#ScottVandenHeuvel

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GHDI Presents: Pregnant Fish Status

Under two weeks to go, people: this is not a drill.

Jun 14, 2019 at 9:10 AM

Private car on the way to Mole National Park

Man the days do fly by fast when you work all week and travel every weekend; weird. This experience has flown by and I know it’ll only speed up as we get closer to leaving. There’s still a lot we have to do before then for our academic project so it’s not all a walk in the park. I realize that I might not have talked too much about what I’m officially doing here in Africa so let’s jump in. The first part of the project for about three (3) weeks was a needs finding project, doing observations and broad interviews within the emergency department of identify challenges they face in all areas from operations to technologies to lack of education. After developing and refining our list of about seventy-five (75) needs, we sought feedback from partners and mentors and clinicians about the priority of those needs and had a multi-step filtering process to bring that list down to about five (5). From that final list, the three of us selected projects that most interested each of us! Alex and Nai’a are working on a project to better control the flow rate through an IV drip for fluids and medications, while my focus is on a way to safely provide traction for patients with femur fractures. Now we are developing user requirements and engineering specifications for each of the projects to determine what success looks like to each stakeholder involved in the process. That means a lot more talking with clinicians about what they think and soliciting as much information as possible. It’s exciting to narrow our focus onto a more isolated topic instead of trying to find every problem within the hospital.

When I left off last time, I was writing on the way to the eastern part of Ghana, the Volta region (not the Eastern region, that’s something else)! The Volta region is more mountainous than the rest of Ghana and is really known for some incredible waterfalls, that’s one of the parts that got our attention the most. It’s a long drive over, it took us about ten (10) hours each way, which basically takes the day, even when you leave at 6:30 in the morning. We took a private car, the same one that we’re in right now, because it gives us a lot more freedom on the road to stop when we need to or go to cool places along the route because it’s just us and our driver George. George is cool. It’s a little more expensive, but definitely preferred over sitting in a crowded tro for ten hours. The concept of hiring a private driver is definitely more normal here than it is back in the U.S. There are so many taxi drivers that will bend over backwards to drive you around if you have the cash. It can actually be the most convenient way to get around, especially if you’re exploring a larger city, as they usually know the best places to go. I might have talked about this before, but it’s a part of the culture to ask everyone around you where to get food or where this store is or where you can buy this item. I really love that, and everyone is friendly that you don’t feel like you are an annoyance or a burden. Many times they’ll even take the time to walk you there and show you themselves or call their friend that has that item and all it takes is to ask.

We chose to spend three days on the trip to Volta, driving out Saturday, staying Sunday, and coming back on Monday. We had the cocoa trip already committed for that Friday, so we added the day on the other end. We stayed at a really nice small guesthouse type hotel and the owner, Vincent, was so nice. He and his family were the ones cooking us amazingly good food and gave us so many pointers on what to do the following day as we planned to hike up the nearby mountain and explore the famous Wli Waterfalls. We headed out early the next morning to begin the six (6) hour hike up and down with our guide, Wisdom. He made sure we had plenty of water and were well prepared, even though he carried nothing and wore flip flops. As we began, he gave us the most critical words of warning; that by the end we would sweat like pregnant fish; and while we didn’t know what that meant when he said it (how much does a fish sweat? Pregnant fish? Have you ever seen a pregnant fish?), we certainly found out by the end of it as we were sweating buckets for most of the hike. The hike really kicked our asses, there were some really steep sections up and down and our legs were completely useless by the end of the hike. The refreshing pools at the bottom of the upper and lower falls were really nice to cool ourselves off and take some breaks. Wisdom also gave us the option to go a different direction and actually hike through Togo for a bit, which is the neighboring country. If we knew beforehand, we could have arranged to spend a night in Togo learning about traditional African skills, like how to carry a baby on your back with a sheet or how to make traditional food: the more you know for next time. The views were incredible. We got lucky with the weather and it wasn’t sunny and hot, but not too much cloud cover that you couldn’t see the landscape from the peaks, so really ideal for the picturesque vistas. I took around 282 photos (but who’s counting) and it was definitely one of the most fun things we’ve done in Ghana so far this experience.

In walking around the small little town and even venturing over to the border gate of Togo and Ghana, we were reminded again of the unease behind taking pictures. When we are going around the markets and villages and the like, it feels fine or natural to want to take pictures to remember what it looks like or share with family and friends back home, but that has to be done quite carefully here. For many of the people in the background of the picture, that is their daily life, it’s their stand or their shop that’s been in their family for generations and to them there’s no reason at all to take a picture. Some people will give you a bit of a glare, others will literally shout at you to put the cameras away. Nai’a said something like there might be a spiritual part of it, where some think that the camera will remove their soul from their body, which if they thought that, then I could definitely understand the unease. In many different places, there’s just a vibe of “it wouldn’t be right for me to take a picture here”, and it sometimes can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what gives that off. It seems to be a more widespread thing, not just local to a region or area. Alex got yelled at for taking pictures in the central market of Kumasi and I was asked to put my phone away near the border of Togo and in the small village we were staying in last weekend.

On our way home on Monday, it was recommended that we make a stop at a monkey sanctuary! I had never been to such a place before and it was super dope. We bought some bananas before we wandered with our guide into the forest and we quickly found a family of monkeys to take them off our hands. I didn’t realize how big/heavy some monkeys could be... Having them jump up on your shoulder or arm to eat the banana is a bit of a shock! They were really cool and we got some great laughs and pictures so it was worth all time spent.

The road between the Volta region and Kumasi is the worst road I have ever been on. Period. Full stop. Michigan has some terrible road but nothing compares to 60 miles of dirt and rock roads that takes 4.5 hours to get across because you have to go at a literal crawl to keep the car from falling apart. There is no maintenance for roads in most part of the country and everything comes from the government, which might explain why there isn’t any maintenance. It’s very common to see nice homes and nice driveways that lead to a god-awful road. If it were me I would spend at least a bit of money to repair the road I drive on every single day but it’s not really a concern here.

