It was Ghana's Independence day on Monday. We didn't venture downtown because of parades and partying.
And we were preparing for Elder Stanfill's arrival on Tuesday.
The President came over to our office Monday to let us know that we would be taking Elder Oforikumah to meet some American doctors in the Winneba hospital. There is an organization called Ghana Cares that coordinates with a volunteer organization in America called Ghana Makes a Difference. E. Oforikumah was born with a club foot and I believe the doctors thought he would be able to walk during his mission. Well, it started to bother him a lot and the area doctor told us to take him to Winneba. We were scheduled to go Wednesday morning. They would operate on Wednesday and we would probably be able to leave on Thursday. Late Monday night, we were told that we would be taking him Tuesday at 2:00 pm. So we packed for 2 nights and were on our way.
Because of some complications with insurance Elder O. was not operated on until Wednesday night. He got back to his room at 2:30 am. And they only did part of the operation. The other part would take place on Thursday night. The first operation consisted of the doctors cutting tendons and the Achilles tendon and stretching them to straighten his heel. Since he hadn't eaten since Tuesday afternoon, the doctors told us to get him something to eat. Hospitals in Ghana are not like America. You have to supply everything for the patient. Bed sheets, pillows, bed pan, food, just everything and we were not prepared. Thankfully, one of the nurses took pity on us, and at least changed his bedding for us. We had to go find some food for him also. It was fun!!! When they took him into surgery on Thursday, we came back to Cape Coast to get some clean clothes and shower with hot water.
It was a long week for us. The hospital was very, very hot and smelly and you could hear people screaming and crying continuously. And we had to stay there and take care of his needs.
The doctors were really pleased with the results. Hopefully, he will be able to walk on the bottom of his foot and even be able to run. We brought him back to the mission home to recuperate. He will be down in bed for 3 - 4 months. President has assigned a missionary to be with him for one week at a time.
Anyway, the first night we were gone we stayed at a place called Blue Diamond. It was a resort right on the ocean. And the food was excellent! It was very nice, but way expensive. We only stayed there the one night and then moved into town the remaining nights at a place called Windy Lodge. Here's some pictures of the Blue Diamond. We didn't take any pictures of the Windy Lodge. It was horrible, but convenient.
The beach at night.
This was our bungalow - on the left.
Beach in the morning.
That building was where we ate.
They also had a parrot that would say good morning to you.
This is the hospital complex.
This is the building Elder O. was in.
Operating theater.
We got tired of sitting inside and came out where the wind was blowing. It was a lot cooler. But we took some pictures of the flowers that grow here in Ghana. The security guard yelled at us and told us to get off of the grass.
Here's a picture of Drs. Bryce and Greg Cook (father and son) with Elder O. They did the surgery. By the way, we didn't have to pay a dime for anything. GMAD took care of it all.
There were 5 doctors that came from the US. All in different fields of expertise. In the 4 1/2 days they were here, they completed 600 operations at a cost of just over a million US dollars. We just could not thank them enough. And they kept thanking us for being missionaries and caring for the Ghanian people.
Here's Elder O. ready to go back to the mission home. He was smiling but is a lot of pain.
I was a long week. One we hope we don't ever have to repeat. But we do have to take Elder O. back to the hospital every 14 days for the next 3 months.
After we dropped Elder O. at the mission home about 1:00 pm on Saturday, we went home and just crashed. But it felt good to be in our own bed, eating good food and being able to take a normal shower.
In our Gospel Principles class on Sunday, Elder Hepworth taught the lesson.
He was listening to someone ask a question. They ask some weird questions, which really don't have anything to do with the lesson. But we have to realize that they are young in the gospel and need to know everything.
We love you and miss you all.
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