Day 1- “what the hell have I got myself into”
I arrived late from the airport after a surprisingly unproblematic flight. I thought I was also in for an unproblematic drive but I was welcomed with the hustle and bustle of Ghana. Night markets beaming with people balancing stacks of food on their head to sell in the middle of the road and traffic, loud upbeat music playing from gatherings on the street. Not to mention the insane driving, I thought I was going to die multiple times in that 2 hour journey having to hold my breath and stress eat plantain chips to get me through (I can confirm they slap).
Day 2-Cape can’t
After spending the night alone it came to the day I would meet the other volunteers. A long dangerous drive to cape coast where they have been staying for the past week. When I arrived there was no signal, lots of critters and low morale. There had been conflict and division in their group which I had walked into. Living conditions there weren’t pleasant and the battles between peoples stomachs and the Ghanaian food were ongoing. But I came in with weetabix, dioralyte and enthusiasm to save the group. I found we all got along well and I settled in very quickly embracing the culture and the situations we were in.
Day 3-6 Clinical placement
Narcotics anonymous programme
Throughout the week I assisted an addiction recovery programme at Ankaful hospital. Meeting many inspiring individuals sharing their stories and struggles they have trying to get sober. The stories shared were extremely emotional and the lives these people have lived were dark:
A kind woman shared her story: she was beaten abused by her husband for 3 years for not being able to have children which is something very important in Ghanaian culture. All she ever wanted was to please him and give him a child because she loved him more than anything, she rebelled against her family for him. So she stole money from family businesses to afford IVF on three occasions but doctors said surgery was her only option to have a child. She stole and saved for the surgery where they scammed her and gave her a hysterectomy so she could no longer have children. Her husband was convinced God would find a way and reassured her. But nothing worked. he impregnated someone else and made his wife look after this woman as if she was a nurse. As soon as the baby was born the wife was given back to her family who she went against to marry her husband in the first place and stole from and so she was shamed and shunned. She couldn’t take it and ran away walking the streets and travelling Africa by foot until she was founded by a woman. This woman took her in and heard her story and need for help but also introduced her to drugs. From then on the worked in the day and got high at night and escalated from cannabis to cocaine and ecstasy. But this wasn’t enough. She had a burning hatred for men after what her husband did to her and wanted revenge. So she joined a gang that trafficked drugs and assassinated men. Details weren’t given of what happened in this gang but she did end up in max security prison for a few months before being released back on the streets, then she turned back to drugs. until one day she was injected with something on the street and blacked out, then she woke up in the psychiatry rehabilitation ward and has been there since working on her recovery. She is now 5 months sober and continues her recovery.
I was also lucky enough to meet Herman Taylor who came all the way from New York to share his recovery story, he was so inspirational and motivated people to also share. To see his story check out his book “from nothing to almost something”.
One of the clients was so thankful he painted some amazing pieces of artwork for us after advising him to channel his negative emotions into something positive such as art. He was inspired to make a full recovery this time as he had experiences recent relapse.
Day 7- Explore
This weekend I went to Accra and visited the black star square where the first president of Ghana, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, achieved independence for the country. I also visited the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park & Mausoleum to understand his history.
I also went to the art centre which was small channels of bright coloured markets selling anything and everything, here I was bombarded with shop keepers to buy something. I had to learn to firmly say “ no” very quickly and be able to be in and out of the market as fast as I could. Throughout this week we have had a Ghanaian assistant called Albert who we have made great friends with and he had never been to a cinema before. So we took him to watch “bad boys” at the cinema and word for word he said it was the best day of his life and could not stop laughing. Finally we ended the day with a well deserved KFC, I have heard it tastes so much better in Africa than the UK so I have been dreaming of it since getting here. And I can confirm it is significantly better!
Thats week 1 complete, 5 more to go :)