Fasin Village is a farming community of about 1,000 people. Emma and I lived with a farmer named David, his wife who trades the cassava that he grows in the local market, and 2 of his children who are still living at home. The house they live in has 2 rooms and the kitchen is a separate building next door. They have one of the nicer homes with a finished floor and roof. Outside of the house is the shower area. Without running water you have to go fetch water from the river and bucket shower. David's brother Prince lives next door and both families share his long drop outhouse.
The living area
Shower area
Squat style bathroom with a smell like no other.
During the week Emma and I worked in the health clinic from 8 to 2. We split time working in the outside area (collecting information and doing vitals on each patient) and the inside area (talking with the patient about complaints, doing malaria quick tests, determining diagnosis, and prescribing medications from the small selection at the clinic). At this clinic the main diagnosis is malaria and GI worms. They also do some wound care and family planning. All sever cases and referred to the large hospitals near by. The staff are all nurses who are sent to the small clinic to work by the government.
The clinic is not as busy as the hospital so people come from all over to visit this clinic (even people from takoradi come to get care). They take both insurance patients and cash patients who do not have insurance. It was very cool to work in this general health setting and get the exposure to medications and diagnosis I do not see in physical therapy. The clinic gives injections so I even learned how to give them!!
Very few of the patients come with symptoms that could benefit from physical therapy. I did see 2 patients and tried to work with them how I normally would in an outpatient setting. This clinic had never had a Physio before and it was very evident that the staff was unfamiliar with the treatment and concept. The people in this area belive that the only way to make you better is a medicine so they are not satisfied when you educate and give them exercises.
Clinic
After clinic our guide, Ebineser, showed us different aspects of the village. We met the chief and the linguist and got a history of the village and it's people
The linguist always sits infront and speaks for the chief.
We also got to see how the village people make coconut oil and palm oil
Helping stir before extracting the palm oil
Straining the coconut oil
Went to Busua beach for one afternoon and after we went to the market to see David's wife Mary selling the families cassava.
We even got to spend an afternoon learning how they make local Gin from the Palm tree. They add a local root to help give it a yellowish color and fruity flavor
I was very interested in this afternoon because of my interest in brewing beer. It was also the first time in 4 and a half weeks that I got to hangout with more then 3 guys my own age at a time.
We also got to visit one of the farms and helped to weed the cassava plot with machetes. After that we helped the cook prepare dinner by pounding the Fufu (cassava and plantanes that are pounded together into a sticky paste like consistency).
Preparing the spicy fish soup you eat the fufu with.
Finished product
Ebineser was a great resource and friend. He treated is like family and even had us meet his friends. We got along so well with one of them that he decided to join us for dinner and brought a bottle of wine to enjoy our Fufu with
Myself, Messick, David the father of the family we lived with, and Ebineser.
In the afternoon I was able to do some exercise every day (running on the beach, running from Fasin to the neighboring villages, and even getting creative with the cement blocks laying around). At first the kids just watched but as the week went on they started to join in. It was so much fun and great to have them join in. Emma took a few pictures one of the days.
The village kids were the best part of my time in Fasin. Everyday we had a group who walked us to clinic, walked us home, and even sat near us during dinner so that as soon as we were done we could play with them. They taught us dances, games, songs, and we showed them some games we used to play.
These kids were the hardest thing to leave on Saturday. They were so much fun, always had a smile on their faces, and were so caring you would have no idea that they only have 3 outfits and very few toys (unless you count the sticks and natural resources they turn into toys). It will be great to see boys like Daniel, Darius, Jacob, Wisdom, and Dadi grow up and have great success in life.
Darius and I hanging out before dinner.
Overall this was an amazing week. I loved living this basic lifestyle and getting to really feel the culture. It was a great way to end this amazing adventure and I cannot wait to tell everyone about the trip when I return home!!!
My favorite picture from the entire trip. After the workout the boys wants to compare muscles so Emma snapped this photo.