I know it’s been a minute since I started writing this but there’s only a couple more of these coming so it’s falling to the back burner with all the other work we have to do here. Stay tuned for the last couple posts!

Thanks for hanging with me,

Scott

———

Scott Vanden Heuvel

Mechanical Engineering

GHDI Immersion Experience, Kumasi, Ghana

[umichenginabroad]

GHDI Presents: Fun Under the Sun

Four weeks is how long we’ve been here, now all that’s left is three, we’ve loved our time here in Ghana, eating egg sandwiches from under the tree.

June 8, 2019 at 7:40 AM

Somewhere on the Kumasi-Accra road

This week has been the week of planning. We’ve been planning a trip to northern Ghana and Mole National Park, I’ve been planning trips to visit my brother and trips to visit friends when I return to the U.S. and spontaneously we decided to plan a trip to the Volta region of Ghana to see the Wli waterfalls and monkey sanctuaries, I do love a good waterfall (and who doesn’t love cute monkeys?) Planning trips can be a little stressful because it’s always a balance of leveraging who you know so that you don’t have to pay as much. If you know a guy who’s been there before then you can get recommendations on where to stay and how to get there and be knowledgeable when you try and get the price down. Or if you have family or friends to stay with so you don’t have to pay for where you stay, that’s a huge bonus too. I’m someone who usually takes a lot of the burden of planning just because I like to be in the know and part of the process. Also makes it so that if something doesn’t turn out so fun (or so cheap) that most of that usually falls on my shoulders too, so there’s that.

Last weekend however, we didn’t travel somewhere new! It was the last weekend of one of our friends here so we decided to stick around and explore the city a bit more. We ended up heading off to a local hotel to pay to use their pool and lounge around most of the day, which was super nice to try and get that African tan we’ve all been secretly hoping we come back with. I usually fry like a lobster in the sun, and everyone will be proud to know I’ve only had burns twice; and they were when I was sitting in the car exposed to the sun, so I don’t really count those. It wasn’t cheap to use the pool so unless we are looking to dedicate a day to it then we might not go back; we’ll see. We also returned to the mall twice this week! Once to simply shop and shoe Nai’a and Alvin the place, which they hadn’t been to before, and once on Thursday night where we went to the theater to watch Aladdin! (It was great you should go see it). Every time I go to the stores in the mall (either here or the U.S. I want to spend so much money so I am really trying to resist blowing my budget just on clothes; I don’t know how successful I’ll be before I leave.

Side note: this picture is of me and this guy, Mike. Mike worked with my brother at an Air Force base in Germany, two years ago. What a small world to run into him at a club in Kumasi, Ghana.

When we walked up to the mall on Thursday, it was absolutely packed. It’s an outdoor mall, and there were so many young people just hanging around. It was the classic definition of the Robin Sparkles hit “Let’s go to the Mall (today)”. Inside the theater, it wasn’t busy at all; they had just gone to hang out with their friends, which was kind kind of cool. Or at least I thought it was, until we saw all the trash left everywhere in and around the mall when we walked outside the theater. There was dirt, there was chocolate ice cream (I hope) smeared all over the floors; there was food waste left all over the floor, there were drink bottles and tons of plastic bags strewn all over the railings and ledges. It wouldn’t have really been appropriate for me to take a picture, but it was really saddening to see that happening at a place that during the day is quite tidy. That doesn’t seem to be uncommon here in Ghana. There are very very few public trash cans and a metric ton of plastic waste. The concept of recycling isn’t a thought at all, as literally everything is wrapped in plastic bags. The egg sandwiches we get are double wrapped in plastic bags. If I get a bottle of water or Fanta the plastic bottle is wrapped in a plastic bag. All fruit purchased comes double wrapped in plastic. All these bags and all the pieces of trash on the streets don’t have anywhere to go, and so people toss them on the side of the road, on the sidewalk where people are selling goods, into the drains that line the streets, literally becoming a river of trash when it rains. We talked to our host mom about it during our first week and she said that even established homes and buildings don’t have great trash removal. All the trash companies are private and expensive and the vast majority of people simply choose to burn their trash, most of the times that happens right outside their home on the side of the road. The Green Movement that is happening right now in the U.S. is a great step and one we have to take but the difference we’re making is very simply outnumbered by the places that need the most help. There’s not an easy solution and definitely not a quick solution but I hope something will change soon.

On Friday, yesterday, we were able to take a tour of the cocoa production process, all the way from the ground up. Keep up now, Alex’s uncle’s brother is the VP of a chocolate company in Switzerland but they partner with a cocoa buyer here in Kumasi, and so we were able to weasel our way to a free tour! We started with getting a look at the seed nursery where the plants start their first 4-6 months of life, then we went to the underplanting site where they start growing, and then a larger farm to see how local farmers harvest and open the cocoa fruit (and even got to try it ourselves) and a look into the fermentation process that gives the beans inside their distinctive chocolate color and flavor. He took us around to the drying facility and where they bag the beans and ship them out. It was a really cool experience and we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into so it was really a pleasant surprise and the people we met were super friendly. If you ever have the opportunity to interact with Nyonkopa chocolate buying company or Barry [] Chocolate company, they are really some cool people and the chocolate is high quality.

This week in our circle of friends, Sophie has left on a two week trip around Ghana with her friend from the Netherlands, so she has left the hospital. Alvin’s girlfriend is visiting so they are traveling around Accra and Cape Coast and the southern part of Ghana. A new student has arrived, Inés, from Madrid! It is nice to have someone else to speak Spanish with so that is very exciting. She’s only here for about a month so she leaves soon after we do. A few other GHDI students may be coming to Kumasi, as their partnerships in other places around Africa are falling through, which is a bummer; but, it means more friends are in Kumasi and it’s not all bad.

Right now, Alex, Nai’a, Inés, and I are on our way to the Volta region! We have quite the drive ahead of us but I’m sure there will be lots to tell you about when we come back! Hopefully I get around to writing a bit sooner next time (doubtful). With trips to Mole and to a Kotoko football match on the horizon, there are many more fun things ahead.

