update

Multiday update
Hi everyone, sorry about the sporadic updates, but we rarely have both free time and internet access at the same time, and most of us have been using those times to try to connect with our families. Here is a brief rundown of our week.
I also don’t have any of the pictures we have been taking or that the school has taken, so Emmanuel is adding some pictures on the blog for us and I will add pictures as I am able.
Monday:
During the school day we had some ice breaker games with the Ghana students, I hope that some of the pictures that they took came out. We then did a short tour of the building and lunch at the school.
In the afternoon we saw about 40 patients with a wide variety of disabilities.
Tuesday
Liz and Lacey led our lecture on Cerebral Palsy (CP) and absolutely rocked the house with it. While we went to the bank to finally exchange some currency (none of us had been able to buy anything the first four days ) the students used the information that Liz and Lacey had lectured on to educate some of the parents of children with CP that had already arrived for afternoon clinic. After a quick stop for lunch we were whisked away to the Ministry of Health where we had a meet and greet with the Ghana Allied Health Minister who warmly welcomed us to the country and spoke of the importance of what we are doing here for the community.
When we returned to Greenhills we were greeted by 70 patients, with many of them being children with CP. We managed to see all of the patients, even with Dr. Houck (aka Rico) and Liz leaving early to go to the local T.V. station for a live nationally broadcast interview regarding what we are doing here.
We returned to our hotel quite tired, but happy that we were able to help so many people.
Wednesday
Wednesday brought us to the University of Ghana Teaching Hospital, Korle Bu, when we arrived in the morning we split into sections to work with different departments and see how they perform PT in their hospital. This was a very interesting experience for many of us, I know that I (Matt) had an amazing PT who worked in their Cardiothoracic Ward who was both very caring for her patients and innovative with her practice. We both lamented at the lack of patient access to outpatient cardio rehab clinics both in Ghana and the US as well as discussed the difficulties of translating information or testing materials in to other languages (Spanish for me and some of the local dialects for her).
Caitlin (Dr. Burbank) then gave a lecture on Stroke rehab that was open to any of the professionals at the hospital which was well received
After the hospital we went to a mausoleum dedicated to the first President of Ghana followed by a trip to the Ghanan equivalent of the Las Vegas Strip (or so I am told by one of our hotel employees) this is the one place in Ghana that is busy at all times of the day, 24/7. We ate at a fancy restaurant and headed back to the hotel room.
Thursday
Matt and Zane presented a lecture on UE involvement in stroke patients for the students at Greenhill, followed by a lab session in which we introduced the students to an important outcome measure (the ARAT), Constraint Induced Movement Therapy, Case Studies, and detection and prevention of shoulder subluxation.
The afternoon brought us nearly 60 patients and was our first attempt of utilizing parts of the health screening app that we are trying to develop for community health screening.
As we were about to leave Greenhills for the day, a big storm cloud rolled in. One of the faculty told us that we need to leave NOW or we are going to get rained on. As we headed for the hotel, the rain and wind came in full force. We ran, many of us holding hands, not able to see where we were going. We arrived soaking wet and can now say that we survived a Ghanan rain storm!
Friday
Lindsey and Taylor presented on LE involvement in patients with stroke and due to their fantastic lecture the students were much better prepared for the lab that followed which entailed working on bed mobility, sit-to stand transfers and gait.
Friday afternoon we saw over 50 patients and gave the Ghanan students increased responsibility in dealing with the patients, with several of the students taking the history and performing many of the objective measures.
Friday evening was our first evening of really being able to relax at the hotel for a night and we all had a blast hanging out with each other and getting to know one another better.
Saturday
So far on Saturday we attended a Ghanan graduation where there were estimated to be 1,000 Ghanan family and friends. We wore caps and gowns similar to those of the students and were a popular commodity for pictures with the Ghanans. The ceremony was very nice and was great to be a part of Greenhill School of Health Science history due to the fact that this was their first graduation in school history.