Gloria Chinebuah
I wondered why I never ended my Duke of Edinburgh's award scheme experience with a Gold medal, after the Bronze and Silver.
I remember completing my voluntary work at the University of Ghana Hospital at Legon where I spent a good time with nurses, doctors, pharmacists, administrative staff, cleaners and orderlies, who treated me like colleagues, with much kindness and respect.
I remember a staff room where I could go into at anytime of the day for breaks of tea and biscuits. I loved the experience so much that I was almost tempted to become a nurse, like my mother and sister, if it hadn't been for my love for French, languages and my passion for other cultures that eventually landed me a job as an international civil servant at the United Nations Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
I remember working at the out-patient department where new cases were registered as they came and went; as they were seen to, first by a nurse, and then, by a doctor.
I remember receiving this woman who came in frantically in tears with her sick child in her arms because he was suffering from a fever and high temperature.
In her frantic state, she gave me her baby. I carried him in my arms and treated him as my own. I carried him gently but firmly in my arms as I paced up and down the walkway to give him some comfort to ease away his pain. I gave the baby all the motherly love that I could master but, unfortunately, didn't have enough of then.
The Head nurse saw me do my very best to try to bring some relief to this sick child. She approached me and gently but insistently took the child from my arms and walked across the aisle to the mother and handed her back her child to give him the motherly love he so desperately needed then.
Minutes after the baby changed hands, in the bosom of his mother, he convulsed. All hell broke loose. Cries and instructions were heard; then, a loud still silence.
My lesson from the scheme is that all things are possible with g
I remember completing my voluntary work at the University of Ghana Hospital at Legon where I spent a good time with nurses, doctors, pharmacists, administrative staff, cleaners and orderlies, who treated me like colleagues, with much kindness and respect.
I remember a staff room where I could go into at anytime of the day for breaks of tea and biscuits. I loved the experience so much that I was almost tempted to become a nurse, like my mother and sister, if it hadn't been for my love for French, languages and my passion for other cultures that eventually landed me a job as an international civil servant at the United Nations Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
I remember working at the out-patient department where new cases were registered as they came and went; as they were seen to, first by a nurse, and then, by a doctor.
I remember receiving this woman who came in frantically in tears with her sick child in her arms because he was suffering from a fever and high temperature.
In her frantic state, she gave me her baby. I carried him in my arms and treated him as my own. I carried him gently but firmly in my arms as I paced up and down the walkway to give him some comfort to ease away his pain. I gave the baby all the motherly love that I could master but, unfortunately, didn't have enough of then.
The Head nurse saw me do my very best to try to bring some relief to this sick child. She approached me and gently but insistently took the child from my arms and walked across the aisle to the mother and handed her back her child to give him the motherly love he so desperately needed then.
Minutes after the baby changed hands, in the bosom of his mother, he convulsed. All hell broke loose. Cries and instructions were heard; then, a loud still silence.
My lesson from the scheme is that all things are possible with g
