) who is going "down-hill" is their nutrition. As a specialist in malnutrition, he observes individuals who are suffering from malnutrition and counsels them appropriately. One girl came and sat down to have her vitals taken, and I was sure she was no older then 12 or 13 for how small she was. As he took her vitals, I came to find out that she was a PLHIV, 35 kg (77 lbs), and about 5’4. She was so incredibly thin, I felt such pain in my heart for her. It was a very sad sight to see, but one that also triggered a little light bulb to go off in my head: “Would I be interested in working with the link between HIV/AIDS and malnutrition in my Dietetics career?” Anything is possible at this point.

This afternoon was so incredible that I don’t believe I’ll be able to adequately put it into words. For starters, we went to the Tafi-Atome Monkey Sanctuary. Ledged has it that many, many years ago, a tribe of people worshiped an “idol” that they had stationed in the middle of their village. As these people began to slowly die out, different groups of monkeys were drawn by the power of this idol and began living together in the mass acres of forest that the tribe had resided in. To this day, the monkeys still inhabit the forest and are representative of the ancestors who originally possessed the idol that the monkeys were drawn to. The visit to this Monkey Sanctuary was beyond amazing. Absolutely no part of it was fenced in and the monkeys intermingled with us as they sat on our shoulders and ate bananas from our hands. One got tangled up in my hair at one point :)


After our visit to the monkeys, we walked across the street to have an authentic Drumming and Dancing lesson, given by a local church group that practices traditional African drumming. I had chills listening to the beat of the drums and seeing the passion of the dancers in their steps and body movements. We were able to join in at one point during the last dance! It was incredible. The dancers were so talented and we would each pair up with a dancer and do different dances and theatrics on the spot. The laughter and joy was the most wonderful feeling. 

I cannot wait to see the adventures that tomorrow has in store for me.

Fie! (Good Evening)

~Sarah