Missions trip to Ghana by Rob Meineke

Just a bit more than 365 days ago I left Cape Town on a wet and cold day for my introduction into Ghana and whatever else the next several months had in store. This is  now a rather good time to write a piece on my experience while working in Ghana as it’s been a year and so perfect time to reflect.

Before I discuss Ghana and other such topics perhaps a brief introduction about myself is probably a good idea. I was born and grew up in Durban, South Africa where I schooled followed with paramedic school. So far this has been a highly exciting and interesting career involving work within the typical emergency response ambulance in which I got to race all over the city, in addition I worked in hospital trauma facilities and standby for sporting activities. Additionally there was a period based within private-5 star game reserves (Madikwe and the Sabie Sands) within our country.  I am a big fan of the wildlife that our part of the world is fortunate enough to protect so made the journey into the first reserve with much excitement. I love the bushveld experience and thus make frequent ventures into our national parks, leaving behind the noise of our mad-rush city life is a rather refreshing experience. The more trips I did, the bigger this passion became and so led me to begin studies of a course with which I can eventually qualify as a guide taking tourists on drives and walks in the wilds. I encourage all to make a trip into one of the amazing game reserves within South Africa.

There you have a bit about me in a nutshell and having just typed this sentence I’m struck by the crazy logic that goes with the expression ‘in a nutshell’. What would anyone be doing in a nutshell? It’s generally not a good thing to be described as nuts; no doubt some will wonder about me after this paragraph.

Once I completed my stint in the Sabie Sands reserve I returned to Cape Town which has now become home. I emigrated out of Durban for the amazing mother city sometime during 2010. Anyway, on my return to Cape Town I resumed working on ambulances as before, however in a new and unfamiliar territory. Not that it stayed unfamiliar for very long, so should no longer find myself lost, however if I did happen to lose my bearings I have conveniently come up with a sneaky excuse to say…. ‘I’m not local…I’m from Ghana!’.

After checking my passport I can confirm that it was the 23 September 2012 when I first arrived in Ghana. The weather seems to constantly play a cruel trick every time I leave Cape Town for a destination that will be hot. As is the norm in this scenario Cape Town was wet and icy cold. So I had to brave wearing summer clothing in preparation for the arrival in a place not very far north of the equator. Stopping off at church for a few goodbyes before the flight wearing weather inappropriate gear got me a few odd looks but made it safely onboard the aircraft and figured I was now safe against the possibility of hypothermia setting in. My what-to-wear choice earlier in the day proved to be the correct one when I arrived in Accra when leaving the aircraft instantly hitting a thick wall of hot and humid air. Remember I used to live in Durban humidity, seems I’ve adjusted to Cape Town weather quite speedily.

Accra is the capital city of Ghana as well as the largest with an estimated population of 4 million people. It is situated on the coast however it doesn’t house the main harbour centre within Ghana. The big commercial harbour is a few hours west of Accra in a town called Takoradi including a nearby Navy base (I have also spent some time within Takoradi). Instead Accra makes good use of the ocean with the presence of fancy beach resorts. A good afternoon can be spent relaxing in the sun at one of these. Looking at a different scale, within the whole of Ghana a little over 70% of the population is Christian with the rest being Moslem. Early one Sunday morning I took a walk to a nearby shop and on the way passed a lively church service being held in a marquee. As I passed the worshipers all waved and cheered me on my way. Felt like a VIP for a moment.

Anyway I soon got into the routine of life working here in Accra. I was employed by a European owned company which provides medical assistance to signed-up members. These members are mainly the oil companies, diplomats and their families and a few other individuals. Some years back the company I am now working for assisted the Ghanaian government in the setting up of the public ambulance service and from what I have seen and heard it is generally at good standards.

A question that seems to be the popular one from those who ask me about life here is ‘what is the food like?’. A tough question to answer as I am accommodated in the company compound which cater for western preferences. However there is a local dish that is served occasionally. The meal is known as Red-Red and is incredibly tasty. It consists of a spicy bean stew served with fried plantain which happens to look like overgrown bananas. A meal which the locals enjoy is rice, and I mean rice as it is, not served alongside chicken (or whatever else you fancy) but rice on its own. This sure was a rather odd concept me, what a horribly bland meal! Apparently it is seen as some sort of fancy meal to them as it is a relatively new food item for this part of the world.

One morning while driving around Accra, to be more precise sitting in the passenger seat as the local employees do the driving for us. This prevents people like me getting horribly lost in the road system which makes no apparent sense or causing total mayhem. Anyway, that’s a separate story, the point here is that I noticed a sign on the roadside advertising the sale of ‘dressed rabbits’. Before my imagination got carried away I curiously asked my driver what was up here?? Apparently it’s not a furry creature with hat and coat, instead is rabbit which can be eaten and so is already skinned and ready for cooking. Would ‘undressed’ not be more appropriate in this case?

Random signs sure are not the only feature on the Ghanaian roads, the traffic itself here is, to put it simply, chaos with cars driving where and when it suits their own need. Although this chaos crazily enough does seem to work perfectly well so the seemingly unordered system must have some method to it. I haven’t heard of too many car accidents happening on city roads although there is the occasional incident out on inter-city routes caused from a combination of factors such as speed, poor vehicle condition and goats who walk onto the roadway without notify drivers hurtling up to them. So as I said that in the city, cars playing dodge’em seems to work well and without incident. I have the idea that it works well providing everyone agrees to this unwritten code of madness. Should I have a moment of bravery and get behind the wheel and bring my sense of road rules into play the whole system would probably get screwed up causing numerous prangs in domino effect throughout Accra.

As there aren’t many car accidents within Accra, well not any that are serious enough to warrant medical response that is not a big part of my work here. Infact I haven’t attended a single car accident in Ghana. Not that there is any shortage of other sorts of incidents from the minor through to critical emergency patients. I work alongside a team of highly skilled paramedics from Europe and South Africa as well as an occasional visitor from the USA and we get to use of state-of-the-art equipment to do whatever we need to for the unfortunate victim. This proves all very well up until the point we reach the hospital. Government medical facilities in SA can do with improvements, or so I thought up until I discovered what passes for hospitals in Ghana. The government facilities here are dirty, very understaffed and may or may-not have the required facilities on hand, this becomes a day by day challenge to figure out the best place to transport the sick/injured. Often on arrival at one of these destinations we have to wait some length of time until the hospital is ready for us, which is not at all ideal when dealing with time sensitive incidents. Back home, this problem is avoided by calling ahead to the hospital informing we are on the way in, for some reason that doesn’t work here.

 There are 2 private hospitals in Accra however most definitely not on par with South African privates. Also these 2 facilities unfortunately are unable to provide the necessary care needed for critical treatment. This means we do at times find the need to contact insurance companies to arrange special planes equipped as a flying ICU to come collect the patient and transfer to another country for further suitable treatment.

It is for this reason that I have been assured that should I be injured (hope not) I will be flown out and sent to one of the top hospitals within Johannesburg. However I would much rather not make use of this sort of aircraft. Preferably would be best to travel home as a normal passenger onboard SAA, which I shall be doing in a few weeks. So till then keep well.