Potpurri

We have been going through our photos preparing for a lecture John has to give to the College of Health Sciences in Ghana next week, and we found some photos we wanted to post on the blog that have not been included yet.  Hope you enjoy the random views!

The first is John talking in the library to the faculty of the State School for the Deaf while preparing for our humanitarian visit.  Not all of the buildings are in such good shape as evidenced by their sign.

The people of Ghana, especially the children love soccer!  (Football)  Their team is the Black Stars named for the star in the middle of their national flag.  The gift of soccer balls (75) that Kade and Hunter Jensen brought during their Humanitarian trip was very appreciated both by individuals and schools.

Skateboarding, however, is non-existent.  We pass these ramps at a nearby school on our way to work each morning.  They are rusty and broken.  The only skateboards we have seen are used by disabled people who actually sit on them and scoot around to beg on the streets at stoplights.

Most men (and some women) in Ghana do not use public bathrooms, but instead park their cars or just stop while walking or shopping and then urinate outside anywhere.  There are many of these signs apparently posted by those who do not appreciate the tradition.

Above is the smoke from a massive fire a couple weeks ago which burned down a large marketplace in Accra.  Since then there have been demonstrations against the government by thousands of local residents who want to rebuild their small stores.  The government, however, wants new modern buildings, not the small individual shacks that used to be there.

Below is Ronald, one of our students who is collaborating with Graham on Telehealth.  Graham has been testing newborns using the a video conferencing system donated by LDS Charities and sending the results home to us.  They have an article they have written that is ready to be published.  It is a huge step forward for rural Ghana.

Not only women carry items on their heads.  Above we have some of our deacons from the Jamestown Branch putting away the hymnbooks after the Sunday meeting.  Cute.

Below is John presenting money we brought from some donors in the US to the Dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences earmarked for our first graduate students to do their research.  Thanks so much to you who support this mission.  These young people really need it.

We often have our internet quitting on us, so we then use a little device from Vodafone which picks up the internet through the phone line.  It will only work in one area of the house, so we put a chair there and marked the place and named him "Elijah".

 In Ghana it is Fast Foo (for foo foo) instead of Fast Food.  I would recommend not stopping for dinner at the "special food joint" below.  It makes us chuckle every day.

We were surprised to find the sign below when we checked into our hotel at Cape Coast.  It was at the edge of the golf course.
Guess what!  There really are crocodiles there!
Catfish, too.  Should make for an interesting golf game!

Finally got the numbers  in from the Humanitarian mission:  It was quite the effort!  Good job, students!

Hearing screenings 1150

Ear canal cleaning 1320

Ear mold impressions 500

Hearing aid fitting 180

Medical referrals 145

Semper Gumby! (Always Flexible!)

While planning our 2-week Humanitarian experience with our USU students, we realized that we would have to be very flexible, especially working with the Ghanaian idea of "set in stone" and "on time".  We had our son Jonathan design us a crest with the words, Semper Gumby...after the Marine Corps slogan "Semper Fi".  Except in our case it meant "always flexible".  We had no idea how prophetic that idea would become.

(Andy and his friends)

This is the Adjei Kojo State School for the Deaf at Ashaiman, near Tema.  We had arranged with the Headmaster about  month ago to come back after doing some preparation work for fitting hearing aids on his children.  The day before we were to go, the Ghanaian government cut the funding for the last semester to all the Special Education schools in the country, including the schools for the Deaf.  The government does not provide money for education, but only for food.  Interesting....but because we had students who had come so far and hearing aids donated by Starkey, the headmaster kept the school open for the two days to finish what we had started.

We were joined by another group from the US and Andy (above) was with them.  One of our USU students received this letter from a little girl he fit with a hearing aid.  It was so precious.  Virtually all of the students assigned to deaf schools have never had a hearing test, so often we found that the children had some residual hearing that could be amplified by a hearing aid.  They, of course, are very behind in speech, but hearing something is wonderful.

Unfortunately, the Mompong Demonstration School for the Deaf where we were to spend both Friday and Monday went ahead and closed.  So,  "Semper Gumby...we went to

plan "B"!!  

This is Jack and his Dad.  He is a young man who came to Africa with one of John's former students, Tad Bergen.  Jack was screened as a newborn and found to have a hearing loss and given a hearing aid from birth.  He has developed into a bright, active young man who then collected 150 hearing aids in Georgia, where he lives, and wanted to bring them to Africa to help other children.  And...he did!

We even ended up screening our bus and van drivers!  Above is Yaw, who drove our van.  World Joy (who we partnered with in Abomosu) was kind enough to provide the van during these two weeks.

