And just like that six weeks have come and gone. How the time has flown. My final week was just as amazing as the first five. We kicked off the week in Sapeiman. The church had a bunch of chairs with "Sapeiman Assembly" printed on the back, but they decided to abbreviate the word assembly to save ink I suppose. I personally felt that that is a word I wouldn't choose to abbreviate, but maybe I'm just too immature. Anyways, we spent about five hours there seeing patients. I helped with data entry where I put the patients information along with the optometrists recommendations and prescriptions into a spreadsheet. The patients come and sit next to me while I enter the information, so I love starting up a short conversation in Twi with them. Fortunately they don't usually talk enough to realize that I don't actually speak Twi. I was sitting close to Dr. Kojo, so I got to watch him checking people's eyes. I also learned that he studied in Cuba and speaks fluent Spanish. I never would have guessed that.
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| Dr. Kojo, one of the optometrists we go on outreaches with, finding the right strength for someone's glasses. |
The next day we headed to the Central Region where we stayed for three days. Our outreach on Tuesday was right next to a school (which seems to happen a lot) and the kids completely lost interest in whatever they were doing when they saw us. I started an epic dance party with a group of them and they copied everything I did. Unfortunately, no video was taken to document my impressive dance moves.
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| The school kids who were chanting "O broni!" (white man) the entire time we were testing people's eyes. |
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| Margaret, another worker from St. Thomas who goes on outreaches with us, at the dispensing table for medication and glasses. |
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| I was trying to keep them out of the church building we were in, but they overwhelmed me... |
On Wednesday we were in Ngona Aanso, another beautiful town with some awesome old churches. There weren't a lot of people there to get their eyes checked, so a lot of my time was spent exploring the town to find food. While out exploring I managed to find two more women who wanted to marry me which would bring my total number of wives up to eight I think haha. One of them was a sweet old lady who looked like she was in her seventies. She gave me a big old hug. I love how free and willing to talk the people in Ghana are.
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| A glimpse of the town. |
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| People waiting patiently to see the optometrist. |
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| Another volunteer and I ventured to get a closer look at this cool church. |
Thursday was another clinic day, so I was able to watch a few final cataract surgeries. My mind is boggled by how many cataract surgeries these ophthalmologists perform day after day. They make it look like cutting into someone's eye, removing the lens, and inserting a new lens is a piece of cake.
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| I was able to snap one last picture with Margaret and Kojo, the two I have worked with four of my six weeks. |
We had Friday off, so four of us went and did some shopping. The first place we stopped for souvenirs had two monkeys and a bunch of tortoises. There was a sign on the monkey cage that said the monkeys (who were both female) did not like girls. That was an understatement. Every time one of the girls we were with would get close to the cage the monkeys would violently throw themselves towards them after which they would start hissing and showing their teeth. They were totally cool with me though. I even held one of their hands for a brief second.
On Saturday most of our group headed home. There were ten of us here from BYU and we all got close really fast. It was sad to see them all going. Now it is Monday and I am sitting in the airport waiting to board my plane. I'm excited to get home and see my family and friends and to eat a tub of peanut butter chocolate ice cream. I am also sad to say goodbye to Ghana yet again. I will miss eating delicious mangoes everyday, walking the streets to find food, wandering through massive markets buzzing with people, speaking the little Twi I know, and seeing Ghanaians big smiles and hearing their hardy laughs. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have been blessed with to come back to Ghana for my third time. It is a magical place which has truly become my second home. Everyone here has been asking me when I will be coming back. I tell them I don't know for sure, but I can't imagine it will be all that long before I see them again.
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| The crew from BYU. |
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