~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Approximately 4/26/2005
Hi, friends and family!
Apologies for the delay in an update. We are having a bit of trouble getting reliable email at the hotel. I actually have two updates for you…one from last weekend that you’ll read now, and another to follow hopefully tomorrow or over the weekend if the network comes back up.
I’ve wanted to send an update about this past weekend for some time! So, now you’ll get the long version- since I’ve been composing this is Word for a few days now! On Saturday, 10 of us left the hotel at 7 am for Cape Coast- an area about 3 hours west of Accra still on the Atlantic coast. It took us an hour or so just to get out of the city and its limits. With 2 million people, the traffic in Accra can get pretty terrible- even early on a Saturday morning trying to get out of town!
After an uneventful ride, we arrived at our first destination, Kakum National Park. Kakum Park is a protected “moist, semi-deciduous forest, and like any true rainforest it is characterized by high rainfall and a humidity level averaging around 90%.” You wanna talk humidity!?!? The air was so dense and dewy. Our skin, our clothes- just damp- from sweat and the humid air! There were numerous other groups of people there. Many school groups. Dozens of school kids in uniforms- off on a field trip for the day! We hiked up a ways- I can’t remember how far above sea level the guide told us, but probably only a 20 minute hike. The canopy was so thick you could hardly see the sky above. This park is home to over 275 species of forest birds and other species like forest elephants, leopards, a few breeds of monkeys, and flying squirrels. Unfortunately, mid-late morning is not the time to see wildlife at its peak, but we were around for the butterflies- thousands! They’re most active in the mid-morning, and I couldn’t get over how many “kissed” my face. Too bad I couldn’t catch them for a photo!
The main “tourist” highlight of this forest is the 350 m (1,050 ft), 40 m high (120 feet) canopy walk. It’s basically like a bunch of ladders put together with wood planks over the rungs and an open rope netting on the sides. You walk across these to the islands- there are seven that break up the 350 m walk. Only one member of our group had to turn back because he couldn’t deal with the height. But, it’s not so much the height that gets you- it’s the swaying of the bridge- normally there are only one or two people on it at a time- but some people walk faster and make the bridge move more- so it freaks people out. Check out the breathtaking views in the photos attached.
After the canopy walk, we had lunch at a local place that caters to people finishing the walk. Highlight of “Hans Cottage” (hotel & restaurant) is the large pond inhabited by crocodiles. The restaurant is a covered dock basically over this pond. It’s best to take bread to feed to the fish- the fish then get active going after the bread- croc sees the fish moving around and goes in for his own lunch!
After the crocs, we drove a half hour or so to the coast to visit the fishing town of Elmina. Elmina is quite historic and houses one of only a few remaining “castles” along the west coast of Africa that were major slave trade hubs. We visited the Castle of St. George (supposedly the oldest building in Sub-saharan Africa) in Elmina for a truly moving and educational experience. The photos speak for themselves. The name Elmina may have been derived from the Portuguese words “el mina” meaning “the mine”- the Portuguese settled in Elmina in 1482, but the city had been a major trade port from probably about 1300 AD. The Portuguese used it as a trade post for gold and other goods and built a small Castle of St. George- with a small chapel in its center- and stayed until 1637 when the Dutch took over. The Dutch expanded the fort and its operations. The Dutch converted the chapel into a slave market. The Gold Coast was a major hub of the African slave trade over 18 million slaves were “shipped” from Africa with only a third surviving the voyage. Seven million slaves were “shipped” through St. George’s castle until 1807 when the slave trade was abolished in Denmark (though slavery was not fully abolished worldwide until around the later 1800’s). The Dutch held Elmina until 1872 when they sold all their African Gold Coast forts to Britain. The British operated there until March 6th,1957, when Ghana was granted its independence from Britain.
This castle is more like a prison. The day was appropriate- very overcast and it actually stormed quite heavily while we were inside the castle. We hardly got a feel for the reality that these people experienced, but the rain, wind, and cold in the damp, dreary cement were a taste. Our tour guide, Richard, was very informative, and I’ll hardly do him justice or the history of the place with my summary- but you will hopefully get the idea. Men and women were prisoned separately. No bathrooms, little food- bread and water if that. Women were raped with great frequency by soldiers and also the Dutch governor of the castle. If women became pregnant, they stayed in Africa- that is part of why there are many Dutch/English last names in West Africa. These people endured months in this prison before being moved to the “transport” chamber. Here men and women reunited- if they were lucky some husbands and wives found each other- but that was all a matter of luck. They were shuffled in chains through “the door of no return.” Through this skinny doorway, the men and women walked into the boat that would transport them across the ocean never to return to Africa.
