Easter in Ghana…

Friday March 25 was Good Friday while Sunday March 27 was Easter Sunday. In Ghana, 4 days marking the death and resurrection of Christ (good Friday – Easter Monday) are celebrated as national holidays. Thus, government workers get those days off to celebrate Easter, schools close and kids get to spend time with family.. Because of the long break and weekend, most people travel to see family and also do some sightseeing.

I came home to my parent’s house on Friday after my shift at the Ankaase hospital to spend the Easter holidays with my family. This is the first time in almost 12 years of celebrating Easter with my Ghanaian family. It’s been an amazing experience of re-witnessing the Ghanaian way of celebrating Easter.

On Good Friday, some people wear black in remembrance of Christ’s death on the cross. Traditionally, Ghanaians wear black or red to attend funerals. This is the reason behind the black attire on Good Friday. On Easter Sunday, church services are filled with congregants wearing white attire signifying that Christ is risen. Due to the large number of people traveling to their hometowns, some villages have fundraising to boost local capital and use those funds for local developmental projects.

My family had a very good Easter. There was no egg hiding or candy from the Easter bunny but there was plenty of delicious Ghanaian meals.  I traveled with my dad to Bedaase and Oyoko to visit two churches on Easter Sunday. My US home church in Lexington, First United Methodist (Andover campus) traveled to Ghana in both 2012 and 2013 for a vision (eye) clinic and church planting mission. In 2012 we conducted a vision clinic and evening services at both Bedaase and Oyoko. In 2013 the church visited only Bedaase. This website, “http://andoveringhana.blogspot.com/ “provides detailed information on the projects that were carried out during those trips. The church built a pavilion for the Bedaase Methodist Church during the 2013 mission trip. This pavilion has been very instrumental in that church’s growth. The purpose of my visit was to worship with them and evaluate needs. It was a very blessed and fulfilling trip.

The pavilion for the Bedaase Methodist church. It provides a place for worship on Sundays.



Members listening to the Easter message by the caretaker. A third of the flooring has been completed.



Construction in progress for Oyoko Methodist Church's children ministry (Sunday school). The adults have a place of worship


Work has been busy as usual. On Thursday March 24 I trained a portion of the outpatient department nursing staff on vital signs, its importance and accurate ways of obtaining such data for quality patient care. A physician assistant also helped in the training by providing vital information on effective triaging that leads to better patient outcomes. We are grateful for the opportunities to help others provide better patient care.

We hope that you had a blessed Easter celebration. God richly bless you :)



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
The Beard must go…. The past week has been very busy albeit interesting. Esther (my sister) visited on Wednesday and advised me to shave the beard I’ve been growing. Apparently, having a beard in Ghana is associated with being a Muslim. She is scared of men with beards. Nevertheless, she hugged me so that was nice. We had a good visit and it was good to see her again. Esther and I at the mission guest house in Tanoso. She says the beard must go ;)  The team spent 4 days (Thursday – Sunday) at Agona Swedro (Central Region) with clinics and crusades held at Beseadze (about 30-minute drive from Agona). Agona Swedro is in the Central region and about a 2.5 hour from Kumasi (Ashanti region). The location of the clinics and crusades was between a shrine and a mosque. In Ghana, shrines are used by traditional believers (they worship tress, stones, rivers and animals). Therefore, we found it interesting that such a location was approved by the chief. But, the chief has authori
Read more

One week Medical Mission in Ankaase

It’s been a while since I posted anything on here. Lots have happened since my last post including a recent marriage and job transfer to the Philadelphia area. The Lord has been good to us. On September 21, 2018 I joined Randall Brooks, Dan Chettleburgh, Leigh Scott and Linda Forbes, physical, occupational and recreational therapists from South Bend (Indiana), at JFK for a flight to Ghana. We traveled to Ankaase to work on improving function for stroke patients. We will also be working with  patients with musculoskeletal injuries/pain. The team's Facebook page and pictures can be assessed   here    The journey to Ankaase was uneventful. We arrived on Saturday September 22, 2018  1 pm local time and settled in the hospital’s guest house. Currently, Ghana is 4 hours ahead of eastern standard time. After a brief resting period, we toured the town and took in the sights and scenes. On Sunday September 23, we attended a community church service that was held by the Methodis
Read more

Preventive Healthcare

Image
On Friday May 19, 2017 I joined community health nurses (CHN) from the hospital and traveled 3 miles Northwest of Ankaase to Dumakyi, a small farming community, to conduct vaccination screening, also known locally as a health outreach program. Dumakyi lacks running water, electricity and basic public transportation. Residents, mostly cocoa farmers living in mud thatched houses, walk to the hospital, 3 miles away, when they are sick. The distance and lack of transportation discourages them from bringing their children for scheduled clinical review and obtaining the required vaccinations. To combat this problem, CHNs visit and vaccinate the children right in their backyard. CHNs setting up under the teak tree. Some students milling about the place before class. We arrived at 9:30 am on Friday morning and set up office under a teak tree in front of the local primary/middle school. Despite bringing the free vaccination exercise to the community, parents are still reluctant to
Read more