Fufu & Hair Braids!

Caro & I with the lovely ladies who spent 5 hours braiding our hair!


Every Friday since we have been staying with our host family they prepare fufu for us for supper. It is a Ghanaian dish made with grounded up kasaba (like a potato) and is served with palm nut soup. Our family usually puts chicken in the soup but Friday night they added crab. Caro & I have both gotten the hang of eating fufu and we have gotten really good at scooping up the kassaba with our right hand and then putting an indent in it and scooping soup into the indent. It actually was tricky to do when we first tried it a few weeks ago! Friday night however was a challenge for us because both of us had never eaten crab and did not know how to eat it! Our host mother, Alice, came and sat with us and showed us how to do it. She removed the crab from the shell and showed us the meat inside. We both were nervous to eat it but ended up enjoying it!


Work went really well this week. I went to the clinic in Shama on Wednesday and Thursday. I worked at the general health site so I was able to see people of all ages this week. On Wednesday I took blood pressures for the nurse while the patients were sitting in the waiting room waiting their turn to be seen. On Thursday I helped with needles and dressing changes. I am learning a lot at the clinic and I am really enjoying my days there. Many of the patients that I have seen come in to the general health clinic are diagnosed with malaria. The second common issue from what I have seen is skin infections. My biggest challenge at the clinic currently is the language barrier and that they use different drugs than we do in Canada. I have a lot to learn! Fortunately I am working alongside wonderful nurses who teach me about the medications and also teach me phrases in “Fante” which is the most popular dialect spoken by people at this clinic.

I also began working on a health talk at work. There are other interns at Friends of the Nation from the University of Ghana and the University of Cape Coast. A few of them have been visiting a primary school & a junior high school to speak to the children and to try and promote community awareness. On Friday they gave a talk on coastal issues and next Friday they will be taking all of the children to Esei Lagoon to help plant mangrove trees. I will be giving a talk next week on sexually transmitted infections, malaria, and cholera. I began working on it last week and the plan for this week is to go over it with the other interns and to create learning games & activities to make the presentation fun & exciting for the children.

All in all both Caro & I are really enjoying our time in Ghana! We have been here for a month now, even though it feels like we just got here! We have been enjoying our stay with our host family and have also been able to travel on the weekends. We even went and got our hair braided yesterday! It took 5 hours to complete! Davina also had her hair braided last week. Caro & I are now planning to convince Heather to braid hers and for Robin to get dreads!

Next weekend is our midsummer retreat! Caro & I will be travelling to Cape Coast to meet with Heather, Robin, & Davina! We have to go over our midsummer report. We will also talk about our work experiences so far and set goals for the rest of the summer. We are going to do a little exploring too! We are planning on going to the canopy walk in Kakum National Park where will be able to see some Ghanaian wildlife! I can’t wait for that! We are also going to go to Elmina Castle!

Caro & I are both going to the office tomorrow for the day. She might be travelling back to Jomoro on Tuesday, but she won’t find out until tomorrow. Only 5 days until retreat!

Bye for now!