Goodbye Accra, Hello Kumasi!

Four other volunteers and I arrived in Kumasi on Sunday afternoon. We will be here for the next two weeks and then I will spend my final week in Ghana back in Accra. The time has flown by so fast, and I’m really trying to savor this last few weeks. Kumasi is not nearly as busy and hectic as Accra is. The UFS partner here is Charity Eye Clinic, and the staff here is very friendly and well-organized. One of the volunteers, Rachel, has already been here once, so she is our official guide to Kumasi until we get the hang of it ourselves. We went on outreach today, but only saw about 30 patients. A lot of the people in this town go out early in the mornings to the farms, so that’s why only a few people showed up. However, no one goes to the fields on Tuesdays, so tomorrow we are going back to the same community and are expected A LOT of patients! We’ll see what happens, but it should be interesting. After work, we headed to the Kumasi market, the biggest in Ghana! We weren’t really looking for anything except fruit. When we finally ran across a fruit stand, we got pineapple, mango, and bananas! It was sooooooooooo good and pretty inexpensive. We waited in a long line to take a tro-tro back to our hotel and then relaxed for the rest of the evening.

I think it’s so strange that I’ve been confused for a Cuban and an Indian since I’ve been here. One of the volunteers even thought that one of my parents were white! I don’t see any evidence of any of these when I look in the mirror. I don’t know if it’s my hair that throws people off or what, but I just don’t get it.

Also, in case you didn’t know, Spain won the 2010 World Cup last night!!! It was a long game, and we were all scared the end was going to come down to penalty kicks, but Spain pulled it out in the final minutes and took the championship with them! We watched the game in a small bar (with a small TV!) in Kumasi after we arrived on Sunday. It was exciting to see the culmination of such an anticipated event, but it was a little sad to watch it all end. What will we watch on TV now??? It’s a question that will be answered sooner or later, but for now we will just keep celebrating Spain’s victory!