News From the KBNF Family Travelling in West Africa
In mid May, Dr. Tony Bell, an American neuroradiologist and new KBNF member from Boise, Idaho, visited KBTH for about 10 days. He brought a gift of four (large and heavy) Neuro textbooks from his friend Dr. Rick Harnsberger, valued at over $1400. They make a great addition to the Radiology resident library and I have used them to double-check facts on a number of cases. Dr. Bell and I went sightseeing together one weekend in the very crowded Makola Market followed by shopping and eating in Osu (downtown Accra’s upscale shopping district), on a street known locally as Oxford Street. Its real name is Cantonments Road, but it doesn’t matter, because I have seen less than 10 street corner signs with street names so far. (This prevents navigating using a map.)
The next weekend, we travelled by taxi to the Shai Hills Reserve (past the main port of Tema), about 60km, in hopes of seeing native wildlife. It was slow going because of the traffic. Unfortunately, the most severe rain and wind storm this year came up just before reaching the reserve. For our trouble, we saw four caged imported ostriches from South Africa, two of which were partially plucked (legs or chest) and one centipede. The apparently ever-present baboons were in hiding. We were told by the game warden that the best time to see the animals is early in the morning and we arrived in the early afternoon.
On the return trip, after seeing many cars in the ditch on the motorway, uprooted trees, toppled small roadside shops/stands and torn galvanized metal roofs, we stopped at Ryan’s Irish Pub in Osu for dinner. We inhaled smoke from the many Caucasian expatriates watching a finals soccer game between two English teams (Manchester United and Manchester City). Dr. Bell enjoyed his steak while I had the (slightly spicy, a la Ghanaian) Irish stew, after waiting about 90 minutes for the food to arrive. (This may have been a ploy to encourage more libations during the wait.)
