Healing the cured

Last week I stayed at Schoonhoven. It refers to itself as ‘A Cured Lepers Village’. Personally I disagree with the use of this ‘L’ word. Apart from the fact that it’s tied up with a history of stigma and segregation, I also have a great many friends who have had leprosy or Hansen’s Disease as some of them prefer to call it. They have been called this word and they hate it. By calling them that, it’s not just (in may cases) a hateful reminder, but also labelling them by a disease that could not be helped.

However, those who have founded Schoonhoven clearly have good intentions, and there is no doubt that for probably all the residents they have had their lives improved vastly. I’ll try not to digress much more from the point of this blog – there’s much to be said about the surrounding area and those who have had leprosy living in Ho, Ghana.

However, if you are interested further in the work being done by the NGO that is helping in this area, do click on this link.

Residents at Schoonhoven gather in the skills training centre, awaiting the arrival of a storm and some English Pastors on ‘an Open-Air Healing Crusade’. Ho, Ghana 2012.

I’ve not had a huge amount of experience with spiritual healing I must admit. But I thought I’d share my observations from the above visit.

English Pastors lay their hands on some of Schoonhoven’s residence and pray for them to be healed, shouting “I command you to see in the name of Jesus Christ”. Ho, Ghana 2012.

Meanwhile, over near the infirmary a group of volunteer nurses from Canada and the US changed a few dressings on some of the patients requiring more urgent attention to their infected ulcers. However, due to the crusade there wasn’t enough time to see all the patients they were supposed to.

Patients waiting for wound changes mess around with each other, away from the crusade. Ho, Ghana 2012.

However one patient decided to forego either event, opting to have a rolled cigarette with his own herbal concoction outside…

One Schoonhoven resident goes outside to have a smoke while other former leprosy patients are spiritually healed, and others receive wound care and dressing changes. Ho, Ghana 2012.

So there we go, a storm, some spiritual healers, a couple of patients messing around waiting for some foreign nurses to care for their feet, and a man who would rather get away from it all and have a quick puff on something erm… homemade.

Helping Hansen’s

Helping at St Clairs. Ahatokurom, Ankaful. 2012.

So bearing in mind the title of this blog and the single image of a woman helping a frail, aged man who is trying to wash himself, you may well conclude that he is the one who once had Hansen’s Disease, or leprosy. It fits with the image of leprosy too… disability, needing care, finding life difficult etc.

Well you’d be right. But you might not guess unless you looked very closely that the woman has had leprosy too. If you click on the image you’ll see her feet have suffered a bit of damage and are slightly shorter than is usual.

Just because someone has had leprosy and even suffered nerve and tissue damage doesn’t mean they can’t be the carer and not the cared-for.

This image was taken at St. Clair’s care home in the south of Ghana. The patients there are almost all disabled in some way due to leprosy (a couple of exceptions) and most are elderly anyway. They receive full time care from a mixture of employed staff and local volunteers. It was started by the Sisters of Mary and Joseph.

The Ghanaian Night Party/Funeral

Currently I’m staying next to the former ‘leprosy camp’ of Kokrum, near Cape Coast in Ghana.

To cut a long story short, thanks to the efforts of a few there is little stigma against those with (or formerly with) leprosy in this area or indeed most of Ghana. So when one of the village elders in Kokrum, who had noticeably had leprosy, died, there were a mix of people from all over who came to his funeral (that was two months later). I hasten to add he was buried shortly after he died, but it takes a while to organise a decent funeral here it seems – and they like to make sure it’s worth the wait.

Funeral attendees watch a Nigerian movie in front of the house of the man who died over two months ago. Kokrum, Ghana 2012.

When I arrived at 7.30pm as instructed, I found half the village watching a Nigerian movie. On a separate note, and in my humble opinion Nigerian movies are among the worst ever made, most people not from Africa who has seen them will probably agree with me – no offence if you like them, please feel free to express your love for them in the comment box. You will notice that in the picture the captivated audience would certainly disagree with me.

I decided to make some long exposures to an interesting effect. I thought it especially worked well in the below pictures where a long exposure on a tripod was complimented by the flash photographs my local friend and guide Ato ‘Patrick’ Davies was taking with my backup camera which I lent to him.

Younger attendees at the funeral dance the night away to loud African hip-hop. Kokrum, Ghana 2012.

So yes, the other half was dancing the night away next to massive speakers by four erected canopies. Several people were already quite drunk from locally made cane spirit. Apparently this is all quite normal for funerals in Ghana. Perhaps the rest of West Africa too… it’s not something I’ve picked up on before.

A tired young girl rests in a chair towards the end of the evenings festivities. Kokrum, Ghana 2012.

