Reinicializar a pesquisa
Ghana Elective Placement 2024
  • Ellen Withers
  • Ellen Withers

Ghana Elective Placement 2024

One of the most amazing and rewarding trips of my life. Enabled by my amazing husband and the wonderful people who supported me to go I experienced things I never thought possible.
Faith was restored in human nature and help was provided to A&E! Leia mais
SeguirResumoResumoCalendárioCalendárioFotosFotosCompartilharCompartilharLista de metas
Os mais novos primeiro
  • Ellen WithersGhana Elective Placement 2024Viajante

    GHANA - DAY 25

    14 de fevereiro de 2024, Gana ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Third shift at the Princess Town Health Centre. Pushing a trike, vaccinations, canoe ride and a bonfire on the beach!

    We were assigned to go to some of the other villages today to do child health and vaccinations with one of the other clinics. Our clinic has a trike that they use to get around. After the doctors rounds we were waiting to go, after a while

    I went out to find the doctor and the nurse taking us trying (without success) to start it 🤣 I suggested we bump start it and so the 3 of us spent the next 15 minutes pushing it up and down the hill... Eventually it started in time for Liv and Scarlett to come out wondering where I'd got to 😊

    We set off, and at the first village the nurse needed to take some fuel to someone and accidentally stopped the trike. Again it refused to start and we (and some helpful passers-by) pushed it and got it started again. He stopped at the following village, then realised we were in the wrong place... And of course, the trike wouldn't start... We did a lot of pushing, and some helpers even popped the bonnet and looked at the battery and engine 🤣🤣🤣

    Eventually the nurse flagged down a lad on a motorbike and that was how we got to the correct village - 3-up!!!! It was the best thing EVER!! it PROPERLY cheered me up (even when they refused to let me ride it). So with a massive smile I arrived late for duty in the child health clinic. They were almost finished at this village and so we soon moved to the next one along (on the bikes, 3-up again 😁) and got on with some real work. We were shown the ropes and we're soon weighing babies and learning about the vaccines. The final village was much more busy and we really warned our keep!! I lost count of how many vaccines I did and how many babies were weighed, but it was awesome and the 3 of us oborɔnyi (Fante for 'white person') did really good, we had a real system between the 3 of us in the end and we smashed it.

    So we totally deserved to head back in the newly fixed trike... And break down a further 4 times before arriving at the Princess Clinic 🤣

    Lunch was followed by a canoe ride on the river and then we had a swim. We walked back to the house (only getting a little lost) and had tea before heading back to the beach for the bonfire!

    All in all a good penultimate day in Princess Town 😊    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Ellen WithersGhana Elective Placement 2024Viajante

    GHANA - DAY 26

    15 de fevereiro de 2024, Gana ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Fourth (and final) shift at the Princess Town Health Centre. community child health, drinking from a coconut and our last BBQ and dancing!

    Having packed our bags this morning we headed to the health centre for our final shift. It was a quiet start, but we were soon sent out with the RCH team again. We started with checking BP and where it was high, checking blood glucose levels. The thinking is that hypertension may be a precursor to diabetes, so by knowing the random level they can educate and where necessary treat to prevent it. We then headed towards the beach side of the town to find children to give the vitamin A to. The nurse also spent time showing us what heat rash looks like on dark skin. Really useful for us going forward as we see so little in our neck of the woods!

    Everyone started to flag in the heat so we headed to the beach (with what felt like 100 children following us!) And the nurses asked some of the boys to get some coconuts for us to drink from. It was amazing watching the little boy climb the tree! He shimmied up there in no time and dropped several coconuts for us all. Then an evening younger boy got out a massive machete (it seems that they ALL have one!! 😳) And cut the top off for us.

