Most of us have settled into Ghanian life, which is get up well before sunrise, eat your breakfast on your own, have a cold shower or bucket bath and then be immediately sweaty and then be at the hospital at around 7.30am for a working day which finishes at 3pm at the latest. Then a heavy lunch followed by a heavy dinner (both eaten solo), some mad mexican or nigerian soap opera on the tv, another bucket bath and then tucked in bed by 8.30pm.

Ghanians live life loud and religiously, every shop, child or vehicle has a religious name, such as "Jesus saves spare parts" or a severely disabled child called "Godswill". Our local driver, Joseph, is a pastor in his church and prays a beautiful if lengthy prayer each time we set off to visit one of the hospitals.

Funerals here are three day event with the family hiring a marquee, plastic chairs and a band. Unfortunately the band plays well past midnight. I guess you are allowed to stay up for such an occasion.

Life at the clinic/hospital is up and down with the physios worked off their feet some of the time and the speechies and OTs creating projects to fill the time between patients at two of the centres.

Needless to say the Ghanian health system is everything you would expect and more but there is generally exceptionally good will to us and a willingness to please. Unfortunately and frustratingly they also don't want to tire us out so we work much more slowly than we would at home.

On Friday afternoon we all came down to the coast for some r&r - our host families are lovely but at times all the care, concern and assistance is tiring so we came to sight see and relax. Yesterday we visited the Cape Coast Castle from where more than 200,000 Africans were sent to be slaves in the Americas. It was a stark, haunting yet beautiful place.

The coast here looks much like the accompanying picture but the beach is soiled and the water unclean, you can look but you wouldn't swim which was a disappointment and had us all longing for Bondi.

Some of us stayed in a crocodile-farm-holiday-camp last night and this morning everyone is off for a walk in the jungle.

Everyone is well so thats all for now, more pictures later in the week

Tricia