Tic tac toe

After the workshop, I wandered through the village around the main round in Pokuase, and ended up in an open area where a group of about ten children were playing and laughing. I watched them for a while, and of course, they came up, shouting “Obroni” and wanting their pictures taken. I obliged and they were delighted.

I ended up spending about an hour teaching and watching them play tic-tac-toe and "hangman", which I renamed "draw a little girl" in the dirt with a growing group of kids. One of the girls, Sarah, caught up to the game and tactics immediately, and I crowned her the Tic Tac Toe champion of Pokuase. Lots of fun.

From Ghana-Pokuase

An older woman had been persistently waving me down to come visit when I was with the kids. During a lull in the game, a young girl came and invited me with urgency to visit this woman, so I stepped into her family’s compound and sat on a stool across from her. Two women, another Connie and her mother were making banku, pounding away over a fire to the left, while a third, Precious, sat towards the back against the house, tending to her son who has malaria. His mother said he has been to the clinic but obviously looked very tired. She showed me the medication. After all these years of studying the parasite in the lab, this was my first interaction with a patient with the disease.

Precious seemed to be a happy-go-lucky type, who also delighted in showing me her nephew and niece, both around a year. Precious would pick the poor girl up with one arm, and laughed at how emaciated she was. The girl was obviously distressed by the rough handling and the sneering, and quickly hid herself when let go. I made a sympathetic face, and asked if the girl was feeding properly and if she had been gaining weight. The answer was apparently yes, but I could not be sure. The boy, who was rotund if not obese, was equally made a spectacle, drawing more laughs from Precious and Connie and the rest of the compound.

Finally, the grandmother, the woman who drew me into the compound, started speaking to me—in Twi. I guessed that she must have had a serious infection or abscess in her right foot, which was discreetly covered by a handkerchief tied around her ankle. She mentioned some doctor, Richard, and gestured that he had made a cut. Thankfully, she did not lift the handkerchief. It did not smell, so at least that was a good sign. In any case, I really felt like I'm the kind of doctor that doesn't do anyone any good.

I left, with a trail of kids behind me. I guess that must be how it feels if you had a fan club!

[I had promised the kids that I would return the next week. I did, but had a rough time finding the same spot. I wandered around for a good thirty minutes, in and out of alleys and dead ends. I know I did not venture very far into the village from the main road. But I really had no point of reference. And I had those chirpy chicks to show them…]