Thursday evening we sent home Amy Porter, Jeff Larsen and Hunter and Kirk Jensen.  They had to return early to the US, so to say goodbye, we hosted a pool party at our apartment with pizza and cake.  These beautiful cakes were made by Floxy who works at the clinic.  She does a beautiful job and it tasted absolutely delicious!  It was good for our students to just relax.  They have been working extremely long, hot hours.

On Friday we executed plan "B" and took the students to the KorleBu Teaching Hospital.  The doctors have ended their strike, so they were overcome with patients.  They fit 27 hearing aids, did an ABR, newborn hearing screening and then went to a nearby school to do screening.  Our student, Ramatu, had been working on her Masters Research project here and had found many children with problems, so we split the crew and worked on both.

T

On Saturday, we went to the Africa West Area Offices and did a community screening at the Stake Center.  It was a long day, but we had lots of patients.  

The students brought lots of things with them besides the 75 soccer balls.  The Mensah family 
(he is the first counselor in the Ghana Temple Presidency) has an orphanage near Takoradi.  Sister Mensah asked if maybe the students could bring some books or clothes for their children, who have nothing.  The students ended up with 5 boxes of books, a huge garbage bag of toys, and 6 large garbage bags of children's clothes and shoes.                                                               Our daughter, Kristina, sent baby blankets too.
 The Mensah's were in shock!

Sunday was a free day and everyone was back at the teaching hospital on Monday for a half day.  Many of the patients seen at the Stake center on Sat. were referred to the Hearing Assessment Center and showed up Monday morning.
Everyone then came to our apartment for a light dinner, some relaxation, a quick view of the videos we took during the two weeks, and then Ramsford Oosu, our bus driver dropped them off at the airport.  They will fly out in about an hour and 1/2, but it is already too quiet here at the apartment.
They were all very "semper gumby" during these two weeks, and we will be forever grateful for them giving unselfishly of their time and talents.
We saw a quote today from Harold B. Lee that said, "There's the secret of your happiness in life, when you analyze it, to learn to live outside yourself in love."
Good job, guys...Team USU and Team UG.

Watch Out for the Green Mamba! What??!!

So...after months of planning, our group of 17 arrived last Tuesday from USU.  They were met at our apt by our Ghanaian students, except Ramatu who went to the airport with "Prof" to use her husbands influence to clear customs with all their med equipment and supplies.  Our students here used their time while waiting at Alema Court to take a dip in our pool.  After both the van and bus arrived we fed the weary travelers a snack and headed north towards the 13 villages, actually called Townships, and Abomosu. 

(Rest stop)

Dad Jensen supervising Hunter's painting.





  John and I borrowed the Klein's big truck and packed it to the gills with equipment and food for 30 people for 3 1/2 days.

We arrived after dark, after almost 5 hours driving, with the last few miles being the worst pot hole road we have ever been on in our lives!  We stopped first at the lodge that World Joy has up there.  I popped my ready made casseroles into the oven and fed everyone and we kept some students at the Lodge with us and sent the rest to the hotel in the village.  

The next morning we sent them off with an early breakfast and a sack lunch.  Over the next few days they performed hearing screenings and fit hearing aids for villagers at a school and two churches.  They painted a school for World Joy, distributed soccer balls, hiked through the jungle to see an isolated village that uses a BYU invented Merry go round to generate electricity, (check out the video below) and saw a cocoa plantation.  Just before we left, our Doctor said, "Watch out for the Green Mamba snake in the jungle!  We have no anti-venom and your life expectancy if bitten is about 30 min."  Gee, thanks...

The students spent evenings at the Lodge eating and playing games.  That was all very fine except we had a huge rainstorm the first day which knocked out the electricity (the generator picked up sometimes), and we had no running water til the last day.  The students were good sports about hauling water to flush toilets, wash dishes, etc.  There was no AC at all, and it is much warmer inland.   All part of their Ghanaian experience.

Heather's boys distributed some of the 80 soccer balls they brought, and there were some crazy impromptu games!

Well, we headed home Friday afternoon, and the driver decided to take a different way home.  We grew to appreciate the earlier pothole road, because this new one was worse.

Sat morning we drove to the KorleBu hospital where the USU students presented training modules for the Ghanaian students and staff.  We then fought horrible, unusual, weekend traffic trying to take everyone to the "pit" where the wood carvers are.  With the Ghanaian students helping haggle over prices, we think everyone came away with good deals and lots of laughs.

