I will start by saying this was a slow week, I can’t lie. Despite working Throughout the week at Ankaful psychiatric hospital (1 of the only 3 psychiatric hospitals in Ghana) we found there wasn’t much to do. Around the hospital we mainly engaged with drug abuse rehabilitation sessions, but that aside we only saw one client for counselling. So our week consisted a lot of waiting and searching for departments in which we can get involved with and gain experience. In short we were unsuccessful (but I did rack up a lot of steps 👍).

As a group we were unhappy with the placement this week due to lack of communication and having nothing to do. None of us had come to Ghana to sit around, all of us wanted to engage in clinical experience. And so I had to do what I don’t enjoy doing and that was complain. I had to have conflict in order to have any change for our placement and we found this very difficult, we really had to push hard for our concerns to be acknowledged. But 7 passive aggressive messages , 2 phone calls and 3 in person meetings later our concerns were acknowledged and we were clear about what we wanted to change for our next week placement. For this to happen I really had to show resilience, despite being brushed off and gas lit. We stood our ground and tried  to solve the issue rather than just deal with it.

Anyways on a lighter note, despite having awful weather we managed to engage in a variety of random activities to entertain ourselves. Intense games of Pictionary to made up games such as “throw the bottle in the bin” (very creative I know). We even got to the point where we played YouTube videos of “just dance” and did the group dance numbers, which looking back was mortifying because of how bad we were. To go a step further we found ourselves playing golf, don’t even ask how we ended up doing that. I have a whole new type of respect for golfers because I was absolutely 💩.

Despite our placement being slow our weekend was busy! First we did the Kakum canopy walk which was not for those who are scared of heights. The bridges buckling under the weight of each person and swaying aggressively side to side, especially when feral children thought it was a good idea to jump up and down. But the views were worth it. We also did a hike and learnt about the different wildlife and trees in the forest, and what purposes they serve in African culture.

Following this we went to casually touch crocodiles.

ProoF:

Obviously we didn’t think they were being serious when they said we could stroke the crocodiles. So when I was dragged over to touch the tail of one, you can imagine my concern.

The next day we immersed ourselves into the history of slave trade in Ghana, visiting both Elmina and cape coast castle.

Elmina was known to be built by the Portuguese, serving as a base for taking Ghana’s rich resources of gold. However this then later became the first European slave trading post in all of sub Saharan Africa. This is because they soon realised the physical strength of the Africans and decided to import them to work on sugar farms.

Elmina, like other West African slave fortresses, housed luxury suites for the Europeans in the upper levels. The slave dungeons below were cramped and filthy, each cell often housing as many as 200 people at a time, without enough space to even lie down. The floor of the dungeon, as result of centuries of impacted filth and human excrement, was now several inches higher than it was when it was. There were  Staircases that led directly from the governor 's chambers to the women's dungeons below, making it easy for him to select a woman of his choosing. Only if you are selected to be raped do you get to bathe with water, otherwise for months you are left in a dungeon without any bathing before being shipped off to somewhere else. Also having condemning chambers for slaves and soldiers who would rebel, these were dark dungeons where they would be suffocated or starved, not knowing what time or day it was due to no light. Slaves that would be shipped off would enter the door of no return, 30,000 slaves passed through this door every year.

Now onto cape coast castle, known for trans-Atlantic slave trade initially built by Sweden and then possession passed to the Dutch and finally to the British. There were similarities to Elmina but nearly all the dungeons were underground. We were shown the auction room for slaves which was harrowing with the same gavel that was used years ago. Learning about the history of slave trade was eye opening and walking around the emotionally charged castles and seeing the conditions first hand gave me a whole new perspective of how much people suffered. It was really important to understand the history and to pay respects to those that suffered and had lost their lives.

We ended the week supporting England in the Germany euros final 2024. Going in with low expectations, but our team actually lasted longer than what we thought. Yet we still felt such disappointment when we lost against Spain (obviously they were the better team) and everyone fell silent. Football did not come home 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿;-;

Week 4 ✅