Ghana 2017 - Medical programe

I'm just finishing up four weeks doing the medical volunteering here in Ghana with PMGY. It's been absolutely incredibly and I can't believe I'm saying it but even after our weeks I wish I was staying longer. I've had just such a great time here and what really made it was the people. Everyone in the house has been just such a pleasure to live with, volunteers and those working with PMGY. The medical volunteering was incredibly interesting and you really were able to get some hands on experience in all the different departments of the hospital that would really be hard to access so easily at home. Here in Kumasi I did everything from ultrasounds, to carrying out HIV and Malaria testing in the laboratory, to helping take vitals and take bloods in Emergency to even acting as an extra set of hands during Surgery. I've found the whole experience hugely beneficial for myself.
The UK team were incredibly helpful during the contact period as I wasn't able to come on set dates due to family commitments and was worried about some of the issues about that but Josh and the team smoothed all my worries away with a short bit of correspondence and sorted everything for me so I was able to get here okay. I couldn't be more grateful.
The staff here in Ghana were something else, within a week I'd felt like we'd been friends for years, they made me feel so at home and they're mostly the reason I'm sorry to go. Seth and Florence were really proactive in helping you to give back to the communities around here if you wanted to and it was nice to feel like I was a part of something that was actively improving the lives of people in the area. The other volunteers really do bring out the best in you and I found myself incredibly inspired by their selflessness and thoughtfulness, and the staff here were really good at helping you direct that charity to ensure it helped as much people a possible.
Even though I did Medical volunteering I was also able to take part in the Teaching program some days and visit the school and the kid there are something else. They're absolutely amazing and were another contender for my favourite part of Ghana. Just seeing how much PMGY improved the school in the few week I was here wasa incredible, we completely renovated two rooms and had a new playground for the kids fitted and I've never seen gratefulness like what we got from the kids.
I felt really safe during my time here, granted I didn't go out too much at night but I felt very secure and at ease when taking long journeys and doing stuff by myself during the day (granted, I am a 6"3 man in his twenties but still). That's parially just due to the local people as well, most I encountered were just so friendly and would always greet you with a smile if you smiled first.
I couldn't recommend PMGY more and I already have suggested it to the 3 friends back home who've snapchatted me asking about my stay. I've enjoyed my time here immensely and my four weeks here have really blown my expectations out of the water. Medaase guys.