Day 3

July 17, 2009

COCK A DODDLE DO!!!!

You have got to be kidding me! Its not even day light!

It was like some sort of mating call or something because. It wasn't the same call as yesterday morning. Because you then heard the same call from a distance. Like they were saying what's up to each other across town at 2am. Again, it felt like he was sitting at the head of me bed but I think he was right under my window.

Elvis told me to get up early because we would be taking Kojo to the hospital. I set my alarm last night. I finally work up. Looked at the time and it was earlier than I thought but was oddly well rested. Found out that I set the time wrong it was pretty late in the day. I missed Kojo's hospital visit. I ate breakfast.

Elvis called. Said he hadn't gone to the hospital (I didn't miss Kojo's visit) yet and I needed to hurry because we were late.

I showered, dressed and ran outside to meet the car. A woman was in the car. She said she was apart of Ghana's nutrition directorate. She's in charge of nutrition programs in a variety of communities. Kojo's being one of them. We picked up Kojo and went to the hospital.

It seemed more like a large clinic with something like a court yard in the center and people waiting on benches around it. I counted almost 70 people. We didn't go yesterday because the nurse that Elvis knew wasn't there and more people go to the hospital in the evening. Because Elvis knew one of the nurses, we were able to skip ahead. Kojo didn't have any paperwork because we didn't know his "official" name. Elvis said to me, "Think of a name, we need a name for him."

I said, "A name? His name is Kojo. What's wrong with Kojo?"

"It's not his official name. He needs an official name."

A person's official name is their English name.

"How about Langston. That's my son's name."

"Laston?"

"Langston." I wrote it. Elvis gave Kojo his surname.

Langston Morris Donkoh became his official name. We realize also we didn't know his birthday. We knew it was at least on a Monday. Elvis said he will give him a birthday. He had to do the same for other children in the orphanage.

Even with Elvis knowing the nurse we were there for over 3 hours waiting… and waiting. People were staring. Possibly because I was an American, because we were skipping or maybe they thought I was skipping because I was an American.

They drew his blood. Went into the doctors' office. I found out that doctors are a really big deal in Ghana. The doctor would be what we in the US would think is a little unprofessional. He was sitting relaxed drinking an orange soda. "Is he coughing?" He takes a sip. "No." Elvis says. The doctor checked him. Gave him a bunch of medicine. One of which was for worms and some packets of a special type of food since he was malnourished. The loads of mucus coming from behind his eyes. I keep diggin' it out. Elvis said it may be a result of the malnourishment, the worm infestation, or possibly gonorrhea of the eye. He ate all of one pack of the nourishment packet. And I got him to laugh. The other kids at the orphanage embraced him instantly and he started talking (which really means making noise), crawling, and laughing. He became attached to me. He keeps grabbing me. I'm so glad he's happy.