Our Volunteers

This Feb saw me set off on a bold expedition – to Ghana as a volunteer for GHP. Officially my 2^nd trip there, If you count a fleeting visit over 50 years back, but for practical purposes this was a whole new country and adventure.

Africa itself isn’t new to me. Long ago I spent time in Nigeria, and have worked with Homeopathy for Health in Africa (HHA) in Tanzania. So heat, mosquitoes, challenging foods and the African lifestyle / vibe are all familiar. This naturally helps as it rules out climate and culture shock, but of course I was still apprehensive, with what lay ahead of me a complete unknown. How would I manage to get around in an unknown country? Do what I was supposed to do, whatever that was, or cope with tasks that I might or might not feel equal to? Embarrassingly I was still rather vague about the project. I had simply heard it mentioned, tracked it down, scoured the website and decided that volunteering in Ghana was a must. At the same time, despite my doubts, I found myself with an upbeat, optimistic attitude about what lay ahead.

I was not disappointed. The whole was a great experience, and Ghanaians together with other people I met in Ghana must surely be the friendliest people I have come across.

To my great relief, I was met at the airport by Caroline, who looked after me wonderfully for the whole 1^st half of my stay. Under her soothing care I was borne off 1^st day to my 1^st busy outreach clinic (felt shockingly tough work, and everlasting!) and from there to the calmer, more peaceful pace of Emperor’s clinic in the Volta. My room there was little short of luxurious; what with that and the 3 square meals laid on daily by Emperor’s niece Tina, it was even a little like being in a hotel. Just a little. There could be patients at 7 am. We stayed there for a week, while I got used to Ghana, and to taking cases with Emperor and Selassie. This remained my favourite occupation of the entire 5 weeks. I learnt so much, taking cases with these 2 with their relaxed manner and in-depth knowledge of the type of case that we were seeing and appropriate remedies for them. From the start, I loved working once more without a computer, just relying on books and one’s own Materia Medica knowledge.

After this it was time for a couple of weeks ‘on the road’, doing the rounds of practitioners around Accra, seeing them in action and helping at outreach clinics. As an added bonus we were lodged at ‘Big Millie’s’, by a beautiful strip of coastline I will never forget. And not a mosquito to be seen.

How encouraging it was to see practitioners setting up in business, ensuring that homeopathy grows its place in Ghana! And so educational to talk with them and observe how they operate. I am very grateful to them, with their open attitude. Wherever we went everyone was so friendly and keen to interact. We had a few outreach clinics that were pretty full on (these still daunt me!), but by and large I had hit on a quieter time on the Accra scene. After Caroline returned to the UK halfway through our ‘tour’, I was caringly passed from practitioner to practitioner, my schedule arranged for me every day, until I was finally returned to Emperor’s for 2 more weeks. The whole trip was a wonderful and uniquely valuable experience for me – what I saw, what I learnt, what I learnt about case-taking, and how warm and friendly and keen to help everyone was that I met. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped to make it that way!