Thanks for hanging with me,

Scott

——-

Scott Vanden Heuvel

Mechanical Engineering

GHDI Immersion Experience, Kumasi, Ghana

[umichenginabroad]

GHDI Presents: Origin Stories

May 30, 2019 at 8:39 PM

Hostel Room, it’s like I’ve never moved

There’s this food stand with a blue roof right outside our hostel and they sell these egg and sausage sandwiches with onions and peppers and other veggies for only sixty cents. Between the three of us, we get about four per day.

It’s been a minute since I’ve last written, but sometimes that’s the way it goes. I know I’ve gotten into the habit of just doing a day by day recap and while that’s all well and good, I think I’ll be a bit more brief on those topics and more on African culture or the intangible. I’ve only gotten good feedback, so maybe someone will be bold enough to let me know if it’s a bad change. Who knows? I don’t even know who reads this.

Since I’ve written last, we took a trip to Cape Coast for the weekend! There was no big-bus company that took us directly there so we had to find a big-bus-like company to head down there, and apparently it wasn’t enough like the other company because the bus broke down about halfway down! We chilled out on and off the hot bus and collectively gave the traveling coconut salesman his monthly quota in just a couple hours as he travelled back and forth many times to bring enough coconuts for us all to drink. Supply and demand I guess. I had never had coconut milk (is it called milk?) but it tasted fine, especially because it was hot. I thought it would be a problem to arrive at our hostel at 11pm, but when we arrived to find a large amount of tables and a full DJ blaring music into the night, we found out it was fine (there was another side to the hostel and the noise wasn’t too bad).

Ghana is loud. Like everywhere you go there’s a preacher in a truck with a speaker at max volume going down the street loud. Electronic or radio shops will have all of their speakers for sale all playing music, and many times different music (all at max volume). The crackle you get when you play some speakers at max volume could be the Ghanaian anthem because no matter where you go (our bus to Cape Coast was playing a movie at full volume all the way down) you can hear some speaker playing some music or some gospel that everyone wants you to listen to. The rare moments where the incessant honking and extraneous noise pauses are gifts where you can stop and think about how you appreciate the silence. People just don’t care if they are playing their music loudly or in a way that would definitely be considered discourteous (uncourteous?) in the U.S. just out of a general respect mentality. In similar ways, the visual noise is just as bad. I thought the U.S. was bad with all the advertising you seen on the roads and in the streets but Ghana is a new level. The amount of flyers or adverts or graffiti on the walls saying call this number for (a good time) if you want work or a phone repair place or to buy some mangos is wild.

While in Cape Coast we did some pretty cool things! We visited Kakum National Park, which is the only remaining rain forest in West Africa (!) and it was humid enough to prove it. They had a canopy walk that takes you above the trees and was quite cool! We ate at a restaurant that had an area where you could literally PET crocodiles (and wait 1.5 hours for a piece of fish for lunch) so that was super dope. We spent the afternoon exploring and getting a tour of the Cape Coast Castle (say that five times fast). Cape Coast Castle was used as a slave castle and was a main stop for the transatlantic slave trade for Portugal, the Netherlands, and the British. It was definitely a heavy tour (heavy mentally, not physically, IYKYK) but one that was important for learning more about the history of the area. If you ever visit Cape Coast, I highly recommend going! I made friends with a busker named Ben that made me a personalized gift while we were touring the castle so that’s pretty cool too.

Leaving Cape Coast on a Sunday proved additionally difficult because the buses run even less frequently than during the regular week. On Sunday’s most of the country shuts down for everyone to go to their neighborhood church from about 6am to 11am, you can hear the choirs singing and all the music starting around then. We ended up taking a tro-tro (remember those vans I talked about) the whole four-ish hours to Kumasi, and while it’s tough to fit 23 people in one van, we did it, however cramped we might have been. But hey, it was cheap. If you wanted to (and if you knew more about the system) I’m sure one could take a tro literally anywhere they wanted to in Ghana because some go within cities others go between cities so it’s quite an efficient system actually. Personal or hired drivers are also another great system, negotiating them to drive you around for the day or for a certain activity is actually reasonable and brings a certain level of security in the travel plans. We’re likely to take a hired driver for our trip to the northern region of Ghana when we visit Mole National Park (and see elephants! [hopefully]).

We met a vendor in the cultural center last week that offered to take us to a part of Kumasi where they make all kinds of leather goods! I’m glad we had him with us because the way there was very confusing and he did all the negotiating for prices which was very helpful. Our orders for things we wanted were also complex so I’m sure they were saying “dumbass tourists” as we were walking away, but I don’t speak enough Twi to know what they said. They used natural leathers local to Kumasi, so we’re hoping the products turn out well! I love the vibe of “I know a guy who does this let me give him a call”, and it’s been fun to have those interactions. Even today, our friend Alvin was looking for a charger for his laptop, and when we walked into the electronics store, they didn’t have what he needed but they immediately called someone and in only a few minutes he was at the store showing Alvin what he needed. I wish the U.S. picked up on this trend because it would make for many more friendly communities for everyone in them.

We also took a trip to a local village where they make Kente cloth. Kente cloth is a traditional fabric that is normally woven by hand, and each pattern means something different. Our friend Sammy told us that the designs can mean anything from “don’t be jealous” to “will you marry me” to “Obama came to Ghana” and the history of a village can be told through a combination of these strips of Kente cloth. We were shown how they spin the threads with a few different materials (cotton, rayon, silk, and even a shiny metallic string) and even got to try it ourselves! They have handmade looms where you can see how they weave the threads through a base or through individual strands and some of the weavers move incredibly quickly and it was very cool to see. We also got a glimpse into the cocoa production in Ghana (more on that in a few weeks) where they use every part of the cocoa tree, from the fruit to the husks to the roots to the leaves, everything. That’s a common trend in Ghana, using the entire animal or plant in something. It can be a downside where sometimes you don’t know what part of the chicken you’re eating, though, which is kinda tough.