I saw where an old slave market used to exist in Zanzibar when I was in East Africa last year, and, after this visit this past weekend, I still believe that there is no greater lesson on slavery than actually visiting one of these ports. To see how horribly human beings can treat one another. I definitely have a new sense of history and a new sense of reality. You can’t get that from a textbook or a film. You have to see it with your eyes, almost hear the cries in your ears, and start to come to terms with what these women and men might have felt and feared.
So…a rather sad end to this update, but an important and interesting one I hope for some of you.
More soon.
All the best from Accra,
Erin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Approximately 5/1/05
Our training is going well. We’re officially half-way through. We will be moving training rooms next week- much to our dismay. However, the hotel is basically being taken over by almost 20 African presidents from different African countries- the only ones that we know are coming for sure are the presidents from South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sengal, and Nigeria. Some of their security guards have already arrived to scope the hotel out. Seems there is a problem at the National Conference Center where they were supposed to have their prepatory meeting for the G8 summit, and now they have to have the meeting here. Hence, we’re getting kicked out of our big room! Oh, well! Should be an interesting week! I’ll let you know if we have any interesting run-in’s!
On Tuesday of this week, we took the group on a “field trip” of sorts. We visited a warehouse for the Ghana Social Marketing Foundation (GSMF). One of GSMF’s activities is distributing contraceptives in conjunction with mass social marketing campaigns across Ghana. These campaigns encourage the use of contraceptives to prevent pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV/AIDS. We visited their warehouse where they store their commodities (condoms, oral contraceptives, and injectables (Depo-Provera)). Most of these commodities are donated by USAID (US Agency for International Development). Fun fact: The US Government is the largest supplier of donated contraceptives in the world. These commodities all get shipped from a larger warehouse in Sterling, Virginia. GSMF then takes all these commodities and repackages them with branded labels that match their social marketing campaigns. They have five brands of condoms: Bazuka, Panther, Champion, Protector, and Agauzi. They distribute Secure (a branded oral birth control pill), and FamPlan (a branded Depo-Provera). Take a look at all the different kinds in one of the photos attached.
We were able to see the workers repackaging the products- mainly condoms and depo that day. They repackage some 3 million pieces of product a day! I’ve attached a few pictures of the warehouse. Their conditions were pretty ok, but they were severely overstocked due to an inaccurate forecast of need. They have about 3 years of supply on hand! Way too much! This makes the warehouse too crowded, and boxes are not stored in ideal conditions (stacked too high, too close); therefore, it’s very hard to move around in the warehouse- let alone get product out with a forklift or anything. There were screens on the windows and the warehouse was clean. A smoke detector was beeping for new batteries though! GSMF then ships these products out in “branded” vans (see photo!) and sells the products all over- gas stations, pharmacies, bars, all over.
Next week we’ll be visiting three public service delivery points (clinics) that are among the first to be distributing anti-retroviral therapies to AIDS patients. It should prove to be a very interesting visit. As some food for thought (and for those interested a bit in the politics of AIDS and US govt funding)….In January of 2003, President Bush promised $15 billion for prevention, treatment and care for 15 nations (Haiti, Vietnam, and 13 African nations). Only in June of 2004 (nearly a year and a half later) were plans starting to be implemented in-country, but now in June 2005, many achievements have been made with probably 200,000 men, women, and children receiving treatment in some of these countries. The reality is, however, that many of these countries’ logistics systems are not ready to handle to receiving anti-retroviral drugs to treat AIDS patients. These drugs are very sensitive for a number of reasons: 1) many require specific storage conditions (refrigeration, etc.); 2) many of these drugs have short shelf lives- so they must be used soon after they arrive in country (a process that could take months- shipping from manufacturer, clearing customs, and arriving at the warehouse then to service delivery points); 3) US funds can only buy US-brand drugs- i.e from US Pharmaceutical companies- therefore, costs are high if a better deal can’t be negotiated; AND 4) Treatment protocols vary- countries should have standard treatment guidelines in place, but the hardest thing is that these medicines (like all medicines) react differently in different people. There are different options if a patient doesn’t respond well to a certain drug, but these drugs are usually taken in combination with others. Therefore, it’s not just a matter of having a certain line of anti-retrovirals- you need back up plans as well for the regimens. But, most importantly, patients have to follow-through on their treatments- else the risk of building drug resistant straings of AIDS dramatically increases. This is the scariest of all- we, as a global community, have a hard enough time treating AIDS now with the drugs we have, if more strains develop, we have an even tougher job on our hands.
So…that’s my little watered-down educational bit on ARV treatment- I am far far from an expert, but it makes me proud to be here at this training and to work for this project because we are helping countries improve their systems to ensure that contraceptives, ARVs, and other medicines arrive at the clinics to ensure that people have access to good quality products.
So, that’s my update for this week. Next week is our last week of training, so I’ll send another update or two before I head home on the 9th.
All the best,
Erin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment