http://ghanablogging.com/ GhanaBlogging.com » May 22, 2009 Gregarius 0.6.0 en http://samzonyte.blogspot.com/2009/05/adventures-of-british-midwife-in-lagos.html Fri, 22 May 2009 17:50:00 -0400 http://samzonyte.blogspot.com/2009/05/adventures-of-british-midwife-in-lagos.html You can follow her blog at [jowatts.blogspot.com]

It just might inspire you to visit Lagos if you have never done so.

Enjoy the blog! ]]> http://nubiancheetah.blogspot.com/2009/05/telemed-africa.html Fri, 22 May 2009 17:40:00 -0400 http://nubiancheetah.blogspot.com/2009/05/telemed-africa.html http://nubiancheetah.blogspot.com/2009/05/aquada-development-corporation.html Fri, 22 May 2009 17:33:00 -0400 http://nubiancheetah.blogspot.com/2009/05/aquada-development-corporation.html http://nubiancheetah.blogspot.com/2009/05/txt.html Fri, 22 May 2009 17:21:00 -0400 http://nubiancheetah.blogspot.com/2009/05/txt.html http://nubiancheetah.blogspot.com/2009/05/she-sustainable-health-enterprises.html Fri, 22 May 2009 17:08:00 -0400 http://nubiancheetah.blogspot.com/2009/05/she-sustainable-health-enterprises.html http://nubiancheetah.blogspot.com/2009/05/african-digital-art.html Fri, 22 May 2009 16:57:00 -0400 http://nubiancheetah.blogspot.com/2009/05/african-digital-art.html http://novisi.blogspot.com/2009/05/some-many-things.html Fri, 22 May 2009 16:23:00 -0400 http://novisi.blogspot.com/2009/05/some-many-things.html i just rechecked the 'insignificant' physical space that i occupy compared to all the mind-blowing vastness that exists in this universe! and still there are ongoing discoveries that tell that we actually underestimate the measure of the space that we perceive! true science is the only religion! (the false type of science is the case of HIV-AIDs for example. no sense there! and WMDs too!)

so there are too many things to talk about!

sakawa:
Down town in man-made Ghana there's a lot of talk about SAKAWA! and i wonder what more could be irrelevant in as much as it is relevant to attract too much attention from our leaders and police who should rather be focused on tackling more practical issues such as robbery, thievery by leaders etc. Suddenly, it seems everyone has a 'sakawa' story to tell no matter how childish or 'toli' it it may sound!

and then the youth are the ones to get the focus of the triviality with all sorts of claims! folks are too easily taken in by all manner of spiritual tales to only make them look helpless! how sad! where is the 'wake-up' bell???
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Middle ground:
last time i scream YES when Obama told that story in his speech to the Notre Dame folks about the Doctor who emailed him about the 'abortion' issue during his campaign. YES, that's my kind of leadership! (not the person Obama so much, but the principle of reaching the middle ground when it matters). but of course same man Obama could not stand the pressure on his own 'case 5 balls' when pressed about the 'photos' (his explanation me believe is neither here nor there. it's not up to him to decide human feelings or reactions).

Obama again and they say he's visiting Ghana. no big deal! when i asked myself why not Kenya for a first Official visit, my 'heartless' head told me it was all about strategy! and i believe it's a plus for his 'professional' outlook like Maya responds it here! any other country in the 'black' of Africa would score him that point. so a die is cast maybe and it falls on Ghana. no big deal however a jamboree the streets of Accra would turn!

my expectation? i look forward to hearing what he would say! it better be good stuff! and i hope it would be nothing like telling us that the US citizens cannot be apologetic to anyone about the way they live like he did say in his inaugural speech! that is crap and almost Bush's 'bull' (and i'm no tax collector; therefore unlike Obama i'm 'morally' free to make a 'caricature' of him) if we consider the enormity of the troubles that America has served the world. surely there are issues like global warming and the contributions they have made! all the fuel they keep consuming!!! else why is he pushing for renewable energy anyway! i want some more sense!

sexy dream!
Doesn't sex represent God, Pal??? has the world already undergone the sex-revolution??? why is nudity and sex such a no-go! some say don't let the child see nudity! some say don't let the child see sexual intercourse! else they would be corrupted! but don't the children always see. and even if they don't see, who says they don't know? and what does that akan adage say about letting the child know God! doesn't it say the child learns on his own??? i started becoming aware (knowledge) about sex on my own from my 'environment' (which environment is this same world) as early as about the age of 3 or so as i can remember! so when would the world just accept that sex is part of humanity so much that it is no more a corrupter than food we eat hungrily or gluttony!

Football!
now comes the showdown! come Wednesday i want Barca to win over ManU and i want Eto'o to score! there must come a retaliation for last season. Pal, i was supporting Inter all the way this term till ManU crashed them! hard luck to Chelsea but this year i was so against them i almost 'cried' till Iniesta's goal made Didier Drogba go mad. yeah the ref was bad alright but what other way could a man be teased?

but Jose Mourihno is teasing me more! i love this man. he speaks both sense and nonsense 'beautifully'! i supported Chelsea last term because of him and now i'm supporting Inter because of him. but Barca seduces me big time! Mourinho says the final would be decided on pens! he predicted rightly that his former team Porto would be knocked out by ManU but did not attempt same for his own team! now i wish Mourinho hadn't just said that because i dread pens for Barca! Eto'o must score!

now what else:

love Pal! ]]> http://colleenfant.blogspot.com/2009/05/culmination-and-frustration.html Fri, 22 May 2009 13:16:00 -0400 http://colleenfant.blogspot.com/2009/05/culmination-and-frustration.html
Today was the first STI Clinic at the HOPE Center. We tested 13 students for HIV and 11 students for Hepatitis B and then like 15 other random health screening tests. They will come back to the Center Monday and Tuesday for their results. While it was really cool to see things come together, there were a few things that happened that put quite a damper on the day for me and knocked me off my high horse from Monday.

