Photo album

In no particular order:


The road home from the mine site (Camp A); driving through the jungle on the rain scoured dirt roads.

The local villagers are often on the road, by foot or by bicycle

One of the mounds of topsoil generated from the mining process... almost picturesque but not quite

The road leading away from the mine site with the mountains of waste rock

Entering the residential village, cleared land with some 70+ modern houses for expats and senior staff.

Signage on the road home, just before the Haul Road crossing


The residential village on a cloudy Sunday morning

My kiwiana shelves, with my Palestinian embroideries

The drum and dance group at the Independence Day celebrations

My bedroom, complete with Floyd the teddy and Tickle Toes the baby-chuckle bear

My lounge, now resplendent with ethnic knick-knacks picked up on my travels

My Gaza coffee mug on the table is just the right size for my morning caffeine jolt

Ghanaian ladies playing board games at the Ghana Independence Day celebrations

Haul truck crossing the Haul Rd.... this is why it's prudent to stop at the stop sign... the wheels on this beast are taller than I am.

Ghanaian ladies enjoying the Ghana Independence Day celebrations

Ghanain lady getting her groove on and this lady sure could move it!

Local village shops

The mine.... the buildings are the maintenance areas with the pile of waste rock just behind them... this is the view from the ISOS clinic

The beginning of the jungle just opposite the main gate to the mine site

School girls on their way to school in Ntotroso village

Plantain for sale

Pineapple for sale... you have to love tropical countries sometimes. Sure, there's the unremitting heat, the mosquitos, the rainy seasons and the snakes, but there is fresh, sweet fruit everyday

My house in the residential village - a 3-bedroom palace

Looking over the roofs of the residential village towards yet another mountain of waste rock

In Hwidiem village

Ghana

Here I am in Ghana. It's deepest darkest Africa, with red-dirt roads cutting through sparse jungle, heavy pre-rainy season clouds hanging like fluffy chandeliers, villages of dusty wooden/cement block buildings, women balancing loads of wood on their heads with young children swaddled onto their backs and bunches of plantains for sale on the road side.



My work environment (see above) is a utilitarian series of structures around one edge of the 2 massive holes in the ground that are the mines, with the processing mills and refineries providing the backdrop to the clinic.



The temperature stays a reasonably steady 26-33 degrees Celsius and the humidity hovers around 90%. This necessitates drinking your body weight in water daily.



I work 5.5 days a week from 7am to 5pm seeing a few patients, doing a few referrals, sorting out a few administrative issues, doing a bit of continuing medical education, nothing at all out of the ordinary; it's the reassuring thing about medicine, you can be anywhere in the world and the general principles remain the same.