This weekend we’re sticking around Kumasi to explore a little more of the city and experience the nightlife and other things the weekend can bring. Life at the hospital is going super well, and we’re moving into the next stage of our experience here where we are filtering down the needs we’ve identified and digging deeper into the context surrounding them! Should be lots of things to tell you about when you hear from me next!

Thanks for hanging with me,

Scott

——-

Scott Vanden Heuvel

Mechanical Engineering

GHDI Immersion Experience, Kumasi, Ghana

[umichenginabroad]

GHDI Presents: Weekend of Friends and the Quest for a Fitted Sheet

May 20, 2019 at 6:39 PM

Room GF44, Getfund Hostel, Kumasi, Ghana

We might be in Africa, but that doesn’t mean we can’t bring Michigan summer lake vibes to big city Africa.

Last weekend, the gang (Alex, Sophie from Holland, and Bismark from Ghana) took a trip to Lake Bosumtwe, which is a natural lake about two hours south of Kumasi. The OG plan was to take an Uber to a central place in town, pick up a tro-tro (more on this in a second) to the closet town, and then take a taxi directly to our guesthouse by the lake. In talking with the Uber driver, we bargained for him to just take us all the way to the guesthouse so that made our plans much less complicated!

I don’t think I’ve talked about tro-tro’s before, and they’re a critical part of Ghana’s driving ecosystem (and really kinda cool). Tro-tro’s are what Ghana has instead of local city busses. Picture a big 10-15 passenger van, like your average Ford Sprinter but beat up like it was bought in 1990, and now picture it packed full of people. There’s always a driver, an assistant, and the passengers. The driver has to focus on the road, and the assistant is the guy sitting by the sliding side door, yelling at people where the bus is going, leaning out the window to see if anyone on the sidewalk wants to get on, and collects money from the passengers, all while the driver is going full speed. They have a route that they’re on, or really just a destination, and that destination can change depending on what the driver and assistant are feeling like that day or where they think the people want to go. Now imagine that the road is FILLED with these tro-tro’s. There are sometimes so many that it’s chaotic to hear someone walking next to you over the honking and the yelling of destinations. We took a tro-tro when we had Afia’s son as a guide and translator so he knew that we needed a tro-tro to ”Santasi” and that’s how that works. The rate is hella cheap. We’re talking like $0.40 for all the way across the city kind of cheap. Definitely want to get more confident in using them because I love the chaotic system.

The road from Kumasi to Lake Bosumtwe is the worst road I have ever been on. Full stop. We complain about Michigan roads but the roads all across Kumasi are horrendous. Drivers swerve all over the road to avoid potholes and there are actually ravines in the middle of the road due to the heavy rains eroding the dirt. Slamming the brakes to a turtle crawl is a common occurrence just to try (and fail) to maintain the car in good shape. There is a section of the road we took this weekend where they’re widening the road, so there’s a ton of dust and dirt being kicked up from all the cars that drive on it, obscuring vision to maybe a car length in front of you. Now I would say I’m a pretty good driver, and relatively calm when others are driving in poor conditions, but when Ghanaian drivers are going almost full speed down a dirt road, swerving left and right to avoid pot holes, unable to see oncoming traffic, and no lanes to manage where cars are supposed to be, that’s an experience nothing can really prepare you for. I’m glad I wasn’t driving, and I’m glad I’m still here to write about the tale (I’m sure my mom is happy about that too).

The guesthouse at the lake was absolutely gorgeous, and they have kept the area very natural and relaxing for the maximum of 14 guests it can accommodate. We met a group of five other international students from Germany, Switzerland, and another girl from the Netherlands, and they were really cool to hang out with while we were there! We all had similar minds to relax, do a little tanning, do a lot of reading and listening to music, and enjoy the life away from the city. The guesthouse we stayed at was called The Green Ranch, and had some amazing vegetarian food (I was a skeptic but pleasantly surprised by the pasta) and free water (!). We may have splurged a bit on a horse-riding experience and a few too many beers but it was a really cool experience! Most of the pictures from this post are of the guesthouse or the lake view.

May 23, 2019 at 11:04 PM

The hostel room had a few items left in it, but the sheets were too small for the bed so couldn’t wrap them around the mattress, very frustrating. I made it my mission to pick up a fitted sheet for my bed. The first option was the local grocery store where we picked up our towels the first week; but, they only had (rather expensive) sheet sets for queen and king beds, and I’m not paying enough money to get a queen bed in the hostel. We wait another day.

On Monday, I met up with a couple of the locals here to watch the finale of Game of Thrones! I had spent my free trial of a VPN to stream the previous episode but I was glad to know the cult of GoT exists even in Kumasi. Also on Monday, a new exchange student from Germany, Alvin, arrived to KATH! His room is right across from Alex and I’s and he was quick to join the gang.

On Tuesday, we had another friend come into Kumasi! Nai’a is the third student doing almost the same work as Alex and I, with observations and needs finding within the Emergency Department, she just has a different timeline. She was in the prep class with Alex and I for the winter semester so we know her pretty well. The plan was to head into the market to pick up a few things for everyone and show the famous Kejetia market to Alvin and Nai’a for the first time, but the afternoon monsoons thwarted that plan pretty quick because we weren’t interested in getting soaked to our bones. I’ll have to wait another day to find my fitted sheet.

Wednesday the weather was mildly better, although it was dark enough, and because it’s rained for like the past 5 days straight at this point, we just expected it to storm right around the time we get out of work. Sometimes that’s how it be. We decided to risk it anyway because who knows when it’ll clear up. We spent a little time waiting out what ended up being just a drizzle in a small snack shop, but then finally made our way into the throngs of the market with Alex, Nai’a, Sophie, and Alvin. I am happy to report that my shopping was finally completed. The items of interest? Hangers, shower soap, a shower scrub, a second hankerchief, and finally, a blue fitted sheet for my twin bed.

Thursday we decided to check out the nearby cultural center! Sophie had done some preliminary exploration during the morning earlier that week so she knew the cool stores to show us. The cultural center was choc-full of artisan crafts and creators, it was a really cool area. I was trying to decide whether it was an area just for tourists (I mean the name was cultural center) or if it was simply a good location for craftsmen of bronze or pottery or weavers and sewers and artists. The artwork that was available from some of these creators are simply incredible and I can definitely see myself leaving with some, we’ll see how much money I have left towards the end of the experience to gauge how much of the traditional symbols and paintings I bring back as gifts.

Another weeklong project was to try and communicate with our tailor from last week to drop off the finished shirts! We finally met up with him on Thursday to exchange the goods and I’m really happy with how mine turned out! See below for pictures of the tailored shirts I had made.

This weekend we’re taking a longer trip south to Cape Coast! We have a hostel that’s right on the beach and Cape Coast is known for it’s beaches and old slave castles we are hoping to get a tour of to learn more about this history of the area. There’s also Kakum National Park, which is only about 45 minutes away and the only remaining rainforest in West Africa, so that’s pretty neat. Stay tuned for more fun times and travels!

Thanks for hanging with me,

Scott

———

Scott Vanden Heuvel

Mechanical Engineering

GHDI Immersion Experience, Kumasi, Ghana

[umichenginabroad]

GHDI Presents: A Change of Scenery

May 18, 2019 at 10:17 AM

Room GF44A, Getfund Hostel, Kumasi, Ghana

Hostel life is great, except when the water doesn’t work, and then it kinda sucks.

I last wrote on Tuesday, and it’s been a pretty fun week! With us leaving the homestay and meeting new friends at the hostel, there are lots of new experiences! We’ve said goodbye to many children we’ve met in the street, and I know they’re sad to see their supplier (of tootsie rolls) leave the area. These kids are so cute and relentless with their adoration of us. Anytime we would walk down the street, the kids would pour out of the house and start chanting “GIVE ME TOFFEE” until I pulled the tootsie rolls out of my bag. It was all well and good until I ran out and then they wanted me to give them all my money or buy them some food. I have a new-found appreciation for all preschool teachers, let me tell you.

Wednesday we took some time in the afternoon to go back to the market with someone we met at the hostel! Sophie is from the Netherlands, and she’s doing an exchange program in the anesthesiology department at KATH (that’s the hospital where we work if you forgot). The market is now within walking distance from the hostel which is super convenient to be able to pick up really whatever items we might ever need, if you can find the right stall. About half an hour into exploring the skies got dark, and the hub of activity told us that it was about to POUR. We asked a friendly person at a stall and he directed us to wait out the storm at a bar called “Dim Lights”. Trying to follow his instructions led to a miscommunication that people thought we wanted to go to “Blue Lights”. We didn’t really care where we went as long as we didn’t get wet, so we followed some people into a covered section of the market where all the stalls have blue lights (ahhh) to grab a malt soft drink and wait out the rain. We ended up being offered seats and conversation from these shoe stalls in the blue lights district and these guys were really personable and friendly and an all around good-time. I really love that the vast majority of people on the street or in the city are super nice and you can just ask anyone if you don’t know where you’re going or don’t know what to do. Even the locals say that they often just ask around when they are looking for something specific and don’t know where it is.

Thursday was a fun day because we had our first interview! In addition to collection observation data from the emergency department wards, we also try and ask as many questions to as many people as possible to get a wholistic view of any identified challenges. We met with the head of the maintenance department and got some great information so we’re making big moves only in our needs finding mission at the hospital. It was also the day we spent triple the price of the hostel room in taxi fees schlepping all of our stuff from the hospital, back to Afia’s, and then finally to the hostel. We got our last home cooked meal (with an open invitation to come back, this is massive) and said goodbye to our one-week mom. We’ve said all week that living with Afia had it’s advantages and disadvantages. Meals are a huge perk, and she even did our laundry twice, but living closer to the city and more people and more activity (and wifi) is something we already appreciate after a few days here.

The hostel area could be the most well kept area we’ve seen in the city since we’ve been here. There’s no trash lining the sides of the walkway or streets and the greenery is well kept; it’s a cool area. There’s a catering place right there that offers some great (and cheap) food. There’s a fruit stand where Sandra will chop the freshest mango and pineapple you ever did see. (Side note about the mango: we’ve had it every day since we’ve been here with no plans to stop any time soon. It’s like heaven in a double wrapped plastic bag) There’s another shop place that serves up some great chicken and options for rice or pasta or even french fries. There’s a really large tree with a big patio underneath and a stand that sells coffee or cold drinks and small sandwiches which we haven’t taken full potential of but I hope to soon.

The hostel isn’t all a paradise though. The sheets don’t fit the bed, and a trip to the store to pick up new sheets yielded nothing in stock for a twin size bed. The fan is right underneath the light, which might not sound like a problem, until you think about how it creates a strobe effect everywhere you look, which is actually super annoying. The place could use a really good vacuuming, but for $4 a night for the room, we can’t complain too much. A long-term hostel experience is something we don’t have too much experience with, but so far so good!

On Friday we went out with our new friends Sophie and Bismark (He’s a local medical student who’s been living at the hostel for a few years) to a bar/restaurant in the nearby cultural center. Apparently the center has some of the more “touristy” or artisanal craft items so we’re excited to check that out in the daylight! This bar was not at all what I expected when following a path that looked like a construction site into a Hawaiian style bar and grill surrounding a lake. Really good food and cheap drinks and getting to know some of the other students made for a really fun night. Below are some pictures of the restaurant and the gang gang.

Today (Saturday) we head a little south for our first real adventure outside of Kumasi to Lake Bosumtwe! We’re taking local transportation with the Tro-Tro’s (more on those in another post) so it could be a little interesting. We’re all in the mood for some great scenery and a little relaxation lakeside. We still haven’t received the custom shirts so that’s still to come later!

