Today I spent the day on the female surgical ward at the hospital, just to see what it's like there and because there are children there too. The ward itself is pretty big with a huge variety of patients there, all women who either have had or need surgery, burns, wounds of any description or orthopaedic patients. I have never seen such awful wounds as today!! There are a lot of awful leg or foot ulcers due to diabetic patients which come about because diabetes is poorly controlled. These often end in amputations as the leg or foot becomes so gangrenous. Other common wounds are from fractures e.g. from people in car accidents which protrude through the skin. Procedures are done with mild sedation which in the UK would be done under general anaesthetic. The only dressings here are gauze and iodine and things tend not to heal very well so end up horrendously infected. Not for the faint hearted!
Every Tuesday all the students at the Work the World house have Fante lessons (the local language after English) from a teachers called Mr Atta. I had my third one yesterday and after we had a test, if we failed it we would have to repeat a class but luckily i passed and am now officially an intermediate! It's actually really useful having Fante lessons as it enables us to communicate with the patients at a basic level, as not all speak brilliant English. People here love it when you speak to them in Fante too. My favourite phrase is 'Mi ma wo ache' (good morning) and 'mintiase' (I don't understand)..does come in useful!
Last weekend me and 5 other girls from the house visited Kumasi, which is a big city about 4 hours inland of where I stay in Takoradi. We had an awful journey there on Friday night, as our tro tro (form of public transport) didn't leave for 3 hours and it took us 6 hours to drive there on bumpy crazy roads as there were huge crates of fish on top. So we got there at midnight and after a lot of hassle from people we managed to get in a taxi and the place where we stayed on Friday night was HORRIBLE!! But we left early on Saturday morning and visited Kejetia Market, largest open market in West Africa, which was definitely an experience but not particularly one I would want to repeat. It was HUGE, so so busy and because we stood out like a sore thumb we got a fair bit of hassle! But we explored a few other places in Kumasi on Saturday then got a tro tro to Lake Botsumtwi, about an hour further travel which was in the middle of nowhere and was absolutely stunning, a stark contrast to the big sprawling city.
There are now 21 medical and nursing students in the house which is a bit maniac sometimes (especially in the mornings when we are fighting for the bathrooms...) but really fun. Feels like I have been here a lot longer than 3 weeks now.
Lots of African love from Ella xx
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