Week 2- Highs and Lows
I won’t lie I settled in and found my first week in Ghana surprisingly easy, I got along with everyone and felt comfortable in my placement. But this week I started a new placement which has provided highs and lows.
Low
This placement differs due to its duality, in the mornings we work in clinical hospitals shadowing and in the evenings we work with the children at Becky’s home (which is an orphanage). On my first day I was excited to learn more and see what this new placement had to offer but left with disappointment. I was nothing but polite and ready to learn but was actually disrespected by the doctor at this new hospital. His rude attitude didn’t sit well with me alongside the misinformation he was providing us regarding symptoms and diagnosis. And so I questioned it, I was curious and pressed because he soon realised I knew he was wrong. Of course these discussions consisted of him backtracking and patronising remarks towards me. Although I tried to have a debate and learn, fake smiles and biting my tongue was what I resorted to soon after realising he is not someone that can be reasoned with. Also with no clients coming in that day or throughout the week I didn’t gain valuable experience instead it felt like a test of my patience.
High
The saving grace of this placement is the children of the orphanage, so kind and welcoming. I found it immensely rewarding working with these children during counselling, providing educational talks and even just engaging and playing lots of games. I found myself working longer hours and spending what should have been my free time with them. Getting to know each child as individuals and what their goals and aspirations are and what I can do to help them achieve that. One moment that stands out is when I arranged a big sports day for them consisting of football, volleyball ball, rounders and various obstacle and jumping courses. I believe this put the leadership skills I have learnt into practice as I organised this independently and ensured everything was fair and ran smoothly. I facilitated team work and opportunities for different children to take leadership roles in different games and also develop some of the skills I have learnt during the Laidlaw programme. It was a huge success and everyone was rewarded with some well deserved squashies (my favourite sweets).
Overall, during the week I have learnt I can handle uncomfortable and quite stressful situations. And put conflict or dislike aside when it came to completing tasks in some of the clinical hospitals whether that was delivering health talks to schools or conducting malaria and typhoid screenings. Becoming self aware that I am going to experience highs and lows during my LIA gave me a new perspective of how to cope and deal with those different moments. Also I found it important to acknowledge that any experience here is valuable whether it is good or bad as it develops my character and my ability to handle various situations.
Week 2 done, bring it on week 3! :)
Hi! I’m Lily and currently study advanced psychology at the university of Leeds. Theorising why something has happened is something I consider myself good at (also known as overthinking).
One of the perks of psychology is that you are forced to socialise with people, which a few years ago would have been my my introverted selfs nightmare. However, interacting with individuals from such diverse backgrounds has developed such a passion to help people and has lead to massive growths in my confidence. Now specifically having interests in forming interventions and strategies to improve the quality of life and mental stability of vulnerable individuals from groups such as survivors of domestic abuse, service users and addicts.
My research project is called “thinking inside the box” centred around reverting back to our primary archival sources to provide a different perspective on the political resistance in Latin American rather than relying on information that has been extensively modified. Specifically introducing archive-based teaching methods and evidencing that they can act as critical and liberators pedagogies. Ultimately wanting to challenge the curriculum by using authentic methods of assessment and promote autonomous skill acquisition that provides practical application to their futures.
In my spare time I am a gym rat (unfortunately) and I like trying out new sports such as snowboarding which I am currently horrific at but it’s still very fun!
i would love to discuss psychological research or potential career paths with new people, so do drop a message :)
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You should feel very proud that you can handle difficult situations, especially in an unfamiliar environment, and for being able to organise day worth of activities that I am sure those children will not soon forget.