The funeral continued late into the early hours of the morning and was resumed before midday. There was still loud music and dancing, but there were also eulogies and what I assumed was the reading of the will. Almost everyone in the village was left something it seemed. Unfortunately the fortune was spread thin and most people received around 4 cedis (about $2.30) each. Even for Ghanaians this isn’t a huge amount. Enough for a couple of meals I guess. Every little helps!

RIP Teacher Nyarko.

Things I’ve seen so far in Ghana…

So I thought I’d share a few of the sights I’ve seen over the past couple of weeks. Having travelled quite a bit you get used to the way of life, the way people act, the normalities over here that are completely at odds with life back in England. Though I still marvel at it, I do forget that many people haven’t seen life like this.

Idris, who is the National Director for MAP International planned our first 10 days. I say our, for that time I was travelling with one Barkley Sippel, who works at American Leprosy Missions’ headquarters. He is on a field visit, and since I’m going to be photographing a lot of the work ALM are doing in Ghana (via MAP) it made sense for us to coordinate our arrival for the same time. This is also Barkley’s first visit to Africa, in fact outside of the US I believe. Ghana, from what I can tell is a superb introduction to West Africa. Compared to many places it’s very well developed, easy to get around, good infrastructure, everyone is very welcoming, and it’s not nearly chaotic and alien (compared to the western world) as other countries. However, it’s all relative.

Here are a few photos from those first 10 days.

Slave Castle, Cape Coast. We joined the tourist pack. American students I think. Interesting history with the slave castle. Didn’t make you wholly proud to be British.

Slave Castle, Cape Coast. The tourist pack gets their photo taken by our guide. He seemed a bit lecherous to me… and also had a habit of photographing while walking instead of standing still. It didn’t work. The photos he took were rubbish.

Some guy making an offering at a shrine in the Slave Castle, Cape Coast. So I’m not entirely sure who he was, but initially he wanted money for us to take photos of him. When no-one offered he gave up and said we could take photos anyway. I’m not sure why there are so many empty gin bottles on the empty shrine. Perhaps part of our British colonial legacy. Something to be proud of finally. Couldn’t see the empty tonics/bitter lemon bottles though…

Tourists in the Slave Castle, Cape Coast.

Fishing, Cape Coast.

Treetop walk, somewhere near Cape Coast. This was quite fun, apparently a bunch of Canadians came over here 17 years ago to build a series of treetop walkways. Some were 35 metres off the ground and despite us being assured they were safe they still wobbled a lot. Or maybe that was us.

Hawkers, Accra. One thing I do love about the car journeys is that you can just buy stuff out the window. Bag of groundnuts, bottle of water, phone top-up, massive loaf of bread…

Hawkers, Accra. Or perhaps some plug converters? Barkley wasn’t persuaded.

Barkley outside a restaurant, Kumasi.

THV (Total Health Village), near Sunyani. This is one of the villages that MAP International has been working with, making sure that life there is good health and sanitation-wise. This village has now been deemed malaria-free.

THV, near Sunyani. The village and the elders gather to meet us. They show us a box, which contains community contributions. I think it’s then invested somehow and people get a nice little return from their investment. Made sense at the time.

THV, near Sunyani. Loads of kids.

Restaurant, Goaso. Little dark, but you might be able to make out my lunch… fried plantain and beans. Barkley is on the left, with Idris in the centre, and our other ‘MAP’ friend Ophelia on the right.

A baby in a shower cap in church, Sunyani. And by the looks of it the baby has just discovered a mirror.

Opelia, Idris and Barkley, Dormaa.

School kids walking to take their end of year examinations, Kukuom.

After a funeral, Kukuom. I have never seen so many funerals in the last week or so. Probably more than the rest of my life put together. When I was in Bring-Ahafo it was about two or three a day. I’m not sure it was necessarily reflective on the amount of people dying, more the length of time people ‘celebrate’ them. Anyway one highlight was letting a bunch of ladies hitch a lift in the back of our truck after a funeral. Loads of ‘em, grinning from ear to ear. Must have been a great funeral…

A goat surveying his house, Dormaa.

People stand around to gawp at the white men, Kukuom.

Dormaa.

Sign on the road, near Goaso. As far as I can make out this sign is instructing birds not to play the trumpet.

Just another slanty vehicle, Dormaa.

Drying cocoa beans, somewhere in Sunafo South District.

Street, Goaso. One evening we had the most incredible yellow light. Came and went in about 20 minutes.

Night market, Goaso.

So there we go. You’ll have to look up where most of these places are, but essentially the vast majority are from the Brong-Ahafo region. Currently I’m back near Cape Coast in the small town of Ankaful. This post also took 7 hours to upload. Don’t tell me I should be out photographing instead… right I’m off to make a few more pictures.

