We're Not Dead Yet!!

This is our receptionist, Faustina, at the entrance to the Africa West Area Offices.  She was in her beautiful African dress that day, so I had to take her photo.

This is the view we  have while floating on our backs in our pool.  Not a bad view!  It is just a little disconcerting to look up and see an African Vulture circling above.  "We're not dead yet!!"

Ok...let us introduce our class that are in their first year of an Audiology Masters degree.  They will soon join the other six in 2 years to be the first 10 Audiologists trained in Ghana.  They only have to serve 23 million people.  So, get to work you guys!!

Deborah Tetteh was born in Accra and lives here while she attends the University.  She is single with no children and is in her first year.  Her undergraduate studies were in psychology and she had an interest in auditory processing which lead her to audiology.  Her interest is pediatric audiology.  

Her outside interests include swimming, reading and creative arts.  Her favorite foods are Banku and Tilapia and her sport is soccer.  She is interested in doing her research project on the role of the audiologist in assessing auditory processing disorders in children.



Had to take a photo of Debbie's hair.  It took about 4 hours to do this.  It is just amazing!

Williams Ofori-Atta was born Num, Brong Ahafo but now lies in Accra with his wife and one child.  He is very interested in pediatric audiology and plans on working in a clinic or in private practice when he is done.  He has a nursing diploma and an undergraduate degree in psychology.
He enjoys spending time with his family and in church activities.  His favorite food is fufu and light soup and sport is Table Tennis.
His research will be centered on diabetes and hearing Loss.  He works with us in testing the sound in some of the very loud Pentecostal churches in Accra.

Ronald Mkansah Adjekum was born in Akim Oda and now lives in Accra.  He is an amazing sax player (his band in pictured above) and he is single with no children.  His music got him interested in acoustics and looks forward to clinic work and teaching after graduation.  His undergraduate work is in psychology.  He spends his extra time playing music, attending church activities and his favorite food is fufu and goat meat soup.  Soccer is his favorite sport.  His research will probably involve telehealth.  He also works with us measuring sound in churches.

                                                                          Ronald (aka Cookie Monster)            

Anthony Azaglo was born in Somanya Eir and still lives there.  So he has an hour or more commute each way to school.  He is married with 2 children and travels to Accra for school.  His main interest is pediatric audiology and with an undergraduate degree in special education looks forward to possibly working with special ed. children.  

His spare time is spent with family and friends.  Fufu and goat light soup are his favorite foods with soccer as his favorite sport.  

He plans on his research to be "Using mnemonics to teach the hearing impaired reading."

We spent another early Sunday morning at another Pentecostal Church making sound measurements with a couple of John's students (Ronald, Gray and Williams). The Pastor, elders and many attendees are complaining of the loudness of the meetings.  So, Ronald arranged a visit to check during services.  Just as we thought, the level was up to 103 decibels at one point.  More than enough to damage hearing for a short time, let alone the 2 1/2 hours it takes for the services.  They have a very large church and can seat 2000 people; 3000 for conferences.  Our students will make recommendations.

After our Pentecostal meeting, we took out our ear plugs and went to our Sacrament meeting at the temple grounds.  We ran into 3 students from Utah State University who were in Accra for the weekend.  They are business students doing an internship  at Abomosu (where we are taking our students in May).  It was wonderful to meet Dustin Evans, Ashley Peterson and Rachel Drollinger.  They also work with the SEED program at USU that we have sponsored in the past at the Logan Arthouse.  We admire them for living out in the "bush" this semester and working hard to help make the lives of the cocoa farmers a little easier through "micro loans".

We get a kick out of this sign we pass in the morning.  Travel tours, farms, and Dental surgery...all in the same building.  We especially like the spider web of electrical wires out in front.  This is typical here.

Follow-up on our comments about funerals.  We attended sacrament meeting a couple weeks ago and it was a combined meeting to honor someone who had passed away.  All the relatives were in black and white and the Stake President was in attendance.  Elder Taylor (our legal counsel here) was over for dinner last night and told us that when the casket is lowered into the grave, the relatives destroy the top of it so that no one will come later and dump the body out and steal it.  Nice....

We also noticed that the ambulances are parked right next to the shops where the coffins are made.  Not too comforting, we would think.  Again...we're not dead yet!!