We woke to the sound of rain. We had to get up earlier this morning so that we could catch a taxi to the dentist office. We were afraid that it might be difficult to catch a taxi in the rain but we only had to stand on the side of the road for a few minutes. The rain did not last very long but it made for a very pleasant day.
Our number one rule for survival in Ghana is “Don’t drink the water!” “Don’t even get the water in your mouth or on your toothbrush.” I have to be honest that I was worried about going to the dentist because of the water issue so I took my own bottle of water and the first time the hygienist filled the little cup with water and told me to rinse my mouth I grabbed the bottle of water and said, “I brought my own water; I don’t use the tap water.” I was pleasantly surprised when she said they did not use the water either. She explained that the water they used for procedures was distilled. I was so relieved. The dentist had a hard time getting my lower jaw numbed. Half way through the extraction I had to stop him and have him give another shot. By the time he was putting in the stitches my jaw was numb. The only restriction the dentist gave me was that I should not eat hot or spicy food for 3 days. I thought that was very strange! The 2 stitches do not dissolve by themselves. He would have loved for us to come back to Accra so he could take them out but that is not happening. I told him that Steve was a nurse and he was perfectly capable of taking them out for me.
We did not do much this afternoon except hang out at the hotel. We did get the suitcases repacked. I had to find a place to put the stuff that we bought when we were shopping. Fortunately the flight that we fly from Accra to Tamale does not care how heavy the suitcases are so we were able to add things to the bags without having to buy a new piece of luggage.
Zorash called to tell us that they had run out of formula at the Child Center. It is always a surprise to us that they wait until they use the last container before they alert us that they are out. They ran out on Thursday. Zorash had taken the day off. Steve quickly called Abochi, the guy that we buy the formula from and he had 6 cans on hand so Mr. Iddrisu went to the shop to pick it up. Steve also ordered 10 cases which will come in tomorrow. We were able to send Abochi the money for the formula through mobile money.
Warihanna’s father needed money to take her back to Tamale to the hospital for a review on the surgery he had done on her leg. Warihanna is the teenage girl who has Osteomyelitis in her lower leg. Of course her father did not have enough money to pay for the transportation or the x-ray. We went back to the vendor and transferred the money for Warihanna. The money transfer system over the phone lines has been a blessing to us!
Enjoy your day!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