Thanks for hanging with me,

Scott

—

Scott Vanden Heuvel

Mechanical Engineering

GHDI Immersion Experience, Kumasi, Ghana

[umichenginabroad]

GHDI Presents: Ghana, by the Numbers

** I’m noticing that the text format for this blog doesn’t allow for a lot of space between paragraphs so I’m going to put (some random) pictures between paragraphs to make it easier to read**

Afia’s Guesthouse

May 14, 2019 at 7:41 PM

I always have trouble starting off these posts. Maybe I should start off with an objective fact or something that surprised me just to get me writing. Today the real-feel temperature was 98 deg and sunny, and definitely the hottest day we’ve had so far. It was also the day we did the most walking around; so, that kinda sucked. We decided to check out a different place (still on the hospital campus) for lunch, and it turned out to be super good! It was marginally more expensive (8 ghs = $1.6 instead of 5 ghs = $1) for food that was some of the best we’ve had here. We had been eating at the canteen within the emergency department, and this was the overall hospital canteen; changing things up is good sometimes. There are other restaurants and food stalls within the hospital walls and just outside so we’ll be sure to branch out and try new stuff!

Today is Tuesday, and our first weekend here in the city was very fun! On Saturday we had a leisurely morning (spent reading, ofc) and then our young host brother (he has to only be like 9 or 10) was our tour guide! He took us in to the Palace of the Ashanti King. I won’t go into too many specifics, but the Ashanti region is a very important region of Ghana, Kumasi is the capital, and the Ashanti king is a very important dude. Just under the president of Ghana in terms of power. The palace of said Ashanti king is right here in Kumasi! He currently lives in a very nice place located right next to the OLD king’s palace, which has been converted into a museum. Turns out we can’t roll up to the king’s place (knock knock hello hi) so we checked out the museum instead with a very kind guided tour that was actually pretty cheap (25 cedi = $5) We had to wait a bit because the president of the UN was actually visiting the palace as part of her tour around Ghana (read that in an article later fun fact) so there were actually 8 or so black SUVs just chilling in the middle of the parking lot with a peacock. Wild. With the UN president there were also other Ghanaian dignitaries there, and we got a picture with the mayor of Kumasi! Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

After visiting the palace museum, we headed to the famous Kumasi Kejetia central market! Think about the biggest market you’ve seen, and unless you’ve been to the Tokyo fish market, at least double it; then imagine that each stall is about big enough for one person to sit in sideways (maybe like 3 ft by 5 ft area with surrounding shelves about 12 feet tall, 2 ft deep, that hold the goods. The goods can be fabric (so much gd fabric and cloths wow what a time to be alive), pencils and notebooks, shirts and sheets and shiny things, anything you think of, it’s there somewhere. I hope that mental picture works for you, here’s a real picture of one of the “hallway” between stalls if it helps.

Our host mom actually works at the market and has her own stall! She sells t-shirts and towels and sheets so I ended up picking up a 3-pack of white wife beaters (pack for 15 cedi = $5) to wear under my scrubs at the hospital so I wouldn’t wear out my other shirts. I also found a pumice stone for 5 ghs = $1 so my feet can look all nice when I wear my flip flops (very important) because EVERYONE here wears sandals or flip flops (they call them slippers). Walking through the market you can be overwhelmed by how many pairs of sandals and flop flips you see climbing high above you. It’s kinda wild. I got a compliment on my Kino flip-flops (I brought these from home) from some of the kids on the street so I’m riding a high right now and I can’t let it go.

When we were at the market, it suddenly opened up and the sky started POURING rain down. We might have been able to see the sky to know it was coming but there was a little bit of fabric in the way. As soon as the first drop hit the whole market went into a frenzy. Knife stalls started wrapping their wares, food vendors started closing shutters. Fabric sellers grabbed these long poles and deftly snagged all the fabrics away from the edge and everyone closed some curtains or plastic drapes around their stalls and sat and waited for the rain to hit. It all happened so quickly and efficiently, these people are professionals. Alex and I were waiting out the rain in our host mom’s stall and showing her kids how to play euchre (on our phone). Take that image of a small, cramped stall, and now fit Afia, her brother, her two kids, and two white guys into that area for about 30 minutes. Having fun yet?

Rain in Ghana seems to come furious and fleeting. Last week we seemed to have a major downpour that literally shook the ceiling and the winds slammed all our doors open and closed until we blocked them. The rain and winds (but mostly the rain) can come out of nowhere and downpour for about 10 or 15 minutes and then be nice and sunny again. It’s like Florida on steroids (or on [insert hard drug]). After the rain ended, we headed to Kumasi City Mall, the largest mall in West Africa! There were a few higher end stores there and two main grocery/goods stores to cap the ends and some more western vibes like a dine and view movie theatre and the like. I ended up settling in the fabric store to look for patterns and fabrics out of which I can make custom tailored clothes like this!

One thing we had heard from previous students is the availability to have custom-made shirts and clothes! I love the idea so I bought some fabric and Afia contacted a tailor that came over on Monday to take our measurements and our style preference and get the fabrics from us. I ordered 2 short-sleeve shirts with a mix of simple and patterned fabric and Alex went with 1 short sleeve and 1 long sleeve out of a fabric he found in the market. They should be done by Friday so I’ll let you know what they turn out to be! The fabrics (and really most things here) were super cheap. prices at the market were 4 cedi = $0.8 per 1 yard of fabric for some of the cheaper ones and the higher end range at the mall were 26 cedi = $5.2 per yard (reference:2 yards make a shirt, normal yd prices in U.S. are usually like $15/yd). The cost to make the shirts was 50 cedi = $10 for a short sleeve, and 60 cedi = $12 for a long sleeve. To be honest it’s on the pricier side of things we’ve purchased but in perspective I think they’ll be really cool items.

I skipped Sunday, and while the morning was super relaxing and I was able to read for a while (noticing a trend? I’ve finished 3 books since I’ve been here [flex]) in the afternoon we were invited to a party! Afia’s oldest brother in law was having his 67th birthday and we scored an invite to the hottest party. It was a pretty fun event, the home was wonderful, they had tables set up outside with umbrellas and fans and free drinks (1 water, 1 malt drink, and 1 beer, nothing crazy). I don’t have much to compare it to, but it was a cool even with some optional speeches from guests about the feats of the birthday king and lots of prayers and the same 3 damn songs played over and over and over again for hours because the guy doing the music left to go inside. Alex and I chatted with some people and played lots of cards outside and had some great food so a good way to make a day when we didn’t have any plans.

