The Have Clinic

My experience with Village Volunteers began with a call home to the US from Ghana to try and figure out how I could extend my stay in Ghana and do some volunteering of some sort. Through a couple of calls I got hooked up with Village Volunteers and was able to practice some of my nursing skills in the small village of Have in the Volta Region of Ghana. I moved into a house in Have with another volunteer Sam where we had our home cooked meals cooked for us by Florence a great cook who always made sure we had enough food three times a day. We soon became friends with her son Richard who helped Florence out bring us our meals and made sure we got anything we needed. Another friend of ours was Jimmy a 15 year old boy who was full of energy all the time. On our first night in Have he took Sam and I around the village show us where everything was and he also brought us to meet Paul’s family who runs the show out in Have. We also met Felix who is a very important person in the village and made sure we were always comfortable and brought us anything he thought might help us be more comfortable. As for my work experience in Have, since I am a nursing student I helped out at the Have Health Clinic. In the mornings I arrived at the clinic at eight and joined the staff for worship until around eight thirty and then the work began in a much laid back sense. This meant that if you needed to go get a loaf of bread you could probably just leave and so do it. Some days when there were hardly any patients, this meant that the staff went to the road side to get a snack which sometimes lead a half an hour long snack break that was unplanned. The laid back sense of things kept everyone in good spirits but at the same time everyone was able to get down to work when it was needed. Since all of the staff is not always able to be there everyone has to be very flexible and shift around to different areas of the clinic when ever asked. This was great for me because I got to work with in PEDS, consulting, and in the maternity ward. The only difficulty with this was that since I do not speak Ewe which is the language of the people in Have it was hard for me to do the documenting, but I got to do a lot of hands on work. The hands-on work was taking vitals, giving vaccines, and other tastes. The thing that really made my entire experience so wonderful was how helpful the other nurses were and how understanding they were having me working with them in their clinic. I became especial good friends with one of the nurses and so when the weekend came and she was making a trip home to her village where they made (Kente) cloth she invited me to come with her to see how it was made. This was a wonderful cultural experience traveling to her village and meeting her family. It continues to amaze me how people with so little seem to be the most giving. I was true throughout my entire time in Have the hospitality was most amazing. I am sad to have to leave after only a short two week stay in Have, but I hope one day not to long from now I will be able to go back.

Krysta Frye – Norwich, VT – USA
Have, Ghana
January, 2008