 

We attended church on Sun where we got to hear my cute Primary choir sing for Mother's Day.  Afterwards, we made a quick stop at the Pink Hostel where the students are staying and then hit the road for Cape Coast, a 3 hour drive, but better roads.  John and I checked into our "cabana" at the Gold Coast hotel and had a leisurely dinner at the ocean's edge.  The students went to tour the Elmina slave castle and came home after dark.

Monday morning we were up early, headed to breakfast and sent the students over to the Deaf School and new clinic built here by the Lion's club.  They did hearing screening on students all morning, and then left on the bus to the Kakum National Park after lunch.  We had been there already, so John and I decided to take the afternoon off.  

Tuesday it was back to the clinic at the deaf school for more screenings of students and the community folks.  In the last 2 days they have seen over 400 patients just at the clinic in Cape Coast.  They saw at least 200 in Abomosu.  There is such a crying need here in Ghana.  Today we were joined by Derek from the Starkey Foundation and a young man, Jack, from Georgia who raised money for 150 hearing aids and traveled here with his Dad to help.  John was interviewed 4 times by reporters from the Ghanaian TV and newspapers.  

It was a successful trip (no overspeeding) and tomorrow we are off to our second deaf school.  Better get some sleep.

Pioneers in Ghana, West Africa: So that all may hear!

This is an article requested by the Africa West Area webmaster for the new website. It is a synopsis of the audiology program we have been working on. Thought readers might enjoy.  John Ribera

Much like the pioneers of the 19^th century who crossed the plains of Northern America with nothing more than a handcart and some bare essentials, there are pioneers in the country of Ghana who are making a difference because they have a vision of what could and ought to be.

Audiology is an allied healthcare profession that focuses on the evaluation and rehabilitation of individuals with hearing and balance disorders. Currently in Ghana the population is estimated to be 25 million, whereas the number of audiologists is eight, all trained at institutions outside of Ghana.  Today there is a need for 1000 audiologists to provide needed services from newborn to the geriatric populations throughout Ghana.

Synergy has been defined as “The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/synergy, 2013).  This was certainly the case when Emmanuel Kitcher, MD, (Ear Nose and Throat Specialist) at the KorleBu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana (West Africa) met Dr. Isaac Ferguson, representative of LDS Charities, the humanitarian arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Dr. Kitcher had a vision of audiologists dotting the country of Ghana in concert with Ear, Nose, and Throat specialists, providing needed hearing and balance clinical services. This encounter took place in 2003. Since that time there has been an ongoing effort to establish an academic program that would prepare Ghanaians in a post-graduate degree program as audiologists.

The third organization to partner with LDS Charities, and KorleBu Teaching Hospital was the University of Ghana, School of Allied Health Sciences. Dean of the School, Dr. Patrick Ayeh-Kumi exhibited the necessary leadership to ensure that the curriculum would be developed in order for students to matriculate and obtain the newly-formed Masters of Science (MSc) Degree. Shortly thereafter Dr. Anim Sampong was appointed Program Advisor, a position he currently holds.

 Help was sought to identify senior or retired audiologists who might be willing to volunteer their time and expertise in developing the needed program. There were many who answered the call, mostly from the western United States. LDS Charities provided the means necessary to support the efforts of these volunteers who came, sometimes for only a few weeks to provide necessary face-to-face training of students.  Eventually LDS Charities donated a video conferencing system to allow transmissions from the United States by volunteer faculty. In all, a dozen or so professionals have contributed to this program. Medical equipment and supplies have all been donated, in part by LDS Charities as well as other donors. The students have had no textbooks, although a library of used books has be established to which they have access.

The first students selected for the program began their post-graduate program of study in the fall of 2011. As of this date there are six students completing their 2^nd year of study and four students completing their first year. The 2^nd year students will complete their degrees and graduate in November 2013. These graduates will then spend a year in various internships throughout Ghana prior to being certified as professionals. New students are already applying for acceptance into the audiology program for this fall.

In May 2013, the University of Ghana graduate students in audiology are joining forces with graduate students and faculty in audiology from Utah State University (USU) in a 2-week humanitarian/training mission.  The combined group will travel throughout Ghana providing free audiological services at Abomosu and environs, Cape Coast School for the Deaf, Mompong Demonstration School for the Deaf, Adjei Kojo State School for the Deaf (Ashaiman), and the Christianborg Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Accra). The humanitarian mission will consist of hearing evaluations, and where needed, the provision of hearing aids for those with significant hearing loss. In addition, the faculty and students from Utah State University will be providing specialized audiometric training for all 10 Ghanaian graduate students.

There will be a grand celebration in late July 2013 recognizing the efforts of all the stake holders in this venture. It will be the 10^th anniversary since the inception of the program. There will be much to celebrate.

