Ghana 2026

Part 4 – 2nd week of placement

Monday:

Chloe and I decided to go to the paeds ward today. The day felt hotter than last week and the paeds ward was even hotter. It has some ceiling fans but they are smaller than obs and gynae and really just over the beds.

I enjoyed the ward round. I felt like we saw a mix of children and had discussions about gastroenteritis, intussusception and hyperkalaemia (high potassium in the blood).

However, the paediatric head doctor did try and put a cannula into a small baby maybe 9 times and failed. It was sad to watch, especially as about half way into attempts an older child in the next bed was crying out for the same reason. (although it only took 3 attempts for him)

When we got back to the house we were in our rotation of showers when the power went out. Our meter had run out of credit so we had to wait for our administrator to fix it. We had to wait just under an hour as the house filled back up with heat, but all sorted now.

It seems this week has been photo deplete (can’t take photos in placement or during the day on the beach) hence have added pur watermelon from Monday and our walk on Wednesday despite not talking about that haha.

Tuesday:

I went back to the paeds ward and enjoyed it again today. We saw some of the same patients from yesterday but most had been discharged. A lot of the children had anaemia from an unknown cause and we ended up having a discussion about the effects sickle cell can have on kidney function.

Later on today our water ran out, which was quite annoying. We were told the doctor who owns this house would be back tomorrow and an electrician and gate person would be around today to have a look at those? It wasn’t very clear. Our administrator did come round to have a look and somehow we got onto the topic of us making him jollof rice tomorrow. He basically invited himself over with the excuse of “it’ll be a competition, 2 cooking this week and I plus one of you will cook next week”

Wednesday:

Today was a long day. Jess and I went to theatre today to see some more c-sections. The theatre environment was less friendly than last time and we were sure the nursing team were laughing at us in Twi (both generally at us not understanding and also about the UK in general).

So far my experience has been that the staff we’ve spoken to have viewed the UK through rose-tinted glasses. They often say they want to travel back with us because they’ll have money there or they think the hospitals have great staffing, pay, hours etc when in reality healthcare is very similar. The UK hospitals I’ve been placed at have more patients but similar staffing ratios and the hours doctors/nurses work seem to be almost the same. The staff here also seem much more relaxed about when meetings/ward rounds etc finish or start whereas time is pressured in the UK and I think it leaves staff more stressed.

After theatre we went for lunch at our usual place – the hospital canteen. We are always greeted by the friendly man who works there. He always asks us questions on how we are doing etc and today it was what music we like. We also had a conversation about the UK and how actually we do have a higher crime rate than Ghana which he was very surprised about. He was also surprised about the concept of having sunburn which was fun to explain.

Sadly though, they had run out of jollof rice so Chloe and I had to have some banku with okro soup. I didn’t like the flavour or the texture of the banku so ended up having a snack of yams and bofrot (like a doughnut but contains a lot of nutmeg) on the way home.

In the afternoon the new medical student arrived who will also be living with us and we prepared our jollof rice for the dinner party. Originally we had arranged for it to start at 6:30pm and we were ready for him around then, however he didn’t arrive until almost 8pm! (Despite saying he would be there soon at quarter to 7)

We did have a nice dinner despite the delay and learnt a Ghanaian card game that is similar to whist.

Thursday:

Chloe and I went to NICU this morning and saw a baby with mermaid syndrome, which was something I had not heard of before. It is not common here either.

After a short NICU ward round we went to paediatric clinic where they triage children with problems or review them. They see most children with sickle cell disease every 2-3 months and there were a lot of children with this in the clinic.

The room had one table and 2 clinics happening at once (doctor and patient at either end). There was also one nurse and one bed for examinations.

Friday:

This morning we took the trotro to Accra and then to Kokrobite and then to Big Milly’s. It was about 3 hours in total but the journey didn’t feel too long.

Jess and I had sausage pizza for lunch, which was nice because I had been missing cheese, however the pizza base was sweet and the sausages were hot dog sausages so it didn’t quite live up to expectations.

We then went for a swim in the sea and the waves/current was so strong it knocked us over a few times. It also meant we didn’t go out beyond standing height, but it was still lovely and cooling from the heat.

Dinner was a bit disappointing for all of us but dessert was so tasty! I had a brownie with ice cream and the vanilla flavour especially was really good.

Friday night here is culture night which meant some Ghanaian music and dancing. This was really fun to watch and listen to. The musicians and the dancers were very good at hitting quick beats and rhythms.

Saturday:

We woke up early this morning to try and catch the sunrise. While we didn’t get the sunrise exactly we still took some nice photos of the beach.

After sunrise we had breakfast and I had some delicious pancakes with syrup and a coffee. We had another wade into the sea and swim in the pool and then it was time to begin the journey back.

It felt longer on the way back and the first trotro we got in seemed to be held together by hope. (The front passenger door was only held shut with a piece of metal bent into a u-shape and the rest seemed made of mismatched metal and wood). The road from Accra to Nsawam is also extremely dusty which is why people wear face masks in the vehicles.

Sunday:

We went to try a Ghanaian church today. Our administrator had told us it would start at 7 but the sign outside said 8 so we had to walk back in the heat and wait half an hour.

We went to Winners International Chapel and the service was 2 and a half hours long (an hour longer than my home church) but it didn’t feel too long because everyone was so loud and enthusiastic! Some of the songs were the same as ones I’d sung before but there was a lot more energy and dancing in the worship than I was used to.

The sermon and the service in general also referenced a wide variety of bible verses throughout, but because they referenced them so quickly and they used KJV it was a little hard to keep up at times. They also at 2 points during the service asked us to stand up because we were new, but luckily no interview was involved haha. Overall it was a good service and I did enjoy the energy put into everything.

The rest of the day has been spent relaxing.