    It was very tasty, and then said machete was used again to create a 'spoon' with part of the shell and split the coconut, so that we could scoop the flesh and eat it. A real experience, fresh from the tree! We then tried some other suspect fruit and finally they bought some donuts from a lady selling them on the beach... Delicious 😋

    This took us to almost time to finish. We headed back and collected a few more children on the way. After vaccinating a baby we headed back to the house for lunch and to get sorted to leave. There is a shortage of cars on the princess town side of the broken bridge so we had to wait for a bit, but eventually got there. As we headed to the car we spotted another white person (VERY rare here 🤣)... I said hi and he responded and all 3 of us were like "omg!! English" (midlands I think). He also had a mate, and it turned out that there were on the team building the new bridge and having arrived a week earlier, were going to be there until the bridge was done. That's good news for princess town, the bridge has been out for almost a year and the impact to the sick patients being referred to the nearest hospital has been big.

    We made good time back, and it was time to start BBQ and dancing, especially as it was our last. It was bitter sweet. I'm really looking forward to going home, but I'm also going to be sad to leave. It's been such an adventure, and I've learned so much, what I write on here only scratched the surface. It'll definitely stay with me for a long time ❤️    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Ellen WithersGhana Elective Placement 2024Viajante

    GHANA - DAY 27

    16 de fevereiro de 2024, Gana ⋅ 🌙 29 °C

    Donation checking, packing, donation delivery and finally a mojito!!!

    A weird one. There was plenty of sitting around today! Having checked the donation was all present and correct and called in to deliver it to the A&E department.
    A final grand total of £2,660 was raised, which is around 41,600 Ghanaian Cedis. Taking into account the fees & the % taken by gofundme, fluctuating exchange rates and costs to take the cedis out of the cash machine here (Ghana is a cash only country, bank transfers weren't possible and the limits on the cash machines meant it had to be taken out in 9 separate transactions over 3 days!) The pot was 36,000 cedis. This money was spent on the supply list shown below, as well as pens, scissors, batteries and the remaining (plus a bit added) needed to be used to pay for the Tro-tro!

    All I now needed to do was pack and chill a bit before we headed out for some tea and drinks tonight 😊

    I finally got the mojito I've tried to have since I got here (mint is in short supply in Ghana) and now it's time to try and sleep with fans and no air con as we have a power cut 🤣    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Ellen WithersGhana Elective Placement 2024Viajante

    GHANA - DAY 28

    17 de fevereiro de 2024, Gana ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C

    The last day, which is all about heading home 🇬🇭✈️🇬🇧

    A long trip to the airport and a lot of sitting around... But we're about to be in the air, and this is my last post.

    I suspect I'll have a lot to process and unpack over the next few weeks and months after my adventure in Ghana. I've met some incredible people, seen some incredible (and horrible) things and had experiences I never dreamed I would.

    My faith in humanity was restored when, having asked you all for help (again), you came through and enabled a massive donation that will have a lasting impact on the ENRH A&E Department ❤️

    Sitting here, the things that stand out from the last 4 weeks (not exhaustive!) are: being overwhelmed initially at how different everything is, EVERYTHING.
    How helpless I felt at times, when cases presented, that I just knew wouldn't make it, but would have stood a chance with more resources and better processes. How happy I felt, being a part of the A&E team at ENRH. How devastating it was, losing a patient that just shouldn't have died!
    And how wonderful all of those clinicians are. It's like being a part of a family, one I was welcomed into, and will stay in touch with for years to come.

    I've also seen elephants, played in waterfalls, relaxed on the beach and experienced life in rural Ghana... Including a drop toilet!

    Finally, I've spent some time with some pretty awesome people in our 'Big Blue House'. Scarlett and Olivia were unlucky enough to have to share a room with me... But I've grown to love and respect both of them, the resilience they've shown over the last week has impressed even me!

    I'll leave you with some of my highlights... Thanks for following my journey, and offering words of support and encouragement... There are days where you have no idea how much it was needed ❤️

    Over and out.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Final da viagem
    18 de fevereiro de 2024