The torrential rain stopped just long enough for us to walk home from church. Once I got to the Telecentre, I changed my clothes as fast as I could before I started sweating through my shirt. I packed a few things into my backpack and went downstairs to hop in the van. This week, I worked with Crystal Eye Clinic in villages around Takoradi. We were in the western region of Ghana, near Cote d'Ivoire, and I loved every minute I was privileged to spend there.
Along the way, I had about four hours to discuss anything I wanted to with Ernest, the optometrist that leads the Crystal Eye Clinic outreach team. Along the ride, we talked about everything from the situation with the NBA Finals (I can't believe it's the Cavs and Warriors again...wowza) to healthcare, education, and family life in Ghana. Some interesting topics were things like how he imports old cars from the U.S.A. (he currently drives a Ford Explorer), fixes them (it's super cheap to service cars here), drives them for five years, then sells them for twice as much as he bought them for (American cars appreciate rather than depreciate here-who knows why??!). We also talked a lot about how he grew up with a father who had four wives, extremely poor, and in the middle of nowhere. While we were talking, I couldn't help but think more about how it's amazing how different each person's life can be. His upbringing, from a "storybook" perspective, couldn't be more different than mine, but on the other hand, he still talked about similar concerns, worries, and problems that I went through. Despite living in poverty, he said he never felt hungry, worried about being sick/without healthcare, and he was never in fear of not having a place to live. He said he never felt poor or deprived of any opportunities. He expressed gratitude and love for a father and other family members who raised him, taught him about the gospel, and gave him opportunities to work/grow. He spoke of loving parents who helped support him through college and other times throughout his life. His experiences were all unique, individual, and personal, but the specific lessons and principles he learned were extremely similar to my own upbringing.
My experience in Takoradi was incredible! Each day, we went to a different village within a couple hours driving from Takoradi and worked as hard as we could to see as many patients as possible. We saw at least 400 hundred patients each day, and we only had one optometrist and one ophthalmic nurse working to do refractions/prescribe medicine. Here is a general schedule of what my day looks like:
6:30-Wake up, pray, sing, smile, and ask my roommate if he had any cool dreams. Then I quickly wash my head in the sink, brush my teeth, pack up my backpack by filling bottles of water from small, little, plastic bags of purified water and wait under the fan until the van comes to pick us up.
7:00-Leave for the outreach in the van
While driving in the van, we often get "breakfast" from people who walk in between the cars at stop lights selling fried dough, plantains, fruit, rice, fish, etc. My favorite breakfast is a sticky rice with beans (called waakye-no idea how to spell it) with some avocado mixed in.
~10:00-Arrive at the outreach point
Almost every single outreach has been in a relatively small town, and we've set our supplies/tables up inside and around a church. Sometimes the drive only takes an hour, but other times we've driven three or four hours, especially when traffic gets bad (or the roads are crazy).
10:20-Unpack everything and arrange the medication, glasses, visual acuity testing area, registration, etc. while Ernest and the local coordinator speak to everybody about how everything will go.
10:35-Begin seeing patients
For the next 8-10 hours (we worked 15 hours one day!) I'd either help patients have their visual acuity tested before they see the optometrist, assist the optometrist, or help to dispense medication/glasses after they finish seeing the optometrist. Occasionally, we'll get too far ahead with visual acuity, so we have to take a small break and grab some snacks, play with children, or just talk to patients about anything. For the most part, we're working the whole day.
7-9:30-Finish seeing patients, dispensing medication, doing refractions, and dispensing glasses. We also add up the money, take inventory of the medication/glasses, and drive back to the Telecentre.
8:30-11-Arrive at the Telecentre. Pray that the water and power are still on so that I can shower as fast as possible and wash your clothes out in the sink.
11:30-12:30-Hug the staff that have become family, pray, and smile as I fall asleep looking forward to the next day!
On the weekends, we've gone on hikes, visited the temple, went to the markets, played soccer with the locals, visited the beach, went swimming, and played games with the hotel staff. Our daily schedule sometimes starts earlier, ends later, or things change as far as timing goes, but for the most part, the work is relatively the same and consistent.
