this past saturday i signed up to visit
pantang psychiatric hospital in accra. there's a group from the ship that goes every saturday to spend a few hours visiting with the patients. i wasn't sure what to expect...i had heard stories that many of the patients were quite "wild" last time they went...even though i spent two weeks on an inpatient psychiatry ward in medical school i found myself a little nervous as we got ready to leave.
the hospital seemed a little run
down from the outside but turned out to be very nice (and clean). the patients were so happy to see us...we visited ward 13, comprised of middle-aged men with chronic psychiatric problems. some of the women from the next ward came over to join in the fun as well. we set up a bunch of stations around the room...board games, fingernail painting, hand massage, prayer,
music/drums and a balloon animal station (thanks to mario, the only italian guy on the ship...hilarious). at the end we served them lemonade and cookies.
i spent a long time talking to ernest, one of the nurses there and found out that the hospital staff, medications and facilities are funded by the government but the clothing and food are donated by nonprofit organizations. the patients are referred by the police, court orders, family members or self-referrals (seemed very similar to the US system). he said that many of the patients never have any visitors so it's like a "holiday" when we come every week.
the patients seemed well cared for and had a blast with all of the activities. i spent two hours playing the board game "sorry" with three elderly gentlemen...they were brutal about sending me back to home base...i ended up finishing fourth! in the end i had a great time and it felt good to give these guys a break from the routine. there was no "wild" behavior...in fact, the only sad part about the day was that most of the patients were highly sedated and seemed a little zoned out.
afterwards i went with some friends to
tema market. it's basically the equivalent of wal-mart here in tema...where all the locals to to get food, toiletries, fabrics, etc. it is such a colorful maze of activity...women carrying huge loads of stuff on their heads, piles and piles of tomatoes, plantain, okra, rice and beans. butchers slicing up seafood, goats, cows and chickens right before your eyes. anyways, i love it because it's so authentically african...colorful, busy, no tourists. and you see some crazy stuff there...pigs feet, dried eel and huge live snails (shown in pic)...they were crawling all over the table. (ew!)
ps: my dr. pepper drought ended on day 65. and yes, it was fabulous.
# posted by Jenn @ 3:05 PM