What does the future hold for audiology in Ghana? There are plans already in place for satellite clinics throughout Ghana that will provide a place for audiologists and ENTs to work side-by-side providing desperately needed services. New technology that enables testing of patients at a distance, known as telehealth, is being researched as a viable option. In addition the Ministry of Health has just acquired two mobile medical vans especially equipped for audiologists and ENT physicians to conduct clinical services, by traveling to remote areas. Within the past few months a new program has been initiated where all babies born in the KorleBu Teaching Hospital undergo a hearing screening test. This is the only testing of this type in all of Ghana.  Ghana is positioned to become the center of excellence in hearing evaluation and training of audiologists in all of West Africa!

All of this from one man’s vision. What will the next 10 years bring?

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)

Ghana’s first graduates in audiology

Back row: Graham Amposah, Elder John Ribera (USU visiting professor), Sesi

Akotey

Front row: Dr. Kofi Sampong (MSc Program Advisor)

Joyce Anomaob, Elsie Nyarko, Daniel Tumpi and Ramatu Alhassan

           

           Left: Dr. Patrick Ayeh-Kumi, Dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences,

University of Ghana

Right: Dr. Emmanuel Kitcher, Head of ENT Unit and Consultant ENT Surgeon at

KorleBu Teaching Hospital

Signs of the Times

This is our Branch President's daughter at church.  I thought her dress was beautiful and just wanted to show a typical style for church.  They always look absolutely glorious!

For this blog we wanted to showcase a couple funny signs we've run across and some typical Ghanaian sayings.  We ran across this first one the other night while attending the BYU Idaho Choir concert in the National Theater.  Loved it.  I guess it keeps the gum off the chairs!  The concert was a success.  We had a huge turnout from the hospital come and enjoy the evening.

Instead of "No Entrance"... they use "Out of Bounds"   Here are 2 signs in a hospital directing patients to the Herbal Unit.  The Ghanaian people use lots of natural remedies for illness because of the shortage and expense of doctors.  All the doctors in Ghana right now are on strike and have been for a month.  Our hospital here is very quiet with hardly any patients.  If you have an emergency, you must go to the military hospital here in Accra.  They are overwhelmed.

We have a student, Ronald, who always has a picturesque way of talking.  He is brilliant, but makes us laugh.  

Prof...who is trying to sabotage us?  (He asked this after we were denied training for students on the new medical vans brought to Ghana)

I am leaving in sadness....(After another setback)

Prof...there are potholes in my study guide!  (Unanswered questions)

These are typical statements.  To "dash you" is to give you something extra.
"It is finished"- Means it is broken, or we are out of it.  The other day at the market we asked where the flour was.  Is is finished was the reply...no flour.

Not little by little, but "slow by slow".
When giving his students an exam, John does not get someone to "proctor" the exam, but he has someone come in who is called a "vigilator".

Not only do the Ghanaians let you know which houses are for rent or for sale, but which ones are not!
I actually thought this said "house toilet" when I first saw it.

To the right is my favorite sign.  I think of our daughter in law, Brandi Lyn every time I see it.  It is just the processing factory, no tours.  But we have finally found a dark chocolate bar here that is made by Cadbury that is wonderful.  Most of the chocolate is exported.

We only wish the above was true.  The Ghanaians scrub the tread on their car tires, but throw their trash and garbage on the roadside.  We mentioned in the food blog that we do not eat the fish here.  The reason is in the above photo.  These are big tanker trucks that gather raw sewage from around the city and then drive to where the river empties into the ocean.  They then dump the sewage into the ocean right where all the fishing boats put out to sea from Jamestown.  You can see where the water is a brown color out about 1/2 mile into the ocean.  Yuck!

Personally my favorite sign (above).  This means we are home!

Every time I go by this little "box" we think of our daughter, Kristina, our librarian.  It is so small (room for one book, maybe) and surrounded by barbed wire.  It's a social statement, really, since the only way the children here can lift themselves out of poverty is through education.  The government does not make it easy on them.

There are lots of signs like the ones below.  It is not unusual for just about anything to be talked about and advertised.

John got to participate in a symposium at the University of Ghana in the College of Religion  The topic was the "Merits and Demerits of Loud Music in Church Worship Services."  Since our students had been doing some testing already in 3 different churches, their findings came in quite handy.  Two professors from the Psychology and Religion departments also spoke.  There was quite a large crowd.
We are really looking forward to our USU students coming next week!

This is what John thought of when I told him I was doing a blog on signs... http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/f/five_man_electrical_band/signs.html