Little Theresa and the problem with flesh-eating diseases

I’ve never really done a photo of the week or pic of the day sort of thing. I haven’t made this decision entirely consciously, but now I think about it I find it almost impossible to pick out a favourite. However, Internet is slow here, and the post and photos I’ve prepared of my ‘introduction week’ in Ghana will probably take a while to upload.

So I thought I’d drop a taster of two shots I took on the same day. My main ‘mission’ here is to capture images that are relevant to my leprosy project. However, on a side I’m photographing the Buruli Ulcer work that American Leprosy Missions is funding.

Without going into too many details, (as you can look it up) Buruli Ulcer causes rapidly growing (you’ve guessed it) ulcers. I suppose it’s one of those flesh-eating diseases we on occasion so happily tie in with images of deep, dark Africa. So naturally these two shots are appropriately in black and white.

It’s not gore I’m showing, although I’ve seen plenty of raw flesh in the past few days. These two shots aren’t centered around the disease, although it’s relevant in both.

This girl has had Buruli Ulcer for while, but it was only diagnosed an hour before these shots were made. The clinic she’d been too in the last couple of months had failed to diagnose the disease and as a result a small ulcer had grown into a category three case: multiple ulcerations and/or an ulcer more than 15cm at it’s greatest length.

A sample (to be confirmed in the lab) was taken before she was sent to get a dressing change:

Nine year old Theresa getting a dressing change. Kukuom, Ghana, 16-04-2012

The tears may well indicate the pain she is feeling, and the dressings did stick somewhat to her skin, much as a plaster might. However, the ulcers themselves are painless, one of the symptoms of the disease. These tears aren’t just born of a physical pain, although that may have been the trigger. They are the culmination of all the fears of something unknown happening to her body, which isn’t just worrying her, but also her mother sitting behind her. When you’re nine and your mum is scared, you know there’s something to be scared about. Adding on that the emotion of just having someone tell you they can finally fix this terrible worry, tears are more than understandable.

Theresa, her mother and Idris. Kukuom, Ghana, 16-04-2012

This photo was taken just twenty minutes later. Taking advantage of a moment to entertain little Theresa, Idris (my guide for the moment and director of Ghana’s branch of MAP international) shows her some simple exercises she can do to prevent her leg from seizing up as outer layers of muscle have rotted away. Her mum turns round in surprise having not noticed this kind man giving a little advice.

If nothing else, it shows quite how much the attitude of a nine year old can change in such a short time, even when faced with a grave situation.

Two more years of leprosy please…

I’m now back in West Africa and the moment I stepped off the plane and I felt that hot humidity set around my skin, I relaxed and felt at home. I’d had a strange feeling of apprehension as I set off on the plane (I don’t think the numbing, icy AC helped either); I wasn’t getting that tingling of excitement I usually got when heading back to my favourite part of the world. Now I’m here however, there is an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction of just being, well, IN Africa. The noises, the temperature, the faces, the shouting in the street, the colourful clothes, the goats standing on top of buses, naked toddlers crying by the road, a family of five on a motorbike, the urinal cakes in the sink (ok that’s a new one), the, well…. the Africanness. I think I’ll just call it that.

So that Africanness has wiped away my apprehension, and is letting me focus on what I’m here to do, the probable source of my apprehension in the first place.

Family in a leprosy community. Kwara state, Nigeria 2009

Since 2009 I’ve been (on and off) photographing leprosy. It’s all part of a project called Leprosy Eliminated?, which is intended to record the story and stories of leprosy in the world today. As well as being interesting, it will hopefully raise awareness and bring about understanding as to the nature of this disease.

Woman who’s just been told she has leprosy. Kwara state, Nigeria 2009

One mans determination to be included in his muslim community is evident outside of the Mosque. He leaves his prosthetic on the doorstep. Koloware, Togo 2010

American Leprosy Missions have kindly offered to help me complete this project over the next two years. Apart from a short stint in the USA where I gathered a bit more information and visited the ALM headquarters, this is the start of those two years.

I suppose the apprehension stemmed from this daunting task ahead of me. After all, people from around the world are letting me into their lives. I never make any promises, but nevertheless by just being there, I have, and feel, a responsibility towards those I’m photographing and the actions I’m taking. But like I say, simply having this Africanness around me has eased me. Though the task ahead is still of paramount importance, I’m welcoming the challenge from my comfort zone.

So I’ve arrived in Ghana. And I bloody love it. Until the end of July I’m going to be searching out and photographing leprosy in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia. At some point the stories from all the countries I visit will go up on a brand new website. Meanwhile, you’ll have to stay tuned to this blog to follow me on this adventure…

Life Force Magazine

Life Force Magazine

I just had my Plantain Island photo essay published on Life Force Magazine. Check it out, or click on my post about how I almost drowned going out to shoot it.