Bakers in Ghana

We hope it’s been a wonderful week for all our dear family and friends! It’s been another adventurous week here in Africa. During a dinner with a group of fellow couple missionaries, someone asked each of us to share one of our greatest experiences since arriving. It was fun to hear that every couple said not a day goes by without some new and exciting adventure. Many of these experiences center around the incredible people of Africa. Getting to know them has been one of the greatest blessings. Truly, their warmth and kindness help make the distance from our loved ones more bearable. Doug had another full week of doctoring. Thankfully, his number one needy patient (me!) has mostly recovered from the “black lung disease” and is back in action. While it was a busy week for him, it was mostly filled with the usual African medical cases. He dealt with a few rashes, upset stomachs, a tonsillectomy, and some emergencies involving missionaries with sickle cell anemia. One of our sweet senior...

Though this week had the same number of days as every other week, it seemed to go much faster.  Maybe because Lori slept through half of it! :-) Thankful all is well that ends well and it turned out to be another fine week in Africa! Elder Dr. Baker had a relatively easier week overall. His wimpiest patient? Lori. I managed to catch what the locals affectionately call the "Black Lung Disease" 🦠 (Ghanaian slang for a cold), which wiped me out for a few days. Thankfully, with the help of NyQuil, Tylenol, and some truly awful-tasting cough syrup, I’m well on the mend! This week we also received heartbreaking news: a recently returned sister missionary passed away, and the suspected cause was malaria . The loss has sparked a lot of serious discussion around how we can better encourage missionaries to consistently take their malaria medication . It’s a tricky balance—reminding them enough that they understand the seriousness, but not so much that they tune it out. Every life los...

Another great week in Ghana! We were seriously worried about the heat here in Africa. Everything we read said Ghana was hot and humid year-round. We keep hearing that this has been an unusually cool dry season—and that we should just wait until December! Thankfully, the weather has been incredible! Most days have been between 75–85 degrees, and because it’s the rainy season, we often have cloud cover to keep things pleasant. Doug learned something new this week that he had never come across in his entire medical career: Scorpion Stomach ! 🦂 This condition was reported by a sweet missionary from Nigeria. Doug couldn’t find anything about it on Google or even through AI, so he made a call to a contact in this missionary's home village to learn more. Apparently, “Scorpion Stomach” is something endemic to this missionary's tribe. It cannot be treated by Western medicine and can only be cured by the tribe's chief. Without this tribal treatment, death is considered certain. A...

Another week has come and gone in Africa! This week felt like what I would consider a “typical” one.  My personal favorite AMA (Area Medical Advisor) had another busy week saving lives and relieving pain and suffering. New on this week’s list: a dog bite and a heartbreaking case of liver cancer. Thankfully, the Elder who was bitten knew the dog. Although the dog wasn’t up to date on its'  shots, it could be monitored. The Elder’s open wound was treated, but no rabies shots were administered—which is fortunate, as rabies vaccines are difficult to get here. The liver cancer case has weighed heavily on our hearts. A dear senior missionary began having stomach pain that turned out to be liver cancer. She is returning to the U.S. for treatment, and we are keeping her and her family in our prayers. These are the hard parts of our assignment. Malaria continues to be in the top five diagnoses, with several missionaries hospitalized this week. There was also a case of appendicitis. All...