Week One

The first week was a whirlwind of new information. It was a little overwhelming in the moment but looking back it doesn’t seem that bad. On our first day at the hospital, we got a tour around to the different floors and met Dr. Nyarko, the head attending. She gave us our assignments for the first week and put me and one other girl in the infant in-patient department. For the first two days I watched the doctor interview parents on how their children were doing and assign tests and treatments for the nurses to provide. I also watched a lumbar puncture be performed, and a doctor change the bandages of a severely burned child. The next few days I hopped around the hospital. On Wednesday I had the opportunity to witness surgery, which was amazing! We saw the excision of a smegmoma, a right herniotomy, the excision of a suprasternal dermoid cyst, an umbilical hernia, and the excision of a thyroglossal cyst. It was an amazing day. On Thursday we shadowed the HIV clinic and learned a lot about that disease, and on Friday we visited the family planning clinic and got to talk to a public health nurse about family planning and sexual health promotion. This sounds so cheesy but every moment I was in the hospital was a gift. I was learning something every second. I learned so much I didn’t even know what I was learning half the time. But like I said, I was a little overwhelmed that first week so I didn’t go out much after the hospital. The other people in my group went to play football and go out to eat, but I was content with staying in my room and recovering from my culture shock. And I’m glad I gave myself time to adjust because as soon as I did recover from the culture shock, I felt amazing! That first weekend is hard for me to write about. We drove to Cape Coast and visited the Elmina slave castle and Kakum national park. The park was amazing, it was beautiful and fun and interesting. But the castle was a very difficult thing for me to do. I’m still processing how it affected me and how I feel. So I’m not going to write about it on a public blog. But! I the weekend was really cool all things considered. I loved seeing another part of Ghana. Cape Coast is a beautiful city.