Don't Make a Promise You Can't Keep

Outreach on Monday and Tuesday were both pretty successful. We saw a combined total of about 125 patients and had maybe 16 surgery referrals. The staff at Charity Eye Clinic that accompanies us on the outreaches are so willing to help, especially when I need translators for my interviews, and all of us are having a good time getting to know them. I’ve recently found that the bananas in Kumasi are not only safe to eat, but they are delicious! They have quickly become my new favorite snack. I’m officially in save-as-much-money-as-possible mode until the end of my trip, so I’m trying to be as frugal with my meals and snacks as I can. I get 4 bananas for about 50 pesawas, which is really good! The hotel offers a lot of choices for dinner, but the prices at up over time, so I’m trying to avoid these dinners and eat more cheaply when possible.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t posted up many pictures in a while, it’s because my camera is acting very funny and not allowing me to snap a picture. I’m trying to get it to work, but unfortunately I’ve been unable to document my last couple of weeks with pictures. Hopefully, it will start working again soon!

There is a large family that lives right behind our hotel. Lots of the other volunteers have met this family during their times in Kumasi, so we were eager to meet them as well. There are lots and lots of girls in the family who are very smart and articulate and eager to meet us and become friends. One girl in particular is 14 and wise beyond her years. She speaks very good English, and wants very much to come with us back to Accra and then back to the United States. I don’t think she understands that we aren’t allowed to take her with us, and trying to explain this without crushing her dreams or hurting her feelings is a difficult task. She is much more articulate than any 14-year-old student I’ve met in Ghana and she seems to be very aware of her capabilities and the opportunities she would have as a student in America. I would love for her to able to come to the United States one day, maybe for college, so that her world can expand even more. I feel very confident that she would be very successful given the right opportunities. Maybe one day she’ll make it there.

This girl also introduced us to her pastor who lives in the very small community of Trede located right next to our hotel. He was very welcoming and friendly when we arrived at his home to meet him and his family. He immediately started reminiscing about the past UFS volunteers he has met and how some of them have stayed true to their promises of staying in contact with him, and how others have not. It is easy to think that when the people you meet in Ghana ask you to keep in contact with them after you leave, they aren’t really that serious and they will probably forget about you after you leave and they meet the new volunteers. However, I have found the exact opposite to be true. This pastor remembered the names of all the most recent volunteers he met and who kept their promises and who didn’t. Other staff members from Northwest Eye Clinic and Crystal also reminisce on past volunteers and remember with fondness those who chose to keep their promises. When we return home from Ghana to our busy lives as students in America, it may be very easy for us all to forget about the people we met in Ghana, the people whose lives we touched – if only for a short time – and to get caught up in our old routines and habits. But after hearing how sad this pastor was and seeing the disappointment in his face when he spoke of how sad it made him feel that the volunteers that promised they would keep in touch did not, I don’t want to be a volunteer that breaks her promises. You never know what kind of impact you may make on a 14-year-old school girl or the local pastor or anyone even after just a brief encounter. I hope to keep in contact with my friends from Ghana for a long time.