Ghana day 6

Post by Ann Marie

Today Mai went to another school to teach the kids about malaria and cholera.  She said they also dressed the children's' wounds but I am unclear on what kind of wounds needed to be cleaned and bandaged.  She said they were doing blood tests for hepatitis B and malaria at this particular school.  I believe someone else takes the blood and then Mai is doing the testing of the blood.  Don't worry, Mai has been vaccinated for hepatitis B (along with everything else that she could possibly get over there) and is taking antimalarial medicine until after she returns to the US so "in theory" she should be fine.

Mai unfortunately has a cold and is extremely exhausted.  She said she is really really tired because they are working long days and the young kids around her wake up at about 4 AM everyday and aren't very quiet.  The area where Mai is there are not any televisions around or other technologies that parents rely on in the modern areas of the world to keep the kids busy.  

As far as the food goes Mai said they are eating a lot of rice and pasta which is far from what her normal diet in California is like.  They don't have access to fresh fruit and vegetables so everything is either canned or simply plain rice and pasta.  This probably isn't helping her from getting sick and we have already promised to pick her up with a veggie platter for her to eat on the way home.

Food and health are some of the the things that inspired Mai to want to do what she is doing with Hearts for Hearts in Ghana.  She said we take for granted these things in our daily lives because we are fortunate enough to live in a country that they are  plenty. When you visit developing countries around the world people would be shocked at how they can make it by on the basics.