Anyways, like I said, Takoradi was an amazing experience. We saw over 1600 patients in four days, and every single day was full of rewarding moments. On Wednesday, we were in the middle of a town and in a central location. Rather than being in an isolated village where only one tribe lived, we catered to many different tribes and people from different backgrounds. It was absolute mayhem. People were shoving in line, yelling at each other, fistfights broke out, and everybody tried to tell us they didn't have money to pay for the medicine. It was sickening to watch everybody clamor, push, and fight every few minutes as the line would shift. Older women and men who were literally blind and disabled were trampled on, and everything got out of hand. Usually, the local coordinators do a very good job of organizing everybody-they make sure the young students and elderly are seen first, then the patients that had surgeries last month, and then the general population comes last. Wednesday, there was no order to anything, and it was just one of those days where we were working as hard and fast as we could, but nobody seemed pleased, grateful, or happy.
Thursday was a completely different story. We traveled a few hours to the very edge of the country, and we stopped at a schoolhouse in a small village. It was very luscious with tall grass, trees, and tropical plants everywhere! It was also like a sauna, and bugs were constantly either crawling on me or sticking to me because of my sweaty skin. It was absolutely beautiful, and over 400 hundred people sat waiting, patiently waiting to be examined. In this town, there were more blind people than I've ever helped before, but I was also astonished by their humble, grateful, joyful attitude and education level. Most of them understood English very well, and not one person mumbled, complained, or yelled the whole day. Every single one of them was gracious and kind.
At around one o'clock, I started to get a little hungry, and I started seeing the people that were still waiting to be seen as one big mass of work. I thought to myself, "I'm hungry, a little tired, and I don't even want to think about how late we're going to finish tonight..." I might've even groaned a bit. Just at that moment, an eighty-year-old lady walked up to the table, hobbling a little with a severely hunched back. She was beaming. Kids always have a way of making me smile, but even their toothy grins couldn't hold a candle to this kind aunty's glowing smile. She just kind of moved her hands, showed me her prescription and laughed when I told her how much it would cost in Twi. I found the correct glasses, helped her adjust them on her face and handed her the New Testament to see if they helped her with her reading. Her eyes got all big and she just let out a little gasp of surprise as she started reading the verses out loud. When we were all done (this whole process couldn't have been more than two minutes, and other patients were scrambling on either side of us as they were helped by the other volunteers), I just said, "Medasi, Sister (thank you)!" She literally jumped a little bit and scrunched her face up into the happiest expression you could ever imagine. It's moments like those that remind me that it's a privilege to be here, and I'm also playing a small part in truly changing somebody's life for the better.
Thank you to everybody who has played any part in my life-I'm grateful for the doctors who helped my parents as I was born. I'm grateful for teachers, parents who volunteered at my schools, and parents of my friends who took care of me, drove me everywhere, and organized activities. I'm grateful for coaches who pushed me physically and mentally in order to overcome barriers and limits that lead to growth in other areas of my life. I'm grateful for my neighbors/church leaders who helped me learn more about Christ, moral standards, and practical skills that have benefitted me. I'm grateful for random strangers I've encountered and learned from on this crazy journey I've been on. Most of all, I'm grateful for my family. I am so blessed!
Lastly, thank you to all of you who made financial contributions through me to Unite for Sight. I have personally witnessed the donations put to use, and I have personally helped with the accounting process to ensure the funds are all accounted for and used specifically for medical care. Being able to screen a father, mother, child, or grandparent, walk them through the process, observe their surgery, then visit them a month later and witness incredible improvement in their eyesight has been an absolute miracle and blessing. It is AMAZING!! The people here are so hardworking, and not one of them expect to receive anything for free. Unite for Sight doesn't discriminate or put too many limits on how Crystal Eye Clinic (and other partner clinics) carry out the actual cataract procedures, but Crystal Eye Clinic chooses to use some of the funds to help subsidize something like a cataract surgery for only one of the eyes, but they rarely help pay for both eyes. It's cool to see some patients who had one eye operated on months ago reenter the workforce, save money, and come back to us ready, willing, and excited to pay for surgery on their other eye.
I hope you all have a great week! Take care!
(~1933 words)
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