Today we met with the coordinator of the medical student hostel (after he kept us waiting for 2 hours) to see about getting our room! Turns out they were more prepared for us because they had us check in, grab a key, and go to our room right then and there. The new digs are pretty cozy, Alex and I are sharing a room and then we also share a bathroom with the B side of the space but there’s no one there right now. The room costs 20 cedi/night or $4/night so for $2/night, neither of us are really complaining. We contacted someone to get access to the wifi and that was a huge success so some major moves coming out of today. We told Afia that our last night would be tomorrow night (Wednesday) and that we would move in there on Thursday; so that’s the plan. We haven’t paid for anything yet, and don’t really know when we have to. They didn’t ask for a down payment or payment for the full time we���ll be there, we already have the key so I imagine they’ll come buy sometime asking why we haven’t paid. It’ll be nice to be much closer to the hospital and the city instead of having to take a 20 cedi = $4 cab each way from Afia’s house. In the grand scheme of things, we can’t complain but there are advantages and disadvantages to living with Afia (being cooked for is a huge plus).

Quick update on hospital life: things are going well! We’re both more confident in introducing ourselves and asking the questions we need to ask about the challenges they’re facing within the hospital so we’re doing well so far.

Later this week I’m sure there’ll be fun things to tell you about (we made a friend today) as we continue exploring the city so stay tuned.

Thanks for hanging with me,

Scott

—

Scott Vanden Heuvel

Mechanical Engineering

GHDI Immersion Experience, Kumasi, Ghana

[umichenginabroad]

GHDI Presents: Health and Home

May 10, 2019 at 8:00 PM

Afia’s Guesthouse, Kumasi

It’s been a whirlwind these past couple days. Last time I wrote I was staying at a guesthouse in Accra, and one thing that hasn’t changed is I’m still staying at a guesthouse, this time with a family in Kumasi. The GHDI program has connections and history all over Ghana and Afia and her family are one of those! It’s certainly been fun talking with her (eating her amazing food) and her kids and getting a sense of what Ghanaian family life is like. She lives kind of far from the hospital where we work during the day, which means a taxi ride each way (15 Cedi, or about $3) so we’re hoping to move into the medical student hostel next week where it’s closer (read: has WiFi) It requires a lot of permissions and graces because (surprise?) we aren’t actually medical students so it was recommended that we spend about a week with Afia to set it up when we’re on the ground. Below is a picture of the inside of her gated home and some of the food!

Water in Ghana isn’t safe to drink from the tap, as there’s a lot of pollution and waste, but bottled and bagged water is really cheap (each 500ml bag is 0.2 Cedi, which is 4 cents) and accessible so there’s not really an issue. If you’ve never had water out of a bag before (are you one of those ultralight hiker people?) it’s kind of a weird but fun experience. You have to bite the corner and then a weird combination of drinking and squeezing the bag. It took me a day or so to get it without spilling all over myself but now at the ripe age of 21 I would call myself an amateur water drinker.

Speaking of the bagged water, they’re sold everywhere. On every corner, in every store, in every restaurant, and by so many random vendors carrying a crate or basket of bagged water as they weave through traffic and sell to car drivers and passengers as they wait in rush hour. These street vendors that dance through the streets selling drinks and little crafts, and new windshield wipers are everywhere when you’re driving, it’s a weird site to see people walking so close to the car when you’re driving by them. Afia says this is because there are so few jobs that they’re trying to make a living any way they can. Other than selling water, the street corners are good places to buy mangos, or a weird non-alcoholic Guinness branded malt drink (really can’t describe it other than combine Guinness with coke but remove the alcohol and add malt flavoring), or antihistamine tablets, just to name a few of our purchases.

Ghanaian life is very different. It’s definitely been a little overwhelming, and it’s been tough missing hearth and home these past couple days. Sometimes when you come back to the home at 5pm, have dinner until 6, there’s not much for you to do for the rest of the night. I’m filling my time with reading old and new books (those that know me know I love to read) while Alex has been watching downloaded episodes of Friends to pass the time: take your pick. We like wandering around the roads near Afia’s place, giving lots of tootsie rolls to the kids (now when we walk down the street they scream TOFFEE and run at us begging us for more), and seeing what there is around. It seems like there’s a whole community around this one intersection and you wouldn’t need to go far for anything if you didn’t want to (or couldn’t ). People warned us about African time, or the slower pace of life, which I normally like, maybe it’s the living in the rural African villages that is the difficult part. That part could improve when we move into the hostel and are closer to city life. Stay tuned for that!

Since I spoke to you all last, we’ve started our work at the Hospital! I don’t know how much I explained in my last post (too lazy to check) what exactly we’re doing, but long description short, we’re observing really everything (people, processes, operations, equipment, etc) at the hospital to identify challenges they face within the Accident and Emergency Department. So during the morning we’re with the nurses and doctors on their morning rounds and business in the observation wards until the afternoon, where we condense and refine those observations into needs statements. Those needs statements help define potential design project topics we would work on in the fall! Before we leave here our goal is to have some guidelines (user requirements and engineering specifications) (what does success look like) for a few of those more critical needs statements. Think you got the long version even though I said short? I guarantee I can use more words to explain it but I don’t think it’ll help. Confused? We are too. It’s hard working through understanding exactly how to put theory to practice even as we’ve been talking about this experiences for a whole semester. We have a lot of help from people back at Michigan though (thank you!) so we’ll great.

The second day (today, Friday) was better after having a clear understanding of what to do, who to talk with (hint it’s everybody) and where to be (turns out the library has free WiFi!!!) We hope to get into a rhythm and built a routine that helps us as we get further in the process.