1. When the students first arrived (they came in a mini bus from the Polytechnic) Opening remarks were given. Usually, to negate any possibly of power struggle, I stay basically mute during all of these public events. However, I had to make a comment today because in the opening remarks the question "Who is here for HIV testing" was asked to the entire group about 5 times. Independent of cultural differences, values, etc - that is simply not a question that should be asked to a group who came to our Center specifically for its discreet location (which was kind of the whole point of adding testing to the Clinic in the first place because the hospital is the exact opposite of discreet). So while I make a point to stay quiet and keep all of my opinions to myself and have been for the past 5 months, I actually turned to the speaker and said, why don't we just let the students write their test requests on these cards you asked me to make so that we can keep everyone's privacy. And then I set up a system where the kids write their name, phone number, and requested tests on a card and then call up students 2-3 at a time, sending those for HIV pre-test counseling with the counselor and the others to wait for the lab. Then after counseling the students who wanted HIV tests were told to wait in the same place as everyone else so that it was not obvious who was getting HIV tests and who was getting the others because all the tests were a simple blood drawing. Then the counselors (who it was their first time counseling) were like "Who's getting HIV tests" in front of the entire group. Thus me being like "here are the cards" lets stop asking who is getting HIV tests in front of the whole group! Plus - all I was doing was asking the staff to follow GHS policies and not act in away that is exactly opposite to the whole program which was a purpose we ALL came up with!..... I could not live with myself and keep my mouth shut there.

So what ended up happening was (and I say this as un-arrogantly as possible) I ran the whole thing, bring people to either Peace, Isaac, or Edith for counseling or just to the lab for other tests. So I was the only person who did anything to actually facilitate the testing (which was NOT what I should have had to do, I should have been totally in the background - this was not sustainable) So while yes, we have this testing now at the Center, I don't have a lot of confidence at the moment for how the quality of it will be carried out in the future.. I have written out a protocol so that things can be more discreet in the future but I have no idea if anyone will ever take it seriously because of the following..

2. Before leaving for Egypt I had spent like 6 weeks designing the entire 3 day Peer Training Workshop, creating a participant manual with educational handouts and a facilitator guide that spells out step by step exactly what to say, do, and even designed simple and culturally significant activities. Point - I had never planned on doing "training" but that was what the Center staff wanted. I left these 2 manuals at the Center to be reviewed by the staff so that when I came back we could run them by the District Health Director then I could print out 100 of them. I even wrote an email while I was gone with a reminder to go over these Guides. On Monday I said "hey did you look through these, what do you think." I was told, "Yes, and they are perfect, you should make the copies now."(thats pretty much a direct quote. Well today, I was briefly looking through them with another person and it was becoming apparent that this was the first time anyone has seen them so I non-nonchalantly ask "did you actually read through them?" And then the answer is now, admittedly, NO. Then I was told, before you make the copies, Director needs to go through them. At this point my last nerve was about to snap, and said as politely as possibly - I asked that these be approved while I was away so that it could be done when I get back which is what you had previously told me was done.

My biggest pet peeves of all are lying, taking credit for something that you haven't done, and when people don't follow through with what they say they will do. Those have always been what bugs me most and today each one of those was addressed!

So it was supposed to all be done, and I thought it was, but apparently I was lied to. Literally, the entire program, and everything that I have created was either requested explicitly or the ideas of the staff in the first place. And then once I do it, its not even looked at. I was asked to create a pre-counseling form based off the GHS one, showed it to the staff on Tuesday, got the approval, and then at the end of today, my boss was like, hey can I see one of those, I never really looked at it in the first place.

The whole point of posting this entry is simply to let the people who may be excited about the program or financially support it know the truth, that yes there's lots of good, but there are definitely still lots of issues.

My solace is that, I've still done everything I've set out to do and done it all based on local policies and with the input of Center staff, I really can't do anything about apathy - that's a systematic problem. And come next Wednesday it's out of my hands and I can hope it continues the way everyone has talked about but I cant control other peoples' commitment. That's my limitation and I've completely come to terms with it. Totally zen right now.

So, yeah I'm pissed at how today played out, but still stand by my last entry where I'm still psyched that I've really done everything that I set out to do. Woohoo in 5 days everything is out of my hands so i cant be pissed, or frustrated, or hurt when other people don't do what they say they will do! just going to relax and accept that what will happen will happen. ]]> http://hollisramblings.blogspot.com/2009/05/stressed-out-on-life.html Fri, 22 May 2009 12:10:00 -0400 http://hollisramblings.blogspot.com/2009/05/stressed-out-on-life.html The pale observer http://chardonas.blogspot.com/2009/05/got-twitter-confessions-of-social.html Fri, 22 May 2009 09:20:00 -0400 http://chardonas.blogspot.com/2009/05/got-twitter-confessions-of-social.html