My trip to Takoradi Ghana
Lois Golding (Nursing)

After months of planning we finally set off from Cambridge early one October morning. We left England in freezing conditions and arrived in Accra, 10 hours later, to overwhelming heat! The airport felt a bit scary but actually was straightforward. We had no problems getting through customs and everyone seemed very friendly. We were so glad though to be met by Prince as we came through the airport doors as there were dozens of taxi drivers rushing to ‘help’ us by taking our bags and trying to load them into their cars and then asking for money! However, Prince calmly sorted out the right vehicles and off we went.

The first night we stayed in a hostel in Accra after being taken out for a meal – Jollof – the first Jollof of many! We were up early the next morning for a 4 -5 hour bus ride to the Work the World house in Takoradi where we were to stay for the next 3 weeks. Here Prince ‘handed us over’ to John and Ophelia who are just amazing and looked after us wonderfully during our stay; Ophelia cooked us great pancakes for breakfast and various meals in the evening, our favourite being red-red, a sort of bean stew. John took great care of us the first weekend helping us to change our money into Ghana Cedi’s, taking us out for more meals and inviting us to his Church on the Sunday. No matter what your religious views are it’s certainly worth going!

The first Monday, John came with us to Effia Nkwanta hospital, about 10 minutes away by taxi. He showed us around, introduced us to the various people we needed to know and than left us to our first day of work. 3 of us were in A & E, the others in maternity. We all had amazing experiences of working with the friendly staff in these areas. We could have just observed but wanted to be more hands-on and once the staff realised that we were prepared to work they were very keen to let us help where we could. We had taken scrubs with us which were needed not just for getting into theatre in maternity but also for working on the wards. We hadn’t expected to wear them all the time but it was actually better than wearing our own clothes as we felt a bit more a part of the teams.

During our stay we were also able to spend a few days at a local orphanage which was just an amazing opportunity.

We only had a couple of full weekends for travelling so didn’t venture as far as others do. We spent a very peaceful day at Busua Beach, about 40 mins away, a night in Kakum National Park sleeping on a mattress on a small platform with just a mosquito net for safety! Then early the next morning, a fantastic canopy walk to see the monkeys. We were really fortunate that on one weekend it was the Ghana world cup qualifier match against Lesotho and although we are not all football fans it was an experience not to be missed. However, I don’t think we’d have managed to get tickets if it had not been for a friendly taxi driver we had met through John earlier in the week, as he endured what seemed like a rugby scrum to get them!

Our 3 weeks went far too quickly but has left us all with a real desire to go back, not only to Ghana but also to explore more of Africa. This was a first time to Africa for all of us and although we had been quite nervous beforehand we all agreed it was the most amazing time and worth all the planning and organising of funds to see first hand the health service in a country so different from ours, to be overwhelmed by people’s friendliness and fun and to have time to enjoy the delights of the beautiful beaches and local area.

The Work the World team were all that we could have hoped for and nothing seemed to be too much trouble for them, with any little problems being sorted out immediately. We were always able to contact John if we needed to and he would often ring one of us to make sure we were OK. Having all the placements sorted out for us, safe accommodation and travel arrangements organised was really important for us as first time travellers to Africa and just took away so much potential stress had we tried to piece together a trip like this ourselves.