Make New Friends, But Keep the Old

On Monday evening, one of Kojo’s cousins, Kofi, called me on my Ghana cell phone and asked if he could meet me and take me out to the Accra Mall on Tuesday. Evidently, Kojo’s father had given him my number and had asked their family in Ghana to kind of look out for me while I’m here. I’m so grateful that I am connected with people who have such loving and kind hearts. So on Tuesday evening, Kofi and his girlfriend picked up me and Rachel (another volunteer) from the Telecentre and took us to the Accra Mall located about 45 minutes from our hotel. The mall will remind you of a typical American mall with fewer stores and a grocery store that is attached to it. There are several restaurants and a bar/club that I’ve heard is really fun on the weekends. Kofi took us to a Chinese place where a lot of his and Kojo’s cousins work. After the wonderful meal, he told us that we could eat here and charge the bill to his account when we come back to the mall! Talk about generous, right?! I felt nothing but appreciation and gratitude for the warm welcome that the Owusu-Akyaw family has shown me since arriving in Ghana. Thanks everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday and Wednesday were both outreach days. On Tuesday, we went to a medical center about 45 minutes from the hotel and saw about 50 patients. There was an extremely loud Church service going on beside the clinic and there was so much noise and traffic inside the clinic as well. Needless to say, it was a very chaotic day. This was the first outreach where we had the assistance of local volunteers helping us dispense medication and handle the money. While I’m sure these ladies had the best intentions at heart, I couldn’t help but feel extremely frustrated once the work began. The women kept shoving papers in front of my face, snatching glasses and eye drops from my hands, interrupting my conversations with patients and other volunteers, poking me and tapping me on the shoulder unnecessarily (I don’t know why, but that bothers me soooooooooooooooooo much!), and just overall adding to the chaos that was this clinic. Not to mention the loud shouting enhanced by a microphone that was coming from the Church next door. My head was beginning to spin, and for a while I just wanted to get out of there! But I stuck it out despite my frustration and growing headache. Luckily, we had periodic breaks when patient traffic was slow and the day ended relatively early. I don’t know what would have happened if it had been a longer day…probably hid myself in a corner. Wednesday, however, was much better. We saw a similar number of patients and had a very organized assembly line type thing going on at the dispensing table. I was able to interview two cataract surgery referrals, and we got home around 8:00. It was a long drive to the outreach, about two and a half hours. Then it started raining quite hard on the way back. The car rides never get boring though…not with Dennis and Earnest in the van. They are pros at telling somewhat dirty jokes that keep us laughing the whole time. Earnest always checks to make sure that we’re old enough to be hearing such vulgar jokes, and then he tells a few jokes and we all start bellowing over in laughter. These guys have hearts of gold, are extremely intelligent, and love to have a good time. Once we arrived back at the Telecentre, we weren’t in the mood for wading through the growing puddles to find dinner, so we just snacked on granola bars and peanut butter for the rest of the evening.

Today, four volunteers are leaving and several more will be arriving today and tomorrow. I think it’s going to be interesting to see how the dynamics of the outreaches and living at the Telecentre change when certain people come and go. I’m very glad I decided to stay two months so that I will have the chance to meet as many volunteers as possible, explore Ghana as much as I can, and make a lasting impression on this organization and the people that work for it all year. I’m observing surgeries at Crystal Eye Clinic today. It’s still a little wet outside this morning, but I’m looking forward to a bright and happy day!