First Outreaches and Italian Dining

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Yesterday morning began with a quick breakfast at the hotel with some of the volunteers followed by a 2 hour van ride east of Accra into the Volta region for my first outreach. I was accompanied on this trip by Ernest, an optometrist, Dennis and Jerome, ophthalmic nurses, and John and Bismark, our drivers. The outreach took place in the church of a small village. We had 79 people come for screenings with 14 referred for cataract and pterygium surgeries to be performed next week. My task was to enter registration data into a spreadsheet. I wish I had a little more direct patient interaction but I'm sure that will come in the near future. This particular village has been visited by Unite For Sight many times in the past so all the locals knew the drill and things proceeded smoothly. At the end of the screenings I was treated to a lunch of jollof, fish and sparkling pear juice.

That night I went for dinner with my roommate Christian at a local restaurant. I had more jollof, some very chewy beef and a Guinness, which tasted different from the stuff in the States. Guinness actually has a brewery very near to where I'm staying and is one of the more popular beers in Ghana. While waiting for our food I played pool with Christian against a couple Ghanaians who weren't nearly as good as I anticipated them to be. Still lost though!

This morning I went on another outreach approximately an hour west of Accra to a refuge camp housing many displaced Liberians. We actually saw 79 people again today. 7 were referred for surgery. I got back to the hotel at around 3 after a long, hot bus ride, took a shower (just discovered that there is a hot water switch just outside the bathroom) and laid down for a 3 hour nap.

Tonight I went to a much nicer and much more expensive than anticipated Italian restaurant with the volunteers and a group of people including a Czech, South African, New Zealander, Brit, and Australian. Nora, from Unite For Sight, had met Andrew, the guy from New Zealand, who has been in Ghana for a month or so and has been meeting this group every Tuesday at various restaurants for dinner. The place was run by an Italian and the food was great but I wish I had a little more cash in my wallet after the fact! Oh well, it was a nice break from the jollof.

Heading on another outreach to the Volta region tomorrow. Time for bed.....

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