Outreach Days with the Eye Clinic

I'm in my second week with the traveling eye clinic, and I'm starting to get the hang of it. The clinic has an outreach van driven by Reverend Bankas that pulls in front of our house around 6:30 am most mornings. That sounds too early in U.S. speak, but over here it feels just right. Sunlight and the bustle of the streets are already streaming through my bedroom window. Along with Reverand Bankas, I currently work with another Ghana ACT volunteer, an optometrist, a Ghanian woman named Salome (who offered to be my "Ghana Mother"), and two twenty-four year olds from Ghana named Livingston and Kingdom. Among us we divide the duties of greeting and registering the patients while taking their blood pressure and pulse. From there we direct them to the optometrist named Innocent who tests their vision and screens for cataracts and glaucoma. Finally, we outfit them for glasses or give them the necessary paperwork authorizing eye surgery in Accra to remove cataracts and help return their complete vision. Traveling with the clinic has provided a unique lens with which to see Ghana; I have seen the inside of a major police training station, of small Muslim communities further off the streets, and of several Christian villages where the people kindly help me improve my Ewe. I can't pretend to understand exactly how the eye clinic works, but I'm enjoying the company of my coworkers and the exposure to the health system in Ghana. I've also gained some insight into how the Ghanian government provides affordable health insurance for all, something the U.S. need take note of. I'll post more here in the coming weeks as my own vision and comprehension of the workings of the eye clinic develop.