Home safe and sound - Shelley's thoughts looking back on Ghana as a medical student

Ghana, Ghana, Ghana


Soo hard to sum up Ghana and the experience I had there in just a paragraph or two but I'll try and share some of the highlights. On arrival the capital city could easily feel not much different to home (Melbourne for me), except for the random clotheslines strung up everywhere and the rubbish freely tossed anywhere you feel the need. It was when we left Accra for our host families that you started to see some of the real Ghana and even more so later when I headed North. Ghana is noisy in every way and they're not ashamed of doing things we would shy away from such as honking every couple of kms, proposing to you outright, being outspoken about religion and their faith, or even relieving themselves on roadsides or whereever it happened to be. Besides this though Ghanians are welcoming, friendly, helpful and fun loving people and I struggle to think of a time when they tried to rip me off.
My placement was in one of the biggest hospitals in our region and although well run and much more clean and organised than what I expected it also had some vast differences to the hospitals at home. They were more than happy to welcome me into the maternity ward where; 4 women delivered in one room, only divided by half walls or a curtain, next to no pain relief was offered, ladies and their babies spent just one day following delivery in the hospital shared rooms of 20+, girl babies had their ears pierced, husbands remained outside, twins and breech babies are born spontaneously and caesareans are performed by no more than 4 professionals. I had an amazing time and although had some days with nothing more to do but fold cotton wool and gauze the busy days made up for it.
My family was amazing giving up one of only 2 bedrooms for me and treating me like a guest the whole 2 months I was there no matter how much I tried to help. We washed clothes by hand, cooked on a coal pot, ate too much every meal, bathed out of a bucket of cold water, and only had electricity and running water for less than half a day and randomly at that. They took me as their daughter and sister and included me in all their activities including; church new year watch night, youth club, thanksgiving celebrations, visiting friends, excursions, shopping, house work and family decisions.
I was truly immersed in the culture and have found it more challenging than expected arriving back home even after longing for the cleanliness and structure of Australia the last week or two. I'll now have a second family in Ghana and memories of my adventures there forever and some day I may return.