A few side things:

Definitely should have packed more plain T-shirts (and some polyester ones) because we are wearing scrubs all day (of which we have two pairs) and it’s more comfortable to lay and sweat and sleep in a quick-dry T-shirt than a cotton one. (Really hitting myself for this one; I have about a million and brought zero) The more you know...

We have one casualty to mosquito bites so far: Alex. Apparently there was one in his room last night and he was bit like 8 times (don’t worry we’re taking malaria meds) but luckily I had some hydrocortisone creme so it could be worse (read: it could be me).

I don’t know how regularly I plan on posting, depending on how interesting the day is I might talk a lot about the day-to-day or it might be more philosophical and cultural based. Who knows? But you have been awarded the opportunity (ha) to follow along anyway. Tomorrow is our first day off and we head into the big famous Kejetia Market in Kumasi so I’m sure they’ll be lots of things to tell you about from that!

Thanks for hanging with me,

Scott

—

Scott Vanden Heuvel

Mechanical Engineering

GHDI Immersion Experience, Kumasi, Ghana

[umichenginabroad]

GHDI Presents: Welcome to Ghana

35000 ft

May 6 2019

You might think that working as an advisor in the International Programs in Engineering office for the past year would make me an expert in going abroad - or at least know more than the average bear. While you might have a point there, it doesn’t make me feel any more at ease while traveling away from friends and family for two months. I know I’ll miss my friends while they’re off celebrating their graduation and I’ll miss my family when I’m farther away from them than I’ve ever been before; but, at some point you just have to let everything go, and take the flight. I’ve been abroad before and played this game, and I’ve had some amazing experiences while doing it, so I know that travel and the immersion into new cultures can be a truly exciting time. This is chapter one of my new adventure to Kumasi, Ghana: everybody strap in.

This being the first time some of you are hearing about this, let me explain. If you don’t want to hear about the history and summary of the program I’m on, go ahead and skip this paragraph. While you’re reading this on the International Programs in Engineering (IPE) tumblr blog which is meant for students going on IPE summer study abroad programs, I might be a little of an outlier. I’m abroad with the Global Health Design Initiative (GHDI), which is a program that focuses on introducing engineering students to developmental engineering in healthcare fields. The program also teaches concepts in human-focused design or socially engaged design that looks deep into the context surrounding a problem instead of just saying that TSA lines are too long, because /everybody/ knows that’s a problem. GHDI isn’t a standard international program like the others you’ll read about on this blog mostly because the international part of the program doesn’t center around academics and isn’t partnered with a university. Instead, we partner with teaching hospitals and tertiary health clinics in various African countries. The GHDI cohort (that’s me) travels to these health clinics and communities and performs medical needs assessments where we go around and talk to people and figure out what are some of the challenges they face - or something like that, I’m still figuring it out myself. We then come back from our immersion experience and take our senior capstone design course that focuses on one of those identified problems and (if all goes well) goes back to the community when we’re done. A lot of talk for saying that I’ll be in Kumasi, Ghana for 7 weeks interfacing with a local teaching hospital there to gather information to support my capstone design course in the fall. Nod your head if you’re following along so far... okay let’s continue.

Osdahouse Guest House, Accra, Ghana

May 7 2019

This experience has me feeling a little strange because I feel like I’ve done a lot of prep for this trip and also feel like I have no idea what I’m getting myself into. Myself and the other members of the cohort have been taking a class all semester about design and cultural immersion and have worked and prepped all semester for this, but without putting it into practice I don’t know if that’ll be enough to let us hit the ground running in an environment that so completely different than what we’re used to. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how the settling in process goes.

Speaking of keeping everyone updated, We (my partner Alex Ramer and I) have arrived in Accra, Ghana! We didn’t have any issues with customs or baggages so we sailed on through to pick up a SIM card and exchange some dolla bills. We had arranged for an airport pickup to take us to our guesthouse for the one night we’re staying in Accra, and other than traffic being absolutely NUTS, our driver did some hero work to get us where we needed to go when traffic laws don’t seem to exist. You might think, oh, Africa, must be a dry heat... it’s humid as all hell and 90 degrees to boot. I think we’re both going to have to get used to sweating wherever we go. After dropping our bags, the kind guy at reception recommended this small restaurant called Pat’s Special, who are we to know any better places so we headed out to find some grub.

Google maps has done an excellent job mapping the area, and while it might not have all the mom and pop convenience stores that are every sixteen feet, it does help tremendously just to know where the roads go. We found Pat’s with the help of the maps, and ordered some beef and rice dish that seemed to be a staple (pictured below). The food was excellent - but spicy. I am one that usually prefers milder foods (read: I am weak af) but I think I’m going to have to build up some tolerance for the spicier side of life while I’m here. Or I could starve... decisions, decisions.

Side note: They also served us hand sanitizer and a toothpick container. Kinda neat but we didn’t know if we kept them after we ate or if we left them on the table. I’ll have to ask someone later. Alex and I split a large plate of food for about $4 each, so feeling pretty good about the exchange rate.

One of the more interesting things seen while walking around are wild chickens! They seem to roam around the roads and properties like they own the place. There are cars and people everywhere, from three-wheeled trucks to six-wheeled fifteen passenger vans filled to the brim with people going about their daily commute, and people sitting outside their home enjoying life and staring at all the people walking down the street (hi hello) to groups of kids running around the side streets playing tag while their parents stare at all the people walking down the street. Kinda eerie vibes, but we didn’t a bad feeling about it, so it might just be another thing to get used to.

Neither Alex nor I have spent any time in sub-Saharan Africa, (I don’t count my one-week trip to Morocco two years ago) so everything is new to us here. It’ll be a tall order to get acclimated, but one that we have to fill if we’re going to be here for seven weeks. Tomorrow we take a bus from Accra to Kumasi and meet up with our host family for the next week and a half or so! Thursday is our first day at the hospital, so lots happening in a short amount of time. I’ll be sure to send updates all along the way.

Thanks for hanging with me,

Scott

—

Scott Vanden Heuvel

Mechanical Engineering

GHDI Immersion Experience, Kumasi, Ghana