Staying Flexible

Greetings from Ghana! This will be a shorter post with mostly just pictures since everyone knows pictures are far better than what I am capable of writing. This is from two weeks ago. On Monday we drove about an hour and a half to Winneba, a coastal city known for its excellent school of education. With the cities focus on education it wasn't much of a surprise that almost everyone we met spoke perfect English. When we arrived we didn't have an eye chart, so one of the other volunteers got some paper and a marker and went to work. His chart was pretty impressive, but unfortunately didn't end up getting used. We found another chart a few minutes later. 

Kaden with his beautiful chart.

This adorable little girl had the most menacing grin I have ever seen.

On Tuesday we left for the Volta Region where we spent two days. We drove through some beautiful scenery and I even saw a baboon on the side of the road! After asking for directions a few times we eventually turned down a very rugged dirt road that brought us to the village we were working in. We wouldn't have seen very many people that day if not for the 50 school kids who came to have their eyes screened. 

Just a little taste of the awesome scenery on our drive. 

We met this awesome guy in the village we were visiting. He ran right up to us and quickly became our friend. He was all about giving hugs and wearing my hat. 

Here are the school kids pouring into the building for their eye screenings. 

On our second day in the Volta Region we didn't have an outreach, so we drove around to a few different villages to meet with the local chiefs and ask their permission to visit their villages in the future. It was fun to see the process of starting an outreach in a new place. Both of the chiefs we visited that day seemed open to accepting Unite For Sight eye screenings in the future. Unfortunately, on our drive back to Accra our van broke down. We were stranded on the side of a dirt road for about three hours before we finally decided to push the van to a nearby health clinic. Turns out the health clinic was only about a five minute push away, but we still got to show off our muscles. From there we were able to hire another car to take us the rest of the way to Accra.

One of the villages we visited to speak with the local chief. 

Our poor van after breaking down. 

The road we were stranded on and later pushed our car down. 

On Thursday we went to the St. Thomas Eye Hospital where I got to watch the miracle of cataract surgery once again. It was a great week filled with great people and learning to adapt to unexpected circumstances. I can't believe how fast my six weeks are slipping away from me!