Having spent three weeks in Ghana and working on the Stroke Unit at Korle Bu I think it would be fair to say that we both feel confident in our daily routine and feel that we are able to make a positive contribution to the partnership. Our understanding of the project has been an exponential learning curve and we are truly grateful to Sarah and Lucy who supported us during our first two weeks and who were essential to ensuring our time here is as effective as possible.
We now know most of the team members and are enjoying getting to know our Ghanaian colleagues. I think we still have a long way to go to understand Ghanaian culture as well as Twi!
The level of knowledge of the staff on the unit is exceptional and the work they are carrying out to spread this knowledge across the hospital is inspiring. It has been a challenging week on the unit with several extremely unwell patients and even those who were stable had relatively limited rehabilitation potential. But the team continued to deliver the best possible care and tried to smooth the transition to home as best they could.
It has not all been hard work though! We are trying to get out and see a bit of Ghana and having exhausted most of the tourist sites of Accra we decided to head out of town. We went west to Cape Coast and Kakum National Park. Having survived the rope walkway suspended 40m above the rainforest floor we found ourselves in the more sobering Cape Coast Castle with its truly superb guided tour highlighting the appalling situation faced by those caught up in the slave trade. Not a moment that I was particularly proud to be British.
Having fought through the Ghanaian Saturday traffic we made it back to Accra and look forward to another 5 weeks at Korle Bu. Amelia and Debbie.
