Our time in Kumasi is really flying by fast. We went to the same villages for outreach on Monday and Tuesday and saw about 80 patients in total for both days. The staff in Kumasi travels to the same village for two consecutive days for most of the villages it visits. I can’t say that I think this is an efficient policy when there are such a low number of patients present for both days. If there were 80 or more patients each day for two consecutive days, then I would say that coming for both days would be efficient and a good use of time and money spent by Unite for Sight. However, if only 80 people are seen in two days, I think that a lot more work could be done if the staff traveled elsewhere and came back when better publicity was done and more people knew about the outreach coming. Either way, I guess it’s best not to complain since some people are being seen at least. It’s a difficult to cater to all of the factors of why some people come to the outreaches and others don’t. Some of the villagers have other priorities, like going out to work in their farms or attending a funeral, and they can’t fit going to the outreach into their schedules that day. However, the ophthalmic staff can’t just wait around all day for the villagers to come out. Ernest from Crystal feels very strongly that the people must reorganize their priorities so that they can take advantage of the outreach services and get the help that some of them desperately need. Today, I performed a visual acuity screening for the chief of the local village. He had horrible vision and needed a cataract remove! Fortunately, he came to the outreach, but it is cases like these that convince me that locals should reevaluate their long-term priorities and take advantage of our eye clinics whenever possible.
So my roommate in Kumasi is Linda. She is a rising sophomore from Canada. Linda and I have gotten along very well since we met each other at the beginning of the month. However, one area that Linda and I tend to fuss about is the differences in words and pronunciations that people use in the U.S. versus Canada. For example, instead of saying flag with the same sound as the word cat, Linda says flag with the same sound as the word cage. It drives me crazy! Linda says pop instead of soda, and we pronounce lots of other words differently too. Despite my dislike for certain words and pronunciation of words that Linda uses, I have to agree with her on a few things. First, the U.S. should switch to the metric system. It doesn't make any sense for us to have to keep converting to different units so that we can be on the same page as the rest of the world. Secondly, the U.S. should use the Celsius temperature scale like the rest of the world instead of using Fahrenheit. I get so confused when Linda says that it's 30 degrees and that she's hot in the same sentence! And lastly, Americans should call soccer "football" like the rest of the world. Why do we call American Football "football" instead of calling soccer "football"? You don't really use your feet in American Football except for running and a few kicks during the game. Doesn't make much sense does it? Anyways, this is what Linda and I talk about when we're bored or when we want to get on each other's nerves. Despite our differences, however, we've become pretty good friends! :)
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