Healthcare in Ghana

COUNTRY: Ghana
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Community Health Work
WRITTEN BY: Alex Jamieson & Becky Nelson

Week 1

The international volunteers spent the first 2 days in Accra and we were introduced to the Ghanaian culture and language (twi) and were given a few tips and tricks for living life here for the next month by Tina and Seth. The volunteers had traditional drumming and dancing lessons, followed by a trip to the beach - which was wonderfully refreshing, not only by the water, but also from the joy from some kids that came up to play! They were fascinated with my hair and just kept latching on to us, and loved getting their photo taken!!

The next day, the volunteer group went to the local markets and bartered up a storm! We also found out how common it is for people to park their cars anywhere around the markets, and found ourselves parked in for an hour! We toured the city of Accra in our van, referred to as a tro tro here. After lunch, we all headed out to Swedru and were dropped off along the way to our host families. Stopped off at the orphanage where two other volunteers are working at and got five glorious moments with some of the kids there…!

Swedru is a lovely town and it’s easy to find our way around. Everywhere we go people are yelling out 'Obruni, obruni, how are you?' The volunteers are like small town celebrities. They all want to give us a high-five or wave at us, they are all very friendly. We've had a few marriage proposals as well, but no acceptances yet!

We are volunteering at the hospital. We'll be rotating around from the out-patient unit, to emergency, the woman's ward, male ward and children's ward. We're going to ask if we can stand in on a surgery as well. It's a much more relaxed approach to the healthcare in comparison to Australia but we love it nonetheless. We’ve been getting to know the nurses well and see some diseases and conditions that we wouldn't see in Australia.

Mel and Cam are volunteering at the primary school. They each have their own class and it sounds like they are doing extremely well. They teach science, maths, geography, everything that we would teach in Australia really. The kids absolutely love them.
Angus is a volunteer at a physiotherapy clinic. He is the paediatric physio dealing with conditions like cerebral palsy and club feet. He likes it a lot and the staff he is working with sound lovely as well. From what he's said, it can get very busy. They have a day for HIV sufferers once a month and they occasionally go out to the villages to do work for those who cannot make it to the clinic.

Gee Ling and Evelien are volunteers at the orphanage. They are very tired as they are working and living there so they don't get much of a break. The kids adore them and we are all planning on going out for a visit to give them some relief as well as meet the children. Again, it is very different to Australia in that we love to spoil and baby our children but here the kids are forced to be independent from day one. There is an 18 month old that feeds himself! The older kids also help to look after the younger children.

Last weekend, we decided to have a coastal getaway at a resort called "Ellis Hideout' in Butre. We were told it would take us three hours...it took us seven. We caught two tro-tro's then a taxi which took us to the wrong spot. We then headed in the right direction, but the taxi behind us with Cam, Mel and Gee Ling decided to break down. So all nine of us piled into one taxi and eventually reached our destination. The crazy journey there was so worth it, Butre was paradise! Our room was about 40m from the beach and we just lazed around all day enjoying the beach and taking full advantage of happy hour. The trip home only took six hours so that was an improvement.

This Friday is the election so we're going to get away to a more touristy area because things will get busy around here. We're taking a long weekend in Cape Coast which we're all looking forward to. Our favourite phrase currently is: "hey guys, guess what.... We're in Africa! Stay tuned". Until next time!