Orientation day

Made it to Takoradi late last night and meet the other students. 24 of us for this week (10 From UK 11 from Ireland, 1 from Canada and 1 other American!)

Half are medical students and other half are nurses. I am the lone physical therapist.

The house is pretty big with 6 rooms that have 2 bunk beds each, huge eating area, kitchen, and patio.  We have power and water but the power goes out all of the time so most of the time I spent outside.

Today was our orientation at the hospital and got to see all of the wards, NICU, ortho floor, HIV clinic, surgery, ER, Physio clinic, and ear nose and throat clinic. The Physio clinic was pretty big and my superior was a very nice lady. Cannot wait to start on Wednesday (we do not

Start clinic tomorrow because it is Ghana's national Independence Day)! 

After that we went around town and got a feel for the area, how to get Tro-tro's (public buses), see the beaches, market, and store.

Harbor port

Guys room 

View from the patio to the homes next door. 

Busy day in Istanbul and traveling

Made the most of my 24 hours in instanbul visiting the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, the topkapi palace, and the basilica cistern (the cistern was my favorite part... It was a location in Dan Brown's book The Inferno that I recently read) I even got the full experience of a Turkish bath which was pretty cool but definitely not what I expected. Made a quick adventure to the Grand Bazaar before my flight which is massive open market. After talking with one of the shop owners about what I do and where I am from I ended up giving him a few home exercises for his wife and he gave a a great deal on an item (always helps to be a little friendly). I met a few Aussies traveling Europe, a group of Canadians backpacking, an American who just finished 2 years with the Peace Corps in the country Georgia. All great people who wished they were joining me on the adventure to Africa.

Had a 6 hour flight to Ghana from Istanbul which went great until I got here and my luggage didn't.  So looks like I get to spend the few two days with 2 outfits!! Two other students arrived today from the UK and we will spend the night in Accra (the Capitol of Ghana) until tomorrow and then make the trip to Takoradi tomorrow afternoon .

The Blue Mosque

Turkish Bath

Basilica Cistern

Flight time

Just got dropped off by my beautiful girlfriend at Dulles airport. Will land in Istanbul tomorrow night. 

I found out today that I will be collecting data during this experience to help support the benefits and effectiveness of international physical therapy internships with Widener University.  Makes this experience even more sustainable and worthwhile! 

Ghana 2014 SU Physical Therapy Rotation

The trip begins today. Leaving from Dulles Airport at 1130 and will be landing in Istanbul tomorrow. Had a great few days at home with family and friends back in Maryland before my 5 weeks abroad.

Learning to make a blog

Hey everyone. I figured since I will be in Ghana for 5 weeks I will forget some things when I got back so I would start a blog. I will post about the physical therapy aspect of the rotation as well as the country itself. Thank you Ashley Henegar for helping me to figure out how to get this started.

Also great win tonight against Ghana, now lets hope I dont say something to the wrong person about the game when I get there.....