Case Notes:
Kelly Chatten
(HIV outreach, Ghana )

I was coming to the end of my second year at medical school and as it was my last proper summer I wanted to make the most of it. I heard of Work the World through an email I received and decided to go to Ghana. I didn’t know quite what to expect when I signed up, but Work the World provided all the necessary information and before I knew it I was on my way to Africa.

On arrival I was met by a member of the company and was taken to the house in Cape Coast on some well interesting roads if that’s what you can call them! I was quite apprehensive about what the accommodation would be like but the house far surpassed my expectations and even had “guard dogs” (well, 2 puppies). I soon settled in and had an amazing time chatting with my new housemates; with no TV this soon became a popular past time. Food in Ghana was an issue to some people the staple diet being eggs, tomato paste and rice or the local delicacies which you’ll either love or hate. However it’s all part of the experience of Africa along with the odd tub and bucket shower.

Whilst in Ghana I participated in the HIV project in which we taught HIV and AIDS awareness in schools. This was the 1st year the project was run, so it was very much a case of starting from scratch. There were many ups and downs, and long meetings highlighting the cultural differences between the Ghanaian and British volunteers, but in the end teaching the kids was an amazing experience as was meeting the teachers and trying to convince them that the kids needed to be taught! I definitely learnt a lot about organising, that planning is important especially a contingency plan and despite having totally different lives and cultures children all over the world are actually pretty similar. There were a lot of times when the project was hard and long and things weren’t going the right way, but that in my opinion is what made it such a good experience.

After writing and teaching for 4 weeks I went travelling for another 2 weeks along with 3 other girls that lived in the house with me. Ghana is not the most tourist friendly country, but that is what made travelling so much fun. There was so much to see without the usual tourist queues and extortionate prices. I would particular recommend the Ferry across Lake Volta - a 30 hour trip on a cargo boat on which you sleep out on deck.

I had an amazing time travelling and teaching in Ghana and would recommend it to anyone. Although with Cadbury’s chocolate being a very rare and expensive find I think 6 weeks was enough for me!