May 7
Visiting Nagboo Patient
Recently, I was able to visit one of my patients in his home, to greet his wife and new baby boy and to pray with them. Over a year ago, I had to amputate his lower leg. He had been shot by armed robbers. The tibia and fibula were shattered and the blood supply to the foot was compromised. The patient first chose to go to the local “bone setter,” and returned only when the foot was already dead. He finally agreed to amputation and healed well afterwards. He was highly motivated to get a prosthesis and did very well with the training. Once he returned from the training center with his new leg, he rode his bike from his village to the hospital (about 3 miles) just to greet me.
When we went to the Baptist church in his village, he saw me and invited me to greet his wife and new baby. The pastor of the church accompanied me and we encouraged him and prayed with them. The best part was when my son asked me which leg was the fake leg!
May 5
However hot the iron is, it’s gonna cool.
Apr 26
KJ’s swimming improved a lot this month during our short holiday in Mole National Park.
We also had a surprise visitor at the pool one morning! Thankfully he didn’t get in to swim!
Apr 25
Rock Paintings on the Gambaga Escarpment (Tusugu, Gingana and Kpatritinga)
In 1964, archaeologists P.L. & P.J. Carter published a paper entitled Rock Paintings from Northern Ghana. In it they detail their discovery of ancient rock art in January 1963 – the first to be documented in the newly formed nation of Ghana. I myself had stumbled across some very primitive pictographs on the Gambaga Escarpment a few miles from Nalerigu (more on that in a bit) and I was curious to see what they had found 55 years ago.
The drawings (illustrated by Carter to the right) were found right along the Ghana-Togo border on the Gambaga Escarpment (just north of the village of Tusugu or Tusik). On a rock shelter in the side of the cliffs, they found the well-preserved remains of an ancient community. There were over a dozen large terre pisé structures and twice as many smaller granary like constructions. On the walls among the cliff dwellings were four collections of the Ghanaian pictographs. Read More
