Week One Recap

It has been an entire week since I sat at JFK airport anxiously awaiting my flight to Ghana. It has been a long and enlightening week. As you've learned from earlier posts, this week I worked in a small community clinic called a CHPS compound (Community-Based Health Planning and Service). In these clinics, parents bring their children in each month for vaccinations and weigh-ins, women come in for family planning, and patients who are sick come to find answers. The sicknesses vary from acute viral gastroenteritis to malaria to high blood pressure. If something is serious and needs to be seen by a physician, then the nurses refer them to a district hospital. These are small community hospitals of 50-60 beds that can handle slightly more than a CHPS compound. Lastly there are regional and teaching hospitals that can handle almost anything from dialysis to surgeries and lots of things in between. I learned yesterday that there are only five teaching hospitals in the entire nation of Ghana of which only two have an MRI. These things that we so often take advantage of in the US is something that Ghanaian health care providers have to work without.

Over this week, I've learned that Ghanaians are overall very nice and welcoming. Children are either scared of me or fascinated by me. One of the nurses I was working with this week, Georgette snapped a picture of me with some children who were loving on me for a good ten to fifteen minutes singing "Obruni, Obruni." My two days walking through the community I found many adults and children stopping me to ask me where I'm from and about myself. I have not felt unsafe, and I can see why Ghana is one of the safest African countries. I have loved my first week here, and I am excited to experience more of Ghana over the next three weeks. I will be at Cape Coast Teaching hospital working with physicians for the rest of my time in Ghana. I am looking forward to continue to learn more about the healthcare system in Ghana and continuing to interact with community members.
Playing with some of the children in Brofoyedur

Waiting area at the CHPS Compound
Registration and vaccination tables at the CHPS Compound

Family planning table at the CHPS Compound

Out in the community giving vaccines

Me and Nurse Georgette

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