Late is better than never...

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Hello folks,

Given that I've got just over a week left and the only post I've made thus far is entitled "disclaimer" I figured it was about time for that second post. I've gotta confess that I really have no excuses now. As of last Friday the internet is actually working at the Telecentre Guesthouse where I'm staying, so I'm essentially living at an internet cafe.

I thought I should give an explanation of what I'm actually doing over here and where I've ended up after my original site shut down.

Before leaving Canada I likely gave you all the same line that I would be "screening for eye disease, coordinating surgeries with the local hospital and participating in community health education" as that was the info I had. In reality my usual work at Enyiresi Hospital consisted of taking patient histories, testing visual acuity using the Snellen Chart, making some notes for the nurse on what may be wrong, and general administrative tasks. Honestly I think my greatest contribution (beyond the money raised and the eye glasses that I brought with me) was in damage control because of the site's level of disorganization. True to the line I gave, the other area where I actually felt useful was in coordinating surgeries. (However the place where the surgeries were done was neither local nor a hospital.) The clinic in Enyiresi only ran until the end of July (despite my original expectations). Ideally the surgeries would have been done before the site shut down but I'm realizing that things in the NGO world are rarely ideal. Thus it turned out to be fortunate that I was around for another month so that there was someone from the site to organize transportation and accommodation for the patients and to act as a liason with the clinic where the surgeries were done.

I'm attempting to convey some of my frustrations with the program without coming off as too bitter. The only problem with this is that if I go into detail I'll inevitably come off as bitter. On a more postive note though, the site I'm at now is far superior. Since the "Kwabeng" site only ran until the end of July I was moved to Accra for August. Here we regularly have an optometrist, which is an enormous improvement over sometimes having an eye nurse. I've also been able to do a little more here, adding a bit of retinoscopy, taking of blood pressure and dispensing of eye drops to my repertoire. The set up here is really quite efficient, usually treating around 150 new patients every day.

For all of you donors out there I wanted to ensure you that while I have concerns with Unite For Sight I do still feel that donations are put to good use. In fact, UFS is perhaps a little too tight fisted at times. My enormous thanks to everyone who did donate. One of the most shocking parts of my experience has been seeing first hand how much of an foreign dollars can have.

I'm going to attempt to get one more post up before I return home. Ghana is an amazing country and its shameful that I haven't told you more about it already. Certainly at the bare minimum I should have a post that actually focuses on this country. Given my track record though I don't know that even I can be too optimistic about achieving another post. Here's hoping...

My best to you all,
Russell

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Photos

Matilda
This cute little girl had cataracts and couldn't even see a hand waving directly in front of her face. She was referred to the Mercy Ship where they could do surgery under general anaesthesia. Thinking of her brings sadness but also some satisfaction. Satisfaction because if our program had not been operating this summer I don't know when she would have finally got the surgery she needed, but sadness because it's difficult to say how much of her sight will return because this simple surgery was not made available to her at a younger age.

Escarpment
Part of the incredibly beautiful Ghanaian countryside.