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Ghana- John is Holding On [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-06-13

John is my friend in Ghana who works to help those in desperate need. Through struggling himself in many ways, John does what he can for others.

It's been a quiet week for John. Because of his illness he has been unable to leave his house. While waiting for a much needed operation he is presently on medication for severe bleeding caused by hemorrhoids. We have managed to raise more than half of the money he will need for his operation and hopefully this week he will finally be able to be taken care of, but in the meantime the situation is what it is. He has to be careful.

On the plus side, the medication has reduced the bleeding considerably. In fact previously he had managed to stop the bleeding altogether with whatever it is he is taking (I don't know the specifics) but so far that hasn't been the case this time. But he is better, which is good.

On the minus side his vision fades when he stands up and the doctor has told him that he may just suddenly drop dead, which is not the kind of thing anyone wants to hear. But he is hanging in there.

I have not been in the best of health myself this past week for various reasons that do not rise to the level of John's problems. I think in my case it is simply old age catching up to me. That happens to all of us at some point, unfortunately. I am having some vision problems and spent most of yesterday lying in bed in a darkened room. But I am doing alright, considering.

Because of his illness John hasn't been able to do much for the people he has been helping but we did manage to get a small amount of money to his younger brother Joshua, who is trying to survive alone on the streets.

I am very concerned about Joshua. His mental and emotional health are fragile and being in such difficult circumstances is doing him no good at all.

My goal for this month was to get him into a place of his own and ideally to help him to further his goal of being an artist. But John's problems must inevitably come first. If John goes down everyone there goes down.

This last week John's major problem has been Eliot.

Eliot is the runaway boy I have written about in earlier stories. He is about to turn eighteen, I think. He ran away from an abusive stepmother and an indifferent father and was brought to John when he became lost in the market in Accra. John reconciled him with his father and agreed to care for him under the condition that Eliot complete his education. We have been paying for him to attend a boarding school, though Eliot has been having some problems there.

Last month Eliot became so ill that the school actually brought him to John by taxi. Previously when he was ill they just called for John to come and get him, so I suppose that is some indication of how sick the boy was. He was vomiting every time he ate and had seriously lost weight.

At that time Eliot was told that he had ulcers and wound up in the hospital for several days. When he was released he went back to school.

At any rate, last week Eliot turned up at John's door at his new place on the beach, once more in great pain and unable to eat. This time the doctors told him that the problem was intestinal parasites and gave him a prescription for medicine. So we got him that and he seems on the road to recovery.

And no, I don't know if this was the cause of his earlier problems. It is possible the doctors told him about the intestinal parasites when he was in the hospital earlier and that he simply didn't tell us. Eliot has never really had anyone care about him and he has kept things from John before for fear John will reject him.

I apologize for talking about such unpleasant subjects as anal bleeding and intestinal parasites but these are the realities John and Eliot are dealing with and it would be unfair not to be open about them.

The babies Anabel, Melbourne, and Vicky are all surviving, which is good. The matron who is caring for Anabel would tell us if there were any problems and we have sent a small amount to Vicky's parents, Haddi and Zenabu. Of course they need more but we will try to keep everyone alive. Their daily fish.

That is about all that has been happening in Ghana right now. My friends there live in such difficult circumstances that mere survival is an accomplishment and something to celebrate. So this week has been good.

God bless.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/13/2175100/-Ghana-John-is-Holding-On

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